Rafael Almanzar was named the recipient of the 2016 NACADA Region 7 Certificate of Merit for Outstanding New Advisor. Rafael received this award at the annual NACADA Region 7 Conference in Manhattan Kansas on March 1, 2016. NACADA (National Academic Advising Association) was created to promote quality academic advising and professional development to ensure the… Read More →
Three President’s Meritorious Service Award Winners
Monday, February 29, 2016 Tillie Rausch, Terry Lovingshimer and Jenny Ponzio were recognized for their outstanding support to Texas A&M University at the President’s Meritorious Service Awards Banquet. They were the only staff from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to receive this recognition this year. They were proceeded in this recognition by Melissa… Read More →
Anthony Sperber wins 3-minute thesis competition
Congratulations to Anthony Sperber, a Biochemistry Ph.D. student in Jen Herman’s group for winning the local 3MT competition. Read more about Anthony and 3MT in our February Departmental Newsletter. On to regionals!
Cutting edge research from Junjie Zhang’s group
New cryo-EM structures from Junjie Zhang’s group in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics were highlighted in the January 2016 issue of Structure. Phosphorus is an important nutrient in all forms of life, and phosphorus availability is often limited for agriculture. The C-P lyase from bacteria recycles phosphorus-containing compounds by cleaving a wide variety compounds containing… Read More →
A TrAP for KRYPTONITE
Hosts and viruses fight for survival has resulted in a great arsenal of molecular weapons. The host combats DNA viruses by preventing expression of their genomes and by destroying their transcripts. These tactics are known as transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene silencing (TGS and PTGS), respectively. On the other side, surviving viruses must have evolved strategies… Read More →
Dean’s Achievement Award for Faculty Mentoring
Dr. Ry Young was awarded the Dean’s Outstanding Achievement Award for Faculty Mentoring on September 16, 2015 at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences 2015 Awards Ceremony. This award recognized and encourages excellence in faculty mentoring. It was quite fitting for Dr. Young to be recognized for this award because in 1995 he implemented… Read More →
Dr. Dorothy Shippen Recipient of AFS Distinguished Achievement Award for Graduate Mentoring
Posted on March 24, 2015 by Angel Futrell Dr. Dorothy Shippen, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics, has been selected to receive this year’s university-level Distinguished Achievement Award for Graduate Mentoring. The Distinguished Achievement Awards, which are funded by The Association of Former Students, are among the most prestigious awards that can be presented to faculty… Read More →
Four + One = FIVE Dean’s Outstanding Achievement Award Winners
On September 10, 2014 our department, along with a graduate student from the Genetics Program, received the Dean’s Outstanding Achievement Award. Recipients included: Mr. Aaron T. Griffin-Undergraduate Student Research Award Dr. Craig Kaplan-Early Career Research Award Mr. Terry Lovingshimer-Staff Award Dr. Gregory D. Reinhart-Administration Award Ms. Amanda M. Hulse-Graduate Research Award (Dept. of Soil and… Read More →
Old drug may teach new tricks in treating infectious diseases and cancer
Meclizine, an over-the-counter drug used for decades to treat nausea and motion sickness, has the potential for new uses to treat certain infectious diseases and some forms of cancer, according to Dr. Vishal M. Gohil, an assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Texas A&M University. “Clearly this drug has many potential new applications,” Gohil said…. Read More →
Phenotypic profiling of RNA polymerase mutants
Craig Kaplan’s group, working with Nevan Krogan and Christine Guthrie at UCSF, with contributions from labs at Utrecht Medical Center and the University of British Columbia, have described a high-throughput study of genetic interactions in yeast between a collection of mutations in RNA polymerase II and a subset of the yeast knockout mutation collection. By… Read More →