Lab Happenings
New Member – Ranjit Pelia
Ranjit Pelia has joined the Haynes lab this summer as a PhD student from the Emory GDBBS Genetics and Molecular Biology graduate program. He earned his Associate Degree at Emory University Oxford College in 2015, his B.S. in Biology from Emory University in 2018, and his M.P.H. from the Emory Rollins School of Public Health in 2022. Ranjit is originally from Mumbai, India but is a native Atlanta resident. His past experience includes working as a clinical research coordinator, lab technician, and data analyst in pediatric Crohn’s disease at the Emory School of Medicine. His research interests include identifying the epigenetic roles of noncoding RNAs in controlling downstream gene regulation using integrative ‘omics. Welcome to the Haynes lab! We look forward to working with you.
Rick Kim – QE Passed!
Congratulations to Seong Hu “Rick” Kim, first-year PhD student in the Wallace H. Coulter Biomedical Engineering graduate program! He passed his qualifying exam on November 8, 2022 and is now ready to start his thesis work on the mapping and engineering of chromatin in human cells for biomedical applications.
New Member – Seong Hu Kim
Seong Hu “Rick” Kim has joined the Haynes lab this fall as a PhD student from the GA Tech/ Emory Biomedical Engineering graduate program. He earned his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with a Mathematics Minor from Georgia Tech. at Stanford University in Stanford, CA in 2017. As an undergraduate student, he gained lab research experience at the Nano System Application Laboratory, University of Seoul (2018) and in the lab of Dr. Susan Margulies (2019 – 2020) at Georgia Tech. Welcome to the Haynes lab! We look forward to working with you.
Kierra Franklin – QE Passed!
Congratulations to Kierra Franklin, first-year PhD student in the Wallace H. Coulter Biomedical Engineering graduate program! She passed her qualifying exam on September 9, 2021 and is now ready to start her thesis work on chromatin engineering for cancer research and treatment.
Paige Steppe receives 2021 NSF GRFP award
Undergraduate researcher Paige Steppe has received a 2021 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows Program (NSF GRFP) award! This highly competitive award recognizes and supports outstanding students in STEM disciplines who are pursuing research-based graduate degrees at US institutions. The five-year fellowship includes three years of financial support including an annual stipend of $34,000 and $12,000 for tuition support. Paige is a college senior in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering program at Georgia Tech. She joined the Haynes lab in 2020 to investigate the evolutionary diversity of a chromatin-binding protein motif to inform rational design of synthetic epigenetic regulators in cancer. Congratulations, Paige!
New Member – Kierra Franklin
Kierra Franklin has joined the Haynes lab this fall as a PhD student from the GA Tech/ Emory graduate program. Kierra got an early start with industrial biotech as a college intern at Chimera BioEngineering in California. She earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Stanford University in Stanford, CA in 2017. Since then she has been an intern at Genentech Inc. (2017-2018) and a Biochemistry Research Assistant at Codexis Inc. (2018-2019). She has earned several awards including Presidents Fellow, Laney Fellow, Women in Natural Sciences Fellow, and Centennial Scholar. Welcome to the Haynes lab! We look forward to working with you.
New Member – Dr. Isioma Enwerem
Dr. Isioma Enwerem will join the Haynes lab this Fall as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. She earned her B.S. in Chemistry at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, her M.S. in Chemistry at Jackson State University in Jackson, MS, her Ph.D. in Biochemistry at The University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS, and completed a 4-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota. Welcome to Emory! We are honored to have you on board, Dr. Enwerem.
New Member – Cara Shields
Cara Shields has joined the Haynes lab this summer as a PhD graduate student from the Emory GDBBS Cancer Biology program. She will be co-advised by Dr. Haynes and Dr. Robert Schnepp. Cara earned her B.B. in Molecular Biology at the University of Tampa in Tampa, FL. Welcome to the Haynes lab! We look forward to working with you.
Lab Happenings – Producing epigenetic regulator proteins in E. coli
Dr. Natecia Williams (Senior Research Specialist) has been working on producing batches of epigenetic sensor-actuator proteins that can penetrate human cells, which we hope to use to treat cancer. First recombinant DNA (plasmid pTXB1), constructed by Harrison Priode (Research Specialist I), that encodes a cell-penetrating polycomb transcription factor (CP-PcTF) is transformed into E. coli cells (illustration, left). The transformed cells are grown as a large culture (200 mL) and show a characteristic beige color when they are concentrated at the bottom of a flask (left photo). When an inducer chemical is added (IPTG), this activates production of the CP-PcTF protein. CP-PcTF includes a red fluorescent protein, which looks magenta under white light (right photo).
Next, Dr. Williams will gently break open the cells to release the proteins, use a special resin to capture the CP-PcTF proteins by a “handle” on the end of each protein (column-binding tag), and purify the proteins to eliminate cell residue. She will add the purified proteins to triple negative breast cancer cells in culture plates to determine how effectively the proteins enter nuclei and alter the expression of genes. If these experiments are successful we will test CP-PcTF in mice that carry breast cancer tumors. We will continue to post updates on this and other exciting projects!
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