Department of Biochemistry Archives
Novel insights to antibiotic targets
Sep. 29, 2017—New mechanistic details about the DNA-unwinding activity of antibacterial protein targets could lead to the design of better antibiotic medicines.
HDAC3 role in B-cell development
Aug. 3, 2017—The histone deacetylase HDAC3 is required for the maturation of B cells, white blood cells that produce antibodies.
Altered metabolism and disease
Jul. 25, 2017—Vanderbilt researchers report a structure of a human metabolic enzyme bound to its substrate 17alpha-hydroxyprogesterone.
Study identifies protein’s role in chemotherapy resistance
Jul. 20, 2017—Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have discovered a protein that may lead to a new way to prevent resistance and improve outcomes for patients whose cancers have mutations in the tumor suppressor gene BRCA2.
Repriming replication roadblocks
Jun. 12, 2017—New findings shed light on how enzymes that replicate DNA skip over mutations that might cause cancer and restart DNA synthesis further away.
Oxidative stress in tumors
May. 18, 2017—Vanderbilt investigators have developed a new method for measuring oxidative stress in human tumors, which provides insight into cancer development.
Protein structure may aid in treating Alzheimer’s disease
Apr. 27, 2017—A new protein structure may guide the development of Alzheimer's therapeutics.
A new mode of DNA repair
Apr. 14, 2017—Structural details of a protein that removes DNA lesions shed light on fundamental mechanisms of DNA repair.
Fighting fungal infections
Apr. 3, 2017—A detailed structural and functional analysis of the yeast protein that is the main target of antifungal drugs will help direct efforts to develop better treatments.
Team identifies ‘switch’ involved in DNA replication
Feb. 23, 2017—DNA replication is an extraordinarily complex multi-step process that makes copies of the body’s genetic blueprint. It is necessary for growth and essential to life. Now researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Vanderbilt University have found evidence that one of those steps may involve the telephone-like transmission of electrical signals regulated by a chemical “switch.”
COX-2 ‘conjugate’ may slow growth of some tumors: study
Jan. 19, 2017—More than a decade after the anti-inflammatory drugs Vioxx and Bextra were pulled from the market because of a heightened risk of heart attack and stroke in some patients, COX-2 inhibitors may be on the verge of a comeback, this time as anti-cancer agents.
Graduate student’s cancer studies land NCI support
Nov. 17, 2016—Kamakoti “Kami” Bhat, a fifth-year graduate student in the lab of David Cortez, Ph.D., professor of Biochemistry in the School of Medicine, has achieved a “first” for Vanderbilt University.
