NEWS

NEWS

2023

  • Our collaborative paper on TMEM63 proteins with Wang Zheng, Tian-Min Fu, and Jeff Holt is out in Neuron! Congratulations to Elakkiya Tamilselvan, Harper Smith, and all involved! More here.
  • Kidist Alemayehu, Hariharan Kannan, and Emily Scheib present their research at the Biochemistry 2998H poster session. Pictures here.
  • Shounak Mukherjee passes his candidacy exam! Congratulations Shounak!
  • Our NIH/NIGMS T34 GM145442 grant gets funded! Congratulations to Amy Ferketich, Shaurya Prakash, and all involved! More here.
  • Our collaborative work on CIB2/3 and TMC1/2 proteins is posted to the bioRxiv. Congratulations to all involved!
  • Elakkiya Tamilselvan gets a runner up poster prize at the OSU Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Symposium. Congratulations Elakkiya!!!
  • Daisy Alvarado, Annie Ashraf, Diana Lopez, Harper Smith, Zachary Smith, Elakkiya Tamilselvan, Wei-Hsiang (Felix) Weng, Haosheng Wen, and Carter Wheat present posters at the CMBP/RNA, MBTP, and IGP symposia! Pictures here.
  • Our collaborative paper with David P. Corey and Artur Indzhykulian’s groups reporting on mini-PCDH15 gene therapy is out in Nature Communications. Congratulations to all involved! More here and here.
  • Harsha presents “In-silico Investigation of Inner-Ear Mechanotransduction Complex” at the Biochemistry Seminar series.
  • Marcos receives a College of Arts and Sciences Mid-Career Faculty Excellence Award! Picture here.
  • Luis Casavilca Ramirez joins Rafael Brüschweiler’s lab. We wish him well!!
  • Harper Smith receives recognition for best OSU Biophysics presentation! Congratulations Harper!
  • Kidist Alemayehu receives an OSU Arts and Sciences summer scholarship and joins our group! Welcome and congratulations Kidist!!!
  • Emily Scheib receives a Chemistry and Biochemistry Scholarship! Congratulations Emily!!!
  • Hariharan Kannan receives a Berliner & Anderson Fund Chemistry Scholarship! Congratulations Hari!!!
  • Emily Scheib receives an OSU Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Scholarship and an International Research Grant! Congratulations Emily!!!
  • Hariharan Kannan is selected as an OSU Beckman Scholar. Congratulations Hari!!! More here.
  • Marcos presents “The Molecular Machinery of Hearing” at Virginia Tech Life Science Seminars, Virginia Tech.
  • Our work on the evolutionary biophysics of the tip-link handshake is out in the Molecular Biology and Evolution journal. Congratulations to Collin Nisler and all involved! More here.
  • Marcos presents “Molecular Biophysics of Hearing”. Student-organized Biophysics Week event, Cedarville University.
  • Marcos  presents “Towards an Atomic Model of the Inner-Ear Transduction Apparatus” at the 57th Biophysical Society Meeting.
  • Travis Harrison-Rawn, Hariharan Kannan, Colin Klaus, Harsha Mandayam Bharathi, Shounak Mukherjee, Emily Scheib, Haosheng Wen, Wei-Hsiang (Felix) Weng, and Carter Wheat present posters at the Biophysical Society meeting in San Diego! Pictures here.
  • Marcos presents “Integrating Experiments, AlphaFold2 Predictions, and Simulations to Investigate the Vertebrate Inner-Ear Transduction Apparatus” at the University of Chicago.
  • Luis Casavilca Ramirez, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Luis!!!
  • Yaw Agyemang joins our group. Welcome Yaw!!!

2022

  • Florencia Velez-Cortes, a former undergraduate student in our group, successfully defended her PhD at Columbia University. Picture here. Congratulations Dr. Velez-Cortes!
  • Hariharan Kannan receives an OSU undergraduate research scholarship. Congratulations Hari!
  • Zachary Smith passes his candidacy exam! Congratulations Zachary!
  • Marcos presents a poster titled “In-silico electrophysiology of experimentally supported AlphaFold2 TMC models of the vertebrate inner-ear mechanotransduction channel” at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting.
  • Harper Smith presents “Incorporating constraints into AlphaFold2 predictions of protein complexes” at the OSU Biophysics Seminar Day.
  • Our grant for Molecular Dynamics simulations on the specialized Anton 2 supercomputer has been renewed! Thanks to the National Research Council at the National Academies of Science and to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.
  • Daisy Alvarado passes her candidacy exam! Congratulations Daisy!
  • Marcos presents “Integrating Experiments, AlphaFold2 Predictions, and Simulations to Investigate the Vertebrate Inner-Ear Transduction Apparatus” at the Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland.
  • Carter Wheat passes his candidacy exam! Congratulations Carter!
  • Prithwidip returns to Marseille. Picture of farewell lunch here. We wish him well!!!
  • Marcos presents “Deep dreaming of hearing and balance proteins: Integrating Experiments, AlphaFold2 Predictions, and Simulations to Investigate the Vertebrate Inner-Ear Transduction Apparatus” for promotion to full professor at OSU.
  • Prithwidip Saha, from Felix Rico’s lab, starts a visit to our lab. Welcome Prithwidip!!!
  • Elakkiya Tamilselvan presents “Investigating the adhesive function of CELSR1, an atypical cadherin involved in planar cell polarity” at the OSU Biophysics Seminar Day.
  • Our collaborator’s R01 grant “Molecular and cellular mechanisms of actin cytoskeleton organization and function” (lead by Dmitri Kudryashov at OSU) has been funded by NIH/NIGMS!
  • Marcos presents “Integrating Experiments, AlphaFold 2 Predictions, and Simulations to Investigate the Vertebrate Inner-Ear Transduction Apparatus” at the EMBO Workshop “When predictions meet experiments: The future of structure determination” in Palermo, Italy. More here.
  • Marcos presents “Evolutionary mechanics of adhesive bonds essential for hearing” at the 21st Human Frontier Science Project Awardees Meeting in Paris. More here.
  • Ismahene returns to Marseille. Pictures of farewell breakfast here. We wish her well!!!
  • Emily Scheib, Liam Shanahan, and Marcos attend the Beckman Symposium at UIUC. Picture here.
  • Our R01 renewal grant application “Nanomechanics of Inner-Ear Hair-Cell Transduction” has been funded by NIH/NIDCD! This is a $1.8M grant for five years.
  • Emily Scheib and Hariharan Kannan present posters on their summer work! Pictures here.
  • Ismahene Mesbah, from Felix Rico’s lab, starts a visit to our lab. Welcome Ismahene!!!
  • Marcos attends the Gordon Research Conference on Ion Channels. More here.
  • Diana Lopez attends COMP BIO ASIA 2022 in Thailand. More here.
  • Collin Nisler starts at University of Chicago as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Jack W. Szostak. We wish him well!!!
  • Ashley Le, a biochemistry undergraduate, joins our lab. Welcome Ashley!
  • Our collaborative multi-PI R01 grant application “Development of Gene Therapy for Hereditary Deafness using Rational Protein Engineering” in collaboration with David P. Corey and Artur Indzhykulian has been funded by NIH/NIDCD. More here and here.
  • Wang Zheng from Jef Holt’s laboratory at Harvard University starts visit to OSU campus.
  • Marcos presents “Towards an Atomistic Model of the Inner-Ear Transduction Apparatus” at the “Molecular Biology of Hearing and Deafness” conference in Iowa City. More here.
  • Diana Lopez gets a runner up poster prize at the OSU Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Symposium. Congratulations Diana!!!
  • Zachary Smith presents on simulations of surface induced dissociation at the OSU Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Symposium.
  • Daisy Alvarado, Annie Ashraf, Diana Lopez, and Elakkiya Tamilselvan present posters at the OSU Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Symposium
  • Carter Wheat receives a fellowship from the Cellular, Biochemical, and Molecular Sciences Training Program. Congratulations!!!
  • Sanket Walujkar starts at Harvard University as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Rachelle Gaudet. We wish him well!!!
  • Jasan and Collin move on to their next adventures in life, we wish them well!!! Farewell pictures here.
  • Emily Scheib is selected as an OSU Beckman Scholar. Congratulations Emily!!! More here and here.
  • Travis Harrison-Rawn, Hariharan Kannan, and Emily Scheib receive undergraduate chemistry scholarships. Congratulations!!!
  • Hariharan Kannan and Emily Scheib present their research at the Biochemistry 2998H poster session. Pictures here.
  • Former OSU undergraduate group members Jeffrey Lotthammer (at Washington U. St. Louis) and Joseph Sudar (at NYU) receive NSF fellowships. Congratulation Jeff and Joe!!!
  • Hariharan Kannan received an Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP-OSU) fellowship (declined) and CBC scholarship (accepted) for summer research. Congratulations Hari!!!
  • Harper Smith, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, joins our group. Welcome Harper!
  • Haosheng Wen, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, joins our group. Welcome Haosheng!
  • Brandon Neel gets a job at Detect! Congratulations!
  • Zachary Smith gives a talk and Elakkiya Tamilselvan, Wei-Hsiang (Felix) Weng, Zachary Smith, Jasanvir Sandhu, Qurat Ashraf, Travis Harrison-Rawn, and Carter Wheat present 4 posters at the Biophysical Society meeting in San Francisco! Pictures here.
  • Marcos presents “Structure of a force-conveying cadherin bond essential for inner-ear mechanotransducion” at the SoBLA Journal Club “Science behind the scenes”. More here.
  • Our work on the mechanics of single cadherin bonds and mini-cadherin junctions is out in two back-to-back publications in the Biophysical Journal! Congratulations Brandon Neel, Collin Nisler, Sanket Walujkar, and Raul Araya-Secchi! More here and here.
  • Our collaborative paper with the Dalbey group reporting on essential properties of the YidC membrane insertase is out in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Congratulations to all involved! More here.
  • Marcos presents “Molecular Mechanisms Underlying CIB Function in Inner-Ear Mechanotransduction” at the 45th Annual MidWinter Meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. More here.
  • Haosheng Wen, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Haosheng!!!
  • Our collaborative paper with the Moiseenkova-Bell group reporting on the structure and simulations of the TRPY1 channel is out in Structure and we got the cover! Congratulations to all involved, including Collin Nisler and Sanket Walujkar! More here and here.
  • Emily Scheib and Hariharan Kannan, undergraduates at OSU, join our group as part of the 2998H “Early Research Experience” course. Welcome!!!
  • Sanket Walujkar comes back for commencement! Pictures here.

