The Gopalan Lab

Highly motivated student researchers interested in understanding protein-aided RNA catalysis or novel metabolic pathways in Salmonella enterica can visit our prospective students page before contacting Dr. Gopalan to set up an appointment to talk about research opportunities in the lab! Dr. Gopalan is currently affiliated with the Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Program; Microbiology Graduate Program; Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) Program; Ohio State Biochemistry Program (OSBP); and Ohio State Biophysics Graduate Program.

Announcements

	Spring 2024 Congratulations to Milo Datta for an honorable mention for presenting a poster at the 38th Annual Edward F. Hayes Advanced Research Forum organized by the Council of Graduate Students at The Ohio State University.
	Fall 2023 Members of RNAse P subgroup attended the Rustbelt RNA Meeting held at Lansing, Michigan.
	Fall 2023 Congratulations to Vaishnavi Sidharthan for winning 3rd place award for her talk at the 4th Annual Non-coding RNA Symposium, held at the University of Illinois, Chicago!
	Fall 2023 Congratulations to Walter Zahuranick for winning 2nd place award for his poster at the 4th Annual Non-coding RNA Symposium, held at the University of Illinois, Chicago!
	Summer 2023 Congratulations to Haley Gosselin for presenting a poster at the summer undergraduate poster sessions, as a CRB fellow
	Summer 2023 Congratulations to Rachel Hemmerlin on being awarded a 2023-2024 NIH T32 Molecular Biophysics Training Grant Fellowship!
	Summer 2023 Congratulations to Vaishnavi Sidharthan on being awarded a 2-year Pelotonia Fellowship!
	Summer 2023 Congratulations to Sravya Kovvali for succesfully defending her PhD thesis!
	Spring 2023 Congratulations to Haley Gosselin on being awarded a Center for RNA Biology Summer Undergraduate Fellowship for Summer 2023!
	Spring 2023 Welcome to undergraduate students Joseph Hackett and Haley Gosselin, who have joined the lab to conduct research as part of Biochemistry 2998H.
	December 2022 Welcome to Chemistry and Biochemistry (CBC) graduate student Rachel Hemmerlin, who has joined the lab to perform her PhD thesis research.
	Summer and Fall 2022 Welcome to undergraduate students Dray Remy and Owen Yoakum, who have joined the lab to conduct research.
	July 15, 2022 Congratulations to Duc Phan for successfully defending his thesis “Elucidation of structure-function relationships in Methanocaldococcus jannaschii RNase P, a multi-subunit catalytic ribonucleoprotein”.
	April 28, 2022 Congratulations to Liam for being selected as one of two OSU’s Beckman Scholars for the coming year (May’22 to Aug’23). Liam is welcome to choose from a list of 15 mentors at OSU to carry out his Beckman research.
	April 11, 2022 Liam Shanahan has been awarded a 2022 Center for RNA Biology Summer Research Fellowship. Congratulations to Liam!
	March 30, 2022 Congratulations to graduate student Moulisubhro Datta for passing his candidacy exam today.
	March 08, 2022 Congratulations to Rosemary Zaleski for winning the 3rd place award for best research at the 2022 Denman Undergraduate Research Forum, “Health under the Microscope” category!
	November 11, 2020 Congratulations to Blake E. Szkoda for being awarded Presidential Fellowship in the Autumn 2020 competition! The Presidential Fellowship is the most competitive and prestigious scholarly recognition provided by the Graduate School here at Ohio State University!
	July 21, 2020 Congratulations to Rosemary Zaleski for being awarded a $5,500 Undergraduate Research Scholarship from the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program!
	May 14, 2020 Eleanor Bashian has been honored by the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry with the Irene Rosenfeld Scientific Achievement Award and the Distinguished Organic Student Teacher Award. Congratulations to Eleanor!
	May 7, 2020 Welcome to Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) Program graduate student Moulisubhro Datta as he joins the lab following his rotation!
	April 6, 2020 Welcome to Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Program (Biological Division) graduate student Davidnhan To as he joins the lab following his rotation!
	March 31, 2020 Seth Lyon, a former team member who is now pursuing his PhD at Yale, has been awarded a 2020 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRF). Congratulations to Seth on this great honor!
	December 30, 2019 A Center for Applied Plant Sciences seed grant entitled Ribonuclease P for plant resistance was awarded to Drs. Guo-Liang Wang, Venkat Gopalan, Charles Bell, and Vicki Wysocki (January – December 2020).
	October 26, 2019 Congratulations to Rachel Braun for winning the Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award at the 21st Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting in Cleveland, OH, for her poster entitled “Assessing the utility of a novel fluorescence turn-on assay for RNase P”!
	October 25, 2019 Walter Zahurancik presented a poster entitled “Use of single-molecule fluorescence co-localization spectroscopy to study archaeal RNase P assembly” at the 21st Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting in Cleveland, OH.
	October 25, 2019 Ila Marathe presented a poster entitled “Use of SHAPE-Seq and FRET to elucidate structure-function relationships in archaeal RNase P, an ancient catalytic multi-subunit ribonucleoprotein” at the 21st Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting in Cleveland, OH.
