News
April 2023
We celebrated Neil’s birthday with a laboratory lunch pitch-in, including a homemade birthday cake with Neil’s initials (we’re still laughing about it!).
March 2023
Jessica wrote a review on two of our favorite enzymes – gyrase and topoisomerase IV – and emerging antibacterials that target them. Read it here: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.4c00128
Two of the Osheroff lab graduate students shared their research at global conferences. Samika gave a talk at ASBMB in San Antonio, TX, while Jill presented a poster at a Keystone conference in Keystone, CO. Excellent work Samika and Jill!
February 2023
It’s never a bad thing to have two papers published in the same month, let alone accepted the same day!
First, check out Alexandria’s research article describing the biochemical basis for the actions of gepotidacin, a triazaacenaphthylene antibacterial that recently completed phase III trials for urinary tract infections, against gyrase and topoisomerase IV:
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsinfecdis.3c00346
Then, take a few minutes to read Jessica’s paper describing the mechanistic basis for gyrase/topoisomerase IV-mediated fluoroquinolone resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae:
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsinfecdis.4c00041
September 2023
Neil, Jessica, Samika, and Jill presented at the EMBO workshop on DNA topology and topoisomerases in genome dynamics in the beautiful Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland! It was a wonderful week of science, scenery, and sunsets!
August 2023
Congratulations Soziema Dauda, our former undergraduate researcher, for starting medical school at University of Tennessee School of Medicine at Memphis.
July 2023
Alexandria and Jeffrey left the Osheroff laboratory to start their postdoctoral fellowships. Alexandria moved to Michigan State University to characterize novel molecules that kill M. tuberculosis with Dr. Robert Abramovitch. Jeffrey is working with Dr. Tamara O’Connor at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to determine the molecular basis of bacterial pathogenesis. We will miss them both!
Check out Soziema and Jessica’s paper on a Novel Bacterial Topoisomerase Inhibitor that can induce double-stranded DNA breaks:
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241512107
Our most recent review on how DNA topology affects the functions of type II topoisomerases has been published by the International Journal of Molecular Sciences:
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241311199
June 2023
Welcome Kayla Hardrick, Miles College undergraduate, for joining the laboratory through the ASPIRNAUT Summer Research Program!
May 2023
Jeffrey walked in the May graduation ceremony!
Congratulations to Jillian Armenia for passing her qualifying exams!
Neil was presented the prestigious Mentoring, Innovation, Leadership, and Educational Scholarship (MILES) award at the annual Asia Pacific Medical Education Conference. Congratulations Neil!
March 2023
Congratulations Jeffrey! He successfully defended his thesis on March 10th followed by a publication of his work in Nucleic Acids Research:
https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkad190
February 2023
Jo Ann’s most recent publication in ACS Infectious Diseases characterizes the actions of a series of novel spiropyrimidinetrione compounds against M. tuberculosis gyrase:
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsinfecdis.3c00012
October 2022
Samika Joshi joins the Osheroff laboratory!
September 2022
Esha’s dissertation work is published in Biochemistry and describes how type II topoisomerases recognize DNA topology during catenation:
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.2c00370
July 2022
Esha departs the laboratory to start her postdoctoral fellowship in the Essigmann Lab at MIT. Congratulations Esha!
May 2022
Esha and Alexandria walked in the May graduation ceremony!
April 2022
The Osheroff Lab is excited to welcome Jillian Armenia as a graduate student!
Congratulations to Alexandria, winner of the 2022 Leon W. Cunningham Award for Excellence in Biochemistry, and to Jessica, winner of the 2022 Frank Chytil Travel Award!
Happy birthday to Neil! [it’s a big one]
March 2022
Esha successfully defended her thesis on March 7th, followed quickly by Alexandria on March 14th. Congrats, Dr. Dalvie and Dr. Oviatt!
June 2021
Welcome Soziema Dauda, Belmont University undergraduate, for joining the laboratory through the ASPIRNAUT Summer Program!
May 2021
Our most recent review on eukaryotic type II topoisomerase has been published by ACS Biochemistry:
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.1c00240
April 2021
Congratulations to Jessica for passing her qualifying exam!