2021

  • Our work on gut cadherins (PCDH24 and CDHR5) is published in PLoS Biology!  Congratulations to all involved, including Mich Gray, Zachary Johnson, Debadrita Modak, and Elakkiya Tamilselvan! More here.
  • The Beckman Scholars program at OSU, directed by Dr. Venkat Gopalan and co-directed by Marcos gets funded. Congratulations to all involved! More here.
  • Collin Nisler successfully defends his PhD dissertation “Interpreting the Evolutionary Echoes of a Protein Complex Essential for Inner-Ear Mechanosensation”. Congratulations Collin!!! Picture here.
  • Shounak Mukherjee, a graduate student in the Chemistry PhD program, joins our group. Welcome Shounak!
  • Elakkiya Tamilselvan and Felix Weng receive travel awards to attend the Biophysical Society Meeting. Congratulations Elakkiya and Felix!
  • Wei-Hsiang (Felix) Weng passes his candidacy exam! Congratulations Felix!
  • Marcos presents “Audición, Protocadherina-15, y Terapia Genética para el Síndrome de Usher”. Ear Summit Colombia.
  • Our proposal for Molecular Dynamics simulations on the specialized Anton 2 supercomputer has been awarded! Thanks to the National Research Council at the National Academies of Science and to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.
  • Sanket Walujkar successfully defends his PhD dissertation “In Silico Studies of Mechanotransduction and Cell Adhesion Proteins”. Congratulations Sanket!!! Pictures here.
  • Marcos presents “Cadherins have the guts!”. University of Toledo, Ohio, USA.
  • Serina Smith moves on to her next adventures in life, we wish her well!!!
  • Shounak Mukherjee, a graduate student from the Chemistry PhD program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Shounak!!!
  • Our collaborative paper with the Cooper group reporting on the structure of the entire PCDH19 ectodomain is out in Structure and we got the cover! Congratulations to Jonathan Hudson, Elakkiya Tamilselvan, and Sharon Cooper! More here.
  • Harsha Mandayam Bharathi passes his candidacy exam! Congratulations Harsha!
  • Marcos presents “The Molecular Machinery of Hearing”. Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Virginia, USA.
  • Our work on “In Silico Electrophysiology of Inner-Ear Mechanotransduction Channel TMC1 Models” is posted to the biorXiv. Congratulations Sanket Walujkar, Jeffrey Lotthammer, Collin Nisler, Joseph Sudar, and Angela Ballesteros!
  • Our request to renew supercomputing time at XSEDE (PSC Bridges and TACC Stampede2) has been accepted. Thanks NSF/XSEDE!
  • Brandon Neel successfully defends his PhD dissertation “Adhesion and Mechanics in the Cadherin Superfamily of Proteins”. Congratulations Brandon!!! Picture here.
  • Debadrita Modak comes back to Columbus for commencement. Pictures here.
  • Our work on “Collective Mechanical Responses of Cadherin-Based Adhesive Junctions as Predicted by Simulations” is posted to the biorXiv. Congratulations Brandon Neel, Collin Nisler, Sanket Walujkar, and Raul Araya-Secchi!
  • Our work on “Elastic versus Brittle Mechanical Responses Predicted for Dimeric Cadherin Complexes” is posted to the biorXiv. Congratulations Brandon Neel, Collin Nisler, Sanket Walujkar, and Raul Araya-Secchi!
  • Our access to supercomputing time at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) has been renewed. Thanks OSC/OSU!
  • Qurat Ashraf, Diana Lopez, Brandon Neel, Collin Nisler, and Elakkiya Tamilselvan present posters at the Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Symposium.
  • Mich and Janina move on to their next adventures in life, we wish them well!!! Farewell pictures here.
  • Collin Nisler presents “Desmosomal cadherins beating under tension” at the molecular biophysics training program symposium.
  • Serina Smith receives an undergraduate research scholarship. Congratulations Serina!!!
  • Daisy Alvarado, a graduate student from the Biophysics PhD program, joins our group. Welcome Daisy!!!
  • Our collaborator’s R01 grant “Protocadherin control of cell proliferation and differentiation” (lead by James Jontes at OSU) has been funded by NIH/NIGMS!
  • Diana Lopez passes her candidacy exam! Congratulations Diana!
  • Zachary Smith, a graduate student from the Biophysics PhD program, joins our group. Welcome Zachary!!!
  • Marcos presents “The Molecular Machinery of Hearing” at the SBGrid. More here.
  • Travis Harrison-Rawn receives an undergraduate research apprenticeship program scholarship. Congratulations Travis!!!
  • Our collaborative paper with the Bell group on understanding the oligomeric states of RedBeta is out in Nucleic Acids Research. Congratulations to all involved and to Brian Caldwell, Carter Wheat, and Deepanshu Choudhary! More here.
  • Our work on CDH17, a protein involved in adhesion and multiple cancers, is published in Acta Crystallographica Section F! Congratulations to Mich Gray! More here.
  • Collin Nisler and Tofayel Ahmed present posters on TRPY1 at the biophysical society meeting.
  • Collin Nisler presents “The Evolutionary Biophysics of a Force-Conveying Protein Complex Required for Vertebrate Hearing” as a talk at the Association for Research in Otolaryngology Midwinter meeting.
  • Carter Wheat, a graduate student from the Ohio State Biochemistry PhD program, joins our group. Welcome Carter!!!
  • Daisy Alvarado, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Daisy!!!
  • Neal Taliwal joins our group. Welcome Neal!!!
  • Our collaborative paper with the Kudryashov group on understanding actin cross-linking domain toxicity is out in the international journal of molecular sciences. Congratulations to all involved and to Harper Smith! More here.
  • Zachary Smith, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Zachary!!!
  • Travis Harrison-Rawn joins our group. Welcome Travis!!!

