Dissertation Defense
2023/2024 Defenses
Alexandra Schwartz (Mchaourab Lab)
Conformational Dynamics of Neurotransmitter:Sodium Symporters: Insights from MhsT and hSERT
Philip Stauffer (Jacobson Lab)
Purinergic Calcium Signaling as a Novel Mechanism of Drug Tolerance in BRAF Mutant Melanoma.
Jarrod Eisma
Quantitative MRI to Investigate Central Nervous System Waste Clearance in Health and
Neurodegenerative Disease
Dora Obodo (Asiaee Lab)
A Statistical Framework to Quantify Biological Rhythms in Genome-Scale Data
John Cordoba (Chazin Lab)
Flexibility and distributive synthesis regulate RNA priming and handoff in human DNA polymerase-primase
Haley Stubbs (Iverson Lab)
Structural basis of o-sialoglycan recognition and selectivity in α2,3 selective streptococcal
Serine rich repeat adhesins and α2,6 linkage Specific bacterial sialyltransferases
Hope Woods (Meiler Lab)
Development of Frameworks for Computational Protein Structure Prediction Applications
Challenged by Limited Training Data
2022/2023 Defenses
Cody Heiser (Lau Lab)
Molecular Cartography Uncovers Evolutionary and Microenvironmental Dynamics in Sporadic Colorectal Tumors
Jonah Zarrow (Davies Lab)
The Development of Chemical Probes for Detecting and Modulating NAPE-PLD Activity
Lee Cantrell (Caprioli Lab)
Data-Independent Acquisition Mass Spectrometry Measurement of Protein Networks in the
Aging Human Lens and Lens Influx Pathways
Nicole Rodgers (Zanic Lab)
Investigating the role of CLASPs in microtubule and actin filament interactions
Kavya Sharman (Caprioli Lab)
Heterogeneous Molecular Signatures in Staphylococcus Aureus Infection Assessed by Multimodal Imaging
Brennica Marlow (Meiler Lab)
Deciphering the continuum of interactions between integral membrane proteins and cholesterol
Shannon Smith (Meiler Lab)
Computational Efforts in Early-Stage Drug Discovery: A Use-Case Describing the Discovery and Optimization of Protease-Activated Receptor (PAR4) Antagonists
Steven Walker (Olivares Lab)
The ClpP peptidase grips a model protein substrate against external force
Vilma Jallinoja (Houghton Lab)
Host-guest chemistry pretargeted positron emission tomography
Emily Schmitz (Karakas Lab)
Analysis of the structural basis for the gating and regulation of the human type 3 Inositol Trisphosphate Receptor
2022 Defenses
Sean Devan-Xu Lab
Cell Size-Selective MRI for Characterizing Brain Lesions
Spencer Waddle-Donahue Lab
Non-Invasive Function MRI Methods for Measuring Cerebral Metabolism in Patients with Cerebrovascular Disease
Ben Brown-Meiler Lab
Intergration of ligand-and structure-based cheminformatics tools with protein dynamic modeling for drug design
Sara Maddox Groves-Quaranta Lab
Network control of cell identity and plasticity in Small Cell Lung Cancer
Alexandria Oviatt-Osheroff Lab
A Tale of Two Poisons: Overcoming deleterious anticancer side effects and antibacterial resistance
Geena Ildefonso-Quaranta Lab
A Systems Biology Approach to Modeling Signaling Crosstalk in Cell Fate Decisions
Bob Chen-Ken Lau Lab
Tumorigenic Metaplasia in Colorectal Cancer Delineated Through Applied Systems Theory
2021 Defenses
James Hutchison -Chuck Sanders Lab
Advanced techniques for the study of membrane proteins in complex and native lipid environments
Diego del Alamo-Mchaourab and Meiler Labs
Integrative modeling of secondary active transporters
Emily J. Ross-Cox Lab
Three dimensional modeling of biologically relevant fluid shear stress in human renal tubule cells mimics in vivo transcriptional profiles
Oscar Ortega-Lopez Lab
Analysis and visualization of signal execution in network-driven biological processes
Ben Reisman-Bachmann Lab
Studies on the Mechanism of Action of Selectively Cytotoxic Glycosylated Polyketides
Tony Phipps- Caskey Lab
Safe and Accurate Targeting for Transcranial Focused Ultrasound
2020 Defenses
Lauren Salay-Chazin Lab
Investigation of the Role of Iron-Sulfur Clusters in Polymerase Alpha Primase
