The Biochemistry Program at UNL has grown tremendously over the last decade. In 2005, 65 B.S. de-grees in Biochemistry were awarded compared to 11 B.S. degrees awarded in 1997. Cur-rently, 278 B.S. majors and 40 graduate students are enrolled in our Biochemistry Undergraduate and Graduate Programs. The Bio-chemistry Department is housed in the George W. Beadle Center and includes faculty with research programs in a variety of areas

including bioinformatics, bioreme-diation, cancer and disease, cellu-lar signaling, metallobiochemistry, metabolism, molecular genetics, plant sciences, protein structure and function, and redox biology. Through this newsletter we wish to keep you informed of the exciting changes in the Biochemistry De-partment including information about current students and re-search discoveries by our faculty. We also want to acknowledge the achievements of our alumni and

the different ways you are contrib-uting to our society. In this first volume, we highlight Prof. Ruma Banerjee who is an internationally recognized scholar and recently presented a seminar at UNL as part of the Chancellor’s Distin-guished Lecture Series. Short notes from some of the other Bio-chemistry faculty are also in-cluded. We hope you enjoy this letter and please keep us informed of your accomplishments.

homocysteine levels are both influenced by the interactions between many genetic and environmental factors," said Banerjee, who leads a team of scientists who comprise the Redox Biology Center at UNL. The Redox Biology Center was established in 2002 with a $10.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Banerjee joined Nebraska's faculty as an assistant profes-sor in 1991 and was promoted to associate professor in 1997 and professor in 2000. Before being named George Holmes university professor, Banerjee was a Willa Cather professor at UNL. From The Scarlet Issue of October 13, 2005.

The Chan-cellor's Dis-tinguished Lecture Series at UNL fea-tured Ruma Banerjee on October 26. In the Ne-

braska Lecture, titled “Genes, Greens and Disease," Baner-jee discussed how simple nutrients like vitamins regulate genes and modulate health and disease and the sybaritic pleasures of being a scientist. Nebraska Lectures feature leading scholars from UNL who translate their work into understandable, non-technical

language, allowing lay audi-ences to learn about research conducted at the university. The lectures are sponsored by the UNL Research Council, the Office of Research and Graduate Studies and the Office of the Chancellor. Banerjee’s research focuses on homocysteine, a substance derived from the amino acid methionine. Homocysteine is essential for health but is toxic at elevated levels, constituting a significant heart disease risk factor. Up to one-third of the people at risk for heart dis-ease have elevated homocys-teine levels. It is also corre-lated with Alzheimer's disease and fetal neural tube defects. "Cardiovascular disease and

Banerjee Delivers “Genes, Greens and Disease” Lecture

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Faculty 2-4

Distinguished Alumni Lecture

5

Support Staff 5

Students 6-8

Recent Alumni

7

News 8

From the Department Head Don Weeks, Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Director of the Center for Biological Chemistry

Biochemistry Today W I N T E R 2 0 0 5 V O L U M E 1

S P E C I A L P O I N T S O F I N T E R E S T :

• Faculty Focus

• Student Spotlight

• Graduate Student

Awards

• Undergraduate

Accomplishments

• Alumni: Where

Are They Now?

P A G E 2 Donald F. Becker Donald F. Becker (2003) was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Pro-fessor of Biochemistry this year. Prior to arriving at UNL, he held a five-year faculty appointment in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Don’s group con-sists of three postdoctoral fellows, three graduate stu-dents, and one undergradu-ate student. His group is

interested in understanding the regulation of a multifunc-tional flavoenzyme involved in proline metabolism and the role of proline in redox balance. Over the past year his group published papers in Biochemistry and the Journal of Biological Chem-istry and the entire group presented posters at a proline symposium held at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland. Don

taught a new cap-stone course for biochemistry ma-jors in S2005 and coordi-nated an eight-week under-graduate research program this summer through the Redox Biology Center that involved 15 students from colleges in Nebraska and Western Iowa.

Vadim N. Gladyshev of mammalian thioredoxin reductases, and mecha-nisms of redox regulation of cellular processes. Over the past year the group (3 re-search assistant professors, 4 post-doc fellows, 4 grad students, 2 undergrads) has published 14 papers in Pro-ceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Bio-

chemistry, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Nucleic Acids Re-search, Genome Biology, Bioin-formatics and Oncogene. Vadim has been appointed to the NIH study section on Integrative Nu-trition and Metabolic Processes. Vadim was named Charles Bes-sey Professor of Biochemistry in 2005.