2020

  • Marcos presents “Un Puente de Proteínas para Escuchar y para Aprender de Biofísica”. Charla Plenaria, XXII Simposio Chileno de Física, Santiago (Zoom), Chile.
  • Marcos presents “Molecular Mechanics of Hearing”. Department of Physics Colloquium, The Ohio State University, Columbus (Zoom), USA.
  • Brandon Neel presents at the CMBP seminar series.
  • Elakkiya Tamilselvan presents at the Biophysics Seminar series.
  • Siddik Alom and Carter Wheat move on to their next rotation, we wish them well!!!
  • Our collaborative work on TRPY1 is posted to the biorXiv. Congratulations Collin Nisler!
  • Our work on structural models of the entire protocadherin-15 extracellular domain is published in PNAS! Congratulations to all involved! More here and here.
  • Our work on “Species-Dependent Heterophilic and Homophilic Cadherin Interactions in Intestinal Intermicrovillar Links” is posted to the biorXiv. Congratulations Michelle Gray, Debadrita Modak, and Zach Johnson!
  • Siddik Alom and Carter Wheat, graduate students from OSBP, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Siddik and Carter!!!
  • Jeshua Avila-Estrada moves on to his next adventures in life, we wish him well!!!
  • Michael Leake starts graduate school at OSU!
  • Jeshua Avila-Estrada successfully defends his master thesis “Elucidating the Structures of Cadherin-23 Repeats Essential for Hearing”. Congratulations Jeshua!!!
  • Lab members, present and past, meet on Zoom! Pictures here.
  • Debadrita Modak starts at Intel Corporation, we wish her well!!!
  • Jeffrey Lotthammer starts graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis, we wish him well!!!
  • Joseph Sudar starts graduate school at NYU, we wish him well!!!
  • Debadrita Modak successfully defends her PhD dissertation “Structural and biochemical studies of non-clustered protocadherins”. Congratulations Dr. Modak!!! Picture here.
  • Michelle Gray successfully defends their PhD dissertation “Towards Understanding the Cell Adhesion Mediated by Non-clustered Non-classical Protocadherins”. Congratulations Mich!!! Picture here.
  • Our collaborator’s R01 grant “Sonogenetic control of neurons in a large volume of the rodent brain” (lead by Sreekanth Chalasani at the Salk Institute) has been funded by NIH/NINDS!
  • Marissa Boyer starts as an Educator at the Aquarium of the Niagara Falls. We wish her well!!!
  • Diana Lopez and Collin Nisler present posters at the third annual symposium for the molecular biophysics training program.
  • Marissa Boyer gives a talk at the third annual symposium for the molecular biophysics training program.
  • Wei Hsiang (Felix) Weng, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, joins our group. Welcome Felix!!!
  • Jeffery Lotthammer successfully defends his undergraduate thesis “Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Inner-Ear Mechanotransduction Apparatus”. Congratulations Jeff!!!
  • Jasanvir Sandhu successfully defends his undergraduate thesis “Structures of Cadherin-23 Fragments and Molecular Mechanisms of Hearing and Deafness”. Congratulations Jesse!!! Picture here.
  • Marissa Boyer successfully defends her master thesis “Towards Solving the Structure of Inner Ear and Synaptic Proteins, Cadherin-23 and Calsyntenins 1-3“. Congratulations Marissa!!!
  • Mary Anne Rubio joins the lab as a honorary member to see what we do and to learn about structural biology. Welcome Mary Anne!
  • Marcos presents “Una Vista Molecular de la Percepción del Sonido” at Universidad Nacional Andrés Bello in Santiago, Chile.
  • Jeffrey Lotthammer wins a Biophysical Society Student Research Achievement Award (SRAA). Congratulations Jeff!!! More here.
  • Collin Nisler and Marcos give talks and Elakkiya Tamilselvan, Joseph Sudar, Jasanvir Sandhu, Brandon Neel, and Jeffrey Lotthammer present posters at the Biophysical Society Meeting! Pictures here.
  • Marcos gives a talk on “Structuring Inner-Ear Mechanotransduction” and Pedro presents a poster on “Building a Structural Model of the Tip-Link Cadherin-23 Protein” at the Association for Research in Otolaryngology Midwinter meeting. Picture here.