	October 25, 2019 Stella Lai presented a poster entitled “A Tale of Two Types of Archaeal RNase P: Of Rate-Limiting Steps and Subunit Stoichiometries” at the 21st Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting in Cleveland, OH.
	October 25, 2019 Rachel Braun presented a poster entitled “Assessing the utility of a novel fluorescence turn-on assay for RNase P” at the 21st Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting in Cleveland, OH.
	October 25-26, 2019 Walter Zahurancik, Stella Lai, Rachel Braun, Ila Marathe, Edric Choi, Vaishnavi Sidharthan, and Hong Duc Phan attended the 21st Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting in Cleveland, OH.
	October 17, 2019 Ila Marathe presented a poster entitled “Use of SHAPE-Seq and FRET to elucidate structure-function relationships in archaeal RNase P, an ancient catalytic multi-subunit ribonucleoprotein” at the 2019 Dow Graduate Student Poster Session here at OSU.
	October 17, 2019 Welcome to new Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) Program rotation student Moulisubhro Datta! Milo earned a B.S. in Microbiology at St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata, India, and an M.S. in Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Mumbai, India.
	October 8, 2019 Dr. Venkat Gopalan hosted Dr. Andrey Krasilnikov (The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA) for a Center for RNA Biology Seminar entitled “Structural and functional studies of catalytic RNPs of the RNase P/MRP family”.
	October 1-2, 2019 Stella Lai gave a flash talk and presented a poster at the 3rd Annual Ohio Mass Spectrometry and Metabolomics Symposium here at OSU. Both presentations were entitled “Putting together the pieces of archaeal RNase P”.
	October 1-2, 2019 Vaishnavi Sidharthan, Hong Duc Phan, Ila Marathe, Walter Zahurancik, Stella Lai, Edric Choi, and Jamison Law attended the 3rd Annual Ohio Mass Spectrometry and Metabolomics Symposium here at OSU.
	August 28, 2019 Congratulations to former postdoctoral researcher Anindita Sengupta, former graduate student Tien-Hao Chen, and former undergraduate student Nicholas Thomsen for co-authoring the paper “Integrated use of biochemical, native mass spectrometry, computational and genome-editing methods to elucidate the mechanism of a Salmonella deglycase”, now accepted for publication in Journal of Molecular Biology! This work was part of a collaborative effort with Jikang Wu, Justin Seffernick, Anice Sabag-Daigle, Angela Di Capua, Charles Bell, Brian Ahmer, Steffen Lindert, and Vicki Wysocki here at OSU.
	August 20, 2019 Welcome to new Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Program (Biological Division) rotation student Sagarika Taneja! Sagarika earned a B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Delhi in New Delhi, India, and an M.S. in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar in Rupnagar, India.
	August 20, 2019 Welcome to new Ohio State Biochemistry Program (OSBP) rotation student Ben Pastore! Ben earned a B.S. in Biochemistry at the State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo in Geneseo, NY.
	August 6, 2019 Rachel Braun gave an oral presentation on her summer research as part of her Center for RNA Biology (CRB) Undergraduate Summer Fellowship. Her presentation was entitled “A novel fluorescence turn-on assay for RNase P”.
	August 3, 2019 Congratulations to Hong Duc Phan for completing a 25-mile bike ride from downtown Columbus to Pickerington for Pelotonia today! To help Hong Duc and Dr. Gopalan reach their Pelotonia fundraising goals, please visit their rider profiles: Hong Duc Phan and Venkat Gopalan.
	August 3, 2019 Congratulations to Ila Marathe for completing a 25-mile bike ride from downtown Columbus to Pickerington for Pelotonia today! To help Ila and Dr. Gopalan reach their Pelotonia fundraising goals, please visit their rider profiles: Ila Marathe and Venkat Gopalan.
	July 29-31, 2019 Ila Marathe and Hong Duc Phan presented posters at the Second Conference on Biomotors, Virus Assembly, and Nanobiotechnology Applications here at OSU. Ila’s poster was entitled “Use of SHAPE-Seq and FRET to elucidate structure-function relationships in archaeal RNase P, an ancient catalytic multi-subunit ribonucleoprotein” while Hong Duc’s was entitled “Use of chemical modification and tandem mass spectrometry to identify RNA-protein contact sites in archaeal RNase P”.
	July 29-31, 2019 Walter Zahurancik, Vaishnavi Sidharthan, Hong Duc Phan, Stella Lai, Edric Choi, Ila Marathe, and James Li attended the Second Conference on Biomotors, Virus Assembly, and Nanobiotechnology Applications here at OSU.
	July 18, 2019 Eleanor Bashian presented a poster on her summer research at the iCAPS (OSU Center for Applied Plant Sciences) Summer Research Symposium.
	July 9, 2019 Welcome to new research assistant James Li! James earned a B.S. in Microbiology here at OSU.
