Current News

September 2012:  Congratulations to the Wykoff lab on their newest publication in press!  Kerwin C.L. & Wykoff DD. 2012 De novo generation of a phosphate regulated promoter in Candida glabrata. FEMS Yeast Research.

August 2012:  Dr. Matthew Youngman joins us as a new Assistant Professor of Biology and member of the Biochemistry Program!  Dr. Youngman completed his undergraduate work in Biochemistry at Pepperdine University, received a PhD in Cell Biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and carried out postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.    At Villanova, Dr. Youngman will carry out research to understand the molecular basis for the age-dependent decline in immunity known as "immunosenescence".  Using the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model host, the Youngman Lab will seek to define the mechanisms by which genes that are important for the immune response are regulated during aging and to understand how changes in cellular function that occur later in life impact the ability of an organism to resist infection. Welcome Dr. Youngman!

August 2012:  Many congratulations are in order!  Dr. Barry Selinsky has accepted the position of Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development in the College of Arts & Sciences.   Dr. Dennis Wykoff has been named the Dennis M. Cook Endowed Gregor Mendel Chair in Genetics.  Congratulations to both on these well-deserved honors!

August 2012:  Dr. Aimee Eggler is the inaugural recipient of the Phytochemistry/Phytochemical Society of North America Young Investigator Research Grant Award!  The award is the first of its kind sponsored by the Elsevier journal Phytochemistry.  Congratulations on this honor!

August 2012:  Dr. Daniel Kraut and colleagues published the following work: “Sequence- and species-dependence of proteasomal processivity.”  Kraut DA, Israeli E, Schrader EK, Patil A, Nakai K, Nanavati D, Inobe T, Matouschek A.  ACS Chem Biol. 2012 Aug 17;7(8):1444-53. Congratulations!

August 2012:  Our biochemists were well represented at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia!  Posters were presented on “Antimicrobial and lytic activities of squalamine analogs: Effect of stereochemistry at C3 and C7” (T-D Tessema and B.S. Selinsky), “Synthesis and antimicrobial activity of a series of (3β-N-1,3-diaminopropyl) bile acids” (F.G. Gassler and B.S. Selinsky), “PCR and statistical analyses of the observed variations in the CCR5 gene” (F. Raposo, J. Palenchar, B.S. Selinsky, and J. Rucker), “Analysis of amino acid conservation using the functional amino acid navigator” (P. Palenchar),  “Unusual cofactor preference of Trypanosoma brucei β-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase” (S. Uppal and J. Palenchar), and  “Characterization of an essential trypanosome DNA binding protein” (C. Sofa and J. Palenchar)

August 2012:  Dr. Jennifer Palenchar has been named the co-director of the Biochemistry program from the Chemistry Department.  She joins Dr. Janice Knepper, the co-director from the Biology Department.

August 2012:  We sadly inform you of the passing of Dr. Robert Reczkowski.  Bob is missed and his many years of teaching and research in the Chemistry Department are greatly appreciated. 

July 2012:  Members of the Wykoff laboratory attended the Yeast Genetics & Molecular Biology meeting at Princeton University.   They presented the following:  “De novo generation of a phosphate-starvation regulated promoter in C. glabrata.” (C. Kerwin & D. Wykoff), “Amino acid changes responsible for neofunctionalization of the Candida glabrata PMU2 gene” (K. Orlando, C. Kerwin, M. Cirullo, S. Leone, D. Davies & D. Wykoff), and “Identification of cis regulatory elements in the pho1+ promoter of Schizosaccharomyces pombe.” (M. Peel & D. Wykoff). 

March 2012:  Dr. Anil Bamezai was invited to speak at the International Conference and Exhibition on Nanotechnology & Nanomedicine, March 12-14, 2012, at Omaha, Nebraska. Title of his talk was: “Nano-structures on plasma membrane of immune cells: isolation and characterization”.  Congratulations on this honor!