Vadim N. Gladyshev (1998) is interested in the biology of trace element selenium and more broadly in redox biology. His lab group cur-rently works on identity and functions of selenoprotein genes, mechanisms of can-cer prevention by selenium, role of methionine sulfoxide reduction in aging, functions

B I O C H E M I S T R Y T O D A Y

John Markwell Fac

ulty

Foc

us

is now an Associate Profes-sor at the University of Rhode Island, Wayne Ver-saw is an Assistant Profes-sor at Texas A&M Univer-sity, Hakon Ramberg is a lab technician in Oslo, Brad Olson is a fourth-year grad

Drs. Markwell and Madhavan are not only sharing a lab suite, but they have also started sharing the Biochem-istry 433 laboratory course. Dr. Markwell joined the faculty in 1982. From the Markwell lab alumni files, Gongqin Sun

student at Michigan State, Renee Paulson (nee Baack) is a second-year grad student at Stanford, and Josh Widhalm is a first-year grad student in Horticulture at UNL.

Julie M. Stone a combination of genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology to unravel the mo-lecular mechanisms control-ling programmed cell death using the model plant or-ganism, Arabidopsis thaliana. Programmed cell death is important in all or-ganisms and regulates de-velopment and response to pathogen attack in plants. Her work is funded by the

Julie M. Stone (2001) joined

the department following a postdoctoral fellow position in the Department of Mo-lecular Biology at Massa-chusetts General Hospital and the Department of Ge-netics at Harvard Medical School. She is a member of the Plant Science Initiative and the Redox Biology Cen-ter. The Stone lab is using

Department of Energy. Julie teaches Biochemistry 432/832 Gene Expression and Replication and initiated a one-credit course for first-year Biochemistry graduate students where students can more intensively delve into primary literature and hone their presentation skills.

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1

Melanie A. Simpson initiated there on under-standing mechanisms that promote metastatic progres-sion of prostate cancer. Projects utilize surgical im-plantation of tumor cells in the prostate and live animal imaging techniques to track tumor growth and regres-sion in real time. Two pro-jects have now been funded

Melanie A. Simpson joined the department in August of 2002 as an Assistant Pro-fessor. Prior to becoming an independent investigator, she was a postdoctoral fel-low in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Minnesota. Her research program extends work she

by the US Army Prostate Cancer Research Pro-gram and the National Cancer Institute of NIH. Her group currently consists of two graduate students, two under-graduates and three research technicians. Both graduate stu-dents received awards for their research presented in a UNL con-ference this fall.

Madhavan Soundararajan

Senior Jeanine Frey and Dr. Simpson meet with prospective students and

families at the recent Experience the Power of Red campus visit day.

ment. Patricia Echtenkamp who worked with him for five years and did an under-graduate Honors thesis is currently pursuing her Ph.D in Chemical Engineering at Cornell. Madhavan is an active member of the Car-

A member of the faculty since 1999, Madhavan is a Senior Lecturer in the department and teaches Biochemistry courses both to the majors and non-majors. He is also the Undergraduate Research Coordinator for the depart-

bon Sequesteration Re-search Consoritum of the University with his contri-butions on carbon isotope ratio mass spectrometry.

P A G E 4

B I O C H E M I S T R Y T O D A Y

Fac

ulty

Foc

us

Donald Weeks ments for their research pro-grams. The Weeks labora-tory focuses on two areas of research: the carbon concen-trating mechanism that is essential for efficient photo-synthesis in algal cells and the genetic engineering of crop plants for development of important new agronomic traits. In regard to the latter, a gene conferring resistance to the herbicide, dicamba, has been developed and licensed to Monsanto Company for

Don came to UNL in 1989 as Director

of the Center for Biotechnology. During this period, the Center helped to bring several new faculty members to UNL, funded numerous research projects and established new Core Research Facilities to increase the com-petitiveness of faculty across campus who needed access to expensive, specialized instru-

insertion into its transgenic crop lines sold throughout the world. Weeks became De-partment Head in 2001 and is scheduled to complete his five-year tenure as Head in 2006. He presently teaches Biochemistry 432/832, the second semester of introduc-tory biochemistry for over 270 majors and students from nu-merous departments across campus.

