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Individual Student Views - 2001
 Sara Zimmer
Stern Lab
BMCB Field (entered program fall 2001)
From: St. Cloud, MN
Undergraduate: Michigan Technological University; Dual BS (Biological
Sciences and Chemical Engineering)
Statement
I spent several years focused on a ski racing career before returning
to research full time. The faculty at Cornell seemed to welcome the diversity
of my experience when I applied and interviewed, and I appreciated the
fact that they were utilizing ideas and technologies from various disciplines
in their own work. Furthermore, I really feel the program supports me
as I strive to become a better scientist while simultaneously becoming a
first-time mother.
Research
Current research indicates that regulation of gene expression goes
far beyond transcriptional control, including post-transcriptional alterations
of RNA. The focus in the Stern lab is chloroplast gene expression,
where relative levels of mRNAs are primarily regulated at post-trancriptional
steps. I have identified several genes that are likely to participate
in these steps, by modifying or cleaving RNA. I am silencing them in
the versatile alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, as well as overexpressing one
of them and performing biochemical assays. My thesis work is centered on determining
what role these proteins have in both the processing and turnover of chloroplast
RNAs. I am especially interested in understanding how polyadenylation promotes
degradation of mRNAs and how my candidate genes affect this step in the degradation
pathway.
Meetings/Outreach
Zimmer S. L. and Stern D. B. (poster) Identification of
enzymes mediating
polyadenylation in the mRNA decay pathway in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
chloroplasts. FASEB Summer Conference, Post-transcriptional Control of
Gene Expression: Mechanisms of mRNA Decay, Colorado. 2006.
Publications
Merchant S. S., Prochnik S. E., Vallon O., et al (2007). The
Chlamydomonas
genome reveals the evolution of key animal and plant functions. Science.
318:245-50.
Yehudai-Resheff S., Zimmer S. L., Komine Y., Stern D. B (2007).
Integration of chloroplast nucleic acid metabolism into the phosphate
deprivation response in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant Cell 19:1023-38.
Awards
Graduate student poster award, FASEB Summer Conference. 2006.
Kristin Burns
Begley Lab
BMCB Field (entered program fall 2001).
GRADUATED August 2006, presently a postdoctoral fellow at the
NIH.
From: Pennsylvania
Undergraduate: Franklin and Marshall College, BA (Chemistry) in 2001
Statement
The introductory eight-week lab course is one reason why I chose the
BMCB Graduate Program. The Field System brings together labs from Chemistry,
Nutrition, Microbiology, etc., so it was beneficial for us to get an
introduction to a variety of techniques to prepare us for our rotations and
future lab work. The Graduate Program also provides students with terrific
training -- student seminars, Friday seminars and progress reports are just
a few examples of this training.
Research
Pyridoxal-5-phosphate (PLP, vitamin B6) is an essential cofactor in all
living systems. It plays an important role in amino acid and carbohydrate
metabolism and has recently been implicated in singlet oxygen resistance.
The biosynthesis of PLP in Escherichia coli has been well studied. This
pathway, however, is restricted to a relatively small number of bacteria.
Most bacteria, archaebacteria, fungi, and plants contain the highly conserved
SNZ and SNO family of genes which have been implicated in PLP biosynthesis.
My project involves the identification of the substrates for the SNZ and
SNO family of proteins in Bacillus subtilis, reconstituting the biosynthesis,
and analyzing the reaction mechanism.
I am interested in studying Mycobacterium tuberculosis in my post-doc,
with the hope of uncovering interesting biosynthetic pathways and chemistry.
Publications
- Burns, Kristin E.; Baumgart, Sabine; Dorrestein, Pieter C.; Zhai, Huili;
McLafferty, Fred W.; Begley, Tadhg P. (2005) Reconstitution of
a New Cysteine Biosynthetic Pathway in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Journal
of the American Chemical Society 127: 11602-11603.
- Burns, Kristin E.; Xiang, Yun; Kinsland, Cynthia L.; McLafferty, Fred W.;
Begley, Tadhg P. (2005) Reconstitution and Biochemical Characterization
of a New Pyridoxal-5'-Phosphate Biosynthetic Pathway. Journal of the American
Chemical Society 127:3682-3683.
- Park, Joo-Heon; Burns, Kristin; Kinsland, Cynthia; Begley, Tadhg P. (2004)
Characterization of two kinases involved in thiamine pyrophosphate
and pyridoxal phosphate biosynthesis in Bacillus subtilis: 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyrimidine
kinase and pyridoxal kinase. Journal of Bacteriology 186:1571-1573.
Conference Presentations
- Enzymes, Coenzymes and Metabolic Pathways Gordon Research Conference,
July 2005. Reconstitution and biochemical characterization of
a new Pyridoxal-5-phosphate biosynthetic pathway, Kristin E. Burns, Yun Xiang,
Cynthia L. Kinsland, Fred W. McLafferty and Tadhg P. Begley.
- 228th American Chemical Society National Meeting, August 2004. A new cysteine
biosynthetic pathway in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Kristin E.
Burns, Sabine Baumgart, Pieter C. Dorrestein, Huili Zhai, Fred McLafferty
and Tadhg P. Begley.
Honors
Research highlighted in Chemical and Engineering Latest News, August
31, 2005. TB's Novel Path To Cysteine: Route's chemistry suggests it
may play a role during tuberculosis infection, by Amanda Yarnell. (http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/83/i36/8336cysteine.html)
Award of Excellence, Vincent du Vigneaud Memorial Symposium, May 2005
Weill Medical College
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