Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

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Chair’s Welcome

Welcome to the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. Established in 1969, the department is committed to increasing our understanding of the biochemical and molecular bases of normal and abnormal cellular processes, and to educating highly qualified scientists who, through research, education, and service, will continue to provide new insights in the biological sciences. With 23 faculty members conducting research in a variety of areas, the department provides cutting-edge curricula and innovative research opportunities.

The research areas of our faculty include:

Gene structure, function, and regulation
Molecular evolution and genetics
Signal transduction
RNA structure and function
Lipid biochemistry and metabolism
Protein structure, folding, and dynamics

Multidisciplinary approaches are being applied in most of these research areas, providing graduate students with numerous opportunities to obtain a versatile training in modern molecular biology and biochemistry. In addition, the department is home to a major research program in Lipidomics & Pathobiology.

Thank you for your interest in our department and for visiting our website. We welcome your inquiries.

Philip H. Howe, Ph.D.
Chair

Dr. Ozgur Sahin has been awarded the MUSC Hollings Cancer Center Idea Award for his project titled: Overcoming PARP Inhibitor Resistance in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. Idea Awardees | MUSC Hollings Cancer Center
Dr. David Long received a one-year Catalyst award from the American Cancer Society to expand his work investigating a previously unknown interaction between the well-studied proteins BRD4 and ATM.
Dr. Natalie Saini received a nomination from the students for her teaching in the COM HRR theme.
Dr. Annamarie Dalton received the Golden Apple Award for teaching the COM MMT theme.
Dr. Ozgur Sahin received the College of Medicine Research Excellence Award. He was recognized for his work and article, "Toxic PARP trapping upon cAMP-induced DNA damage reinstates the efficacy of endocrine therapy and CDK4/6 inhibitors in treatment-refractory ER+ breast cancer", published by Nature Communications Nov. 2, 2023.
Dr. Natalie Saini received Established Investigator Grant from the National Scleroderma Foundation - https://scleroderma.org/scleroderma-research-grant-program/. This is a 2 year grant ($200,000 total for both years). The grant application aims to understand the mutation burden and the causes of genome instability in patients with scleroderma. Dr. Saini's group hypothesize that genome instability in these patients contributes to carcinogenesis.
Dr. Besim Ogretmen received the 2023 Peggy Schachte Research Mentor Award. It recognizes individuals at MUSC who have excelled in mentoring faculty in obtaining research support from private and public organizations or government agencies.
Dr. Wenjian Gan received the 2023 MUSC Developing Scholar Award in Basic Science, which recognizes junior faculty who have made outstanding contributions to the university's research mission and to promote the continued development of the scholars. He also received the Early Career Faculty Travel Award for the 2023 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington and the College of Medicine Research Excellence Award for his research article titled "Arginine methylation of BRD4 by PRMT2/4 governs transcription and DNA repair" published in Science Advances, Volume 8, Issue 49, 09 December 2022.
Dr. Lu Han, postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Ostrowski's laboratory, received 5-year K99 award (2 years postdoc + 3 independent faculty) titled "Origin, diversification and function of pancreatic cancer associated fibroblasts"
2022 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Mentor of the Year. Dr. Visu Palanisamy was voted by Biochemistry and Molecular Biology students, staff, and other full-time trainees as having been exceptionally helpful in mentoring for their career. Congratulations to Dr. Visu Palanisamy, and thank you for your time giving back to our scientific community.
Dr. David Long received Eminent Scholar Award from the College of Medicine which provides 3 years of support to establish and lead a new scientific cluster.
College of Medicine Research Excellence Award. Dr. Joe Delaney was recognized for his work and article titled "SWAN pathway-network identification of common aneuploidy-based oncogenic drivers," published in Nucleic Acids Research, Volume 50, Issue 7, 22 April 2022.
Dr. Je-Hyun Yoon's publication titled: NEAT1 is essential for metabolic changes that promote breast cancer growth and metastasis has been selected by Interim Dean, Dr. Terry Steyer to be honored by the College of Medicine.
12th Annual JBECDM Scholars Day 2022 - Megan Sheridan, from Dr. Ogretmen's lab, was awarded 1st place for the PhD (5+year) presentation category in Dental Scholars Day organized by College of Dental Medicine. Presentation title: The Role of Porphyromonas gingivalis in Mediating Ceramide-dependent Mitophagy in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
2021 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Mentor of the Year. Dr. David Long was voted by Biochemistry and Molecular Biology students, staff, and other full-time trainees as having been exceptionally helpful in mentoring for their career. Congratulations to Dr. David Long, and thank you for your time giving back to our scientific community.
Dr. David Long was recognized and awarded by the Dean of College of Medicine, Dr. Raymond DuBois, for his high impact research publication “BRCA1-BARD1regulates transcription through BRD4 in Xenopus nucleoplasmic extract”
Dr. Joe Delaney was awarded the South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Institute's Discovery Award to research copy number alterations in understudied Black women's ovarian cancers. He was also awarded the Hollings Cancer Center's Pre-Clinical Concept Award to research the Combination Of Autophagy Selective Therapeutics (COAST) in serous ovarian cancer.
MUSC Catalyst News - Dr. Joe Delaney's study on high-grade serous carcinoma was recently published in PLOS Genetics and the highlight of this study is in February's Catalyst.
https://web.musc.edu/about/news-center/2020/02/03/ovarian-cancer-tumor-suppressors

