Postdoc Sean Alexander Bankier – Young Scientist Award 2024
Japan Society for Human Genetics has awarded Sean Bankier, postdoctoral fellow in the Michoel Group, with the Young Scientist Award 2024. JHG Young Scientist Award recognises articles by young researchers that have made significant contribution to Journal of Human Genetics, thanks to their scientific excellence and impact in the field of human genetics.
Bankier received the award for the article “Variation in the SERPINA6/SERPINA1 locus alters morning plasma cortisol, hepatic corticosteroid binding globulin expression, gene expression in peripheral tissues, and risk of cardiovascular disease“
November 4, 2024
Lipid extraction by the STARD2 lipid transfer protein
Reza Talandashti, PhD candidate in the Reuter group, used molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations and proposes a model for the mechanism by which STARD2 extracts choline lipids from the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. Reza’s work is published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
August 6, 2024
Postdoc Sean Alexander Bankier – new manuscript
Genome-wide association meta-analysis (GWAMA) by the Cortisol Network (CORNET) consortium identified genetic variants spanning the SERPINA6/SERPINA1 locus on chromosome 14 associated with morning plasma cortisol, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and SERPINA6 mRNA expression encoding corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG) in the liver. These and other findings indicate that higher plasma cortisol levels are causally associated with CVD; however, the mechanisms by which variations in CBG lead to CVD are undetermined. Using genomic and transcriptomic data from …
September 8, 2023
Probing the structure of individual RNA molecules
RNA molecules can form secondary and tertiary structures that can regulate their localization and function. These structures are rarely static and different copies of the same RNA can often adopt many different conformations. Despite this most methods are only capable of characterizing RNA at the consensus level, looking at the average over RNA molecules.
A new paper in Nucleic Acids Research from Teshome Bizuyaheu in the Valen group addresses this by developing a method to probe for structure …
October 28, 2022
Structure of POPC Lipid Bilayers in OPLS3e Force Field
It is crucial for molecular dynamics simulations of biomembranes that the force field parameters give a realistic model of the membrane behavior. In this study, we examined the OPLS3e force field for the carbon–hydrogen order parameters SCH of POPC (1-palmitoyl-2-oleoylphosphatidylcholine) lipid bilayers at varying hydration conditions and ion concentrations. The results show that OPLS3e behaves similarly to the CHARMM36 force field and relatively accurately follows the experimentally measured SCH for the lipid headgroup, the glycerol backbone, and the acyl tails. Thus, OPLS3e is a …
September 8, 2022