2024
March 2024: Caleb completed his Research Proposal Defense and is officially a PhD candidate! Well done and congratulations!
February 2024: Congratulations to Julia for being the Poster Prize Winner sponsored by Science Signaling at the 6th DNA Repair/Replication Structures and Cancer Conference. Congratulations!
January 2024: We wish Treshaun well as she begins a postdoctoral position at the National Cancer Institute!
2023
October 2023: Treshaun defended her PhD thesis. Congratulations Dr. Sutton!
September 2023: Julia and Caleb received the Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society (EMGS) Student Travel Award and attended the 2023 EMGS Annual Meeting in Chicago.
July 2023: Sarah, Mick Smerdon, and John Wyrick published a review entitled A Half Century of Exploring DNA Excision Repair in Chromatin in J Biol Chem. [Article]
April 2023: Katelyn Rioux defended her PhD thesis. Congratulations Dr. Rioux! We wish Katelyn well as she begins a postdoctoral position at New England Biolabs.
April 2023: We are grateful to the NIH for a new research grant to support our collaborative work with Professor Deyu Li’s group (Univ. of Rhode Island).
March 2023: Katelyn’s manuscript entitled Ionic Strength Modulates Excision of Uracil by SMUG1 from Nucleosome Core Particles was accepted for publication in DNA Repair! [Article]
March 2023: Congratulations to Julia for receiving Honorable Mention for her NSF Graduate Fellowship.
March 2023: Julia completed her Research Proposal Defense and is officially a PhD candidate! Well done and congratulations!
2022
December 2022: Graduate student Caleb Jacques joins the group! Welcome to the team!
December 2022: Gio’s artwork was selected for the American Chemical Society Publication’s Diversity and Inclusion Cover Art Series! Her cover artwork and her accompanying editorial “My Discovery of Science” are featured in Journal of Organic Chemistry and Organic Letters.
October 2022: Julia’s review article entitled The Domino Effect: Nucleosome Dynamics and the Regulation of Base Excision Repair Enzymes was accepted for publication at DNA in the special issue From Mutation and Repair to Therapeutics. [Article]
August 2022: Two group members received awards at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society! Giovannia Barbosa received the Outstanding Poster Presentation award from the Division of Chemical Toxicology and Treshaun Sutton received the Outstanding Oral Presentation award from the Division of Chemical Toxicology. Congratulations and well done!
August 2022: Some of the group was able to attend the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago. Here we are posing with Gio’s award-winning poster!
June 2022: Chuxuan and Katelyn’s manuscript entitled Histone Variants H3.3 and H2A.Z/H3.3 Facilitate Excision of Uracil from Nucleosome Core Particles was accepted for publication in DNA Repair. [Article]
May 2022: Treshaun and Dana’s review article entitled Obstacles and Opportunities for Base Excision Repair in Chromatin was accepted for publication in DNA Repair in the special issue Cutting Edge Perspectives in Genome Maintenance. [Article]
May 2022: The group is excited to welcome Miguel Martinez Guzman and Caleb Jacques for summer research!
April 2022: Mary’s manuscript entitled Kinetic Analysis of the Effect of N-terminal Acetylation in Thymine DNA Glycosylase was accepted for publication at Biochemistry. [Article]
March 2022: Gio completed her Research Proposal Defense and is officially a PhD candidate! Well done and congratulations!
January 2022: Graduate student Julia Cook joins the group! Welcome!
2021
September 2021: Esther and Gio complete their Literature Review milestone. Great work!
April 2021: Paul is the recipient of the William R. Potter Prize for the Doctoral Thesis of Outstanding Merit. This prize is the highest honor that the department bestows on the student who has the most exceptional chemistry PhD dissertation as judged by a faculty committee. Congratulations, Paul!
April 2021: Katelyn is the recipient (along with Jonathan Chellali from the Robinson Group) of the Elaine Chase Award for Leadership and Service. This prize is awarded to graduate student(s) who have shown exemplary leadership. Katelyn and Jonathan were recognized for their impact on the graduate student community and roles in recruiting and visitation programs. Congratulations!
March 2021: Paul Caffrey successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Dr. Caffrey! We wish Paul well as he begins postdoctoral research at New England Biolabs.