	June 28, 2019 Congratulations to Stella Lai for having her book chapter “Using an L7Ae-tethered, hydroxyl radical-mediated footprinting strategy to identify and validate kink-turns in RNAs” accepted for publication in Methods in Molecular Biology!
	June 17, 2019 Welcome to new Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Program (Biological Division) rotation student Davidnhan To! Davidnhan earned a B.S. in Biochemistry at Kent State University in Kent, OH.
	June 11, 2019 Congratulations to Jamison Law for receiving an OSU Cellular, Molecular, and Biochemical Sciences Training Program (CMBP) fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year! CMBP is “designed to attract top-tier graduate students; prepare them for life-sciences research careers in academia, government, or industry; and advance research pursuits in areas related to human health, physiology, and disease”.
	June 7, 2019 Congratulations to Hong Duc Phan for co-authoring the paper “Multidomain convergence of Argonaute during RISC assembly correlates with the formation of internal water clusters”, now accepted for publication in the Molecular Cell! This work was part of a collaborative effort with Mi-Seul Park, Raul Araya-Secchi, James A. Brackbill, Audrey C. Kehling, Ekram W. Abd El-Wahab, Danny M. Dayeh, Marcos Sotomayor, and Kotaro Nakanishi here at OSU.
	June 1-7, 2019 Ila Marathe presented a poster entitled “Use of SHAPE-Seq and FRET to elucidate structure-function relationships in archaeal RNase P, an ancient catalytic multi-subunit ribonucleoprotein” at both the Gordon Research Seminar and the Gordon Research Conference on Nucleic Acids in Newry, ME.
	May 21, 2019 Hong Duc Phan presented a poster entitled “Use of chemical modification and tandem mass spectrometry to identify RNA-protein contact sites in archaeal RNase P” at the annual OSU Life Sciences Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Symposium here at OSU.
	May 20, 2019 Welcome to new Ohio State Biochemistry Program (OSBP) rotation student Daisy DiVita! Daisy earned a B.S. in Chemistry at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, KY.
	May 16, 2019 Congratulations to Ila Marathe for co-authoring the paper “Duplex stem replacement with bPNA+ triplex hybrid stems enables reporting on tertiary interactions of internal RNA domains”, now accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society! She contributed to an effort led by Prof. Dennis Bong’s team here at OSU.
	May 8, 2019 Congratulations to Rachel Braun for winning a Best Poster Award at the Cellular, Molecular, and Biochemical Sciences Training Program and Center for RNA Biology Symposium for her poster entitled “Fine-tuning a novel fluorescence turn-on assay for RNase P”!
	May 8, 2019 Rachel Braun and Blake Szkoda presented posters at the annual Cellular, Molecular, and Biochemical Sciences Training Program and Center for RNA Biology Symposium here at OSU. Rachel’s poster was entitled “Fine-tuning a novel fluorescence turn-on assay for RNase P” while Blake’s was entitled “Elucidating the regulatory mechanism of FraR, a transcription factor in Salmonella enterica critical for pathogenesis”.
	May 2, 2019 Congratulations to Hong Duc Phan for receiving a 2019-2021 Pelotonia Graduate Student Research Fellowship! Pelotonia is a grassroots bike tour that raises millions of dollars each year (with more than $157 million raised through its first nine rides!) to fund life-saving cancer research at OSU. To donate to Hong Duc’s ride, please visit his rider profile. To donate to Dr. Gopalan’s ride, please visit his virtual rider profile.
	May 2, 2019 Congratulations to Rachel Braun for receiving a Center for RNA Biology (CRB) Undergraduate Summer Fellowship to conduct research in the lab this summer!
	April 22, 2019 Congratulations to Rachel Braun for receiving a 2019-2020 Kraska Endowed Chemistry Scholarship from the OSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry!
	April 19, 2019 Rachel Braun presented a poster entitled “Fine-tuning a novel fluorescence turn-on assay for RNase P” at the 2019 BIOCHEM 2998H Undergraduate Student Poster Session here at OSU.
	April 17, 2019 Congratulations to Eleanor Bashian for receiving an Edward G. Mayers Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship from the OSU Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Inquiry to conduct research in the lab this summer!
	April 17, 2019 Congratulations to Eleanor Bashian for receiving an iCAPS Pre-doctoral Summer Research Award from the OSU Center for Applied Plant Sciences to conduct research in the lab this summer! This is the first time these awards have been awarded to undergraduate students.
	April 16, 2019 Blake Szkoda gave an oral presentation at the April meeting for the Cellular, Molecular, and Biochemical Sciences Training Program (CMBP) here at OSU. His presentation was entitled “Biochemical characterization of FraR, a transcription factor in Salmonella enterica critical for pathogenesis”.
	April 15, 2019 Congratulations to Eleanor Bashian for receiving an Undergraduate Research Scholarship from the OSU College of Arts and Sciences to conduct research in the lab this upcoming school year!
	April 15, 2019 Congratulations to Rachel Braun for receiving an Undergraduate Research Scholarship from the OSU College of Arts and Sciences to conduct research in the lab this upcoming school year!
