Meet our students

The Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Program: A Student Perspective

Rebecca Schmidt, Leah Colvin Wanshura, and Susan Wurster, BMB Track Representatives

As a world-class medical institution, Mayo strives to contribute to the field of medicine through its "three shields" of patient care, research, and education. As graduate students, we participate in two of those interdependent sectors. Many of the classes in the graduate program are team-taught, giving students the benefit of learning course topics from experts in each respective field. We learn from our professors outside of class as well. Faculty colloquia teach us about the research being done in other labs at Mayo, and faculty-invited seminar speakers inform us about the advances being made in other institutions around the country.

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Meelad Dawlaty

I completed my undergraduate studies with a B.A. in Biology Honors and Chemistry Honors from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn. in December 2003. Currently, I am a 4th year Ph.D. candidate in the Cancer Biology Program in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Since the past three years I have been working in the laboratory of Jan van Deursen, Ph.D., whose research focuses on the role of chromosomal instability genes in cancer and aging.

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Tiffany Hoage

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Stout's Applied Science program, Tiffany Hoage became a Mayo Graduate School student in 2006. Currently, Tiffany is conducting her thesis work in Dr. Xiaolei Xu's lab, where she and other lab members are establishing zebrafish models of cardiac hypertrophy (enlargement of the heart) to identify the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in cardiac hypertrophy, as well as screen for potential therapeutics. One model under investigation initially exhibits hypertrophy and later hyperplasia (increased number) of cardiac myocytes (heart cells). Tiffany is focusing on the mechanisms that result in the transition to hyperplasia, including how the Wnt pathway and cardiac stem cells are involved. In addition to research, Tiffany has been actively involved in the Graduate Student Association as First-Year Representative and BMB Representative and enjoys volunteering, traveling, spending time outdoors, surfing the internet, reading, and watching game shows.

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Jessica Monique Silva

Jessica is a Mexican American Texan born and raised in San Antonio (Go Spurs Go). Jessica Silva was the first in her family to graduate from college and continue her graduate studies in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Jessica graduated from St. Mary's University in 2005 and worked her way through college in a medical oncology research lab studying breast cancer at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. While she was conducting research her mom was diagnosed with cervical cancer and this motivated Jessica to continue her studies in cancer research and do all she can to continue the fight for a cure. During the summer of 2004, Jessica participated in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) and is currently in the Cancer Biology subtrack in Mayo Clinic Graduate School. Jessica is currently the Cancer Biology Representative for the Graduate Student Association, participates in the Mayo Clinic Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity (IMSD) and is also the student representative for the "Mayo Clinic Education and Diversity Blog, Three Shields, Many Perspectives" committee.

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Getting Back to Basics with DNA

Justin Peters

Each human cell is crammed with 2 meters of DNA, meaning that there is enough of the thread-like DNA in a single human body to reach to the moon and back more than 100 times. The genetic recipes for the microscopic machines of life are all encoded in DNA, and genetic engineering has made DNA familiar to many researchers and students. Surprisingly, although the double-helical structure of DNA has been known for 55 years, the origins of the distinct physical properties of the DNA molecule remain unknown. Justin Peters, a recent graduate of Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, is getting back to basics with the DNA molecule by probing its essential features.

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Transforming Growth Factor-β Cell-Type Specific Signal Transduction

Rod Rahimi

After graduating from Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, MI, Rod Rahimi entered the MD-PhD program at Mayo Medical and Graduate Schools. After completing the first two years of medical school, Rod joined the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department and is conducting his thesis research in Dr. Edward Leof’s laboratory. The Leof Lab focuses on understanding the function of a cytokine termed Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β). TGF-β can induce a wide variety of cellular responses depending on the cell type and is implicated in regulating a number of human diseases.

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Deciphering the Molecular Mechanisms of the Ras-Mediated Tumorigenesis in Vivo

Rebecca Schmidt

Rebecca (Becky) L. Schmidt is the first and proud recipient of the Mayo Clinic Pobanz Family Predoctoral Research Fellowship.

A Rochester native and a Mayo baby, Becky attended the Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. She graduated summa cum laude, Valedictorian from the Lawrence University. In 2003, a summer undergraduate research fellowship (SURF) at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville inspired her intense interest in biomedical research and attracted her to the Mayo Graduate School. Becky returned to Mayo as a Ph.D. student in 2004.

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Delineating the Roles and Molecular Mechanisms of the Regulated Proteolysis in Ras-Mediated Tumorigenesis and Cancer Metastatsis in Drosophila and in Human Cancer Cells

Leah Colvin Wanshura

Leah attended the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Minnesota in 2003. Leah worked as an undergraduate laboratory assistant to support herself through 4-years of college. After college, Leah worked as junior scientist and medical technician for two years at the University of Minnesota. Leah entered Mayo Graduate School in 2005 with a strong interest in developmental biology and cancer biology.

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Searching Vast Random Libraries of Small RNAs for New Inhibitors

Susan Wurster

Arriving at Mayo Graduate School in 2004 from her undergraduate engineering background at Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, Susan Wurster was curious about molecular biology projects that linked engineering principles and drug discovery. In the Maher lab she initiated a study involving the creation and characterization of RNA "aptamers," small folded and unnatural RNA molecules whose shapes allow them to stick tightly to specific molecular targets in cells.