March 2021: Congratulations to Gio for receiving Honorable Mention for her NSF Graduate Fellowship.
March 2021: Dana and Sel successfully completed their Research Proposal Defenses and advanced to candidacy. Congratulations!
January 2021: Paul’s article entitled Nucleosome Core Particles Lacking H2B or H3 Tails are Altered Structurally and have Differential Base Excision Repair Fingerprints was accepted at Biochemistry. [Article]
2020
December 2020: Graduate students Giovannia Barbosa and Esther Webber join the group. Welcome!
December 2020: Treshaun and Katelyn successfully defended their Original Research Proposals. Congratulations!
October 2020: Katelyn’s Perspective entitled 1,N6-Ethenoadenine: From Molecular to Biological Consequences was published in Chem. Res. Toxicol. This Perspective is part of the series Building Chemical Bonds – Science Inspired by Great Mentors. [Article]
August 2020: Dana is a winner of the Her Big Idea Fund 2020, which provides financial support and mentoring for female-identifying founders to help with the startup building process. Congratulations!
July 2020: Paul and Raadhika’s publication in Chem. Res. Toxicol. is featured on the cover, with artwork by former summer researcher Sophie Weiss! [Cover] [Article]
July 2020: Giovannia Barbosa joins the group as an NIH RI-INBRE Bridge to Graduate School summer research student. Welcome!
July 2020: Christian Gonzalez-Dumeng joins the group as a Leadership Alliance summer research student. Welcome!
May 2020: Paul and Raadhika’s publication in Chem. Res. Toxicol. was featured as the ACS Editors’ Choice article for May 1, 2020. [ACS Editors’ Choice]
April 2020: Graduate students Dana Biechele-Speziale and Selahaddin Gumus join the group. Welcome!
April 2020: Paul and Raadhika’s work (in collaboration with K. Bian and D. Li at URI) entitled Comparison of the Base Excision and Direct Reversal Repair Pathways for Correcting 1,N6-Ethenoadenine in Strongly Positioned Nucleosome Core Particles was accepted at Chem. Res. Toxicol. [Article]
March 2020: Treshaun received Honorable Mention for her NSF Graduate Fellowship.
March 2020: Sarah was awarded the Brown University Graduate Student Mentoring and Advising Award.
March 2020: Sarah was promoted to Full Professor of Chemistry, effective July 1, 2020.
January 2020: Chuxuan Li successfully defended her PhD thesis. Congratulations Dr. Li! [photos]
2019
September 2019: Paul’s review entitled Chromatin and Other Obstacles to Base Excision Repair: Potential Roles in Carcinogenesis was accepted for publication by Mutagenesis. [link]
August 2019: Mary received an NIH/NCI F30 fellowship to support her MD/PhD studies. Congratulations to Mary and thank you to the NIH!
July 2019: Erin and Chuxuan’s manuscript entitled The Global Repair Profile of Human Alkyladenine DNA Glycosylase on Nucleosomes Reveals DNA Packaging Effects was accepted at ACS Chem Biol. [link]
June 2019: Chuxuan’s book chapter entitled Challenges for Base Excision Repair Enzymes: Acquiring Access to Damaged DNA in Chromatin was accepted for publication in annual book series The Enzymes. [link]
June 2019: The group attended the Gordon Research Conference: Nucleosides, Nucleotides, and Oligonucleotides in Newport, RI.
June 2019: Undergraduates Caitlin Aguirre (Wellesley College) and Sophie Weiss (Cottey College) join the group for the summer.
May 2019: At Commencement Erin Kennedy received her PhD degree and Doug Shea and Raadhika Kher received their BS degrees. Congratulations!
April 2019: Chuxuan’s manuscript in ACS Chem Biol was honored as an ACS Editors’ Choice Article.
April 2019: Chuxuan’s manuscript entitled Histone H2A Variants Enhance the Initiation of Base Excision Repair in Nucleosomes was accepted at ACS Chem Biol. [link]
April 2019: Erin Kennedy successfully defended her PhD thesis and is starting a postdoc at Sanofi. Congratulations Dr. Kennedy!