	April 2, 2019 Congratulations to Eleanor Bashian for receiving a 2019-2020 Chellis Family Scholarship from the OSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry!
	April 2, 2019 Congratulations to Eleanor Bashian for receiving a 2019-2020 Gary Booth Scholarship from the OSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry!
	March 1, 2019 Welcome to new Ohio State Biochemistry Program (OSBP) Program graduate student Jamison Law! Jamison earned a B.S. and an M.S. in Biology from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) in Fort Wayne, IN.
	February 28, 2019 Dr. Venkat Gopalan hosted Dr. Yingfu Li (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) for a Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (CBC) Biochemistry Divisional Seminar entitled “Discovery and Applications of Synthetic DNA Molecules with Catalytic and Binding Properties”.
	February 20, 2019 Yehong Qiu presented a poster in the “Molecular Genetics and Genomics” division at the Richard J. and Martha D. Denman Undergraduate Research Forum here at OSU. Her poster was entitled “A Cancer-Associated Mutation in a Human Mitochondrial tRNA Induces Structural Rearrangement”.
	January 7, 2019 Welcome to new undergraduate researcher Eleanor Bashian! Eleanor is a 3rd year majoring in Biochemistry here at OSU.
	January 7, 2019 Welcome to new undergraduate researcher Rachel Braun! Rachel is a 3rd year majoring in Biochemistry here at OSU.
	December 18, 2018 Congratulations to Lien Lai and former graduate student Tien-Hao Chen for co-authoring the paper “Both kinds of RNase P in all domains of life: Surprises galore”, now accepted for publication in RNA! This work was part of a collaborative effort with Charles Daniels here at OSU.
	December 14, 2018 Welcome to new Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Program (Biological Division) graduate student Vaishnavi Sidharthan! Vaishnavi earned a B.S. and an M.S. in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Mohali, India.
	December 7, 2018 Ila Marathe gave an oral presentation at the annual Department of Microbiology Annual Research Symposium here at OSU. Her presentation was entitled “Characterization of structure-function relationships in archaeal RNase P”.
	November 26, 2018 Congratulations to Walter Zahurancik for receiving a 2020-2022 Pelotonia Postdoctoral Research Fellowship! Pelotonia is a grassroots bike tour that has raised more than $184 million through its first ten rides (including $27.4 million this year alone!) to fund life-saving cancer research at OSU.
	November 9, 2018 Yehong Qiu presented a poster entitled “A cancer-associated mutation in a human mitochondrial tRNA induces structural rearrangement” at the 2018 Devon Walter Meek Lecture Undergraduate Student Poster Session here at OSU.
	November 6, 2018 Congratulations to Walter Zahurancik for receiving a Center for RNA Biology (CRB) Postdoctoral Fellowship for the 2019 calendar year! The CRB at OSU “houses the single largest group of RNA experts in the country – more than 200 faculty, staff, students, and postdocs. The center’s mission is to advance life sciences research and education at the university by building on existing strengths in RNA biology, developing synergies through interdisciplinary initiatives and outreach, attracting and retaining outstanding faculty, and bringing the best graduate and postdoctoral researchers to the university”.
	November 4, 2018 Congratulations to former graduate student Tien-Hao Chen for having his paper “Biochemical studies provide insights into the necessity for multiple Arabidopsis thaliana protein-only RNase P isoenzymes” accepted for publication in Journal of Molecular Biology! This work was part of a collaborative effort with Marcos Sotomayor here at OSU.
	October 29, 2018 Welcome to new Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Program (Biological Division) rotation student Ruchira Basu! Ruchira earned a B.S. in Chemistry from St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata, India, and an M.S. in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) in Chennai, India.
	October 26, 2018 Stella Lai, Hong Duc Phan, and Ila Marathe presented posters at the 20th Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting here in Columbus, OH; their respective posters were entitled “L7Ae enhances the cleavage rate of archaeal RNase P”, “Identification of RNA-protein contacting sites in RNase P by chemical modification and mass spectrometry”, and “Fluorescence turn-on is observed upon annealing of cyanine dye-labeled bPNAs to uridine tract-containing RNAs”.
	October 26, 2018 Edric Choi and Yehong Qiu presented posters at the 20th Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting here in Columbus, OH. Edric’s poster was entitled “A high-throughput, fluorescence turn-on assay to measure RNase P activity” while Yehong’s was entitled “A cancer-associated mutation in a human mitochondrial tRNA induces structural rearrangement”.
	October 26-27, 2018 Hong Duc Phan, Walter Zahurancik, Stella Lai, Sravya Kovvali, Yehong Qiu, Ila Marathe, and Edric Choi attended the 20th Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting here in Columbus, OH.
	October 16, 2018 Former undergraduate student Seth Lyon was selected to give an oral presentation at the 2018 Pelotonia Fellowship Symposium here at OSU. His presentation was entitled “A T7 RNA polymerase mutant enhances incorporation and yield of 5′-modified guanosine analogs in RNA”.