Vijayraghavan S, Saini N. Aldehyde-Associated Mutagenesis─Current State of Knowledge. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 2023
Liu L, Yin S, Gan W. TRAF6 Promotes PRMT5 Activity in a Ubiquitination-Dependent Manner. Cancers (Basel). 2023
Yin S, Liu L, Ball LE, Wang Y, Bedford MT, Duncan SA, Wang H, Gan W. CDK5-PRMT1-WDR24 signaling cascade promotes mTORC1 signaling and tumor growth. Cell Reports. 2023
Liu L, Lin B, Yin S, Ball LE, Delaney JR, Long DT, Gan W. Arginine methylation of BRD4 by PRMT2/4 governs transcription and DNA repair. Science Advances. 2022
Lee TA, Han H, Polash A, Cho SK...Hafner M, Lee I, Yoon JH, Lee S, Park B. The nucleolus is the site for inflammatory RNA decay during infection. Nat Commun. 2022
Bowers RR, Jones CM, Paz EA, Barrows JK, Armeson KE, Long DT, Delaney JR. SWAN Pathway-Network Identification of Common Aneuploidy-Based Oncogenic Drivers. Nucleic Acids Res. 2022
Park MK, Zhang L, Min KW, Cho JH, Yeh CC, Moon H, Hormaechea-Agulla D, Mun H, Ko S...Yoon JH, Song MS. NEAT1 is essential for metabolic changes that promote breast cancer growth and metastasis. Cell Metab. 2021
Barrows JK, Fullbright G, Long DT. BRCA1-BARD1 regulates transcription through BRD4 in Xenopus nucleoplasmic extract. Nucleic Acids Res. 2021
Delaney JR, Patel CB, Bapat J, Jones CM, Ramos-Zapatero M, Ortell KK, Tanios R, Haghighiabyaneh M, Axelrod J, DeStefano JW, Tancioni I, Schlaepfer DD, Harismendy O, La Spada AR, Stupack DG. Autophagy gene haploinsufficiency drives chromosome instability, increases migration, and promotes early ovarian tumors. PLOS Genetics. 2020
Shai White-Gilbertson, Ping Lu, James S. Norris, Christina Voelkel-Johnson. Genetic and pharmacological inhibition of acid ceramidase prevents asymmetric cell division by neosis. J Lipid Res. 2019 was highlighted in a special Journal of Lipid Research virtual issue titled "Solving the enigma of the sphinx, one sphingolipid at a time". Link: https://www.jlr.org/sphingolipids
CuitiñoMC, Pécot T, Sun D , Kladney R, Okano-Uchida T, Shinde N, Saeed R, Perez-Castro A, Webb A, Liu T, Bae S, Clijsters L, Selner N, Coppola V, Timmers C, Ostrowski M, Pagano M, Leone G. Two distinct E2F transcriptional modules drive cell cycles and differentiation. Cell Reports. 2019.
Clijsters L, Hoencamp C, Calis JA, Marzio A, Handgraaf SM, Cuitino MC, Marzluff WF, Rosenberg BR, Leone G, Pagano M. Cyclin F controls cell cycle transcriptional outputs by directing the degradation of the three activator E2Fs. Mol Cell 2019.
Oleinik N, Kim J, Roth BM, Selvam SP, Gooz M, Johnson RH, Lemasters JJ, Ogretmen B. Mitochondrial protein import is regulated by p17/PERMIT to mediate lipid metabolism and cellular stress. Sci Adv. 2019
Chakraborty P, Vaena SG, Thyagarajan K, Chatterjee S, Al-Khami A, Selvam SP, Nguyen H, Kang I, Wyatt MW, Baliga U, Hedley Z, Ngang RN, Guo B, Beeson GC, Husain S, Paulos CM, Beeson CC, Zilliox MJ, Hill EG, Mehrotra M, Yu XZ, Ogretmen B, Mehrotra S. Pro-Survival Lipid Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Metabolically Programs T Cells to Limit Anti-tumor Activity. Cell Rep 2019

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