January 2019: Graduate students Katelyn Rioux and Treshaun Burton join the group. Welcome!
2018
September 2018: Doug was selected to present his research at the 2018 Sigma Xi Annual Meeting and Student Research Conference in San Francisco.
September 2018: Mary’s publication entitled Nucleosomes and the Three Glycosylases: High, Medium, and Low Levels of Excision by the Uracil DNA Glycosylase Superfamily appears in DNA Repair. [link]
August 2018: The lab attended the American Chemical Society National Meeting in Boston. Chuxuan received Honorable Mention for her oral presentation and Mary received Best Poster Award, both in the Division of Chemical Toxicology.
August 2018: Erin and Paul publish a review article entitled Initiating Base Excision Repair in Chromatin in DNA Repair. [link]
April 2018: Doug, Tracy, and Will are awarded UTRA fellowships to support their summer research.
March 2018: Our research is featured on the cover of Biochemistry. [link]
February 2018: Adam Garlow joins the lab as a chemistry graduate student. Welcome to the lab!
January 2018: Katie and Mary publish their research in Biochemistry. [link]
January 2018: Undergraduates Doug Shea ’19 and Will Patterson ’20 join the lab.
2017
September 2017: Katie successfully defended her PhD thesis. Congratulations Dr. Bilotti! We wish Katie well as she begins a postdoctoral position at New England Biolabs.
September 2017: Undergraduates Raadhika Kher ’19 and Tracy Du ’20 join the lab.
August 2017: Katie, Erin, and Chuxuan publish their manuscript entitled Human OGG1 Activity in Nucleosomes is Facilitated by Transient Unwrapping of DNA and is Influenced by the Local Histone Environment in DNA Repair. [link]
August 2017: Mary Tarantino joins the lab as an MD/PhD student from the MCB department. Welcome (back) to the lab!
May 2017: Alex and Katie were recognized with departmental awards. Alex received the Organic Chemistry Award and Katie received the Elaine Chase Award for Leadership and Service for her extraordinary leadership and service contributions to the department and University.
March 2017: We wish Eric well as he begins his position as a Process Chemist at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.
March 2017: Eric’s research is featured on the cover of the March 17, 2017 issue of ACS Chemical Biology. [link]
February 2017: Chuxuan attended the Mammalian DNA Repair Gordon Research Conference in Ventura, CA and received travel support from the Department of Chemistry and the Graduate School.
January 2017: Eric’s work on glycosylase activity in nucleosomes is published in ACS Chemical Biology. [link]
January 2017: Paul Caffrey joins the lab as a chemistry graduate student. Welcome to the lab!
2016
September 2016: Alexander Iyer ’19 joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome to the lab!
June 2016: David Kim ’19 joins the lab as a summer undergraduate researcher. Welcome to the lab!
May 2016: Katie received both a NASA Summer Research Fellowship and a Dept of Chemistry Dissertation Fellowship to support her work.
April 2016: Ji’s research on calorimetry of repetitive DNA was accepted for publication at J. Phys. Chem. B. [link]
April 2016: Ji successfully defended his PhD and is heading to Yale for a postdoctoral position. Congratulations Dr. Huang!
March 2016: Amy received an UTRA award to conduct summer research in the lab.
February 2016: Chuxuan Li joins the lab as a chemistry graduate student. Welcome to the lab!
2015
October 2015: Undergraduate Amy Lin ’18 joins the lab.
July 2015: Mary’s paper on the DNA repair protein FEN1 is published in J. Biol. Chem.! [link]
March 2015: Elizabeth was awarded an UTRA to conduct summer research.
2014
August 2014: Eric received a NIH postdoctoral fellowship. Congratulations!
July 2014: Marilyn Le joins the lab as a rotation student from the Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology graduate program.
June 2014: The lab attended the 13th International Workshop on Radiation Damage to DNA at MIT.
June 2014: Erin Kennedy joins the lab as a graduate student from the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry department. Welcome to the lab!
May 2014: Kelly received two awards: the 2014 Potter Prize for a Graduate Thesis in Chemistry of Outstanding Merit and the Elaine Chase Award for Service and Leadership for her “energy, time and thought to improve the graduate school experience for fellow chemistry students and to improve essential facets of the graduate program in chemistry”. Congratulations!