	October 4, 2018 Dr. Venkat Gopalan hosted Dr. Markos Koutmos (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI) for a Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (CBC) Biochemistry Divisional Seminar entitled “Mitochondrial RNA processing”.
	September 26, 2018 Blake Szkoda presented a poster entitled “Elucidating the regulatory mechanism of FraR, a transcription factor in Salmonella enterica critical for pathogenesis” at the 2018 Dow Graduate Student Poster Session here at OSU.
	September 25, 2018 Welcome to new Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Program (Biological Division) rotation student Vaishnavi Sidharthan! Vaishnavi earned a B.S. and an M.S. in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Mohali, India.
	September 8, 2018 Congratulations to former undergraduate students Seth Lyon, Andrew J. Wallace, and Katie L. Adib and former graduate student Tien-Hao Chen for having their paper “An RNase P-based assay for accurate determination of the 5′-deoxy-5′-azidoguanosine-modified fraction of in vitro transcribed RNAs” accepted for publication in ChemBioChem!
	August 20, 2018 Welcome to new Ohio State Biochemistry Program (OSBP) rotation student Philip Kauffman! Philip earned a B.A. in Music Technology and a B.A. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Capital University in Columbus, OH.
	August 20, 2018 Welcome to new Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Program (Biological Division) rotation student Jawad Abid! Jawad earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Hansraj College of the University of Delhi in New Delhi, India, and an M.S. in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in New Delhi, India.
	August 17, 2018 Dr. Venkat Gopalan hosted Dr. Ming Lei (Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China) for a special seminar entitled “Structural insight into pre-tRNA processing by RNase P”.
	August 17, 2018 Welcome to new postdoctoral researcher Walter Zahurancik! Walter earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from OSU under the mentorship of Dr. Zucai Suo.
	August 15, 2018 Congratulations to Drs. Brian Ahmer (OSU Department of Microbiology), Edward Behrman [OSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (CBC)], Charles Bell (OSU Biological Chemistry and Pharmacology), Venkat Gopalan, and Stephen Lindert (OSU CBC) for receiving funding through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (part of the National Institutes of Health) for their R01 proposal entitled “Salmonella-specific therapeutics”!
	August 4, 2018 Congratulations to Ila Marathe for completing a 25-mile bike ride from downtown Columbus to Pickerington for Pelotonia today! To help Ila and Dr. Gopalan reach their Pelotonia fundraising goals, please visit their rider profiles: Ila Marathe and Venkat Gopalan.
	July 25, 2018 Wenxin (Iris) Chen presented a poster entitled “Design of an enzymatic assay to measure the levels of glycated albumin and diagnose diabetes” at the 2018 Ohio Five-OSU Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Capstone Event here at OSU.
	July 16, 2018 Welcome to new research assistant Edric Choi! Edric earned a B.S. in Biochemistry and a B.A. in Computer Science from Denison University in Granville, OH.
	June 12, 2018 Welcome to Ohio State Biochemistry Program (OSBP) graduate student Hong Duc Phan! Hong Duc earned a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Ho Chi Minh City in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and an M.S. in Pharmacy from Seoul National University in Seoul, South Korea.
	June 1, 2018 Congratulations to Blake Szkoda for successfully defending his Ohio State Biochemistry Program (OSBP) candidacy proposal entitled “Elucidating the regulatory mechanism of FraR: a GntR transcription factor in Salmonella enterica“!
	May 30, 2018 Congratulations to Ila Marathe for receiving a 2018-2020 Pelotonia Graduate Student Research Fellowship! Pelotonia is a grassroots bike tour that raises millions of dollars each year (with more than $157 million raised through its first nine rides!) to fund life-saving cancer research at OSU. To donate to Ila’s ride, please visit her rider profile. To donate to Dr. Gopalan’s ride, please visit his rider profile.
	May 30, 2018 Dr. Venkat Gopalan was selected by the Ohio State Biochemistry Program (OSBP) graduate students to present a faculty plenary talk at the 2018 OSU Life Sciences Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Symposium here at OSU. His talk was entitled “Fructose-asparagine metabolism by Salmonella: new prospects for drug discovery”.
	May 21, 2018 Welcome to Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Fellow Wenxin (Iris) Chen! Iris is a rising 3rd year majoring in Biochemistry at Denison University (Granville, OH) and will investigate phosphorylation of glycated proteins by fructosamine kinases.
	May 9, 2018 Congratulations to Blake Szkoda for receiving an OSU Cellular, Molecular, and Biochemical Sciences Training Program (CMBP) fellowship for the 2018-2019 academic year! CMBP is “designed to attract top-tier graduate students; prepare them for life-sciences research careers in academia, government, or industry; and advance research pursuits in areas related to human health, physiology, and disease”.
	May 7, 2018 Anindita Sengupta and Tien-Hao Chen presented a poster entitled “Development of Salmonella-specific antibiotics by elucidating the mechanism of the FraB deglycase and high-throughput compound screening” at the 2018 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Inaugural Industry Day here at OSU.