Mark A. Wilson

• Ruma Banerjee* • Joseph Barycki* • Donald Becker* • Ray Chollet* • Vadim Gladyshev* • Mark Griep • Jaekwon Lee* • Marjorie Lou • John Markwell*

• Jess Miner • Kenneth Nickerson • Lawrence Parkhurst • Stephen Ragsdale* • Gautam Sarath • Melanie A. Simpson* • Greg Somerville • Madhavan Soundararajan* • Robert Spreitzer*

• Paul Staswick • Julie M. Stone* • Don Weeks* • Mark Wilson* • Charles Wood* • Janos Zempleni

*Department of Biochemistry Faculty Members

Center for Biological Chemistry Faculty

New Haven, CT. His lab is just now being established and the focus of his research is the structural biochemistry of Parkinson’s disease. In particular, his lab will study the multifaceted protein DJ-1, which is involved in both Parkinsonian neurodegenera-tion and cancer biology. In

addition, Mark’s lab will also pursue new developments in ultra-high resolution X-ray crys-tallography. Some of Mark’s recent work has been published in the Proceedings of the Na-tional Academy of Sciences and the Journal of Molecular Biology.

Mark A. Wilson (2005) was pre-

viously a postdoctoral fellow with Greg Petsko and Dagmar Ringe at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA and, before that, a graduate student with Axel Brunger at Yale University in

P A G E 5 V O L U M E 1

Marilyn Cunnings Clerical Assistant II

Beadle Center Support Staff

under the direction of Prof. Robert Klucas. After UNL, Leonard was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI (1982 to 1985). He then joined DuPont Ag Products where he is currently employed. Presently, Leonard is the Program Manager for Technology Transfer and Long Term Research at DuPont. We were very pleased to have Dr. Saari visit our department and students really enjoyed the opportunity to visit with him.

Dr. Leonard Saari from DuPont Cen-tral Research and Development gave the inaugural lecture for the new Bio-chemistry Distinguished Alumni Lec-ture Series. Dr. Leonard Saari pre-

sented a seminar entitled "My Path Through Sci-ence and Technology" on May 3, 2005. Leonard received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the Univer-sity of Minnesota in 1973 and later went on to complete a Ph.D. in Biochemistry (1982) at UNL

First Annual Distinguished Alumni Lecture

Holly Henrichs Administrative Technician

Joyce Ore Administrative Assistant Redox Biology Center

Rita Yeggy Accounting Clerk III

Neil Zimmer Instrumentation Specialist

Jerry McEntee Supply Control Clerk

Carol Hegel Secretary II

Joan Krush Undergraduate Academic Advisor/Recruiter

UCARE Program Participants Undergraduate Creative Activities & Research Experience

Women in Science Awards Forum

Honorees

Chantal Afuh Sarah Barchinger Kylie Benton Sara Brostrom Rebecca Chain Jeanine Frey Natalie Hart Shelley Tifft

P A G E 6

B I O C H E M I S T R Y T O D A Y

Stud

ent

Spo

tlig

ht

UCARE Awardees for 2005-2006:

Year 1: Matthias Albin Matt Hibberd Carrie Lebsack Natsuki Nagashima Brittany Prather

Year 2: Brady Brabec Jason Hamata Jennifer Haas Jesse Smith Josh Thoendel Yoshio Toda

Year 1 & 2: Jeanine Frey

N O T A B L E A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S Internships in Summer 2005:

Jeanine Frey – UNMC, Dept. of Internal Medicine, Hepatology Deama Hua – Summer Research Fellowship at Weill Cornell Medical College Branden Nemecek – UNMC, BRIN Program Meghan Sedlacek – UNMC, MD/Ph.D. Program

Yoshio Toda – Mayo Foundation Angelique Walstrom – UNMC Pharmacology & Experimental Neuro-Science Dept. Milton E. Mohr Scholarship for 2005-2006: Jeanine Frey NeInSci. Nebraska Symposium on Interdisciplinary Graduate Science Research, Sept. 27, 2005 Robert Galbenus – Outstanding Poster and $250 Travel Grant Award Alamelu (Dharini) Bharardwaj – Research Presentation; $250 Travel Grant Award (steering committee member for 2006 symposium) Widaman Award Fellowship Luncheon – September 26, 2005 Rama Kothapalli Chancellor’s List of Graduate Students of America

Biography published in September 2005 issue: Olga Vitvitskaia

Brittany Prather presented her poster “Screening for Mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana Formate Dehydro-genase in vitro” at the UCARE Fall Symposium on November 2, 2006.