2019

  • Marcos to present at the “21st International Symposium on Calcium Binding Proteins and Calcium Function in Health and Disease” CaBP21 Shanghai, China 2020 (postponed!).
  • Rotating student Felix Weng moves on to his next rotation, we wish him well!!!
  • Harsha Mandayam Bharathi, a graduate student from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, joins our group. Welcome Harsha!!!
  • Debadrita Modak presents two posters at the American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting.
  • Sanket Walujkar, Jeffrey Lotthammer, and Marcos get trained to use the Anton 2 specialized supercomputer at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. Pictures here.
  • Marcos presents “Structuring Inner-Ear Mechanotransduction” at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH NIDCD) in Bethesda, Maryland.
  • Collin Nisler, Jeffrey Lotthammer, and Joseph Sudar receive travel awards to attend the Biophysical Society Meeting. Congratulations Collin, Jeff, and Joe!!!
  • Debadrita Modak receives a travel award to attend the American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting. Congratulations Debadrita!!!
  • Brandon L. Neel receives OSU’s presidential fellowship, the most prestigious award given by the graduate school. Congratulations Brandon!!!
  • Joseph Sudar successfully defends his undergraduate thesis. Congratulations Joe!!!
  • Our abstracts for the Biophysical Society Meeting in San Diego have been scheduled. We will be presenting two talks and three posters! (more here).
  • Our proposal for Molecular Dynamics simulations on the specialized Anton 2 supercomputer has been awarded! Thanks to the National Research Council at the National Academies of Science and to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.
  • Wei Hsiang (Felix) Weng, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Felix!!!
  • Our work on the identification of an adhesive interface for PCDH1, a protein involved in morphogenesis and respiratory diseases, is published in Communications Biology! Congratulations to Debadrita Modak! More here.
  • Marcos presents the Science Sundays lecture “The Molecular Machinery of Hearing”. More here.
  • Harsha Mandayam Bharathi moves on to his next rotation, we wish him well!!!
  • Our collaborative paper with the Shafaat group on how to modulate the hydrogenase activity of Nickel-Substituted Rubredoxin is out in ACS Catalysis. Congratulations to all involved and to Michelle Gray! More here.
  • Marissa Boyer passes her candidacy exam! Congratulations Marissa!
  • Our collaborative paper with the Gaudet group on clustered protocadherin binding specificity is published in PNAS. Congratulations to all involved and to Sanket Walujkar! More here.
  • Marcos presents “Structuring and Modeling Inner-Ear Mechanotransduction” at the Deparment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University.
  • Harsha Mandayam Bharathi, a graduate student from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Harsha!!!
  • Janina Anokye joins our group. Welcome!!!
  • Deepanshu Choudhary successfully defends his PhD dissertation “Structural Determinants and Biophysical Characterization of Inner-Ear Protein Complexes Implicated in Hearing and Deafness”. Congratulations Dr. Choudhary!!! Pictures here.
  • Zachary Smith returns to Truman State University after a successful REU. Pictures here.
  • Leah Pastor starts at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, we wish her well!!!
  • Our collaborative paper with the Nakanishi group on Argonaute water clusters is published in Molecular Cell. Congratulations to all involved and specially to Raul Araya-Secchi. More here.
  • Marcos presents a poster on protocadherin-15 at the 19th Human Frontier Science Program Awardees meeting in Japan, where he also met with Felix Rico to discuss their project on the Evolutionary Mechanics of Adhesion Complexes! Pictures here.
  • Our work on structural models of the entire protocadherin-15 extracellular domain is posted to the bioRxiv. Congratulations to all involved!
  • Marissa Boyer and Diana Lopez receive fellowships from the Molecular Biophysics Training Program. Congratulations!!!
  • Michelle Gray presents a talk on a cadherin that uses more than a handshake at the Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Symposium. Congratulations Michelle!!!
  • Marcos presents “Sixty years in the making: A molecular movie of inner-ear mechanotransduction” at the Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Symposium.
  • Elakkiya Tamilselvan wins a prize for her poster presentatoin at the Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Symposium. Congratulations Elakkiya!!!
  • Brandon Neel, Collin Nisler, and Elakkiya Tamilselvan present posters at the Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Symposium.
  • Zachary Smith from Truman State University starts a summer REU. Welcome Zachary!!!
  • Collin Nisler wins a prize for his poster presentation at the Molecular Biophysics Training Program Symposium. Congratulations Collin!!!
  • Marissa Boyer, Collin Nisler, and Sanket Walujkar present posters at the Molecular Biophysics Training Program Symposium.
  • Brandon Neel presents a poster at the Cellular, Molecular & Biochemical Sciences Training Program/Center for RNA Biology Annual Symposium and wins a prize for his presentation. Congratulations Brandon!!!
  • Jeshua Avila joins for an extended rotation. Welcome Jeshua!!!
  • Diana Lopez joins the Castro and Sotomayor laboratories. Welcome Diana!!!
  • Nick Hazen joins Jun Liu’s lab. We wish him well!!!
  • Michael Leake and Leah Pastor graduate and join our group as research assistants. Congratulations on graduation!!!
  • Jeffrey Lotthammer and Joseph Sudar receive Mayers summer research scholarships. Congratulations!!!
  • Joseph Sudar receives a scholarship from the Kraska endowed chemistry scholarship fund. Congratulations!!!
  • Jeffrey Lotthammer receives a scholarship from the Gary Booth scholarship fund. Congratulations!!!
  • Jeffrey Lotthammer and Serina Smith receive undergraduate research scholarships. Congratulations!!!
  • Leah Pastor successfully defends her undergraduate thesis. Congratulations Leah!!!
  • Serina Smith presents her research at the Biochemistry 2998H poster session. See her here.
  • Debadrita Modak presents a poster at the FOCUS symposium research symposium and wins first place in the graduate division. Congratulations Debadrita!
  • Yoshie Narui presents on “Structures and Simulations of Membrane Adjacent Fragments of Protocadherin-15” at the Biophysical Society meeting.

  • Brandon Neel, Elakkiya Tamilselvan, Sanket Walujkar, Jeffrey Lotthammer, and Joseph Sudar present posters at the Biophysical Society Meeting! Pictures here.
  • Sanket Walujkar receives a travel award to attend the Biophysical Society Meeting. Congratulations Sanket!!!
  • Leah Pastor presents a poster at the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum and wins third place prize in her catergory! Congratulations Leah!!!
  • Marcos presents a poster on the “Structure and Elasticity of a Complete Protocadherin-15 Dimer” and another poster on “Ion Permeation in Molecular Dynamics Simulations of TMEM16-based TMC1 Homology Models” at the Association for Research in Otolaryngology Midwinter meeting.
  • Our collaborative paper with the Gopalan group on Protein-Only RNase P Isoenzymes is published in the Journal of Molecular Biology. Congratulations to all involved!!! More here.
  • Dr. Claire Valotteau returns to Marseille. Pictures of farewell dinner along with postdocs here. We wish her well!!!
  • Diana Lopez and Nick Hazen, graduate students from the biophysics program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Diana and Nick!!!
  • Dr. Claire Valotteau starts a visit to our lab. Welcome Claire!!!
  • The HFSP team meets in Chicago to talk about Evolutionary Mechanics of Adhesion Complexes! Picture here.
  • Harper Smith moves on to his next rotation, we wish him well!!!

