Category Archives: Biochemistry

A University associate research scientist in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology was arrested Saturday night and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, failure to maintain lane and open container, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.

Irina Kataeva, 55, was pulled over by an officer on West Broad Street after he noticed her vehicle cross into the left lane and go across the fog line, according to the report.

Kataeva reportedly told the officer she had difficulty seeing at night, and the officer then noticed her eyes were extremely red and watery and there was the smell of alcohol on her breath.

The officer then asked her how much she had to drink, and she said she had one beer, according to the report.

While the officer was speaking to Kataeva, another officer noticed an open container of alcohol in the passenger seat.

When she exited the car, the officer noticed she was swaying when she walked and asked her if she had any alcohol in the car.

Kataeva reportedly said she did not have any alcohol in the vehicle. But when the officer asked to search her car, she said she did mind and had a bottle of liquor in the front seat.

An officer recovered an opened bottle of root beer flavored vodka from the car, according to the report.

Kataeva declined to perform field sobriety tests, and she reportedly asked the officer to just let her go and told him she was not far away from her house.

Her breath tested positive for alcohol, and she was placed under arrest and taken to the ACC Police Substation on Baxter Street, according to the report.

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University associate research scientist arrested with root beer flavored vodka in front seat (w/Documents)

PHILADELPHIA Mark A. Lemmon, PhD, chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, is the 2012 recipient of the Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Award by The Protein Society. The award will be presented at the 26th Annual Symposium of The Protein Society in August, during the Plenary Awards Session.

The Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Award, is given in recognition of exceptional contributions in protein science, which profoundly influence our understanding of biology. Dr. Lemmon is being recognized for major contributions to the field of signal transduction and transmembrane signaling mechanisms of receptor tyrosine kinases. Crystallographic, biochemical, and genetic studies from his laboratory have provided sophisticated understanding of EGFR cell signaling. His discoveries of the mechanisms for the epidermal growth factor receptor family offer new ideas for developing therapies targeting cancer and other human diseases.

"Of course, it's not really my work that this award honors, but really that of several fantastic Penn postdocs and students," says Lemmon. "First, I'd particularly like to single out Diego Alvarado, Daryl Klein, Sung Hee Choi, Jeannine Mendrola and Fumin Shi for the EGF receptor work that the award cites. They are all great examples of the superb scientists that Penn Medicine attracts and reasons why it's so great to be here.

"Second, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin has always been a hero of mine. She did much of her secondary education in the part of England where I grew up and was already a legend at Oxford when I went there. Her crystallographic studies of insulin -- well after her 1964 Nobel Prize -- inspired much of our structural work in EGF signaling. I always found it interesting too given her politics - that Margaret Thatcher was one of Professor Hodgkin's most famous students."

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Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4 billion enterprise.

Penn's Perelman School of Medicine is currently ranked #2 in U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools and among the top 10 schools for primary care. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $507.6 million awarded in the 2010 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top 10 hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2010, Penn Medicine provided $788 million to benefit our community.

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Penn Biochemist Receives Hodgkin Award from The Protein Society

03-08-2011 12:03 (11/17/10) Lecture by Kevin Ahern of Oregon State University discussing Biochemistry Basics in BB 450. See the full course at oregonstate.edu Highlights Glycolysis II 1. Reaction #9 is catalyzed by enolase and involves removal of water from 2PG to form PEP, which is a highly energetic compound. 2. Reaction #10 is the "Big Bang" of glycolysis. It is catalyzed by the enzyme pyruvate kinase and in the reaction, a substrate level phosphorylation yields ATP. Note that the Delta G zero prime is very strongly negative, helping to pull all the reactions preceding it to a large extent. The enzyme is allosterically inactivated by ATP and allosterically activated by F1,6BP. The latter activation is an example of "feed forward" activation. Pyruvate kinase is also inactivated by phosphorylation, as will be seen in glycogen metabolism. 3. The phenomenon of redox balancing is important for glycolysis. Redox balancing relates to the relative amount of NAD+ and NADH in the cell. Remember that reaction 6 is very sensitive to the ratio of NAD+/NADH. 4. Pyruvate has three separate fates, depending on conditions and the cell type. When oxygen is present, there is plenty of NAD+, so aerobic cells convert pyruvate to acetyl-CoA for oxidation in the citric acid cycle. When oxygen is absent, NAD+ levels can go down, so to prevent that from happening, pyruvate is converted to either lactate (animals) or ethanol (bacteria/yeast). Either of these last two conversions REQUIRES NADH and produces NAD+ ...

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Bite-Sized Biochemistry #22 - Glycolysis II / Carbohydrate Metabolism - Video

Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Roger Tsien discussed current research on fluorescent proteins, or proteins that emit bright colors when exposed to ultraviolet blue light, and their uses in surgery at Emory on Thursday.

The Department of Biochemistry held the lecture, titled Breeding and Building molecules to Spy on Cells and Disease Processes, at the Woodruff Health Sciences building as part of the Department of Biochemistrys annual Donald B. McCormick Lecture. The annual lecture honors McCormick, who served as the chair of the department from 1979 to 1994 and is currently professor emeritus at Emorys School of Medicine.

McCormick is recognized for his many achievements including the publication of more than 500 papers, leading expertise in nutritional biochemistry, and membership in notable committees such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In 2008, Tsien received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) with his colleagues Osamu Shimomura and Martin Chalfie. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and professor at the University of California-San Diego.

