2022-2023 biological sciences faculty achievements

Wayne State University celebrates the achievements of our biological sciences faculty!

Highlights

Professor Miriam Greenberg

Miriam was awarded a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health to identify mechanisms that regulate inositol synthesis in mammalian cells and determine the cellular consequences of inositol depletion.

Assistant Professor Hanaa Hariri

Hanaa received the Richard Barber Interdisciplinary Research Fund Award, WSU University Research Award and funding from the National Institute of Health to decipher the role of inter-organelle contacts in coordinating lipid and methionine metabolism.

Professor Dan Kashian

Dan was appointed to general education faculty coordinator.

Post-doctoral scholar Vidhyadhar Nandana

Vidhyadhar from the Schrader lab has been awarded the 2023 postdoctoral research award from the Wayne State Graduate School in recognition of his contribution to the cellular organization by phase separation in bacteria.

Associate Professor Marianna Sadagurski

Marianna received a new NIH grant to test the effects of a novel anti-diabetes drug, Canagliflozin, on cognitive function, signaling pathways that affect aging and sex-specific glia cell function in both aged mice and Alzheimer’s disease mice models.

Associate Professor Chris Steiner

Chris received a Small Research 2023 Grant from the British Ecological Society to probe for a possible link between intraspecific trait variation and eco-evolutionary population dynamics in the freshwater Crustacean Daphnia pulex (water flea).

New publications

Kashian, D. M., Zak, D. R., Barnes, B. V., & Spurr, S. H. (2023). Forest Ecology. John Wiley & Sons.

McLaughlin & Higgs (2023 Nov 23) Mutation of self-binding sites in the promoter of the MrpC transcriptional regulator leads to asynchronous Myxococcus xanthus development. Frontiers in Microbiology: 10.3389/ fmicb.2023.1293966

Kagan et al. ( 2023 Nov 23) Anomalous peroxidase activity of cytochrome c is the primary pathogenic target in Barth syndrome. Nature Metabolism: 10.1038/ s42255-023-00926-4.

Mishra et al. (2023 Nov 17) Specific sensory neurons and insulin-like peptides modulate food type-dependent oogenesis and fertilization in Caenorhabditis elegans. Elife: 10.7554/eLife.83224.

O’Brien & Ansari (2023 Oct 19) Protein interaction network revealed by quantitative proteomic analysis links TFIIB to multiple aspects of the transcription cycle. BBA Proteins and Proteomics: 10.1016/j.bbapap.2023.140968.

Soukar et al. (2023 Nov 15) Analysis of the chromatin landscape and RNA polymerase II binding at SIN3-regulated genes. Biol Open: 10.1242/bio.060026.

Nandana et al. (2023 Oct 31) The BR-body proteome contains a complex network of protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions. Cell Reports: 10.1016/j. celrep.2023.113229.

Friedrich (2023 Oct 9) Close to complete conservation of the brachyceran opsin repertoire in the stalk-eyed fly Teleopsis dalmanni. J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol: 10.1002/jez.b.23220. Epub 2023.

Friedrich (2023 Sep 20) Parallel Losses of Blue Opsin Correlate with Compensatory Neofunctionalization of UV-Opsin Gene Duplicates in Aphids and Planthoppers. Insects: 10.3390/insects14090774.

Soukar et al. ( 2023 Jul 28) Coordination of cross-talk between metabolism and epigenetic regulation by the SIN3 complex. Enzymes. 2023;53:33-68: 10.1016/ bs.enz.2023.06.001.

Case et al. (2023 Sep 8) Valproate regulates inositol synthesis by reducing expression of myo-inositol-3-phosphate synthase. Science Reports: 10.1038/s41598-023- 41936-2.

Kesserwan et al. (2023 Aug 12) Mast Cell Deficiency in Mice Attenuates Insulin Phenolic Preservative-Induced Inflammation. Biomedicines: 10.3390/ biomedicines11082258.

