News and
 Announcements

Anna Mapp, PCB faculty member and former Program Director, has been elected as a new member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). AAAS is a prestigious society that recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions in scholarly and professional fields. Congratulations, Dr. Mapp!

Read more here:
https://news.umich.edu/three-u-m-faculty-elected-to-american-academy-of-arts-sciences/

Two PCB students successfully defended last month - Congratulations to Dr. John Crellin (Martin/Hakansson Labs) and Dr. Dongyu Zhao (Martin/Palfey Labs)!

A new study published in the journal Science suggests a compound in development for a rare kidney stone disease may have potential against pancreatic cancer.

The compound starves tumors of an amino acid, cysteine, which was found to be critical to the survival of pancreatic cancer cells.

The study was a collaboration that included the Lyssiotis Lab at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and researchers from the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The work at U-M was led by Daniel Kremer, a graduate student in the Program in Chemical Biology and member of the Lyssiotis Lab.

Our lab was excited to contribute to this study by detailing how the metabolic programs in pancreatic cancer cells are impacted when starved of cysteine, says Costas Lyssiotis, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the U-M Medical School. Dependence on the amino acid cysteine appears to be a unique vulnerability of the pancreatic cancer cells. We're encouraged by how well this treatment is tolerated, illustrating that this is a new way to selectivity target the cancer cells without systemic toxicity. Given that the immune system is spared by cysteine deprivation, we are excited to explore future studies combining our strategy with immune therapies.

Read the full announcement here: https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/starving-pancreatic-cancer-cysteine-...

Rising third year Chemical Biology student, Sarah Ackenhusen, of the Narayan Lab, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship for 2020. Congratulations, Sarah!

Emily Sherman, 4th year student in the Ginsburg Lab, was selected to receive a Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for 2020. Congratulations, Emily!

Recent alum Dylan Mitchell (Garner Lab) has been selected to receive a 2020 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. These awards recognize exceptional and unusually interesting work produced by doctoral students. Congratulations, Dylan!