He focused on proteins called miniSOGs, which are single oxygen-generating miniproteins and genetic tags used in electron microscopy (EM). He said electrons are beamed at an object to produce a highly magnified image. These miniSOGs are sequences of amino acids that can be attached to proteins, Tsien noted. When miniSOGs are exposed to blue light, they produce a type of molecular oxygen that is visible in EM. The use of EM creates an amplified image under the microscope which is of a greater resolution than the image produced by light microscopy.

It is really amazing how many different applications there are for the tag, James Roed, post doctorate fellow at the School of Medicine noted. The design is simple yet so complex and is really going to revolutionize cancer treatment but has potential in being used to tether probes to drugs as well.

Tsien explained the clinical applications of fluorescent dyes in cancer research and treatment. This is a very nonselective process. Tsien explained. When you try to do this with a fluorescent tag IV injection into a mouse, you get a fluorescent tail, because it sticks to the epithelia, which is the skin of the animal, at the site of the injection.

It then travels to different regions of the body but practically never reaches the tumor that you care about, Tsien said.

We decided in our lab that what was necessary was a way of making this process selective, not just indiscriminate, he said.

He then showed images of tumors in mice and explained the difficulty the human eye experiences in differentiating a tumor from the surrounding flesh. When the tissue was exposed via fluorescent illumination, the boundaries of the tumor became easily distinguishable as the fluorescent light blue mass stood out.

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Nobel Laureate Explores Proteins, Surgery

Public release date: 1-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Erin Pope Erin.Pope@NationwideChildrens.org 614-355-0495 Nationwide Children's Hospital

In 2010, the Center for Gene Therapy at Nationwide Children's Hospital launched a monthly podcast entitled, "This Month in Muscular Dystrophy," featuring internationally known scientists discussing the latest research in muscular dystrophy and other neuromuscular disorders. Now, these podcasts will be available for users on iTunes and at http://www.NationwideChildrens.org/muscular-dystrophy-podcast.

The podcasts are geared toward patients, their families and primary care physicians who take care of patients with neuromuscular diseases. Hosted by Kevin Flanigan, MD, an attending physician in Neurology at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and a principal investigator in the Center for Gene Therapy in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's, the programs include interviews with authors of recent scientific publications discussing how their work improves understanding of inherited neuromuscular diseases and what their findings might mean for treatment.

New programs available for download on iTunes include:

Podcasts from previous months have also been uploaded to iTunes and are available for download.

"There is a lot of exciting work going on in the field of neuromuscular disease, and for patients and their families, it may be hard to get access to information about new results," said Dr. Flanigan, also a professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. "Our goal in offering this monthly podcast is to provide a way for people affected by the muscular dystrophies and related disorders to hear directly from top researchers about their latest results. It's my job to converse in understandable terms with these researchers about what is useful or exciting in their work."

Patients and their families are eager to find reliable information, especially about what new therapies are entering trials. With these podcasts available on iTunes, patients and their families have access to this information at their fingertips. These monthly podcasts provide reliable information directly from leading scientists and physicians in the field to empower patients to take the information they learn into their own clinics to discuss with their doctors. The podcasts also serve to provide reliable information to primary care physicians who often have the most contact with patients who have neuromuscular disorders.

"Through these podcasts, I think we can reinforce the hope shared by all families, and let them know that many pathways that may lead to meaningful treatments are being explored," Dr. Flanigan added.

Dr. Flanigan's primary research interest is in the genetic and molecular characterization of inherited neuromuscular diseases particularly muscular dystrophies and in the development of therapies directed toward these diseases.

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Nationwide Children's Hospital neuromuscular disorder podcasts now available on iTunes

darren yourk From Friday's Globe and Mail Published Thursday, Mar. 01, 2012 8:23PM EST Last updated Thursday, Mar. 01, 2012 8:25PM EST

Nick Denis can tell you what it feels like to knock a man out cold while thousands of fans roar their approval. He can also talk at length about proteomics the study of proteins and what it takes to finish a master degree in biochemistry.

Not a lot attention is paid to what goes on between the cauliflower ears of mixed martial arts fighters, but Denis, who walked away from the research lab one year short of getting his PhD from the University of Ottawa to focus on the octagon, is proof theres a lot more to the sport than power and toughness.

To be able to out-think an opponent is a huge advantage in a fight, Denis said. You have to understand how to react to situations and be analytical. It looks like just brute force in there, but theres actually technique and skill.

The Ottawa native roared into the bantamweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship in January, knocking out Joseph Sandoval with a series of elbow strikes just 22 seconds into the first round of his debut bout in Nashville an effort that earned him a $45,000 bonus cheque for knockout of the night. Hes now aiming to cement his status as an emerging talent when he returns to the octagon to face Johnny Bedford May 5 in East Rutherford, N.J.

After studying karate and tae kwon do in his youth, it was boredom with weightlifting workouts that got Denis started down the path to the UFC. He enrolled in a jiu-jitsu class with a friend as a new way to stay in shape and was hooked immediately. It wasnt long before he decided to train toward competing as an MMA fighter.

At the same time, Denis enrolled at the University of Ottawa, balancing a busy academic schedule in the world of analytical biochemistry with morning and evening training sessions.

Jeffrey Smith, a professor in the chemistry department at Carleton University who shared an office with Denis for almost three years at the University of Ottawa, calls him a gifted scientist.

He is really good with his hands, which is a big skill in the lab, Smith said. A lot of people have book smarts, but at the end of the day you have to have the manual dexterity to use the equipment and do things accurately. He was good at it, but Im not sure he enjoyed it all that much. MMA is really what hes passionate about.

While Denis showed up to the lab some days with a lumpy face and black eyes from training, Smith said it was his big personality that really made him stand out.

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Nick Denis trades in laboratory for the octagon