For most of the time that biochemists have been studying proteins they have preached the widely adopted dogma that structure equals function. Proteins are macromolecules made of chains of amino acids, and as they are produced they fold into intricate and specific shapes. These shapes or ‘structures’ are critical to the tasks that they perform, like producing energy for the cell, carrying molecular cargo from one end of the cell to the other, or letting ions across the cell membrane. However, over 30% of the protein humans produce has no specific structure. These are called intrinsically disordered proteins, and only in the last 15 years have they been brought into the spotlight of biochemistry and biophysics research (Structural Disorder in Eukaryotes). Hannah Stuwe is a fourth-year PhD candidate in Biochemistry and Biophysics, and her research revolves around disordered proteins, particularly a protein from SARS-CoV-2 called the nucleocapsid protein. In her work she uses state-of-the-art techniques specifically suited for studying disordered proteins to understand how the flexibility of this protein changes throughout the viral replication cycle.
Hannah filling an NMR spectrometer with liquid nitrogen.
To hear from Hannah, ID host and this week’s interviewee, about all things NMR, protein, and virus, tune in to KBVR 88.7 FM at 7 pm PST on April 13th, or listen wherever you get your podcasts, including on our KBVR page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else!
From penicillin to aspirin, some of the best known and life changing medications are natural products. To progress science and humanity we need diligent scientists on the front lines helping bring reason and understanding to the natural world. Natural product synthesis is not only a cornerstone of drug development, but it has also changed humanity for the better by allowing science to isolate and/or enhance the potency of certain drugs. On the show this week we have someone who does just that, Evie Starchman.
Evie is a 5th year Chemistry PhD student in Dr. Chris Beaudry’s lab. Her current research focuses on Asterelin A which is known to have some anti-fungal properties. By creating and better understanding the fine details of this molecule Evie hopes to further deepen the understanding of molecules like it. Evie is from Snohomish, Washington where growing up she loved figure skating and (to this day) reading any book she could get her hands on. When she isn’t in the lab you can find her doing anything from white-water rafting, browsing packs at her local card shop, or training for her next marathon.
Tune into KBVR 88.7 FM at 7 pm PST on April 27th to hear Evie talk about what drives her to keep going in this chaotic world and if we’re lucky, hear about her latest Pokémon card finds.
Sometimes the smallest things in the universe can answer some of the largest questions. That seems to be the case with neutrinos. Neutrinos are fundamental particles – which just means they are the smallest of the small and that they are indivisible. The name neutrino literally means electrically neutral (neutr-) and small (-ino). For a long time, scientists believed neutrinos had no mass. Now, it is known to have a mass, but nobody has been able to enumerate it. Despite their size (or maybe because of it) they are the most abundant particle in the universe. Every second, 100 trillion neutrinos pass through your body without interacting with any particles in your body.
Noah at the Wilson Hall atrium at Fermilab, the national particle physics lab outside of Chicago where their experiments are based
Noah Vaughan (they / them) is a PhD Student in the Physics Department at Oregon State University whose research focuses on experimental high energy particle physics, specifically neutrinos! They are co-author on over 50 publications, which is an incredible feat at this career stage and demonstrates the collaborative nature of the field. Noah works on the Main Injector Neutrino ExpeRiment to study v-A interactions (MINERvA) Project which is the first neutrino experiment in the world to use a high-intensity beam to study neutrino reactions with five different nuclei. Basically, MINERvA provides understanding on how neutrinos interact with other particles which inform scientists about the bigger role they play, including in star supernovas, the creation of the universe, and the structure of protons.
Noah in the underground hall at Fermilab
Noah’s experiments for their dissertation were performed at Fermalab, which is 100 meters underground. That’s something I bet a lot of PhD students couldn’t claim! These experiments have given Noah a dataset with over 1,000,000 points, which is the largest of its type. The nature of neutrinos makes them difficult to study. They interact through gravity and something called the weak force. The weak force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It’s much weaker than electromagnetism, but it’s incredibly important. The weak force changes one type of particle into another. It’s one of the driving forces in radioactive decay and helps fuel the sun through nuclear reactions. The weak force changes the identity or “flavor” of particles, at a very small range (smaller than the size of a proton). This allows neutrinos to navigate through atoms of massive objects without interacting.
The top parts of the MINERvA detector that Noah helped rebuild for use in a new prototype detector to be used for DUNE, a future neutrino experiment. Each of the blue and red cylinders is a photomultiplier tube that reads out the light collected from the scintillation strips in the detector (Photo provided by Noah)
This all means that Noah’s work is very important, and answering questions about some of the smallest things in the universe leads to answers to the biggest questions in the universe.
The front face of the MINERVA detector in its original commissioning (photo provided by Noah, from Reider Hahn at Fermilab)
In the Pacific Northwest, Salmon hold significant ecological, economical, and cultural importance. They are a significant part of cultural identity for many Columbia River Basin tribes (Importance of Salmon – Pacific Coast). For several Pacific Northwest salmon species, returning to spawning grounds may pose previously unknown and deadly threats. Mass salmon die-off events have been linked to roadway runoff and a particular toxicant that comes from leachate from tire tread wear particles. The compound, called 6PPD-quinone, is an oxidation product of an additive intended to prevent damage to tire rubber from ozone (6PPD-quinone in Science).
Miranda Jackson is a fourth year PhD student in the labs of Stacey Harper and Manuel Garcia-Jaramillo in the department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at OSU. She is a self-described aquatic ecotoxicologist, and she’s been investigating the toxins making their way into our surface waters and eventually salmon habitats. Her research involves investigating the toxicity of micro and nano-sized rubber particles and 6PPD-quinone that are derived from car tires, elucidating their mechanisms of toxicity in various fish species, and working on remediation strategies for removing 6PPD-quinone from the environment.
Miranda Jackson dosing fish tanks.
Tune into KBVR 88.7 FM at 7 pm PST on April 13th to hear Miranda talk about the impressive and scary toxicity of 6PPD-quinone (that also somehow is incredibly species specific to salmonids), how to remove these toxins from the environment, and what we can do to limit it from the source.