Alexander Thiemicke-Neuert Lab
The effect of temporally variable environments on molecular changes in human cells
Austin Oleskie-Rericha Lab
A Stochastic, Molecular Model of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Fate Decision
Michael Pridmore-Dortch Lab
Multiparametric MRI of Neurodegeneration in the Peripheral Nervous System
Andrew Morris-Ren Lab
Cellular mRNA export factor UAP56 recognizes nucleic acid binding site of influenza virus NP protein
James Pino-Lopez Lab
Mechanism extraction from multi-omic, multiple timepoint data to single cell mechanistic simulations: Modeling drug perturbations at multiple resolutions
Selena Chacon-Fesik Lab
Small molecule inhibitors of the WDR5-MYC interaction
Kevin Jagesar-Mchaourab Lab
Structural Dynamics of H+/Drug Antiport in a Archaeal MATE Transporter
Andrea Perreault- Venters Lab
Understanding Epo-dependent Enhancer-Promoter Interactions in the
Regulation of Erythroid Gene Expression
Abigail Searfoss-Creanza Lab
Harnessing the power of citizen-science data to student the spatiotemporal patterns of birdsong
Jason Ostenson-Damon Lab
Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting for Rapid Quantitative Imaging of the Liver
Ian Setliff- Georgiev Lab
High-resolution interrogation of antibody repertories using next-generation sequencing
Marion Sauer-Meiler & Crowe Labs
Using protein flexibility to model viral gylcoprotein mutation tolerances and sites of vulnerability
2019 Defenses
Christian Meyer-Quaranta Lab
A Consensus Framework for Measuring Drug Synergy
Kalen Petersen-Donahue Lab
Neurologic Insights from Structural and Functional Connectivity
Alberto Cisneros-Crowe Lab
Role of antibody heavy and light chain interface residues in affinity maturation of binding to HIV envelope glycoprotein
2018 Defenses
Erin Shockley-Lopez Lab
Biochemical Reaction Networks from a Systems Biology Perspective
Marilyn Holt-Chazin Lab
Contributions to template priming from the human DNA primase [4Fe4S] cluster domain
Alex Sevy- Crowe Lab
Engineering cross-reactivity in the antibody response to influenza and HIV
Sanjay Mishra-Mchaourab Lab
Molecular model of αB-crystallin function in the transparency of the eye lens and stress resistance of the heart
Vandiver Chaplin-Caskey Lab
Precision and Selectivity: New Techniques in Image Guided Focused Ultrasound
Charles Herring-Lau Lab
Cell Fate Relationships Mapped by p-Creode Trajectory Analysis of Single-Cell Data
David Earl-Bachmann Lab
Cell Subset Targeting of Glycosylated Polyketides Revealed by Multiplexed Phenotypic Screening of Natural Product Fraction Libraries and Bioengineered Analogs
2017 Defenses
Bishal Paudel-Quaranta Lab
Understanding Drug Response Dynamics in BRAF-Mutated Melanoma Cells
Yan Xia-Meiler Lab
Integrated Structural Biology for Understanding Membrane Proteins: A TSPO Story
Jennifer Morgan Watchmaker-Donahue Lab
Intracranial Hemodynamic Compensation Mechanisms in Patients with Cerebrovascular Disease
Chrystal Ama Rhea Starbird-Iverson Lab
Structural insights into the role of assembly factors in the assembly, function and flavinylation of Complex II
Joe W. Alvin-Lacy Lab
Structural and functional studies of large clostridial toxin glucosyltransferase domains
Michela Fooska -Meiler Lab
MS thesis-Op8miza8on of BCL::Fold for Protein Folding de novo and with Cryo-EM Restraints
Pooja Guar- Grissom Lab
Advancements in MRI Temperature Map Reconstruction for Real-Time Guidance of Thermal Therapies
Aliya Gifford-Welch Lab
MRI Characterization of Brown Adipose Tissue in Adult Humans with Validation by PET-‐CT
BettyAnn Chodkowski-Niswender and Cowan Lab
Brain Functional Connectivity and Childhood Obesity
Brendan Dutter-Sulkowski Lab
Chemical Biology of Bacterial Metal Acquisition and Homeostasis
Pedro M. Garcia Barrantes-Lindsley Lab
Total Synthesis of Gombamide A and Actnophenanthroline A.
