Work in Progress(WIP)
Tuesdays,9:00am-10:00am, Room C2303 MCN
A note from your local DGS.
Dr. Jay Jerome and Dr. Chris Aiken are the DGSs for the two graduate programs within the Division of Molecular Pathogenesis.
Dr. Jerome and Dr. Aiken will occasionally use the myMP to connect with the students and provide useful information and updates.
For today:
Congratulations to Andrew Flyak and Brad Voss for successfully defending their dissertations. We're proud of you!
"Be well, do good work, and keep in touch."
Garrison Keillor
Where are they now?
Thomas Kehl-Fie, Ph.D.
Thomas Kehl-Fie recently embarked on an academic career at the School of Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign. Thomas had a very prolific post-doctoral training under the mentorship of Dr. Skaar.
We asked him the following:
Q: What is your current profession?
Assistant Professor of Microbiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Q: What aspects of your training at Vanderbilt did you find the most helpful as you launched this career?
The opportunity to gain expertise in a diversity of topics and approaches, which was made possible by the dynamic and collaborative environment at Vanderbilt.
Q: What do you love the most about your job?
The opportunity to perform research at a world class institution and provide scientific training to the next generation.
Q: What is your fondest memory from your time at VUMC?
Discussing science and life over coffee at Suzie's
Q: What advice would you give our current trainees?
While the diversity of research may seem overwhelming and disconnected from your interests, take advantage of the opportunities at Vanderbilt to explore different fields of study and the techniques that they use as you do not know where your investigations will take you next.
-March 11 - MP 2nd Friday Happy Hour - Sponsored by the Hadjifrangiskou and Skaar labs; come join us for a "spring forward event" - 4:00pm, room A5305 MCN.
- March 29 - MP Division faculty meeting- 3:00pm, room A5305 MCN - Business meeting
- A total of 25 publications featuring commentaries, reviews and primary research have posted on NCBI from faculty in our division since last month's myMP. A publication that includes work from the Aiken laboratory is featured below. If you would like to contribute an article highlight, from your lab or the lab of a colleague within MP, please feel free to email us.
"Cyclophilin A stabilizes the HIV-1 capsid through a novel non-canonical binding site"
Liu C. et al., Nat. Commun., 2016 March 4; 7: 10714
According to data from the World Health Organization, 37 million people live with HIV, only 54% of whom are aware that they are infected. Approximately 26 million of the infected individuals live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Anti-retroviral therapy is currently administered to 15.8 million people, but it is not able to cure the infection. Understanding more about host-viral interactions has the potential to advance the efforts to identify a cure.
The study by Liu et al, provides structural insights of the interactions between a host protein, Cyclophilin A (CypA) and the HIV-1 viral capsid.
Previous studies indicated that: a) CypA binds directly to the HIV-1 capsid and modulates capsid uncoating; b) the interaction between CypA and HIV-1 CA promotes HIV-1 infection of and c) reverse transcription in human cells.
However, conflicting evidence is provided from CypA-HIV 1 interaction studies in different cell lines and in non-human primates.
Therefore, pinpointing the molecular interactions between CypA and the viral capsid may elucidate targeting mechanisms for future therapies.
The authors used cryoEM and solid-state NMR approaches to elucidate the molecular interactions between CypA and the HIV-1 capsid. The density map, combined with structure-guided molecular dynamics simulations, unexpectedly revealed a novel, non-canonical, second capsid-binding site on CypA that is vital for stabilizing the viral capsid. Through this site, CypA bridges two CA molecules from adjacent hexamers, thus appearing to stabilizing the CA lattice.
These new findings pose a new model of how CypA may be stabilizing HIV-1 in permissive cells, between the point of cell entry and viral uncoating.
