Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics

Recent Department Achievements

Faculty Achievements | Student Awards | Publications | Oral Presentations | Research and Exhibitions

Faculty Achievements

  • Timothy Durrett received a promotion to full professor.
  • Dr. Om Prakash receives appreciation award for consulting.Om Prakash served as an international advisory committee member for the International Symposium on Global Trends in Health, Technology and Management (GTHTM-2024), Dehradun, India, March 15- 17, 2024.
  • K-State's Seek Research Magazine co-features Erika Geisbrecht in the article "Anatomy of a breakthrough" under subtitle 'Small specimen, big possibilities'
  • Erika Geisbrecht awarded National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) Supplement to Advance Research (STAR) from projects to programs. She leads an NIAMS-supported research project using the Drosophila model to determine mechanisms that prevent protein aggregation, and ultimately cellular degeneration, in muscle.
  • Anna Zolkiewska received an R21 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases entitled "Mechanistic links between mutations in the CLPB gene and congenital neutropenia".
  • Phillip E. Klebba, Salete M. Newton, Brittany L. Nairn*, and Mathew Hansen* received a patent for "High-Throughput Fluorescent Screening Assay for Inhibitors of Gram-Negative Bacterial Iron Uptake"
    * No longer at K-State.
  • Mike Kanost received a National Institutes of Health, MIRA grant entiltled "Function of hemolymph plasma proteins in insect immune responses."

Back to Top

2022 Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Charlie Hedgcoth, Jr. and Phillip Nordin Graduate Memorial Awards for Excellence

Hannah Miller (grad, Prakash) was awarded the 2022 Excellence in Graduate Research.
Shelby Innes (grad, Tomich) was awarded the 2021/2022 Excellence in Graduate Teaching.

Student Awards and scholarships

BMB undergraduate and mentor unless otherwise noted.

  • Maggie Banhart was selected for Mortar Board Senior Honor Society. K-State Today
  • Lexi Ziolo (Anna Zolkiewska), biochemistry and microbiology, recieved Division of Biology's 2023-2024 Most Promising Student Award. K-State Today
  • Michael Bartkoski recieved the University Honors Program Outstanding Student Award for academic excellence and involvement in the Honors community. Leadership blog post
  • Dylan Feist (Erika Geisbrecht) was awarded Kansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (K-INBRE) Star Scholar award.
  • Ruth Mekuria (Erika Geisbrecht) was awarded the Eyes on the Prize Award from Developing Scholars for steadfastly keeping her focus on her future and quietly doing what needs to be done to take her future by storm. Symposium page
  • Yungui Guo and Ziwei Zhao (Erika Geisbrecht) received Cancer Center Graduate Student Travel Awards to attend the 64th annual Drosophila Research Conference in Chicago, IL on October 22, 2023.
Fall 2023 K-State Johnson Cancer Research Center Undergraduate Awards

K-State News. BMB undergraduate and mentor unless otherwise noted.

  • Michael Bartkoski – Mentor: Pankaj Baral (Biology)
    Understanding the role of neurotransmitter receptors in anti-Aspergillus fumigatus immunity: a translational potential to treat Aspergillosis in Cancer Patients
  • Dyaln Feist – Mentor: Erika Geisbrecht
    Cancer-related functions for secreted proteins in cell adhesion
  • Logan Glover – Mentor: Masaaki Tamura (Anatomy and Physiology)
    Direct effect of a newly designed inhibitory peptide for CTLA-4 on the expression of CTLA-4 in lung carcinoma cells.
  • Adyson Harm – Mentor: Ryan Rafferty (Chemistry)
    Investigations into the development of a general strategy for enhanced cancer drug delivery
  • Prabhleen Kaur – Mentor: Daniel Higgins (Chemistry)
    Towards Guided Drug Delivery with Nanostructured Lyotropic Liquid Crystal Gels: Single Molecule Spectroscopy Studies of Dye Diffusion in Hexagonal Mesophases
  • Setareh Khanjani Kouyakhi – Mentor: Davood Pourkargar (Chemical Engineering)
    Leveraging Machine Learning for Integrative Analysis of Liver Cancer Data
  • Jaycee Stewart (biology) – Mentor: Erika Geisbrecht
    Investigation of NUAK function in cancer using Drosophila melanogaster
  • Mia Thompson – Mentor: Sherry Fleming (Biology)
    B2-GPI Derived Peptide Changes Macrophage Differentiation to Fight Tumor Growth
  • Lidia Lopez Vazquez – Mentor: Bradley Olson (Biology)
    Experimental evolution of cellular differentiation to understand the origins of tumor suppression