	May 6, 2018 Congratulations to Dan Dyzslewski and Seth Lyon for graduating with Bachelor of Science degrees at Spring Commencement today!
	April 20, 2018 Welcome to new Microbiology graduate student Sravya Kovvali! Sravya earned a B.Tech. in Biotechnology from D.Y. Patil University in Mumbai, India.
	April 10, 2018 Congratulations to Dr. Venkat Gopalan, who was jointly awarded the OSU College of Arts and Sciences Diversity Enhancement Faculty Award with Drs. Susan Cole (Department of Molecular Genetics), Jane Jackman (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry ), and Amanda Simcox (Department of Molecular Genetics; not pictured). The award “recognize[s] the outstanding accomplishments of any faculty member or team of faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences whose research, teaching, and/or service/outreach activities promote diversity and support a culture that embraces and exhibits inclusive excellence, community, and openness.”
	April 6, 2018 Congratulations to Seth Lyon for winning first place in the “Molecular Biophysics & Chemical Biology” division at the Richard J. and Martha D. Denman Undergraduate Research Forum for his poster entitled “Synthesis of 5’-chemically-modified RNAs is enhanced by a mutant T7 RNA polymerase”!
	April 3, 2018 Dan Dyszlewski and Seth Lyon presented posters in the “Molecular Biophysics & Chemical Biology” division at the Richard J. and Martha D. Denman Undergraduate Research Forum here at OSU. Dan’s poster was entitled “Biochemical studies of bacterial kinases and deglycases that convert Amadori products to energy-yielding metabolites: prospects for antibiotic discovery” while Seth’s was entitled “Synthesis of 5’-chemically-modified RNAs is enhanced by a mutant T7 RNA polymerase”.
	March 28, 2018 Congratulations to Matt Jajowka and Yehong Qiu for receiving 2018-2019 Gary Booth Scholarships from the OSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry!
	March 28, 2018 Congratulations to Seth Lyon for successfully defending his undergraduate research thesis entitled “A T7 RNA polymerase mutant enhances the yield of 5′-guanosine-analog-initiated RNAs”! He will officially graduate with honors research distinction in Biochemistry (and a minor in Computer and Information Science) this May at Spring Commencement.
	March 21, 2018 Congratulations to Seth Lyon for winning a Best Poster Award at the Natural and Mathematical Sciences Undergraduate Research Forum for his poster entitled “Synthesis of 5′-chemically-modified RNAs is enhanced by a mutant T7 RNA polymerase”!
	February 21, 2018 Congratulations to Stella Lai, former postdoctoral researcher Pradip Biswas, and former graduate student Andy Jones for co-authoring the paper “Development of a high-throughput assay for rapid screening of butanologenic strains”, now published in Scientific Reports! This work was part of a collaborative effort with Chidozie Victor Agu, Victor Ujor, and Thaddeus Chukwuemeka Ezeji at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC).
	February 20, 2018 Congratulations to Blake Szkoda for co-authoring the paper “Salmonella-mediated inflammation eliminates competitors for fructose-asparagine in the gut”, now accepted for publication in Infection and Immunity! This work was part of a collaborative effort with Jikang Wu, Anice Sabag-Daigle, Mikayla Borton, Linnea Kop, Prosper Boyaka, Kelly Wrighton, Vicki Wysocki, and Brian Ahmer here at OSU and Brooke Deatherage Kaiser, Stephen Lindemann, Ryan Renslow, Siwei Wei, Carrie Nicora, Karl Weitz, Young-Mo Kim, Joshua Adkins, and Thomas Metz at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA.
	February 14, 2018 Congratulations to Drs. Jyan-Chyun Jang (OSU Department of Horticulture and Crop Science) and Venkat Gopalan for receiving funding through the SEEDS: The CFAES Research Enhancement Competitive Grants Program for their proposal entitled “Genome-wide mapping of plant tandem zinc finger protein–RNA interactions for crop improvement”!
	January 9, 2018 Congratulations to Seth Lyon for having his paper “A T7 RNA polymerase mutant enhances the yield of 5′-thienoguanosine-initiated RNAs” highlighted on the cover of volume 19, issue 2, of ChemBioChem!
	January 8, 2018 Welcome to new undergraduate researcher Yehong Qiu! Yehong is a 2nd year majoring in Biochemistry here at OSU.
	December 17, 2017 Congratulations to Tien-Hao Chen for officially receiving his Doctor of Philosophy degree today at Autumn Commencement!
	December 10, 2017 Congratulations to Anindita Sengupta for co-authoring the paper “Identification of bacterial species that can utilize fructose-asparagine”, now accepted for publication in Applied and Environmental Microbiology! This work was part of a collaborative effort with Anice Sabag-Daigle, Jikang Wu, Mikayla Borton, Kelly Wrighton, Vicki Wysocki, and Brian Ahmer here at OSU.
	November 7, 2017 Congratulations to Seth Lyon for having his paper “A T7 RNA polymerase mutant enhances the yield of 5′-thienoguanosine-initiated RNAs” accepted for publication into ChemBioChem!
