Congratulations 2020 Outstanding Bioinformatics Students
(bioinformatics.gatech.edu, August 27, 2020) Congratulations to Alli Gombolay (PhD), Courtney Astore (MS), Sonali Gupta (MS), and Aaron Pfennig (MS) who were recognized as the 2020 Outstanding Students in Bioinformatics at Georgia Tech. Each student received a monetary award funded by the J. Leland Jackson Endowed Fellowships Fund in Bioinformatics. Students were selected for demonstrated excellence in their academic studies and their bioinformatics research.
Stay at Home Summer: Courtney Astore Balances a Packed Schedule with Comedy, Community Connections
(cos.gatech.edu, July 28, 2020) Courtney Astore is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Bioinformatics program. While her summer days are packed with virtual classes and research activities, Astore shares that she’s also set aside time for exercise, time with family, and leisure activities like reading.
Courtney Astore Awarded 2020 HIMSS Scholarship
(bioinformatics.gatech.edu, June 4, 2020) Congratulations to Bioinformatics doctoral student, Courtney Astore, who was recently selected for a 2020 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Scholarship. Courtney will be awarded $3000 for this honor. Students were evaluated on the basis of their academic achievements, engagement with health information technology, leadership, and vision for their future careers.
Jeffrey Skolnick Receives Regents Recognition
(news.gatech.edu, May 7, 2020)Seven Georgia Tech Faculty Members Receive Regents Recognition – The University System of Georgia (USG) Board of Regents (BOR) appointed seven Georgia Tech faculty members Regents Professors, the highest academic recognition bestowed by the USG. The seven Regents Professors are:
- Marilyn Brown, Brook Byers Professor in Sustainable Manufacturing in the School of Public Policy
- Suresh Sitaraman, Morris M. Bryan Jr. Professor in Mechanical Engineering in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
- Jeffrey Skolnick, Mary and Maisie Gibson Chair in Computational Systems Biology and GRA Eminent Scholar in the School of Biological Sciences
- Prasad Tetali, professor in the School of Mathematics and the School of Computer Science
- Vigor Yang, professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
- Lisa Yaszek, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication
- Ellen Zegura, Stephen Fleming Chair in the School of Computer Science
Origin of Life’s Handedness and Protein Biochemistry
(cos.gatech.edu, December 11, 2019) Examine your hands. The right is a mirror image of the left. They look very similar, but you know they’re not when you try to put your left hand inside a right glove.
The molecules of life have a similar handedness. Proteins for example are like your left hand, made up of amino acids that are all left-handed. This phenomenon is called chirality. How chiral systems emerged is one of the key questions of origins-of-life research.
On the possible origin of protein homochirality, structure, and biochemical function
(PNAS, December 10, 2019) Living systems contain mainly chiral macromolecules, including proteins. How L-chiral proteins emerged from demi-chiral mixtures is unknown. Our simulations show that, compared to contemporary proteins, demi-chiral proteins have shorter regular secondary structures due to fewer internal hydrogen bonds, but similar global folds and small molecule binding sites. Demi-chiral proteins contain L-chiral substructures matching native active site geometries. Among the most frequently generated enzymes with native active site residues are ancient functions associated with metabolism and replication. This suggests that demi-chiral proteins could engage in early metabolism, creating the feedback loop for transcription and cell formation partly responsible for life’s emergence.
Jeffrey Skolnick, Mu Gao, and Hongyi Zhou win the NCATS ASPIRE Design Challenge 3: Predictive Algorithms for Translational Innovation in Pain, Opioid Use Disorder and Overdose
Time-resolved x-ray crystallography capture of a slow reaction tetrahydrofolate intermediate
Structural Dynamics – Editor’s Pick
Jeffrey Skolnick: 2018 Sigma Xi Sustained Research Award – Applying computational systems biology to improve human health
(cos.gatech.edu, April 5, 2018) Georgia Tech has named Jeffrey Skolnick the recipient of the 2018 Sigma Xi Sustained Research Award. The award recognizes Skolnick’s exceptional sustained imagination and productivity in the fields of systems biology, computational biology, bioinformatics, cancer metabolomics, protein structure prediction and evolution, drug design, and simulations of cellular processes.
Drug Design Strategy Boosts the Odds Against Resistance Development
(news.gatech.edu, June 14, 2017) A new rational drug design technique that uses a powerful computer algorithm to identify molecules that target different receptor sites on key cellular proteins could provide a new weapon in the battle against antibiotic resistance, potentially tipping the odds against the bugs.
Rattling DNA Hustles Transcribers to Targets
(news.gatech.edu, June 12, 2017) New simulations of DNA as a transport conduit could shatter the way scientists have thought about how large molecules called transcription factors diffuse on their way to carry out genetic missions, according to a study by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The simulations add important brush strokes to our picture of the elusive inner mechanics of cells.
Billion-dollar project would synthesize hundreds of thousands of molecules in search of new medicines
(Science News, April 19, 2017) Two years ago, Martin Burke estimated that assembling 75% of natural products with his machine would take some 5000 different building blocks, compared with just four for DNA—a challenging number for chemical suppliers to make and stock. But now, Burke told the ACS meeting, the problem looks more manageable. His lab recently teamed up with that of Jeffrey Skolnick, a computational biologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.