P A G E 7

B I O C H E M I S T R Y T O D A Y

Want to recommend an

outstanding graduate? Got

a promotion? Finished that

Masters or Ph.D.? Have

you published recently?

Let us know your updated

information. We’d love to

brag about our alumni!

Simply visit the depart-

mental website (http://

biochem.unl.edu) and

choose Alumni to send us

an update.

What’s new with you?

A partial listing of BIOC graduates: (graduation 12/04, 5/05, 8/05) Baher, Maria Research Technician UNL Balwanz, Christopher MD Program UNMC Barchinger, Sarah PhD Program Penn State University Bearnes, Kylie Doctor of Physical Therapy Kansas University Medical Center Benton, Kylie Registered Nurse Creighton University Boehr, Mindy LLD Univ. of Indiana Law School Burks, Janee Research Technician UNL Cassel, Christina MD Program UNMC Chain, Rebecca MD Program Eastern Virginia Medical School Chu, Uyen PhD Program University of Wisconsin Dantey, Kossivi Research Technician UNL Dumitru, Razvan PostDoc UNL-BIOC Fagot, Ashley MD Program UNMC Fehr, Anthony PhD Program Washington University Johannesen, Jessica MD Program unknown Keblesh, James Research Tech I UNMC Khedir Al-tiae Janon Research Assistant UNL Kim, Yunjeong PostDoc Kumho Life & Environmental, Korea Martin, Karrie MD Program UNMC Moellering, Eric PhD Program Michigan State University Moran, Jessica MD Program UNMC Nguyen, Shayla Pharmacy Prog. Creighton Paulsen, Leah Optometry Program Southern College of Optometry Pop, Stelian Research Technician UNL Rewinkel, Dustin Pharmacy Program UNMC Rhoden, Kyle MD Program UNMC Rice, Abbie Sales-Sterling Distributing Lincoln Saira, Kazima PhD Program UNL-VBS Schardt, Gregory Pharmacy Program UNMC Schulte, Brent Certified Pharmacy Tech Walgreens Serban, Bogdan Research Technologist University of Utah Siegel, Jessica Pharmacy Program Creighton University Soo, Edith MS Program-Microbiology UNL Suga, Kim DDS UNL Taruru, Seuri Lab Researcher USDA-ARS Service-Lincoln Tifft, Shelley Pharmacy Program UNMC Tran, Phuong Certificate of Medical Tech St. Louis University Widhalm, Joshua MS Program UNL Zhu, Weidong PostDoc UNL-BIOC

Recent Graduates - Where are they now?

Deepak Madhavan, M.D. (UNL’97) spoke to the Biochem-istry Club in October regarding his research work in

epilepsy. Dr. Madhavan is a Clinical Research Fellow in Neurology at New York University.

Olga Vitvitskaia: Ph.D. student in Dr. Don Weeks’ lab, was awarded the Chancellor’s Fellowship.

Melissa Lucas: Ph.D. student in Dr. Greg Somerville’s lab, was awarded the Othmer Fellowship.

Peter Madzelan: Ph.D. student in Dr. Ruma Banerjee’s lab was awarded the Redox Biology Center Fellowship.

Amy Miller: Ph.D. student in the laboratory of Dr. Don Weeks was awarded an Othmer Fellowship.

Elizabeth Pierce: Ph.D. student in Dr. Stephen Ragsdale’s lab, was awarded the Re-dox Biology Center Fellowship.

David J. Adle: Ph.D. student in Dr. Jaek-won Lee’s lab, was awarded the Hazel Em-ley Fellowship and Milton Mohr Fellowship.

Razvan Dumitru: Ph.D. student in Dr. Stephen Ragsdale’s lab, was awarded the Widaman Trust Fellowship.

Carmen Gherasim: Ph.D. student in Dr. Ruma Banerjee’s lab, was awarded the CASNR Fellowship and a Holling Award.

Anna Prudova: Ph.D. student in Dr. Ruma Banerjee’s lab, was awarded the American Heart Association Fellowship.

Devis Sinani: Ph.D. student in Dr. Jaekwon Lee’s lab, was awarded the Nutricia Founda-tion Fellowship.

Dan Su: Ph.D. student in Dr. Vadim Glady-shev’s lab, was awarded the Widaman Trust Fellowship.

Department of Biochemistry University of Nebraska-Lincoln N200 Beadle Center 1901 Vine Street Lincoln, NE 68588-0664

Graduate Student Recognition

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