January 18, 2019

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) has awarded Drs. Daniel Afosah and Nehru Viji Sankaranarayanan the 2019 Graduate/Postdoctoral Travel Award. This award consists of a maximum reimbursement of $1000 for travel expenses. They will present their research and participate in professional development events at the ASBMB 2019 Annual Meeting. 

March 29, 2019

Conner won the 2019 Peter and Sian Byron Travel Award. His award of $750 allows him to travel and present at the ASBMB 2019 Meeting held in conjunction with Experimental Biology, April 6 -9 in Orlando, Florida.

April 3, 2019

Congratulations are in order for Shravan Morales. He has won the 2019 J. Doyle Smith Award for Graduate Studies in Medicinal Chemistry. This award recognizes the best achievement in graduate studies, which includes academics, teaching, research and services. Shravan is a stellar student who is well on his way to becoming a well-established researcher. 

April 11, 2019

Our very own Dr. Daniel Afosah is featured in this highlights video from the 2019 Experimental Biology Annual Meeting. He shares his biggest takeways for this year's annual meeting. 

Watch the video here.

May 16, 2019

Congratulations to Shravan Morla who has received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences with a concentration in Medicinal Chemistry. He will be joining Dr. Desai’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow at VCU’s Institute for Structural Biology, Drug Discovery and Development. We wish Dr. Morla all of the best.

May 20, 2019

Connor has graduated with a Masters of Pharmaceutical Studies.  He presented a thesis titled "Inhibition of Cancer Stem Cells by Glycosaminoglycan Mimetics."  Connor will continue his education and present his defense in July to begin the doctoral program in Pharmaceutical Sciences in August.

May 28, 2019

Connor O'Hara's poster titled "Non-saccharide Glycosaminoglycan Mimetics Selectively Target Colon Cancer Stem Cells" was awarded the   Best Student Poster Presentation Award at the VaDDC conference, Roanoke, VA. Congratulations, Connor.

July 23, 2019

The grant title is Native Cell Membrane and Nanoparticles System and the project period is from 07/01/2019 to 06/30/2023.  It is to support a new technology development for membrane protein structural biology especially for high-resolution structure determination of membrane proteins and complexes using single-particle cryo-electon microscopy. Dr. Youzhong Guo and colleagues have successfully determined, for the first time, a clearest ever structure of a patch of native cell membrane lipid bilayer at atomic level. Numerous scientists have spent more than one hundred years to decipher the structure of cell membrane, but no high-resolution structure of cell membrane at this level had been obtained before. This is a breakthrough in the history of cell membrane research.

August 19, 2019

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Jiong Li has been awarded a Collaborative Multi-PI grant with Dr. Yue Sun of Dentistry by Massey Cancer Center.  The title of his grant is "Targeting microRNA Suppresses the Oncogenesis and Metastasis of HNSCC". This grant mechanism is highly competitive and very few are awarded this grant each year. It is highly commendable that Dr. Li led this effort. We expect continuing success leading up to federal funding. Congratulations Dr. Li. 

September 27, 2019

The grant title is CAREER:  Allosteric Activating of SIRT6 by DNA and the project period is 09/01/2019 - 08/31/2024. This study seeks to elucidate how the regulation of SIRT6 activity takes place in cells and to suggest possible strategies for effective SIRT6 activation. The concurrent aim is to provide a broadly accessible research experience for a large number of students across multiple academic levels. The comprehensive plan includes the mentoring of undergraduates, graduates and PharmD students as well as an outreach program offered to high school AP biology students. A PI-graduate student working group is to be established to develop and implement new guidelines for training in the interdisciplinary field of chemical biology. 

September 20, 2019

Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Afosah has been awarded a Travel Award from the Society for Glycobiology.  Dr. Afosah will present at the annual meeting in San Diego in October 2019. The title of his presentation will be 'Many Apparently Non-selective GAG – Protein Systems May Exhibit Interesting Selectivity Features. The Case of Human Neutrophil Elastase.

September 23, 2019

Dr. Srinivas Sistla earns staff spotlight

December 17, 2019

Congratulations to Dr. Li who has been awarded the Elsa U. Pardee Foundation Grant for his research titled, "Targeting miR-204-5p suppresses the tumorigenesis and metastasis of head and neck cancer". We are excited for him and how this will positively impact lives.