2018

  • Our work on protocadherin-1 is posted to the bioRxiv! Congratulations Debadrita Modak!
  • Our collaborative work with the Gaudet group on clustered protocadherin binding specificity is posted to the bioRxiv! Congratulations to all involved and to Sanket Walujkar!
  • Collin Nisler, Michelle Gray, and Marcos present posters at the American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting. More here and here.
  • Marcos presents “Revealing the structure and dynamics of cadherin assemblies involved in morphogenesis and hearing” at the Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
  • Our work on the membrane adjacent domain (MAD) of PCDH15, a protein essential for hearing, is published in the Biophysical Journal! Congratulations to Pedro De-la-Torre, Deepanshu Choudhary, Raul Araya-Secchi, and Yoshie Narui! More here.
  • Leah Pastor and Joe Sudar present posters at the Autumn Undergraduate Research Festival!
  • Marcos presents “Revealing the structure and dynamics of cadherin assemblies involved in morphogenesis and hearing” at the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology seminar series in Vanderbilt University.
  • Paula Blazquez-Sanchez finishes her visit to our lab. Farewell pictures here. We wish her well!!!
  • Harper Smith, a graduate student from the Biophysics program will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Harper!!!
  • Yoshie Narui moves on to work at CEMAS! Farewell pictures here. We wish her well!!!
  • Marcos presents “Biochemistry of Hearing” at the XLI Annual Meeting of the Chilean Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Society in Iquique, Chile.
  • Debadrita Modak presents a poster on protocadherin-1 at the Evans-Dow graduate student poster session!
  • Jeshua Avila, moves on to his next rotation, we wish him well!!!
  • Marcos presents “Resolving the structural determinants of cadherin function in morphogenesis and hearing” for his tenure talk! Pictures here.
  • Deepanshu Choudhary presents at Poster on the Tip-Link Complex at the Molecular Structure Elucidation Gordon Research Conference.
  • Pranay Arora starts at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, we wish him well!!!
  • Michael Leake, undergraduate at OSU, joins our group. Welcome Michael!!!
  • Paula Blazquez-Sanchez starts a visit to our lab. Welcome Paula!!!
  • Our work on TMC1 simulations is published in Neuron! Congratulations to all involved and specially to Sanket Walujkar and Lahiru Wimalasena! More here and here.
  • Elakkiya Tamilselvan passes her candidacy exam! Congratulations Elakkiya!
  • Jeshua Avila, a graduate student from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Jeshua!!!
  • Our work on cadherin-23, a protein essential for hearing, is published in Structure along with 13 structures! Congratulations to Avinash Jaiganesh, Pedro De-la-Torre, Aniket A. Patel, Domenic J. Termine, Florencia Velez-Cortes, and Conghui Chen. More here.
  • Our lab is 5 years old! 🙂
  • Marcos presents a poster on “The Tip-Link Complex In Vitro and In Silico” at the “Auditory System” Gordon Research Conference.
  • Marcos presents a poster on “Brain Wiring and Sound Perception Enabled by Exceptional Cadherins” at the Gordon Research Conference on “Signaling by Adhesion Receptors”.
  • We have a lab logo!

  • Our request to renew supercomputing time at XSEDE (PSC Bridges and TACC Stampede2) has been accepted. Thanks NSF/XSEDE!
  • The 2018 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience has been awarded to Jim Hudspeth, Robert Fettiplace, and Christine Petit “for their pioneering work on the molecular and neuronal mechanisms of hearing”. Congratulations to the winners! A good year for hair cells!!!
  • Marissa Boyer receives a fellowship from the Molecular Biophysics Training Program. Congratulations!!!
  • Collin Nisler presents “The evolutionary biophysics of a force conveying protein complex composed of PCDH15 and CDH23” and wins best oral presentation award at the Molecular Biophysics Symposium. Congratulations Collin!!!
  • Avinash Jaiganesh starts at Northwestern University as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Kathleen Green. We wish him well!!!
  • Brandon Neel presents “Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Adherens Junction” at the Cellular, Molecular, and Biochemical Sciences Training Program /  Center for RNA Biology Annual Symposium. Congratulations Brandon!!!
  • Marcos presents a poster at the EMBO workshop on Molecular Neurobiology.
  • Our R01 grant “Molecular basis of brush border assembly” lead by Matthew Tyska at Vanderbilt University has been funded by NIH/NIDDK!
  • Marcos presents “Molecular Mechanics of Hearing” at the Bollum Symposium in Chemical and Structural Biology, The University of Minnesota.
  • Jesse Sandhu presents his research at the Biochemistry 2998H poster session. See him here!
  • Jeffrey Lotthammer, Leah Pastor, and Joe Sudar receive Mayers summer research scholarships. Congratulations!!!
  • Avinash Jaiganesh, our first full graduate student, successfully defends his PhD dissertation “Cadherin-23 Structure, Function and Nanomechanics in Hearing and Deafness”. Congratulations Dr. Jaiganesh!!! Pictures here.
  • Marcos presents “Inner-Ear Sensory Perception and Brain Wiring Enabled by Exceptional Cadherins” at the Computational Neuroscience Seminar Series in the University of Chicago.
  • Our work on PETase, a plastic-degrading enzyme, is published in Biophysical Journal! Congratulations to all involved, specially Pablo Galaz-Davison and Yoshie Narui! More here.
  • The Human Frontier Science Program funds a team lead by Marcos with Vinny Lynch (U. Chicago) and Felix Rico (INSERM) to study the “Evolutionary Mechanics of Adhesion Complexes”. More here. Thanks HFSP!
  • Jeffrey Lotthammer, undergraduate at OSU, joins our group. Welcome!!!
  • Leah Pastor presents a poster at the Denman and NMS Undergraduate Research forums!
  • Debadrita Modak presents a talk on her work on protocadherin-1 at OSU’s Hayes forum and wins first prize in Biological Sciences. Congratulations Debadrita!!!
  • Debadrita Modak presents a poster and a flash talk on her work on protocadherin-1 at the Biophysical Society Meeting in San Francisco and wins a Student Research Achievement Award (SRAA). Congratulations Debadrita!!! More here.
  • Our request to renew supercomputing time at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) has been accepted. Thanks OSC!
  • Our work on tip-link bond variants involving protocadherin-15 splice isoforms is published in Biochemistry! Congratulations Yoshie Narui! More here and here.
  • Marcos receives the 2018 Geraldine Dietz Fox Young Investigator Award at the Association for Research in Otolaryngology midwinter meeting in San Diego. Thank you Ms. Dietz Fox and ARO!!! More here and here.