	October 14, 2017 Congratulations to Seth Lyon for winning the Outstanding Undergraduate Oral Presentation Award at the 19th Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting in Indianapolis, IN, for his presentation entitled “A mutant T7 RNA polymerase enhances 5′-incorporation of guanosine analogs into RNA”!
	October 14, 2017 Seth Lyon gave an oral presentation at the 19th Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting in Indianapolis, IN. His presentation was entitled “A mutant T7 RNA polymerase enhances 5′-incorporation of guanosine analogs into RNA”.
	October 13, 2017 Stella Lai and Ila Marathe presented posters at the 19th Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting in Indianapolis, IN. Stella’s poster was entitled “Characterization of kink-turns in RNase P RNAs from Halobacteria” while Ila’s was entitled “Use of FRET and SHAPE-Seq to elucidate structure-function relationships in archaeal RNase P, a multi-subunit catalytic ribonucleoprotein”.
	October 13-14, 2017 Seth Lyon, Stella Lai, Blake Szkoda, and Ila Marathe attended the 19th Annual Rustbelt RNA Meeting in Indianapolis, IN.
	September 14, 2017 Dan Dyszlewski and Seth Lyon presented posters at the Fall Undergraduate Research Office Symposium here at OSU. Dan’s poster was entitled “Comparative biochemical studies of kinases and deglycases that convert Amadori products to common metabolites” while Seth’s was entitled “Synthesis of 5′-chemically-modified RNAs is enhanced by a mutant T7 RNA polymerase”.
	August 18, 2017 Congratulations to Anindita Sengupta and former postdoctoral researcher Pradip Biswas for co-authoring the paper “Salmonella FraE, an asparaginase homolog, contributes to fructose-asparagine but not asparagine utilization”, now accepted for publication in Journal of Bacteriology! This work was part of a collaborative effort with Anice Sabag-Daigle, Henry Blunk, Mary Cron, Alexander Bogard, Edward Behrman, and Brian Ahmer here at OSU.
	August 16-19, 2017 Tien-Hao Chen presented his poster entitled “Substrate Recognition by Arabidopsis Protein-Only RNase P Isoenzymes: Insights into Catalysis” at the First Conference on Biomotors, Virus Assembly, and Nanobiotechnology Applications here at OSU.
	August 16-19, 2017 Ila Marathe, Tien-Hao Chen, Blake Szkoda, Stella Lai, and Lien Lai (not pictured) attended the First Conference on Biomotors, Virus Assembly, and Nanobiotechnology Applications here at OSU. Dr. Venkat Gopalan was a session chair (with Piotr Grodzinski from NCI/NIH) for the “Biophysical and Single Molecule Studies of Biomotors and RNA” session.
	August 14, 2017 Welcome to new research assistant Jamison Law! Jamison earned a B.S. and an M.S. in Biology from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) in Fort Wayne, IN.
	August 6, 2017 Congratulations to Stella Lai for officially receiving her Master of Science degree today at Summer Commencement!
	August 5, 2017 Congratulations to Seth Lyon for completing a 45-mile bike ride from downtown Columbus to New Albany for Pelotonia today!
	August 3, 2017 Congratulations to the newly minted Dr. Tien-Hao Chen for successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation entitled “Elucidating substrate recognition and catalysis by protein-only RNase P”! He will officially graduate from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Program this December at Fall Commencement.
	July 27, 2017 Jeffrin Wisel and Dechen Wangmo presented posters at the NSF REU poster session here at OSU. Jeffrin’s poster was entitled “Investigating the mechanism of inhibition of a Salmonella deglycase by aurintricarboxylic acid” while Dechen’s was entitled “Elucidating the structural basis for neurodegeneration caused by a mutation in tRNAArgUCU“.
	June 3-9, 2017 Tien-Hao Chen gave an oral presentation at the Gordon-Kenan Research Seminar on Nucleic Acids and presented a poster at the Gordon Research Conference on Nucleic Acids in Biddeford, ME. Both presentations were entitled “Substrate Recognition by Arabidopsis Proteinaceous RNase P Isoenzymes: Insights into Catalysis”.
	June 1-5, 2017 Anindita Sengupta presented her poster entitled “Uncovering the Mechanism of Action of a Salmonella Deglycase, a Potential Drug Target” at the annual American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Microbe Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
	May 30, 2017 Welcome to National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) students Jeffrin Wisel and Dechen Wangmo! Jeffrin is a rising 4th year majoring in Biochemistry here at OSU and will study the mechanism of inhibition of a Salmonella degylcase by small molecules. Dechen, who will primarily work with Dr. Kotaro Nakanishi, is a rising 4th year majoring in Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN, and will study structural changes wrought by a mutation in tRNAArgUCU that causes neurodegeneration in mice.
