A collection of (somewhat up to date) lab-related news items:
6/18/24: Welcome to our newest group members Barbara Jones, ECU IDPBBC graduate student, and Department of Chemistry Master’s students Jahiem Hill and Bruno Pizani!
6/18/24: Hearty congratulations to recent graduates Anna I. Wurz, who defended her PhD and graduated in May 2024 and Noah Mann who defended his Master’s Thesis and graduated in May 2024!
6/18/24: Belated congratulations to undergraduate researchers Todiah Romero, Bruno Pizani, Joanna Kirkendoll, and Greyson Sanchez who received PURC and URCA awards for Spring 2024 to support their research projects in our lab!
6/07/23: Welcome to our visiting summer scholars Kevin Zheng from UNC – Chapel Hill, who is participating in our NSF-REU program and Kenneth Wang from Davidson College, who is participating in the BSOM Summer Biomedical Research Program!
6/01/23: Congrats to ECU Master’s student Noah Mann, who was recently named a recipient of the Burroughs-Wellcome Fellowship in Organic Chemistry!
05/03/23: Double congrats to ECU undergraduate student Anna Schulz, who won an RCAW Award for her poster presentation in the Natural Sciences category and on her Spring 2023 graduation from ECU! Anna will be heading to UCF to pursue PhD studies in Immunology.
03/21/23: Congrats to ECU IDPBBC graduate student Anna Wurz, who was selected as a speaker at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience NeuroMEETS symposium!
10/21/21: Congrats to ECU graduate student Collin O’Bryant, who was selected as a student speaker at the upcoming East Carolina Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience 23rd Annual Meeting at ECU!
10/21/21: Congrats to ECU undergraduate Jordan Hardeman, on recently obtaining an URCA award from ECU REDE to support her continued research on actin-binding peptides!
10/21/21: Belated Congrats to recent ECU graduates Dalton Deane and Collin O’Bryant, who received their Master’s Degrees in Chemistry this past summer. Dalton is pursuing medical school applications while Collin is remaining at ECU as a member of the IDPBBC program.
Congrats to our newest lab member, ECU undergraduate Jordan Hardeman, on recently obtaining two grants to support her research: A Mini-URCA award from ECU REDE and a PURC award from the ECU Department of Chemistry!
Local news coverage of the recently reported CofActor system:
ECU News Services press release
WITN – featuring interview with Master’s student Collin O’Bryant
Addgene, a non-profit DNA repository, shared our recently deposited CofActor plasmids on Facebook:
CONGRATS to lab members who graduated from ECU in Spring 2019: Nate Green (pictured above at the Department of Chemistry graduation ceremony), Jessica Norris, and Will Taylor. Nate is headed to Chapel Hill, where he will study the apothecary arts at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Jessica is headed to State College, PA, where she will pursue a PhD in chemistry in the Penn State University Department of Chemistry. Will is heading across town to pursue a MD at the ECU Brody School of Medicine. We’ll miss these founding members of our research group! Congrats guys, you’re FIN………..ally done.
CONGRATS to graduate student Mitul Patel, who recently presented his biocatalysis work at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Orlando, Fl. Co-authors on Mitul’s presentation included Nathan Green, Jacob Burch, and Dr. Kim Kew (ECU Brody School of Medicine). Mitul is pictured above with his work at the interdisciplinary SCI-MIX poster session.
CONGRATS to ECU senior and lab member Will Taylor (above), who is a recipient of the prestigious Robert H. Wright Alumni Leadership Award. Will begins his medical training at the ECU Brody School of Medicine this fall.
CONGRATS to ECU undergrad and lab member Jessica Norris (above) on her recent Department of Chemistry CURE award and an Office of Undergraduate Research travel award to fund her trip to SERMACS 2018 in Augusta, GA.
CONGRATS to ECU undergrad and lab member Nate Green on his acceptance to the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy! Nate will begin his pursuit of a Pharm.D. in 2019.
CONGRATS to ECU IDPBS graduate student Fatema Salem on her recent participation in the ECU 3MT (three minute thesis) competition. Fatema also recently presented her work at the ECU Neuroscience Symposium at the Brody School of Medicine.
Fatema and Jessica also presented posters at the ECU Department of Chemistry Homecoming Weekend Poster Session in early October:
WELCOME to new research group members Lindsey Miller, Ethan Quinn, and Mitul Patel. Both Lindsey and Ethan were students in Dr. Hughes’ CHEM 1160 course (Spring 2018), yet still joined the lab. Inconceivable! Mitul (ECU B.S. 2018) may be a new student in the Department of Chemistry Master’s program, but he’s a familiar face around the department in addition to being a recent recipient of the ACS Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Award at ECU. We’re excited about their future contributions to the group.
Review article appears in Critical Reviews in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Dr. Hughes’ review article “A Compendium of Chemical and Genetic Approaches to Light Regulated Gene Transcription” can be accessed here: A compendium of chemical and genetic approaches to light-regulated gene transcription
CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT GRADUATION 2018 featured lab member Abu Kuyateh as one of two student speakers. Nice work Abu!
Abu Kuyateh speaks at the Department of Chemistry Graduation Ceremony held on Saturday, May 5th.
ECU Research & Creative Activity Week Presentations March 26 & 28
Congratulations to all who presented as part of ECU RCAW!
Oral Presentations
Abu-Bakarr Kuyateh March 26, 2018 Graduate Symposium
Jessica Norris March 28, 2018 Undergraduate Symposium
Colby Godwin March 28, 2018 Undergraduate Symposium
Posters
Nathaneal Green March 28, 2018 Undergraduate Symposium
Will Taylor March 28, 2018 Undergraduate Symposium
3D Printed Labware
ECU undergraduate researcher Nathaneal Green proposed a solution to the lab’s sub-optimal (that’s being nice) cardboard stand for chromatography columns……ECU’s 3D printing lab (3Dprinting@ECU). Nate designed his own prototype online and had the model printed using one of the 3D printers in Joyner Library. Below are photos of Nate with his invention and the prototype in action (we’re hoping for a 3D printed centrifuge next – keep it up Nate!):
Norris and Hughes article accepted for publication by FEBS OpenBio
In the forthcoming article “protaTETHER: A method for the incorporation of variable linkers in protein fusions reveals impacts of linker flexibility in a PKAc-GFP fusion protein“, Norris & Hughes describe a straightforward cloning method for the implementation and evaluation of focused linker libraries in protein fusions. The Hughes lab is currently utilizing this method to develop optimized protein fusions for biotech applications. Read more here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2211-5463.12414/full
CONGRATS TO JACOB AND COLBY ON THEIR ADMISSION TO DENTAL SCHOOL!
ECU Seniors Colby Godwin and Jacob Burch were notified of their acceptance to dental school in early December. They are not pictured below.
GODWIN PRESENTS AT SERMACS
Colby presented his research at SERMACS 2017 in Charlotte, NC. Also present at the meeting were lab members Jessica Norris, Nathan Green, and Abu Kuyateh.
ONE YEAR AGO – NEW KID IN TOWN
Dr. Hughes quoted in Daily Reflector @ Wahl-Coates Elementary School Open House:
FALL 2016 – Research by Hughes, et al published in Angewandte Chemie and featured by C&E News:
Also featured by other science-oriented websites:
And Twitter:
SCIENCE OLYMPIAD @ Wahl-Coates Elementary School
Yes, it is true…….a dynamic duo of Wahl-Coates Elementary students garnered FIRST PLACE in the fiercely competitive MARSHMALLOW CATAPULT event held in the spring of 2017 @ J.H. Rose High School.
Here’s a link to a Facebook post featuring work with Wahl-Coates Science Olympiad participants:
ACS – San Francisco – Spring 2017
Despite being badly in need of a haircut, Dr. Hughes soldiered on and presented a poster at the ACS San Francisco meeting. While in San Francisco, he also had to purchase a new pair of shoes. But that’s a story for another time.
Grant Funding
The Hughes lab was fortunate to receive a doctoral new investigator award from the ACS Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF). With these funds, we’ll be undertaking a rational design approach to the development of biocatalysts for asymmetric transformations in non-aqueous media.
Undergraduate George Hoffmann received a CURE Award from the ECU Department of Chemistry to support his optogenetics project.
Out and About
Masters student Abu-Bakarr Kuyateh represented the Chemistry Department at the What’s Up Bio? event sponsored by the ECU Department of Biology. Pictured below are Abu (Hughes lab graduate student) and Katie (Spuches Lab graduate student). Thanks guys!