April 2014: Congratulations Dr. Schermerhorn! Kelly successfully defended her PhD thesis and is heading to New England Biolabs for a postdoctoral position.
March 2014: The lab attended the 247th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Dallas, TX.
March 2014: Kelly’s review is published in Accounts of Chemical Research, “A Chemical and Kinetic Perspective on Base Excision Repair of DNA.” [link]
March 2014: Two students received summer research fellowships. Mary Tarantino ’15 received a Summer Research Award and Priya Patel ’16 received an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award. Congrats!
Feb 2014: Graduate rotation students Erin Kennedy and Vanessa Scialabba join the lab. Welcome! Undergraduate Elizabeth Bolton ’16 has also joined us.
2013
Nov 2013: Catherine’s paper on incorporating CGG/CCG repeats with AGG/CCT interruptions into nucleosomes is published in BMC Biochemistry. [link]
Sept 2013: Kelly’s kinetic characterization of AP endonuclease is published in Biochemistry. [link]
May 2013: Catherine defended her PhD and is headed to NCI for a postdoctoral position. Congratulations Dr. Volle!
May 2013: Meg received the Best Thesis Award in Chemistry, and is heading to Berkeley for graduate school.
May 2013: Vilma successfully completed her Preliminary Exam.
April 2013: Muge completed her MS thesis.
April 2013: Sarah was promoted to Associate Professor of Chemistry effective July 1, 2013. We celebrated the lab with a dinner. [photos]
March 2013: Kelly Schermerhorn was selected to attend the Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Germany. [link]
January 2013: Graduate student Katie Bilotti joined the lab.
2012
November 2012: Catherine’s paper “CAG/CTG Repeats Alter Affinity for the Histone Core and Positioning of DNA in the Nucleosome” was accepted at Biochemistry. [link]
November 2012: Eric Olmon joined the lab as a postdoctoral associate, and Emily Kaye joined the lab as a graduate rotation student.
July 2012: Craig’s work on the thermodynamic consequences of the guanidinohydantoin DNA lesion is published in Chem. Res. Toxicol. [link]
April 2012: Craig, Amalia, and Dan defended their PhD work. Congratulations to Dr. Yennie, Dr. Avila Figueroa, and Dr. Jarem!
April 2012: Allison received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations!
April 2012: Ji successfully defended his Research Proposal Defense. Congratulations!
January 2012: Dan, Catherine, and Craig published a review in Free Radical Research titled Chemical and Biological Consequences of Oxidatively Damaged Guanine in DNA.[link]
2011
November 2011: Dan’s manuscript ‘Premutation huntingtin allele adopts a non-B conformation and contains a hot spot for DNA damage’ was accepted at Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. Great work!
September 2011: Kelly received a Best Poster Award at the annual departmental poster session. Congratulations!
August 2011: Amalia and Doug have their manuscript on disrupting a trinucleotide repeat hairpin accepted at Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.[link]
June 2011: Congratulations to Craig for publication of his collaborative work with the Suggs lab! [link]
June 2011: Dan, Nikki, and Kelly have their work accepted for publication in DNA Repair. Great work! [link]
June 2011: The lab attends the 17th Conversation in Biomolecular Dynamics at SUNY-Albany. We took a group photo at one of the many fountains on campus (see left).
June 2011: Vilma Medrano joins the lab as a graduate rotation student and Venise De Etoulem joins the lab as a summer undergraduate researcher. Welcome!
May 2011: The lab makes a trip to the Museum of Science in Boston! [pictures]
May 2011: Students receive awards from the Department of Chemistry! Dan received the Wernig Graduate Fellowship and Mark received the Junior Prize in Biochemistry. Congratulations!
May 2011: Sarah received the Phillip J. Bray Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in Physical Sciences.
April 2011: Amalia and Doug’s paper on the structure and reactivity of even and odd triplet repeat sequences is accepted at Biochemistry. Great work!
April 2011: Congratulations to Kelly for passing her Research Proposal Defense!