	May 16, 2017 Congratulations to Anindita Sengupta and former undergraduate students Angela Zabala, Si-Yu Tan, and Arthur Broadstock for having their paper “Characterization of an ionic liquid-tolerant ß-xylosidase from a marine-derived fungal endophyte” accepted for publication in Biochemistry and Cell Biology! This work was part of a collaborative effort with Trichur Suryanarayanan at the Vivekananda Institute of Tropical Mycology in Chennai, India.
	May 10, 2017 Welcome to new undergraduate researcher Dan Dyszlewski! Dan is a rising 4th year majoring in Biochemistry here at OSU.
	May 9, 2017 Seth Lyon and Ila Marathe presented posters at the annual Cellular, Molecular, and Biochemical Sciences Training Program and Center for RNA Biology Symposium here at OSU. Seth’s poster was entitled “Utilization of an RNase P-based assay for accurate measurement of 5′-modification in tRNAs” while Ila’s was entitled “Dissecting Structural and Functional Cooperation in RNase P, a Multi-Subunit Catalytic Ribonucleoprotein”.
	May 7, 2017 Congratulations to Nick Thomsen for graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree at Spring Commencement today!
	May 1, 2017 Congratulations to Seth Lyon for receiving a Pelotonia Undergraduate Research Fellowship! Pelotonia is a grassroots bike tour that raises millions of dollars each year for cancer research at OSU. Seth will study how mitochondrial DNA mutations and their effect on RNase P processing contribute to cancer.
	April 24, 2017 Congratulations to Lien Lai, Stella Lai, Ila Marathe, and former graduate student Wen-Yi Chen for having their paper “A novel double kink-turn module in euryarchaeal RNase P RNAs” accepted for publication in Nucleic Acids Research! This work was part of a collaborative effort with Akiko Tanimoto and Vicki Wysocki here at OSU and Eric Westhof at the University of Strasbourg in France.
	April 24, 2017 Seth Lyon was featured in the “ASC Spotlight” series on the OSU College of Arts and Sciences website: https://artsandsciences.osu.edu/news-events/asc-spotlights/seth-lyon
	April 19, 2017 Congratulations to Stella Lai for successfully defending her Master’s thesis entitled “Defective tRNA Processing Contributes to Neurodegeneration in Mice”! She will officially graduate from the Anatomy Graduate Program this August at Summer Commencement.
	April 18, 2017 Congratulations to Seth Lyon for receiving an Edward G. Mayers Scholarship from the OSU College of Arts and Sciences to conduct research in the lab this summer!
	April 14, 2017 Congratulations to Seth Lyon for receiving an Undergraduate Research Scholarship from the OSU College of Arts and Sciences to conduct research in the lab this upcoming school year!
	April 10, 2017 Congratulations to Nick Thomsen for winning a Best Poster Award at the Natural and Mathematical Sciences Undergraduate Research Forum for his poster entitled “Uncovering the biochemical properties of the Salmonella deglycase FraB, a potential drug target”!
	April 10, 2017 Seth Lyon and Nick Thomsen presented posters in the Chemical and Biochemical Sciences division at the Natural and Mathematical Sciences Undergraduate Research Forum here at OSU. Seth’s poster was entitled “Utilization of an RNase P-based assay for accurate measurement of 5′-modification in tRNAs” while Nick’s was entitled “Uncovering the biochemical properties of the Salmonella deglycase FraB, a potential drug target”.
	April 10, 2017 Welcome to new Ohio State Biochemistry Program (OSBP) graduate student Blake Szkoda! Blake earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from Marietta College in Marietta, OH.
	March 29, 2017 Congratulations to Seth Lyon for winning first place in the “Addressing Complex Questions in Chemical and Biochemical Sciences” division at the Richard J. and Martha D. Denman Undergraduate Research Forum for his poster entitled “Utilization of an RNase P-based assay for accurate measurement of 5′-modification in tRNAs”!
	March 29, 2017 Seth Lyon and Nick Thomsen presented posters in the “Addressing Complex Questions in Chemical and Biochemical Sciences” division at the Richard J. and Martha D. Denman Undergraduate Research Forum here at OSU. Seth’s poster was entitled “Utilization of an RNase P-based assay for accurate measurement of 5′-modification in tRNAs” while Nick’s was entitled “Uncovering the biochemical properties of the Salmonella deglycase FraB, a potential drug target”.
	March 28, 2017 Congratulations to Humza Qureshi for receiving a 2017-2018 Chemical Abstracts Service Endowment Scholarship Award from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry!
	March 25, 2017 Seth Lyon and Nick Thomsen presented posters at The Columbus Section Undergraduate and Graduate Poster Competition, which was sponsored by the Columbus Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the OSU Chemistry and Biochemistry Club, and held here in Columbus, OH. Seth’s poster was entitled “Utilization of an RNase P-based assay for accurate measurement of 5′-modification in tRNAs” while Nick’s was entitled “Uncovering the biochemical properties of the Salmonella deglycase FraB, a potential drug target”.
	March 22, 2017 Congratulations to Seth Lyon for receiving a 2017-2018 Gary Booth Scholarship from the OSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry!