News

November 2024

Vijay Bhardwaj awarded a Cancer Therapeutics Training Program Fellowship. Congratulations Vijay!

July 2024

Chase Hutchins received travel awards from GSBS and GSEC to present his work at the Fall 2024 American Cancer Society meeting in Denver, Colorado.

June 2024

Mussie Araya awarded The Academy Training Program (IMSD) T32 Fellowship. Congratulations!
Chase Hutchins selected as the 2024-2025 American Legion Auxiliary Fellow in Cancer Research and elected as Treasurer for the Graduate Student Association (GSA). Congratulations, Chase!
We welcome Rim Touhami and Robell Ephrem to the group for a summer research experience. Rim is a medical student here at McGovern and Robell is a student from an area high school.
Chase has papers accepted for publication in J Phys Chem B and Curr Opin Str Biol. Congratulations on your two first, first author publications!
Dr. Vijay Bhardwaj awarded a 1 year free license to the drug discovery suite of programs SeeDSAR (https://www.biosolveit.de/products/seesar/) through a competitive process. Congratulations Vijay!

May 2024

We welcome Dr Abraham Sianoya to the group! Abe is MD/PhD candidate from the University of Manilla, and will conduct part of his dissertation research here at UTHealth.

April 2024

Congratulations to Chase on his Dean’s Research Award!

March 2024

Chase Hutchins won poster presentation award at the Medical School Retreat on March 5, 2024. Well done Chase, and Congratulations!

February 2024

We share the exciting news that our lab is awarded a CPRIT IIRA grant.
Cynthia’s paper accepted for publication in ChemBioChem. Congratulations!

January 2024

Former Postdoc and Instructor Dr Priyanka Prakash Srivastava took a new post as Computing Scientist at Data Analytics Center, Information Technology – Research Computing (IT-RC), University of Virginia.
We welcome the newest member of the group, Dr Vijay Bhardwaj, who started his postdoctoral work on protein-membrane simulations and drug discovery.

November 2023

Former graduate student Dr Vinay Niar promoted to Institute Research Investigator at the Therapeutics Discovery Division of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Congratulations!

October 2023

Mussie’s paper accepted for publication in Communications Biology. Congratulations!

August 2023

Former group member Dr Xiaowen Liang started a new position at Wntrix Inc. We wish her success and happiness!
Xiaowen’s paper accepted for publication in iScience. Congratulations!

July 2023

Cynthia’s paper accepted for publication in ACS Omega. Congratulations!

May 2023

Chase won award for his poster presentation at the BCB Program retreat. Congratulations!
Chase Hutchins elected vice president of the BCB student council. Way to go Chase! We wish you a successful term.

January 2023

Violeta Burns accepted a postdoctoral position at the University of Maryland. Congratulations!

September 2022

A paper by Cynthia, Amit, and collaborators published in ACS Biol & Med Chem Au. Congratulations!

May 2022

Former postdoc Priyanka Prakash started a new post as Institute Research Investigator, Institute of Applied Cancer Science, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Congratulations!
Chase Hutchins joins the group for his PhD thesis work on molecular simulations of protein-membrane interactions. Welcome Chase!

April 2022

Mussie’s first paper since joining our group has been accepted for publication in J Phys Chem. The paper describes the role of membrane asymmetry on KRAS-bilayer interactions. Congratulations!

February 2022

Vinay Nair accepted a postdoctoral position at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and will start his next endeavor next week. Farewell, and we wish him success!

January 2022

Xiaowen Liang joined our laboratory as a Research Scientist. Welcome!
Vinay Nair successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations Dr Nair!
Chase Hutchins joined our group for his second rotation. Welcome Chase!

December 2021

Dr. Michael McCarthy, a former Gradaute Student in our group, is now Senior Research Scientist of Computer Aided Drug-Design at Arvinas.
Congratulations to Violetta Burns on her award of a postdoctoral fellowship from the CPRIT-funded Computational Cancer Biology Training Program.
Our lab received an RO1 award from the NIH to work on the dynamics of lipid-anchored proteins (the application has received a 4% score).
Our Anton2 computational resources renewal application has received the full award of 460,000 MD Units.
Our paper on the determinants of membrane orientation dynamics of lipidated small GTPases published in JACS Au

October 2021

We welcome Postdoctoral Fellow Violetta Burns to the group!
Dr Suparna Sarkar-Banerjee, a former Postdoctoral Fellow in our group, started a new position as Scientist, Discovery Technologies at Loxo Oncology at Lilly.

April 2021

Vinay’s paper on the role of monoubiquitination on KRAS structure and dynamics accepted for publication in JPCB. Congratulations!

July 2020

Mussie Araya joins our group. Welcome Mussie!

April 2020

A collaborative paper with the Zhang group published in PNAS.

March 2020

Jacob Jakubec joined our group. Welcome Jacob.

February 2020

Priyanka Prakash moved on to an exciting position with the RAS Initiative at the Frederick National Laboratory. Congratulations Pri!
A collaborative paper with the Jayaraman group published in PNAS. Congratulations Ryan and Co!

September 2019

Pri’s paper published in JPCB. Congratulations!

August 2019

The Gorfe Lab is awarded a three-year CPRIT grant to fund their Drug Development Project.

August 2019

Our papers with former colleagues Abdallah Sayyed-Ahmad and Kwang-Jin Cho published in JPCB and Small GTPases, respectively. Congratulations!

April 2019

Amit Gupta accepted a position at the University of Houston. Congratulations!

March 2019

Amit, Xu and collaborators’ paper accepted for publication in Chem Biol Drug Des. Congratulations!

January 2019

Mike, Cynthia and collaborators’ paper accepted for publication in ACS Omega. Congratulations!
Xubo’s paper accepted in JPCB. Congratulations!

December 2018

Pri, Doug and collaborators’ paper accepted for publication in BJ. Congratulations!
Pri’s paper accepted for publication in Sci Rep. Congratulations!

November 2018

Awarded: ANTON2 competitive renewal application for Computational Resources.
Vinay Nair awarded CPRIT Innovation for Cancer Prevention Research Predoctoral Fellowship. Congratulations!

September 2018

Vinay Nair has been awarded GSBS and CCAE travel awards. Congratulations!

June 2018

Awarded: XSEDE competitive renewal application for Computational Resources.

May 2018

Awarded: 2017/2018 Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award!

April 2018

Xubo’s paper accepted for publication in PCCP. Congratulations!

March 2018

Gorfe and Hancock awarded a multi-PI RO1 grant from the NIH.
Xubo’s paper accepted for publication in BJ. Congratulations!

February 2018

Suparna Sarkar-Banerjee accepted a new position at Rice University. Congratulations!
Mike McCarthy successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Mike!

September 2017

A paper by Suparna, Abdallah and Pri accepted for publication in JACS. Congratulations!

August 2017

Xubo Lin accepted a faculty position at Beihang University in Beijing. Congratulations Xubo!

July 2017

Nabina successfully defended her thesis. Congratulations!

May 2017

Abdallah and Pri’s paper accepted in Proteins. Congratulations!
Welcome to Vinay and Zuhal!

March 2017

Abdallah’s paper accepted in JCTC. Congratulations!
Amit Gupta awarded a CPRIT Computational Cancer Biology Postdoctoral Fellowship. Congratulations!

January 2017

We welcome graduate students Vinay Nair and Zuhal Ozcan to the group!

December 2016

Pri, Abdallah and Jin’s paper accepted in Sci Rep. Congratulations!

December 2016

Yong and Pri’s paper published in Cell. Congratulations!
News Release from the UTHealth Communications Office upon the paper’s publication on December 29, 2016
See also a highlight/summary at the American Association for Cancer Research

October 2016

Xubo’s paper accepted in JPCB. Congratulations!

September 2016

Xubo’s paper accepted in FEBS Letters. Congratulations!

August 2016

We welcome our new colleague Dr Cynthia Pagba, who comes to us from Georgia Tech.

May 2016

Awarded: 2016/2017 Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award!
Congratulations to Pri on her first place Dean’s Excellence in Research Postdoctoral Award

April 2016

Congratulations to Mike McCarthy on his award winning presentation at the CRB retreat.
Abdallah’s accepted in JPCB. Congratulations!

March 2016

Pri’s paper published in BJ, and is highlighted as “New and Notable”; see the accompanying article by Prof M. Buck and colleagues

December 2015

Xubo’s paper published in BJ. Congratulations!

October 2015

Mike and Pri’s review article published in ABBS. Congratulations!
Pri and Abdallah’s paper published in PLoS Conput Biol. Congratulations!

August 2015

Graduate student Nabina Paudyal joins our group. Welcome!

May 2015

Cover image in Proteins. Congratulations, Pri!
Welcome to John Rogers and Kalkidan Getahun, who will do summer research in our group.

April 2015

Welcome to our new colleagues Amit Gupta and Suparna Sarkar!

March 2015

Congratulations to Zhenlong Li, who is now Research Associate at Cornell University.

January 2015

CPRIT Grant: a three-year grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas

October 2014

Abdallah Sayyed-Ahmad rejoins our group as a Research Scientist. Welcome!
Xubo Lin joins our group for his postdoctoral training. Welcome!

June 2014

Feature Article on work from our group at the Texas Advanced Computing Center Website

May 2014

Congratulations to Priyanka Prakash on winning — for the third year in a row — an award for her poster presentation at the 18th Sealy Center Structural Biology Symposium in Galveston, TX.
We welcome Michael McCarthy, who joins the group for his PhD thesis on structure-based drug design combining experimental and computational approaches.
Harrison Hocker accepted a position at GE Capital in New Orleans, LA.

March 2014

Michael McCarthy joins our group for his third rotation. Welcome!

February 2014

Harrison Hocker successfully defended his PhD thesis on 2/24/2014.Congratulations!

November 2013

Congratulations to Priyanka Prakash on winning second place award in the Keck Annual Research Conference poster competition.

October 2013

Congratulations to Harrison Hocker on winning third place award in the GSEC poster competition at the Medical School Retreat.

July 2013

Alex Gorfe profiled on the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology website

June 2013

Our paper highlighted in Science-Business eXchange – Nature (see link and Box 1 in here)

May 2013

Awarded: 2012/2013 Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award.
Nandini Rambahal successfully defended her masters thesis on May 28. Congratulations!.
Congratulations to Priyanka Prakash and Zhenlong Li on their first and second place awards for their poster presentation at this years Sealy Center Structure Biology Symposium in Galveston.

April 2013

Congratulations to Harrison Hocker on his second place win for best graduate student oral presentation at this year’s CRB retreat.
Congratulations to Zhenlong Li on his second place win for best postdoc oral presentation at this year’s CRB retreat.

March 2013

Drew Dolino joins our group as rotation student. Welcome Drew!.

January 2013

Congratulations to Lorant Janosi, a former postdoc in the lab, on his appointment as Senior Researcher at the National Institute for Research and Development of Isotope and Molecular Technologies of Romania.
Kelsey Maxwell joins our group for her second rotation. Welcome Kelsey!.
Congratulations to Harrison and Nandini on winning GSBS travel awards to present their work at the upcoming American Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans.

December 2012

Congratulations to Zhenlong on his UTHealth Innovation for Cancer Research Postdoctoral Fellowship award (sponsored by CPRIT).

November 2012

Congratulations to Nandini on winning a travel award from the Biophysical Society to present her work at the next BPS meeting in Philadelphia.

October 2012

Congratulations to Zhenlong on winning a prize for his poster presentation at the 22nd Keck Annual Research Conference in Houston.

September 2012

Congratulations to Priyanka on her postdoctoral fellowship award from the Computational Cancer Biology Training Program (sponsored by CPRIT).

August 2012

Congratulations to Nandini on winning a fellowship from the NBCR Summer Institute and her third place poster award.
An RO1 award from the NIH for our “protein nanoclustering” project.

June 2012

Our group’s research activities highlighted in the IBP Newsletter (newsletter is no longer available).
Congratulations to Harrison and Nandini on their GSBS travel award.

April 2012

Congratulations to Hualin, Zhenlong and Priyanka who have won awards for their poster presentation at the Sealy Center Structural Biology Symposium in Galveston!

Aug 2011

Hualin Li joins us as postdoctoral fellow. Welcome Hualin!

May 2011

Priyanka P. Srivastava successfully defended her thesis at IIT Kanpur.
Priyanka rejoins our group as a postdoctoral fellow. Welcome Pri!
Welcome to Nandini Maharaj, who joins our group as a graduate student.

March 2011

Congratulations to Harrison Hocker on winning the GCC-Pharmacological Sciences Training Program grant.

February 2011

We welcome Ming Han to the group.

January 2011

We welcome Zhenlong Li to the group.

October 2010

We welcome Priyanka P. Srivastava to the group

September 2010

Congratulations to Lorant Janosi, who has moved on to the University of Cagliari with the prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship.

August 2010

Congratulations to Abdallah Sayyed-Ahmad, who has moved on to his new position as Assistant Professor of Physics at Birzeit University.