March 2011: Students receive fellowships to support their research this summer! Allison and Jordi received an UTRA from Brown and Mathew and Eshan received a RI SURF fellowship. Congratulations!
February 2011: Congratulations to Catherine for being selected to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting this summer! [link]
January 2011: Graduate student Ji Huang joins the lab. Welcome!
January 2011: Prof. Jay Pike joins the lab as a visiting scholar from Providence College. Welcome!
2010
December 2010: Kelly completed her cumulative exams! Congratulations!
September 2010: Sarah is awarded an Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award and gratefully acknowledges this support from the National Institute of Evironmental Health Sciences.
September 2010: Meg Hauser (’13) and Eshan Mitra (’12) join the lab. Welcome!
August 2010: The lab attends the national ACS meeting in Boston. [see pictures]
July 2010: Dan and Lauren’s paper on the structure of repetitive CGG triplet repeat sequences is published in Biochemistry. [link]
May 2010: Congratulations to Catherine for completing her Preliminary Examination!
April 2010: Congratulations to Catherine for receiving a NDSEG Graduate Fellowship from the Dept. of Defense!
April 2010: Students receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships! Nikki will use her fellowship to support graduate work at Yale beginning this fall. Former undergraduate member Julie Spector received a fellowship to support her research in Ed Solomon’s lab at Stanford.
March 2010: Amalia’s paper on the mechanism of hairpin to duplex conversion in trinucleotide repeat sequences is published in J. Biol. Chem. [link]
March 2010: Congratulations to Mathew for receiving a Summer Research Award and to Kevin and Mark for receiving UTRAs to support their summer research in the lab.
January 2010: Mathew Griffin (’12), Kevin Kay (’11) and Allison Walker (’12) join the lab.
January 2010: Graduate student Kelly Schermerhorn joins the lab. Welcome!
2009
December 2009: Congratulations to Dan for passing his Original Research Proposal Defense.
December 2009: Congratulations to Nikki and Dan for receiving a Best Poster Award at the annual departmental poster session!
November 2009: Congratulations to Amalia for completing her Preliminary Examination!
September 2009: Dana Lord joins the lab as a rotation student from the Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology program. Welcome!
July 2009: Catherine Volle joins the lab as a graduate student from the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry program. Welcome!
June 2009: Dan and Nikki’s paper on structure-dependent damage and repair in triplet repeat DNA appears on Biochemistry ASAPs. [link]
June 2009: Nate Oh (’10) and Mark Wu (’12) join the lab.
May 2009: Julie receives the Best Chemistry Thesis Award.
April 2009: Lauren, Nikki, and Julie successfully defend their senior theses. Congratulations!
April 2009: Amalia is the recipient of a CSURM Fellowship from the Gordon Research Conferences to attend the CAG Triplet Repeat Disease Conference this summer. Congratulations!
April 2009: Nikki is the recipient of an Eli Lilly/Women Chemist Committee travel award from the ACS. Congratulations! Nikki will attend the ACS meeting in Washington, D.C. this summer.
March 2009: Congratulations to Dan for passing his Research Proposal Defense!
February 2009: Sarah is the recipient of a Career Development Award from the ADVANCE Program at Brown University which is supported by the National Science Foundation.
2008
December 2008: Doug Cattie (’10) joins the lab. Welcome!
December 2008: Congratulations to Craig and Dan for passing their cumulative exams!
September 2008: Lauren Huckaby (’09) joins the lab. Welcome!
May 2008: Amalia receives an NSF Predoctoral Fellowship. Congratulations!
April 2008: We thank the RI-IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, funded by the National Institutes of Health, for their support of our research.
April 2008: Congratulations to Craig for passing his Research Proposal Defense!
January 2008: Graduate student Dan Jarem joins the lab. Welcome!
2007
December 2007: Sarah is the recipient of a Richard P. Salomon Faculty Research Award from Brown University.
November 2007: Nikki Wilson (’09), Julie Spector (‘08.5), and Megan Hugdahl (’10) join the lab. Welcome!
November 2007: We are busy unpacking boxes and setting up the lab.
October 2007: Lab renovations are almost complete!
July 2007: Graduate student Craig Yennie joins the lab. Welcome!