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Mehdi and Taylor (and Camilla! – and James, and Ngaio…) graduate!
The December graduation this year was a bumper crop of PhD graduates from the Science Faculty - and also a bumper crop from Structural Biology. Mehdi Sharifi Tabar and Taylor Szyszka from Joel's lab, Ngaio Smith (in absentia) from Jacqui's lab and Camilla Faoro and James Walshe (in absentia) from Sandro's lab *all* completed the final formality before they can wear their PhD gowns to their new labs each day... Congratulations to all - it's a big achievement!
The Rock
In news of great excitement, I can announce that there is another lab matrimonial union on its way! Taylor and Rezwan have announced their engagement - in fine style while on a small weekend getaway in Mudgee. They have decided to make the most of the whole thing by having *3* weddings - so stay tuned to find out more! Congratulations to both of them!
Dave Gell’s new paper featuring old-school biochemistry
Molecular Microbiology has now published the epic piece of work spearheaded by ex-lab member Dave Gell, who is now resident at the University of Tasmania. Dave had been approached by local microbiologists who noted that some strains of Haemophilus haemolyticus inhibited the growth of Haemophilus influenzae. Dave heroically purified the factor that caused this inhibition by using culture medium - old school biochemistry! Amazingly, he found that it was a heme-binding protein - his favourite class of proteins! They could hardly have found a better person in the country to characterize this protein if they'd tried! Read all about it...
Wanted: postdoc biochemist/structural biologist to work with Richard Payne, Sydney/US startup INSAMO (and me). Goal: use cyclic peptide mRNA display to design cell-permeable peptide-based protein degraders: https://usyd.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/USYD_EXTERNAL_CAREER_SITE/job/Darlington-Campus/Postdoctoral-Researcher-in--Peptide-Based-Drug-Discovery_0131612-1
Email for more info: joel.mackay@sydney.edu.au
Have been off X for months but had to log in to see response to AF3. I am much less smart than the authors - but am I (and Erin) the only ones to think that the helical afros that it makes out of IDRs is totally weird? Am I missing something?
This is supercool, but it does like folding everything, even things that are probably disordered... As always, use with caution, and consult your friendly structural biologist before investing too much in low confidence predictions.
Margie and Ann win Linkage Grant
Margie and Ann were recently awarded an ARC Linkage Grant to investigate the possible biotechnological uses of hydrophobin proteins. The work is a collaboration with the German chemical company BASF.
Jason talks at GATA conference in Capri
At the recent GATA factors conference on the Mediterranean island of Capri, Jason was invited to present his work on the DNA_binding properties of C. elegans GATA zinc fingers. He gave a great account of his work, injecting a little bit of structural biology into...
Joel recognized in the Bulletin’s Smartest 100
The Bulletin, a current affairs magazine, is publishing a list of the people it considers "the 100 smartest, most innovative and most creative people currently working in Australia". We think that there must have been a mixup between this list and the related list...
Molecule of the Month!
One of our most prized structures, the GATA:FOG zinc finger complex, features in the Protein Data Bank's Molecule of the Month section for March 2007. Check it out! A couple of our recent reviews of the field (Sunde and Matthews and Gamsjaeger et al.) were also...
New postdoctoral fellow to join the lab
Dr Josep Font from Catelonia in Spain has just been awarded a Research Fellowship from the Spanish government to join the lab for two years. Josep (Pep) has worked extensively on the thermodynamics of folding of ribonuclease A, under the tutelage of Prof. Maria...
Mugdha wins poster prize
Mugdha Bhati won a Student Poster Prize at the recent Biomolecular Dynamics and Interactions 2007 Meeting: From Single Molecules to Complex Assemblies. With Jacqui chairing the meeting (and no she wasn't a poster judge) and Joel chairing a session, there was a very...
New overseas Masters student on the way
Cuong Dinh Ngyuen, a graduate of the Hanoi National University and currently working at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, has been awarded a Government Scholarship to carry out an MSc in the lab. He will arrive in the second semester of 2007.
Daniel wins postdoctoral fellowships
Daniel Ryan was awarded NHMRC CJ Martin and EMBO postdoctoral fellowships in the most recent rounds. Once he decides which one is more lucrative, it will fund his stay in Tom Owen-Hughes' laboratory at the University of Dundee. Great effort Daniel!
Joel and Jacqui win cancer research grants
Joel and Jacqui were recently awarded 1-year grants from the Cancer Institute NSW to examine specific aspects of cancer biology.
Liza wins a cancer research grant
Dr Liza Cubeddu has been successful in obtaining a three-year research grant from the International Society for Cancer Research; this grant will fund the work that she is doing in collaboration with Jacqui on the analysis of protein interactions involved in breast...
Dave nails a fellowship and a Discovery Grant
Dr Dave Gell was successful in the recent round of ARC Discovery Grants - he was awarded a Discovery Grant to continue his analysis of the alpha-hemoglobin stabilizing protein AHSP. The grant included an Australian Research Fellowship, so that will keep him off the...
Fionna does it again!
Fionna has proven that her Lorne Poster Prize this year was no fluke by winning a poster prize at the 2006 ComBio conference in Brisbane. Her poster described structural and functional details of RanBP-like zinc finger domains.