Discovery, Optmiztion and Characterization of Novel Positive Allosteric Modulators for the Metabotropic
Glutamate Receptor Subtype 1.
Samuel DeLuca-Meiler Lab
“Development of Novel Methods for Computational Protein Design and Protein-Ligand Docking”
Kallie Stavros-Stone Lab
Sequence Dependence of the Food Mutagen 2-amino-3-methylimidazo-[4,5-f] quinolone in the Narl Recognition by Solution NMR
Christopher Jarrett- Gore Lab
Physical Basis of Acousto-Optical Imaging
Stephanie Hirst Deluca- Meiler Lab
Protein Structure Elucidation by Combining Computational and Experimental Methods
Congratulations to Patrick Gentry, who successfully defended his PhD dissertation on July 15, 2014.
“Discovery, Optimization, and Characterization of Novel Subtype-Selective M5 Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptor Ligands”
Laboratory of Craig Lindsley
Congratulations to Tara Archuleta, who successfully defended her PhD dissertation on May 13, 2014.
“From Gatekeeper to Effector: A Structural and Functional Analysis of the Multifaceted Clamydial Protein, CopN”
Laboratory of Ben Spiller
Congratulations to Sonja Brooks, who successfully defended her PhD dissertation on April 22, 2014.
“Biochemical Characterization of the DMA Glycosylase DEMETER”
Laboratory of Brandt Eichman
Congratulations to Capt. Stephen Hummel, USA, who successfully defended his MS thesis on April 22, 2014.
“Single Cell Tracking and Integer Programming”
Laboratory of Vito Quaranta
Congratulations to Lewis Kraft, who successfully defended his PhD dissertation on April 18, 2014.
“Investigating the Emergent Properties of an Autophagy Protein in Living Cells”
Laboratory of Anne Kenworthy
Congratulations to Jordan Willis, who successfully defended his PhD dissertation on March 27, 2014.
“Rational Antibody Design: From Mechanisms of Specificity to Novel Vaccine Strategies”
Laboratories of Jens Meiler and James Crowe
Congratulations to Ghazal Hariri, who successfully defended her PhD dissertation on March 12, 2014.
“Development, Optimization, and Evaluation of Tumor-Specific Nanosponge Drug Delivery Systems as Chemotherapeutics”
Laboratory of Eva Harth
Congratulations to Brittney Bates, who successfully defended her MS thesis on December 19, 2013.
Laboratory of Craig Lindsley
Congratulations to Nick Adams, who successfully defended his PhD dissertation on October 24, 2013.
“Development of Simple Methods for RNA Biomarker Extraction and Detection”
Laboratories of Rick Haselton and David Wright
Congratulations to Kelly Kazmier, who successfully defended her PhD dissertation on November 15, 2013.
“Mechanistic Diversity of the Leut Fold Structural Superfamily”
Laboratory of Hassane Mchaourab
Congratulations to Liz Dong Nguyen, who successfully defended her PhD dissertation on June 17, 2013.
“Structural Studies of the Interaction between mGlu5 and Allosteric Modulators”
Laboratory of Jens Meiler
Congratulations to Matthew Deeley, who successfully defended his PhD dissertation on June 12, 2013.
“The benefit of automatic segmentation of intracranial organs at risk in radiation therapy: a multi-rater behavioral investigation”
Laboratories of Charles Coffey and Benoit Dawant
Congratulations to JT Brogan, who successfully defended his PhD dissertation on May 8, 2013.
“Total Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Alkaloid Natural Products (+)-7 Bromotrypargine and Phidianidines A & B and the Development of a Novel Class of Positive Allosteric Modulators of the Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Subtype 1”
Laboratory of Craig Lindsley
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