March 2021
Check out Jessica’s FIRST first-author paper on 1,2-Naphthoquinone!
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.chemrestox.0c00492
January 2021
See Esha and Neil’s encyclopedia entry on type II topoisomerase here:
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809633-8.21378-2
April 2020
The Osheroff Lab is excited to welcome Jessica Collins as a new graduate student!
January 2020
Looking to do 2D gel electrophoresis? Our new methods chapter gives detailed instructions on how to separate DNA topoisomers.
https://link.springer.com/protocol/10.1007/978-1-0716-0323-9_2
December 2019
Neil was elected President of the International Association of Medical Science Educators – congratulations!
October 2019
Elizabeth and Alexandria dissect the mechanism of action of GSK126, a Novel Bacterial Topoisomerase Inhibitor, in 3 separate species – published now in Biochemistry.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.biochem.9b00805
September 2019
Neil gave the opening talk for the EMBO Workshop on DNA Topology and Topoisomerases in Genome Dynamics held in Les Diablerets, Switzerland. Alexandria and Esha had the opportunity to present their work at the student-focused meeting preceding this.
August 2019
Welcome to Jeffrey Jian, our newest graduate student!
June 2019
The lab welcomes Nyasha Gombami (for summer number two in the lab) and Jordan Stacy.
Elizabeth and Alexandria got to hear some great microbiology talks at ASM Microbe in San Francisco.
Neil received the 2019 Distinguished Career Award for Excellence in Teaching and Educational Scholarship at the annual meeting of the International Association of Medical Science Educators – congrats!
Esha’s first-author paper on the actions of the natural product 6,6’-dihydroxythiobinupharidine against human type II topoisomerases is out now!
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960894X19303701?via%3Dihub
May 2019
Elizabeth and Lorena walked in the May graduation festivities.
Good luck at St. Jude, Elizabeth! We will miss you!
March 2019
Check out the new Cell Chem. Biol. paper that examines topoisomerase II-mediated DNA bending and cleavage site specificity.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30713098/
February 2019
Elizabeth’s paper detailing the mechanism of action of Gepotidacin against Staphylococcus aureus gyrase is now online!
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsinfecdis.8b00315
We have officially joined social media (a.k.a. we have a twitter @Topo_Lab).
January 2019
The Osheroff Lab survived the altitude during our stay in Snowbird, UT, for the Keystone Symposium on DNA Replication and Genome Instability.
Congratulations to Dr. (Dr.) Elizabeth Gibson on another doctorate completed!
Thankfully, Lorena will be just a few buildings away in her new communications position, but we will miss her regardless.
December 2018
Congratulations to Dr. Lorena Infante Lara for a successful thesis defense!
Congratulations to Elizabeth, winner of the 2018 Leon W. Cunningham Award for Excellence in Biochemistry!
November 2018
Nyasha won first place in undergraduate poster presentations for Physiology and Biochemistry at the Kentucky Academy of Science’s 2018 Annual Meeting.
October 2018
Nyasha, our 2018 ASPIRNAUT summer intern, attended the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week in San Diego, California.
September 2018
Neil was awarded the Richard Armstrong Mentoring Award, an overdue recognition!
August 2018
The lab welcomes Yao Jiang, a junior at Vanderbilt.
July 2018
Alexandria’s first paper, detailing her work with polyamine derivatives of etoposide, is now online!
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960894X18305614?via%3Dihub
The Osheroff Lab enjoyed the GRC on Topoisomerases at Mount Holyoke.
June 2018
Congratulations to Esha Dalvie and Alexandria Oviatt for passing qualifying exams!
Welcome to our new ASPIRNAUT summer intern, Nyasha Gombami.
May 2018
The lab welcomes Justin Lopez!
Elizabeth has a new paper online entitled “Mechanism of Action of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Gyrase Inhibitors: A Novel Class of Gyrase Poisons.”
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsinfecdis.8b00035
February 2018
Lorena has published a new paper on her work titled “Coupling the core of the anticancer drug etoposide to an oligonucleotide induces topoisomerase II-mediated cleavage at specific DNA sequences.”