Are you sad and angry about the surge in anti-Asian violence? Wondering if there’s something anti-racist you can do? One idea: learn how pronounce Asian names! It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just try, and it will make a difference to your Asian friends and people you meet. (1/8).

Less than 2 weeks left to apply for the tenure-track Assistant Professor position in inorganic chemistry @BrynMawrCollege!! Apply online to join my amazing department at Deadline: 9/27/2024.

Some more photos of @Drennan_Lab alums giving talks at #ACA2024!

Huge congratulations @Drennan_Lab!! Incredibly happy for you, Cathy! This recognition is so well-deserved, after all that you’ve given us. Wish I was there to celebrate with you! 🥳🍾🤩.

RT @biophyskrys: Protein crystallographers at PUIs, MSIs or under-resourced labs- the National Crystallization Center @HWMRI is launching a….

Wonderful to see @biophyskrys give a fantastic talk yesterday at @haverfordedu! It was so great to see and spend time with you, Krystle! PUI protein crystallographers unite! 👏😍🙌

Are you an @advancedphoton user? Interested in meeting others and advocating on behalf of the APS user community? Consider joining me on the APS Users' Executive Committee!. E-mail Jacki by Apr 3 to put your name forward! for more info. 👇👇👇

It’s data collection day! Thanks @advancedphoton for the X-rays!

What a treat to welcome @BrynMawrCollege alum @audgems from @AndoLab back to campus today to give a talk! The room was PACKED, and Audrey gave an amazing talk. Thanks for sharing your work with us and for being such an inspiration to our current students!! 🥳

Got back last week from a wonderful trip to Ireland! It was my first trip abroad since, well, you know…. Classes start on Monday, and I still have jet lag… Should I be worried? 😬

RT @sukritsingh92: Every so often I rediscover the paper that lists which Protein Structures can be used as letters in the English alphabet….

Congrats to the @BrynMawrCollege Class of 2022!! The lab had 3 graduating seniors this year (Rachel, Ashley, and Valerie), plus newly-minted Dr. Edwin Ragwan. Really sad to see them leave, but so excited to learn what the future has in store for them! 🥳🎉🍾

Congrats to Cassie, making @BrynMawrCollege and @BmcChem proud! The Mo cofactor and Mo complexes never looked so beautiful!.

RT @ChristiansonLab: Come join us in Philadelphia!! Postdoctoral fellowships available in the Christianson Group @PennChemistry to study hi….

With this insight, Edwin rationally engineered chimeric HMGRs and was able to SWITCH the NAD(P)H specificity!! He then solved structures of these variants to show how they now bind the "opposite" cofactor. Overall, this work was a total tour-de-force!! CONGRATS DR. RAGWAN!!🍾🎂🎉

Edwin’s many crystal structures also revealed the structural basis for NAD(P)H cofactor specificity! A short helix interacts with NAD(P)H, and Edwin's structures helped identify which residues confer specificity for one cofactor or the other.

He also solved MANY structures of HMGRs and saw totally new and unexpected conformations of a C-terminal domain. He found that it makes HUGE movements that correlate with the rxn step, so there are mechanistic implications! In one structure, the domain was flipped upside-down!

First, he used SEC, AUC, SAXS, and crystallography to study oligomeric states of HMGRs, finding dimers in some and hexamers in others. It seems that oligomeric state correlates with cofactor specificity: HMGRs preferring NADPH are dimers, HMGRs preferring NADH can form hexamers!

Edwin had many projects, but his focus was HMG-CoA reductase (HMGR), catalyzing the committed step of the mevalonate pathway of isoprenoid and steroid precursor biosynthesis. He studied structures, kinetics, and NAD(P)H cofactor specificities of different bacterial HMGR homologs.

CONGRATS to Edwin on defending his PhD dissertation today! He's the lab’s first-ever PhD graduate! And thanks to lab alum @DrBRMiller for coming down to @BrynMawrCollege for the occasion. I could not be prouder of Edwin and his awe-inspiring work (below). HOORAY DR. EDWIN RAGWAN!

So great to catch up with you Cathy and all the other @Drennan_Lab alums!! @nozomi_ando @BridwellRabbLab @dpdowlinglab @lbackman21 @TsehaiGrell11.