2017

  • Our work on using thermal scanning assays to test protein-protein interactions of inner-ear cadherins is published in PLoS ONE! Congratulations to Deepanshu Choudhary! More here and here.
  • Colin Klaus, a postdoc at the mathematical biosciences institute starts collaborating with us on modeling hearing transduction. Welcome!!!
  • Jasanvir (Jesse) Sandhu, undergraduate at OSU, joins our group as part of the 2998H “Early Research Experience” course. Welcome!!!
  • Rotating student Marissa Boyer joins our group. Welcome Marissa!!!
  • Rotating student Xinyao Xiang joins the Bruschweiler lab, we wish her well!!!
  • Rotating student Lucas Runyan joins the Kudryashov lab, we wish him well!!!
  • Marcos presents “Molecular Mechanics of Hearing” at Iowa State University.
  • Debadrita Modak has been selected as a recipient of a 2018 Education Committee Travel Award to present her work at the 62nd Biophysical Society Meeting in San Francisco. Congratulations Debadrita!!!
  • Deepanshu Choudhary wins third place for his presentation at the Dow Graduate Poster Session. Congratulations Deepanshu!!!
  • Marcos presents “Sound Perception and Brain Wiring Enabled by Exceptional Cadherins” at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in Washington DC.
  • Marcos presents “Large-Scale Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Cadherin Complexes” at Klaus Schulten’s Memorial Symposium. More here.
  • Pablo Galaz-Davison’s visit is highlighted by ASBMB. More here. Congratulation Pablo!!!
  • Lucas Runyan and Xinyao Xiang, graduate students from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Lucas and Xinyao!!!
  • Marcos participates in the first PUC/OSU symposium in Chile. More info here and here.
  • Marissa Boyer, a graduate student from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Marissa!!!
  • Pablo Galaz-Davison finishes his ASBMB-sponsored visit to our lab. We wish him well!!!
  • Our review paper on cadherin-23 and protocadherin-15 is published in Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology! Congratulations to Avinash Jaiganesh, Yoshie Narui, and Raul Araya-Secchi! More here.
  • Sanket Walujkar passes his candidacy exam! Congratulations Sanket!
  • Debadrita Modak and Pedro De-la-Torre participate in Pelotonia 2017! Picture here.
  • Brandon Neel passes his candidacy exam! Congratulations Brandon!
  • Lahiru Wimalasena starts graduate school at Georgia Tech, we wish him well!!!
  • Sharon Cooper starts at Cedarville University as an Assistant Professor of Biology. We wish her well!!!
  • Collin Nisler passes his candidacy exam! Congratulations Collin!
  • Pablo Galaz-Davison starts a visit to our lab sponsored by an ASBMB fellowship. Welcome Pablo!!!
  • Raul Araya-Secchi moves on to a postdoc position at the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark. We wish him well!!!
  • Collin Nisler receives a fellowship from the Molecular Biophysics Training Program. Congratulations!!!
  • Brandon Neel receives a fellowship from the Cellular, Biochemical, and Molecular Sciences Training Program. Congratulations!!!
  • Marcos presents “Strings Attached: Sound Perception and Brain Wiring Enabled by Cadherins” at the OSU CMBP symposium.
  • Lahiru Wimalasena graduates with a double major in Biochemistry and Biomedical Engineering. Congratulations!!!
  • Debadrita Modak and Pedro De-La-Torre receive Pelotonia fellowships. Congratulations!!! Thank you Pelotonia!
  • Rotating student Elakkiya Tamilselvan joins our group. Welcome Elakkiya!!!
  • Marcos receives the Dr. Elizabeth L. Gross Award for Faculty Excellence from the Biophysics Graduate Program. Thanks!!!
  • Dr. Jim Hudspeth visits OSU as the Robert Ross Lecturer for the Graduate Biophysics Program. Thanks for a fantastic lecture and visit!
  • Marcos presents “Strings Attached: Sound Perception and Brain Wiring Enabled by Cadherins” at the ASBMB meeting in Chicago.
  • Nick Alcorn and Leah Pastor present their research at the Biochemistry 2998H poster session.
  • Sharon Cooper successfully defends her PhD dissertation “Delta-Protocadherin Function From Molecular Adhesion Properties to Brain Circuitry”. Congratulations Dr. Cooper!!! Pictures here.
  • Elakkiya Tamilselvan, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Elakkiya!!!
  • Pranay Arora and Lahiru Wimalasena present posters at the Denman forum!
  • Joseph Sudar joins our group and receives funding from the 2017 COE Undergraduate Summer Research Program. Welcome and congratulations!!!
  • Robert Power’s work on protocadherin-15 EC3-5 is published in Structure. Congratulations Robert! More here, here, and here.
  • Rotating student Songyu Dong joins the Kudryashov lab, we wish her well!!!
  • Brandon Neel presents a platform talk at the Biophysical Society meeting!
  • Pedro De-La-Torre, Sanket Walujkar, and Lahiru Wimalasena present posters at the Biophysical Society meeting!
  • Yoshie Narui presents a poster at the Association for Research in Otolaryngology meeting!
  • Leah Pastor and Nick Alcorn, undergraduates at OSU, join our group as part of the 2998H “Early Research Experience” course. Welcome!!!
  • Songyu Dong, a graduate student from OSBP, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Songyu!!!

2016

  • Our work on a “kinked” protocadherin-15 piece is published in Nature Communications! Congratulations to Raul Araya-Secchi and Brandon Neel! More here and here.
  • Marcos presents “Strings Attached: Sound Perception, Brain Wiring, and Epithelial Morphogenesis Enabled by Cadherins” at OSU!
  • We mourn the passing of Klaus Schulten, an extremely generous mentor and friend, and a great person. From Klaus we learned, among so many other things, that we should dream big, and that we can and always should try to make those dreams happen, as he did. We will never forget his enthusiasm, his generosity, and his ability to make dreams come true. Farewell Klaus, a true pioneer! In memory of Klaus Schulten here. Obituary here.
  • Our work on protocadherin-19 is published in eLife! Congratulations Sharon Cooper! More here and here.
  • Marcos presents “Strings Attached: Sound Perception and Brain Wiring Enabled by Cadherins” at Case Western Reserve University (OH).
  • Florencia Velez-Cortes starts graduate school at Columbia University, we wish her well!!!
  • Aniket Patel starts pharmD program at OSU, we wish him well!!!
  • Domenic Termine starts Med School at Cincinnati College of Medicine, we wish him well!!!
  • Adrienne Thornburg starts her job at MD Anderson Cancer Center, we wish her well!!!
  • Deepanshu Choudhary passes his candidacy exam! Congratulations Deepanshu!
  • Florencia, Collin, and Marcos lead a project with high school students at the OSC summer institute! More here.
  • Debadrita Modak passes her candidacy exam! Congratulations Debadrita!
  • Marcos presents “Modeling the Molecular Mechanics of Hearing” at the 47th Central Regional Meeting (American Chemical Society) in the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. More here.
  • Avinash Jaiganesh gets first place and “outstanding oral presentation” at the OSU Life Sciences Interdisciplinary Graduate Program Symposium. Congratulations!!!
  • Michelle Gray presents a poster and Sharon Cooper and Avinash Jaiganesh give talks at the OSU Life Sciences Interdisciplinary Graduate Program Symposium! More here.
  • Marcos presents “Mechanisms and Mechanosensitivity: Exceptional Cadherins for Hearing, Balance & Beyond” at the University of Toledo (OH).
  • Conghui (Claire) Chen successfully defends her undergraduate thesis “Structural Studies of a Protocadherin-15 Fragment Essential for Hearing”. Congratulations Conghui!!!
  • Domenic Termine successfully defends his undergraduate thesis “Structural Determination and Biochemical Analysis of Cadherin-23 Repeats Essential to Hearing”. Congratulations Domenic!!!
  • Adrienne Thornburg successfully defends her master thesis “Resolving the molecular mechanisms of inherited deafness caused by missense mutations in cadherin-23”. Congratulations Adrienne!!!
  • Marcos presents “Mechanisms and Mechanosensitivity: Exceptional Cadherins for Hearing, Balance & Beyond” in the Physiology Seminar Series at the University of Kentucky.
  • Our R01 grant application “Nanomechanics of Inner-Ear Hair-Cell Transduction” has been funded by NIH/NIDCD! (more here).
  • Pranay Arora joins our group and receives funding from the 2016 COE Undergraduate Summer Research Program. Welcome and congratulations!!!
  • Lahiru receives a Mayers Summer Research Scholarship and the CBC Wilber Waight Canaga Memorial Scholarship award. Congratulations again!!!
  • Lahiru presents at the Denman forum and gets first place in the biological sciences category (more here and here). Congratulations!!!
  • Florencia receives an NSF fellowship! Congratulations!!!
  • Collin receives a Honorable Mention for his NSF application! Congratulations!!!
  • Marcos presents “Molecular Mechanics and Biochemistry of Hearing” at the Department of Chemistry and Physics, Indiana State University.
  • Pedro de la Torre Márquez comes back to our group as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome Pedro!!!
  • Collin Nisler, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, joins our group. Welcome Collin!!!
  • Sanket Walujkar, a graduate student from the Chemical Physics program, joins our group. Welcome Sanket!!!
  • Marcos presents “Mechanisms and Mechanosensitivity: Exceptional Cadherins for Hearing, Balance & Beyond” at the OSU College of Pharmacy.
  • Rotating student Hong Duc Phan moves on to his next rotation, we wish him well!!!
  • Florencia Velez-Cortes presents a platform talk at the Biophysical Society meeting!
  • Deepanshu Choudhary, Avinash Jaiganesh, Adrienne Thornburg, and Lahiru Wimalasena present posters at the Biophysical Society meeting!
  • Raúl Araya-Secchi presents a poster at the Association for Research in Otolaryngology meeting!
  • Hong Duc Phan, a graduate student from OSBP, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Hong Duc!!!

