News

2023

Please join the department of Biological Chemistry in congratulating our third year students on their coating ceremony! The Graduate Coating Ceremony honors Ph.D. candidates who have passed their qualifying exams, transitioning from a Ph.D. student to a Ph.D. candidate. Pictured back row: Dr. Stephen Gould, Director, Graduate Program Biological Chemistry; front row (l-r): Fiddia Zahra, Neha Shah, Suyeon Kim, Akanksha Aggarwal.

Dr. Erin Goley named one of the inaugural Randall J. Reed Scholars. This award recognizes the research excellence and accomplishments of outstanding primary early and midcareer faculty in the nine basic science departments in the School of Medicine. The awards are named for Dr. Randall Reed, professor emeritus in the department of molecular biology and genetics, whose research focused on olfactory systems.

We gratefully acknowledge the significant and lasting gift to the Meffert lab and to the Department of Biological Chemistry by the Eric C. Aker Endowment from The Braude Foundation.  This fund will further the lifelong passion of Eric C. Aker for scientific discovery and the communication of science to the public.

Dr. Erin Goley named a Fellow of The American Society for Cell Biology in 2023.

Bonita Powell named one of HHMI’s Gilliam Fellows for 2023.

Chenxu Guo is a Young Investigators: 2023 Award Winner, receiving the Alicia Showalter Reynolds Research Award.

Dr. Mollie Meffert (Department of Biological Chemistry’s Co-Director) is the recipient of the 2023 Hamilton Smith Award for Innovative Research. Dr. Meffert’s research focuses on post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in the mammalian nervous system.  This has included demonstrating a role for NFkB in dendritic spine morphology, showing how miRNAs sculpt the protein synthesis landscape during the neurotrophin response, and defining the role of the miRNA biogenesis regulating protein, Lin28, in neuronal plasticity in the central and peripheral nervous systems.  Most recently, the Meffert lab has optimized an Argonaut Crosslinking and Immunoprecipitation (Ago-CLIP) approach to experimentally define in a genome-wide manner which miRNAs are associated with which mRNAs on the Ago complex in cells and tissues.

Dr. Michal Caterina, Department of Biological Chemistry’s Director, is featured in Johns Hopkins Magazine for his role in pioneering research uncovering the receptor conferring responsiveness to the capsaicin component of chili peppers.  Capsaicin targets a subset of neurons through the TRPV1 ion channel receptor, which also participates in endogenous responses to stimuli including temperatures of 107 Fahrenheit and above.  The Caterina lab continues to generate fundamental insights into the mechanisms conferring somatosensory responses under healthy conditions and in the context of pathology.

Biological Chemistry is delighted to welcome our newest faculty hire, Dr. Jonathan Lynch! The Lynch lab explores the molecular determinants of host-microbe symbiosis. Dr. Lynch has increased our understanding of how diverse microbial communities interact with their associated animal hosts, and improved our ability to use microbiota to foster host health.

Four scientists were named Paul T. Englund Emerging Scholars, recognizing their achievements in research on biochemical, biophysical and cellular mechanisms at the molecular level and their impact on creating a diverse and inclusive future of science. The award will be given annually by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Department of Biological Chemistry and is named for the late, renowned biochemist Paul Englund, Ph.D.

2022

The Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility receives $1.7 million from Gov. Hogan’s Maryland Cancer Moonshot Initiative.

This summer, Governor Hogan announced his Maryland Cancer Moonshot Initiative to accelerate comprehensive cutting-edge research “to detect, prevent, treat, and find a cure for cancer.” Exposure to air pollution is of growing concern. It is classified as a known human carcinogen. Strong associations between air pollution exposure and lung cancer mortality are well established, and levels of lung cancer are increasing throughout the US, including Maryland. On August 1, 2022, $1.7 million from the Cancer Moonshot grant was awarded to the Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility, directed by Dr. Robert Cole (Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Biological Chemistry). The award is for purchasing two new mass spectrometer systems to advance the facility’s capacity and capabilities in assessing an individual’s exposure level to tobacco and other air pollutants. With support from the Maryland CRF and in collaboration with Dr. John Groopman, (Professor of Preventive Medicine, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering in the Bloomberg School of Public Health and Associate Director for Population Sciences in the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center), Drs. Cole and Groopman recently published a mass spectrometry-based method to detect air pollutants in human blood. Their goal is to use this method to establish a panel of exposure biomarkers that correlate with high cancer risk, especially lung cancer, and develop effective strategies to dramatically reduce the individual’s risk of developing cancer. Moreover, the Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics Facility supports the clinical and basic science cancer research programs across all three Hopkins campuses and four major research centers, including of over 30 labs per year in the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and several labs at the University of Maryland, Morgan State University and other Maryland academic and private institutions. The Governor Hogan’s Maryland Cancer Moonshot Initiative allows our facility to continue developing and providing cost-effective, state-of-the-art novel proteomic applications to accelerate the cancer research of investigators at Johns Hopkins and intuitions across Maryland.

2021

• Chris Mahone receives Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund internship (Goley Lab)
• Kyle Cavagnini receives a  FASEB science policy internship (Wolfgang Lab)
• Congratulations to our Leader… 
  The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021 was awarded jointly to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch”.  Our own Michael J. Caterina, then a postdoctoral fellow in the Julius lab, conducted an unbiased functional screen based on the assumption that a single gene can confer capsaicin sensitivity in cells that are normally insensitive to capsaicin. To find this putative gene, Julius and coworkers made a cDNA library from rodent dorsal root ganglia that contain the cell bodies of the capsaicin-activated sensory neurons. Capsaicin-insensitive cells were transfected with batches of these cDNAs and eventually a single cDNA clone was isolated that could confer responsiveness to capsaicin [17] (Figure 1A). 

  Understanding the action of capsaicin has since provided insights into pain signaling which has remained a focus of Michael Caterina’s laboratory.   For Q&A, click HERE .
  Caterina, M.J., M.A. Schumacher, M. Tominaga, T.A. Rosen, J.D. Levine, and D. Julius, The capsaicin receptor: a heat-activated ion channel in the pain pathway. Nature, 1997. 389(6653): p. 816-24.
• Erin Goley profiled in Current Biology
• Daniel Raben has been named an inaugural ASBMB Fellow.
• Michael Wolfgang named Director, Center for Metabolism and Obesity Research
• Joel Pomerantz, recipient of the Lee Hood Prize in Biomedical Science!
  • Dr. Pomerantz’s research is focused on cell signaling pathways in the immune system. At Johns Hopkins, Dr. Pomerantz has focused on CARD11, a protein that acts as a hub for signals that link antigen engagement at the cell surface with control of gene expression in the nucleus. His work has revealed how CARD11 functions and how oncogenic mutations in CARD11 contribute to a subset of lymphomas. Motivated by his dissection of immune signaling pathways, Dr. Pomerantz has developed innovative technologies for genetic screens in mammalian tissue culture cells.