Golenberg et al. (2023 Aug 7) Transcriptome analyses of leaf architecture in Sansevieria support a common genetic toolkit in the parallel evolution of unifacial leaves in monocots. Plant Direct: 10.1002/ pld3.511.

Collins et al. (2023 Aug 9) RNase E biomolecular condensates stimulate PNPase activity. Scientific Reports: 10.1038/s41598-023-39565-w.

Gopalakrishnan&Kashian (2023 July 18) Complex interactions among temperature, microplastics and cyanobacteria may facilitate cyanobacteria proliferation and microplastic deposition. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115259.

Arnott et al. (2023) Broad scale intraspecific variation in freshwater zooplankton salt tolerance. Limnology and Oceanography Letters: 8: 8-18.

O’Brien et al. (2023 Jun 24) Global Run- On sequencing to measure nascent transcription in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Methods: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2023.06.009.

Vijjamarri et al. (2023 Jun 2) Decapping factor Dcp2 controls mRNA abundance and translation to adjust metabolism and filamentation to nutrient availability. Elife: 10.7554/eLife.85545.

Jan et al. (2023 Apr 27) A Novel Recognition by the E3 Ubiquitin Ligase of HSV-1 ICP0 Enhances the Degradation of PML Isoform I to Prevent ND10 Reformation in Late Infection. Viruses: 10.3390/v15051070.

Waller et al. (2023 Jun 23) Review and Development of Best Practices for Toxicity Tests with Dreissenid Mussels. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry: 10.1002/etc.5648.

Maxwell et al. (2023 Apr 21) Intrinsic sexual dimorphism in the placenta determines the differential response to benzene exposure. iScience: 10.1016/j. isci.2023.106287.

Ghosh et al. (2023 Apr 24) Initiator AUGs are discriminated from elongator AUGs predominantly through mRNA accessibility in C. crescentus. Journal of Bacteriology: 10.1128/jb.00420-22.

Koshko et al. (2023 Apr 19) Prenatal benzene exposure in mice alters offspring hypothalamic development predisposing to metabolic disease in later life. Chemosphere: 10.1016/j. chemosphere.2023.138738.

Jayarathne et al. (2023 Mar 24) Repurposing Canagliflozin to target brain aging. Aging: 10.18632/aging.204624.

Tao et al. (2023 Aug 3) Neofunctionalization of tandem duplicate genes encoding putative β-Larabinofuranosidases in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiology: 10.1093/plphys/kiad169.

McIntyre et al. (2023 Mar 13) Cold tolerance and diapause within and across trophic levels: Endoparasitic wasps and their fly host have similar phenotypes. Journal of Insect Physiology: 10.1016/j. jinsphys.2023.104501.

St Louis et al. (2023 Feb 10) Bacterial effector kinases and strategies to identify their target host substrates. Frontiers in Microbiology: 10.3389/ fmicb.2023.1113021.

Adelabu et al. (2023 Jan 29) Efficient SABRE-SHEATH hyperpolarization of potent branched-chain-amino-acid metabolic probe [1-13C]ketoisocaproate. Metabolites: 10.3390/metabo13020200.

Vo et al. (2023 Feb 4) Cardiolipin metabolism regulates expression of muscle transcription factor MyoD1 and muscle development. J Biol Chemistry: 10.1016/j. jbc.2023.102978.

Tao et al. (2023 Jan 23) Optimization and application of non-native Phragmites australis transcriptome assemblies. PLoS One: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280354.

Stilgenbauer et al. (2023 Jan 12) Growth hormone receptor (GHR) in AgRP neurons regulates thermogenesis in a sex-specific manner. Geroscience: 10.1007/s11357- 023-00726-4.

Ochocki&Kenney (2023 Jan 30) A gelatinbased feed for precise and non-invasive drug delivery to adult zebrafish. Journal of Exp Biology: 10.1242/jeb.245186.

Chen et al. (2023 Jan 4) Global gene expression analysis reveals complex cuticle organization of the Tribolium compound eye. Genome Biology & Evolution: 10.1093/gbe/evac181.