2015

  • Sharon Cooper is selected as the 2016 recipient of the Jeffrey J. Seilhamer Fellowship. Congratulations Sharon!!!
  • Florencia Velez-Cortes successfully defends her undergraduate thesis and graduates! Congratulations!
  • Brandon Neel, a graduate student from OSBP, joins our group. Welcome Brandon!!!
  • Rotating student Stephanie Kim moves on to her next rotation, we wish her well!!!
  • We have been awarded Anton supercomputing time. Thank you Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center!!!
  • Marcos presents “Modeling the Molecular Mechanics of Hearing” at the Ohio State Applied Math Seminar Series.
  • Biochemistry Undergrad Spotlight on Domenic Termine here and here.
  • Rotating student Zech Thompson moves on to his next rotation, we wish him well!!!
  • Marcos presents “Mechanisms and Mechanosensitivity: Exceptional Cadherins for Hearing and Balance” at the Society for Neuroscience Meeting in Chicago.
  • Sharon Cooper successfully presents a poster entitled “Examining the structural determinants of Protocadherin-19 function in brain morphogenesis and epilepsy” at the Society for Neuroscience Meeting in Chicago. Congratulations!
  • Stephanie Kim, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Stephanie!!!
  • Zech Thompson, a graduate student from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Zech!!!
  • Rotating students Brandon Neel and Collin Nisler move on to their next rotations, we wish them well!!!
  • Look at how protein crystals grow here! (or here with sound!) Movie by Domenic Termine.
  • Collin Nisler, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Collin!!!
  • Brandon Neel, a graduate student from the OSBP program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Brandon!!!
  • Carissa Klanseck starts Graduate School at UIUC, we wish her well!!!
  • Zach Johnson starts Med School at Marshall University, we wish him well!!!
  • Rotating student Sean Marguet moves on to his next rotation, we wish him well!!!
  • Nathan Crum and Eric Shtivelberg move on to their next projects, we wish them well!!!
  • Michelle Gray passes her candidacy exam! Congratulations Michelle!
  • Sean Marguet, a graduate student from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Sean!!!
  • Sharon Cooper gets 2nd place “Outstanding Poster Presentation” at the Life Science Interdisciplinary Graduate Program Symposium. Congratulations Sharon!!!
  • Nathan Crum, an undergraduate student at OSU, joins our group. Welcome Nathan!!!
  • Eric Shtivelberg joins as a research assistant for the summer. Welcome Eric!!!
  • Melvyn Drag goes to work at Battelle, we wish him well!!!
  • Our group is highlighted in “¿Qué Pasa, OSU?” (Spring 2015). Check page 6 and back cover!
  • Zachary Johnson graduates! Congratulations!
  • Melvyn Drag successfully defends his master thesis “Epithelium: The lightweight, customizable epithelial tissue simulator”. Congratulations Melvyn!!!
  • Marcos is invited by the Georgia Tech Molecular Biophysics students to give a seminar entitled “Life under Tension: Molecular Mechanisms of Mechanosensation”.
  • Marcos presents “Mechanisms and Mechanosensitivity: Exceptional Cadherins for Hearing and Balance” at the “Force-Gated Ion Channels” conference (HHMI/Janelia Farm).
  • Yoshie Narui and Raúl Araya-Secchi present posters at the “Force-Gated Ion Channels” conference (HHMI/Janelia Farm).
  • Zachary Johnson and Carissa Klanseck get accepted to multiple graduate and medical schools! Congratulations!
  • Lahiru Wimalasena gets 1st place, Zach Johnson gets 3rd, and Aniket Patel gets an honorable mention at the Denman. Congratulations to all!!!
  • Marcos receives a Distinguished Undergraduate Research Mentor award (DURM). Thanks!!!
  • Conghui Chen, Zachary Johnson, Aniket Patel, Domenic Termine, Florencia Velez-Cortes, and Lahiru Wimalasena present posters at the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum! Pictures here.
  • Conghui Chen, Domenic Termine, and Lahiru Wimalasena receive CBC scholarships. Congratulations!
  • Carissa Klanseck and Florencia Velez-Cortes on the cover of the Biophysical Society Newsletter!
  • Marcos has been selected as a 2015 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Neuroscience! More in the College of Arts & Sciences news website and ASCENT. Thanks Sloan Foundation!
  • Klaus Schulten (Marcos’ PhD adviser) delivers the Biophysical Society Meeting National Lecture.
  • Marcos chairs the “Mechanosensors” symposium and presents “Mechanisms and Mechanosensitivity: Exceptional Cadherins for Hearing and Balance” at the Biophysical Society Meeting.
  • Yoshie Narui and Raúl Araya-Secchi present posters at the Biophysical Society meeting!
  • Robert Powers gives a talk at the Biophysical Society meeting!