Back to Top

Publications

Back to Top

Oral Presentations

  • Om Prakash presented an invited talk, "Conquering the Neutrophil-A tale of novel neutrophil serine protease inhibitors," at the International Symposium on Global Trends in Health, Technology and Management (GTHTM-2024), Deharadun, India, March 15-17, 2024.
  • Ziwei Zhao (graduate, Erika Geisbrecht) presented "Identification of CryAB as a target of NUAK kinase activity in Drosophila muscle tissue" at the 2023 Midwest Drosophila Conference on October 22, 2023 in Monticello, IL.

Recent Defenses

  • Guanpeng Wang successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, "Immune cell response to external and internal signals: Regulation of breast tumor infiltrating leukocytes by cell surface ADAM proteases and neutrophil precursor cells by the mitochondrial CLPB," on Thursday, May 2, 2024. Wang completed his degree under the mentorship of Dr. Anna Zolkiewska.
  • Andy Su succefully defended his master thesis, "Investigating the Structure-Function Relationships in Insect Cytokine-like Stress-Responsive Peptides," on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. Su was a BS/MS major under Dr. Om Prakash.
  • Sungmin Yoon successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, "In depth investigation of Branched Amphipathic Peptide Capsules (BAPCs) for enhanced mRNA transfection efficiency," on April 9, 2024. Yoon completed his degree under the mentorship of Dr. John Tomich.
  • Nitin Mishra successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, "Structure-Function Analysis of Staphylococcal Inhibitors of Neutrophil Granule Enzymes," on April 5, 2024. Mishra completed his degree under the mentorship of Dr. Brian Geisbrecht and Dr. Om Prakash.
  • Linah Alkotami successfully defended her doctoral dissertation entitled "Remodeling of TAG synthesis in emerging oilseed crops: genetic engineering for high-value seed oil" on Wednesday, February 7, 2024. Alkotami completed her degree under the mentorship of Dr. Timothy Durrett.
  • Nicholas Neumann successfully defended his doctoral dissertation entitled "Harnessing biotechnology and genetics of oilseeds to improve oilseed biochemistry" on July 14, 2023. Neumann completed his degree under the mentorship of Dr. Timothy Durrett.

Back to Top

Research and Exhibitions

  • Two biochemistry undergraduates presented research posters at the Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 11, 2024.
    • Lauren Bishop (Neal Dittmer) presented "Expression, Purification, and Chitin-Binding Ability of an Insect Cuticular Protein."
    • Elizabeth Murillo-Cervantes (Maureen Gorman) presented "Purification and Expression Analysis of Manduca sexta Lcn1."
  • Two biochemsitry students were recently recognized at the 22nd annual Kansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (K-INBRE) Symposium, held on Jan. 13-14 in Manhattan. K-State Today
    • Michael Bartokoski presented "Understanding the role of neurotransmitter receptors in anti-Aspergillus fumigatus immunity" — poster presentation.
    • Jillian Rockley presented "Role of asparagine synthetase and other transcriptional factor targets in epidermal morphogenesis" — poster presentation.
  • Two biochemistry researchers in Erika Geisbrecht's lab presented posters at the 2023 Midwest Drosophila Conference held on October 21 - 22, 2023 in Monticello, Illinois.
    • Dylan Feist (undergrad) presented "Effects of Transglutaminase on Cell-ECM Assembly and Muscle Attachment."
    • Prabhat Tiwari (postdoc) presented "Role of dNUAK in sarcomere formation."

Back to Top