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Colly Mitchell
Events Manager
Summary Sentence: A presentation by David Hanna, recipient of the 2018 Suddath Award
Full Summary: The Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering & Bioscience presents the Suddath Symposium graduate student awards to three students for their grand achievements in biological or biochemical research at the molecular or cellular level. The first place winner awardee presents a talk to the Petit Institute community during the annual Suddath Symposium. The 2018 winner is David Hanna, a Ph.D. student of Amit Reddi in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
2018 Suddath Award Winner David Hanna (right) with his Ph.D. supervisor, Amit Reddi Abstract
Heme is an essential yet cytotoxic iron containing metallonutrient. Well recognized for its role as a protein prosthetic group, more recent genetic and biochemical evidence indicate heme can act as a dynamic signaling molecule.
Due to the cytoxicity associated with free or misregulated heme, the bioavailable heme pool utilized for signaling is tightly regulated and buffered to low levels, making heme acquisition and heme-dependent signaling reliant on the ability to safely mobilize heme. However, the factors involved in mobilizing heme have remained poorly understood.
Recently, utilizing our novel heme sensor technology, we revealed that heme is a highly dynamic molecule that is regulated by cell cycle and that nitric oxide (NO), a well-established and ubiquitous signaling molecule, mobilizes cytosolic and nuclear heme pools. Additionally, we discovered that under Pb stress the regulatory heme pool increases while total heme is diminished.
Having identified several physiological and pathophysiogical conditions that mobilize labile heme, in collaboration with Matt Torres in the School of Biological Sciences, we are now developing mass spectrometry-based techniques to identify proteins that bind and release heme in these contexts to define new heme-signaling networks.
References
The Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, an internationally recognized hub of multidisciplinary research at the Georgia Institute of Technology, brings engineers, scientists, and clinicians together to solve some of the world’s most complex health challenges. With 19 research centers, more than 200 faculty members, and $24 million in state-of-the-art facilities, the Petit Institute is translating scientific discoveries into game-changing solutions to solve real-world problems.