2014

  • Debadrita Modak, a graduate student from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, joins our group. Welcome Debadrita!!!
  • Rotating students Samantha Dodbele and Benjamin Donovan move on to their next rotations, we wish them well!!!
  • Carissa Klanseck graduates! Congratulations!
  • Avinash Jaiganesh passes his candidacy exam, congratulations!
  • Melvyn Drag has been awarded a Rhodus Graduate Fellowship. Congratulations Melvyn!
  • Domenic Termine has been awarded an Undergraduate Research Scholarship by OSU’s Arts and Sciences Honors Committee. Congratulations Domenic!
  • Yoshie Narui receives a Biophysical Society 2015 CPOW travel award. Congratulations Yoshie!
  • Adrienne Thornburg presents a poster at the Turkey Run 2014 Analytical Chemistry Conference entitled “Towards mass-spectrometry of calcium-binding proteins important for hearing”
  • Debadrita Modak, a graduate student from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Debadrita!!!
  • Samantha Dodbele, a graduate student from OSBP, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Samantha!!!
  • Benjamin Donovan, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Ben!!!
  • Rotating students Curtis Israel and Zach VanMatre move on to their next rotations, we wish them well!!!
  • Raúl Araya-Secchi has been awarded a Pelotonia Postdoctoral Fellowship. Congratulations Raúl!
  • Our request for supercomputing time at Stampede/XSEDE has been accepted. Thanks NSF/XSEDE!
  • Our request for beam time at the Advanced Photon Source (Argonne) has been accepted. Thanks APS!
  • Our request for supercomputing time at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) has been accepted. Thanks OSC!
  • Tim Isgro and Rob Coridan made a donation to our group!!! In Tim’s words: “To the point, awareness is fantastic, but cannot solve problems on its own. I have known some brilliant people over the years doing great science and medicine, working to end diseases like this [ALS] or make the world a better place in other ways. They don’t receive enough fanfare. So, in lieu of asking three people to get wet, I am going to donate to three great friends and former colleagues, of the many I have known.” THANKS!!!
  • Marcos to present “Life under tension: imaging and stretching a molecular handshake essential for hearing and balance” at Nexos Chile-USA 2014.
  • Zach VanMatre, a graduate student from OSBP, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Zach!!!
  • Curtis Israel, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Curtis!!!
  • A productive summer so far, congrats to all our group members for their results, specially to those that made new discoveries and those now working with their own new data sets!
  • Pedro de la Torre Márquez starts his visit to our group. Welcome Pedro!
  • Deryanur Kilic, a visiting scholar in our group, returns to Turkey to finish her PhD. We wish her well!
  • Marcos to present “Computational Exploration of Single-Protein Mechanics by Steered Molecular Dynamics” at the Mechanics of Hearing Meeting!
  • Robert Powers has been awarded a Hoopes Prize for his undergraduate thesis entitled “Structural study of a novel partial calcium-free linker and a positively selected variation in Protocadherin-15: Implications for hearing and cell adhesion”. Congratulations Robert!
  • Our TICB review on cadherin connectomics is out. Check it out here!
  • Domenic and Zach present their research at the Biochemistry 2998H poster session. See them in action here!
  • Conghui, Zach, Domenic, and Florencia got OSU scholarships, congratulations!!!
  • A first rotating step for our CFM!!! Check it out here. Congrats to Lahiru.
  • Michelle Gray, a graduate student from OSBP, joins our group. Welcome Michelle!!!
  • Rotating student Chris Schwebach moves on to the Kudryashov lab, we wish him well!!!
  • We have obtained our first made-in-Columbus X-ray diffraction pattern! Check it out here. Congrats to Raul, Yoshie, Avinash, and Chris.
  • Marcos will be giving talks at BPS and ARO!
  • Mounir Koussa’s paper entitled “Protocol for sortase-mediated construction of DNA-protein hybrids and functional nanostructures” has been accepted in Methods. Congratulations Mounir!
  • Marcos starts teaching intro to quantum mechanics!!! (CHEM4210 / BIOCHEM 5722).
  • Our group is now a member of the SBGrid consortium! (more here).
  • Lahiru Wimalasena, Aniket Patel, Florencia Velez-Cortes, Domenic Termine, and Zach Johnson, all undergraduates at OSU, join our group. Welcome!!!
  • Chris Schwebach, a graduate student from the MCDB program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Chris!!!
  • Michelle Gray, a graduate student from OSBP, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Michelle!!!
  • Adrienne Thornburg, a graduate student from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, joins our group. She will be working with Vicki Wysocki as well. Welcome Adrienne!!!
  • Deepanshu Choudhary, a graduate student from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, joins our group. Welcome Deepanshu!!!
  • Yoshie Narui joins our group as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome Yoshie!!!

2013

  • Raúl Araya-Secchi joins our group as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome Raúl!!!
  • Rotating student Nathan moves on to his next rotation, we wish him well!!!
  • Marcos joins the Chemical Physics Program! (more info here).
  • Marcos presents “Mechanisms and Mechanosensitivity: A Cadherin Handshake for Hearing and Balance” at McGill University.
  • Rotating student Deepanshu moves on to his next rotation, we wish him well!!!
  • Nathan Howell, a graduate student from OSBP, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Nathan!!!
  • The 2013 nobel prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists that developed multiscale models of complex chemical systems, which include the molecular dynamics simulations that we use! Among these scientists is Martin Karplus, the PhD advisor of Klaus Schulten (Marcos’s PhD advisor). A good year for MD simulations!
  • Lasker award was given to the developers of the cochlear implants! Cool basic and applied research. More info here. See also David P. Corey’s interview with Charlie Rose here.
  • Deepanshu Choudhary, a graduate student from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Deepanshu!!!
  • Conghui Chen and Carissa Klanseck, undergraduates at OSU, join our group. Welcome!!!
  • Avinash Jaiganesh, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, finishes his rotation and joins our group. Welcome Avinash!!!
  • Anusha Kumar will be joining Tom Magliery’s group, we wish her well!
  • Our lab space is ready! Check pictures in this gallery.
  • Avinash Jaiganesh, a graduate student from the Biophysics program, will be doing a rotation with us. Welcome Avinash!!!
  • R00 grant approved, we have NIH/NIDCD funding at OSU!!!
  • Our paper in collaboration with Kumar Alagramam has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Neuroscience! The paper is entitled “Noddy, a mouse harboring a missense mutation in protocadherin-15, reveals the impact of disrupting a critical interaction site between tip-link cadherins in inner ear hair cells”. Highlight coming soon.
  • Marcos will be presenting a poster at the BPS meeting, and giving talks at the ARO and CaBP18 meetings!
  • Marcos started 2013 with a talk entitled “Modelos, Estructuras y Dinamica de Proteinas Escenciales para la Audicion y el Equilibrio” at Universidad Adolfo Ibañez.
  • Anusha Kumar will be joining our group, co-advised with Thomas Magliery. Welcome Anusha!!!

2012

  • Our Research Website at OSU is up!!!
  • Marcos gave an invited seminar entitlted “Structures and simulated dynamics of a force-conveying cadherin bond essential for inner-ear mechanotransduction” at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, NIDCD/NIH.
  • Marcos presented a poster and a short talk at the “Exciting Biologies – Forces in Biology” meeting in Dublin – Ireland.
  • Marcos visited and presented at Universidad Andres Bello, Universidad de Chile, and Universidad de Talca.
  • The Sotomayor Research Group will start in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The Ohio State University in July of 2013!!!
  • Marcos received a NIH/NIDCD K99 Award!!!
  • Marcos presented a talk entitled “A Cadherin Hanshake for Hearing and Balance” at the Boston Area Young Chilean Investigators Symposium.

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