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Building Transcription Factors from RNA

John-paul Bida

With training in mathematics and computer science from Johns Hopkins University, John-paul Bida entered Mayo Graduate School in 2006 as an unlikely candidate for a thesis project involving yeast and artificial transcription factors. His quantitative thinking and engineering aptitude made the transition fast and fascinating. John-paul’s project involves a bold proposition: RNA molecules can be created to control the transcription of target genes. With the discovery that some natural small RNAs regulate the stability and translation of messenger RNAs, John-paul wondered if a different class of artificial RNAs could be engineered to turn genes off or on at the DNA level by a totally different mechanism.

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Determining the Meiotic Regulators of the Opportunistic Fungal Pathogen, Pneumocystis carinii

Joshua Burgess

Pneumocystis carinii is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that most commonly effects individuals with advanced AIDS or other immunosuppressive afflictions or treatments. P. carinii causes a severe and persistent pneumonia in these patients that can be treated, but is also commonly re-activated. P. carinii has a highly variable but significant mortality rate of between 10-50% dependent upon the origin of the patients immunosuppression. Perhaps, most interestingly, P. carinii is entirely intractable in cell-free culture, therefore little is known about its niche, life-cycle, virulence factors, or basic cellular processes. In Dr. Andy Limper's lab, we have several interesting and essential, yet diverse, pursuits in understanding the broad applications of how P. carinii infects, propagates, and damages host tissues.

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Linking Metabolic Defects and Cancer

Emily Smith

After graduating from Saint Peters College in New Jersey, Emily Smith entered Mayo Graduate School in 2002 with an interest in cellular metabolism. She was a perfect fit to fill a pioneering role in a new project in the Maher lab. Unlike other nucleic acids work in the lab, Emily wished to understand the peculiar role of cell metabolism in the origin of human tumors called pheochromocytomas (PHEO) and paragangliomas (PGL). As a Mayo PGL patient, Maher had become intrigued in the unusual genetic inheritance pattern of such tumors. There was an obvious need for a new biochemical perspective with model organisms, and Emily Smith accepted the challenge. PGL and PHEO tumors run in families.

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Cell Biology and Genetics track David Katzmann Lab

Ishara Azmi

“Down-regulation” of activated receptors is crucial to prevent aberrant signaling, which can contribute to uncontrolled cellular proliferation. Internalized activated receptors enter the intra-lumenal vesicles within multivesicular bodies (MVB) en route to degradation in the lysosome. Hence the MVB pathway plays an essential role in regulating cell surface protein composition as well as in other cellular functions. Characterization of the class E Vps or Endosomal Sorting Complex Required for Transport (ESCRT) proteins has provided insights into the intricate mechanisms governing this process. Our laboratory is interested in further understating this complicated process through elucidating factors that regulate flux through the MVB pathway.

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Molecular Genetics of Telethonin/ T-cap

Ruilin Zhang, Xiaolei Xu

Cell Biology and Genetics
Matriculated in 2003, zhang.ruilin@mayo.edu, Thesis Advisor – Xiaolei Xu

Telethonin/ T-cap is a small sarcomeric protein resided in the peripheral of Z-discs. First identified as a structure protein that interacts with N-terminal of the giant protein Titin and is important for the integrity of Z-discs, T-cap may also play a role in many signaling processes such as stretch sensing, mechano-electrical coupling in cardiomyocytes, and skeletal muscle growth. Mutations in T-cap have been found to be responsible for autosomal recessive limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2G (LGMD2G) and cardiomyopathies patients. Despite its strong clinical relevance, there are no functional studies of T-cap in a genetic tractable animal model.

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Regulation of TRADD by Androgens in Prostate Cancer

Diping Wang

Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer death in American men. Currently, androgen ablation is the primary treatment for advance prostate cancer. However, inevitably, these tumors will progress to an androgen-depletion independent (ADI) state. Prostate cancers at this stage are unresponsive to androgen ablation treatment. Our lab is focusing on exploring the molecular mechanisms by which prostate cancer cells progress to the ADI state.

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Androgenic and Anti-Androgenic regulation of c-FLIP in Prostate Cancer

Kristin Raclaw

The transition of prostate cancer from an androgen-dependent tumor to a hormone-depletion-independent tumor is dependent upon a number of alterations to cell signaling pathways, including those that regulate apoptosis (programmed cell death) and cellular proliferation. My work aims to examine how treatment of prostate cancer cells with androgens and clinically relevant antiandrogens affects the expression of the cellular Fas/FasL-associated death domain protein-like inhibitory protein (c-FLIP). c-FLIP inhibits the activation of procaspase-8, thus preventing pro-apoptotic signaling mediated by death receptors at the cell surface. Research from other institutions and our laboratory indicates that androgens induce the expression of the anti-apoptotic c-FLIP gene via the activation of the androgen receptor, a member of the steroid hormone family of transcription factors and a critical molecule in the etiology of prostate cancer.

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