Professor Scott Prosser has been awarded the title of UofT Distinguished Professor of Biophysical Chemistry. This award recognizes individuals with highly distinguished accomplishments who exhibit and maintain an extraordinary level of activity in their research and scholarly work, and have achieved pre-eminence in their field in line with the University’s stated objectives and emerging priorities.
Congratulations!
Wael Demian from the Rotin lab at Sickkids, recently published a Cell Reports paper showing that the ion transporter NKCC1, known to regulate cell volume, forms a complex with the leucine transporter LAT1 and the Gln transporter ASCT2, and regulates mTORC1 activation via LAT1 and growth factors signaling. Thus, the work of Demian, et al. provides a long-sought link between […]
Each year the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto provides a program devoted to enriching the overall experience of undergraduate students doing research in labs over the summer. The students learn and practice communication skills through a Three-Minute Thesis competition and by presenting there work at a research poster day. The Program also features faculty speakers talking about the breadth of research interests in the Department, and have […]
By Matthew Pariselli
In a new eLife paper, Dr. David Andrews, a senior scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute, and his lab show how an interaction between proteins promotes cancer cell survival.
Andrews, who is also a professor in the department of biochemistry at the University of Toronto, discovered that Bim, a pro-cell-death protein, binds to anti-cell-death proteins at two sites, rendering it “double-bolt locked.” Previously, it was thought there was […]
A March 12th article in Science Careers on the changing career landscape for PhD graduates highlighted the 10,000 PhDs Project and the importance of determining the career outcomes of PhD graduates.
The 10 founding universities in the Coalition for Next Generation Life Sciences, including UCSF, Johns Hopkins and Cornell, have now released data on their PhD students, including times to completion and their career choices within 1 year after graduation, 5 […]
Biochemistry’s own Karen Maxwell is featured in the Globe and Mail’s feature on women in STEM. Please click here to view the details.
By Reinhart Reithmeier
John Glover’s acoustic band, BanjoGoBoom!, is on a live Ontario tour in advance of their first CD release of all-original tunes. BGB consists of Kate Murphy (banjo), Bob Birnie, (mandolin), Neil Affleck (harmonica), Dave Harvey (stand-up bass) and John Glover (guitar). I caught them at the Free Times Café on Sunday night and they were amazing. You can catch BGB at the following venues:
April 10, Burdock, Music Hall, […]
Grant Brown’s lab at the Donnelly Centre has characterized a new mutagenic ssDNA gap filling pathway in budding yeast. Their findings will be published in the March 7th issue of Molecular Cell.
DNA replication is a fundamental process that occurs before every cell division and must be completed in a timely and accurate fashion. Under normal cellular conditions this reaction is carried out by the highly processive and accurate replicative […]
The regulation of organelle abundance is critical for cell function and survival; however, the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. Imbalances in organelle abundance can result in disease states, including Parkinson’s Disease resulting from dysregulated mitochondrial homeostasis. Peroxisome dysregulation also results in disease, most notably the Zellweger’s spectrum disorders. Although first considered to be caused exclusively by reduced peroxisome biogenesis, recently work shows that the most are due to increase […]
Where do today’s PhDs find work? Do they all become professors? The 10,000 PhDs Project at the University of Toronto (U of T) answers these questions as highlighted in an article published January 16, 2019 in the open-access science journal PLOS ONE.
The 10,000 PhDs Project used publically-available information to determine the current employment positions of the 10,886 individuals who graduated with a PhD from U of T in all […]
Professor Hue Sun Chan has been recognized by the Biophysical Society of Canada as the 2019 Fellow. He will be the National Lecturer at the Society’s Annual Meeting in May 2019.
Just published in Nature (2018) 564:283-286, the Maxwell lab, in collaboration with the Nodwell lab, report the discovery of a chemical anti-phage defence system that is widespread in the bacterial family of Streptomyces. These produce three molecules that insert into DNA which block phage replication. This mechanism of anti-phage defence probably has a major evolutionary role in shaping bacterial communities.