Kayla's paper entitle, "Exploring Product Release from Yeast Cytosine Deaminase with Metadynamics" is now published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B!
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The 2024 Volcano Conference hosted by the University of Washington at Pack Forest by the base of Mt. Rainier was a 'chill' time. With a slight February breeze, the setting was perfect for long hikes to the Little Mashel Falls and time spent around the bonfire.
Students and professors from WWU headed out Saturday
afternoon to view the majestic Mashel Falls after the talks.
The science talks were quite entertaining, full of organic synthesis and medicinal application, and with as light as atmosphere as the sun shining through the windows of Scott Hall. Giving opportunity for both undergraduate and graduate student researchers to present their work along side seasoned professionals in a quaint setting allowed for barriers to be broken and the seeding of collaboration to begin. Friday's poster session in the MacBride building was a great opportunity to share and hear recent works by students from schools in the Pacific Northwest.
David Cummins and Kayla Croney, both Masters students in the Dr. Jay McCarty
Lab at WWU, present their work in computational biochemistry.
The atmosphere was light and refreshing, bringing together scientists from a diverse range of fields. We learned about the progress of synthesizing pufferfish tetrodotoxin from the keynote speaker and how to light a fire in the cold, damp foothills of Mt. Rainier.
Hey, even the food was good too!
About the Author:
David Cummins, an upcoming Masters graduate is not only a computational biochemist but avid pickleball player as well. He is graduating in Spring, '24 and hopes to work in the biotech industry.
The McCarty Research group makes a splash in Seattle at the 43rd annual ASBMB.
With a rich offering of multi-discipline presentations, this year was a treasure trove of exploration and thought explosion. We learned about lipids, pathways, and artificial neural networks. The RFdiffusion method with its use of noise to build proteins around a ligand was introduced by none other than Dr. David Baker himself. Our networks were bolstered, and inspiration instilled. We are looking forward to next year in San Antonio where we will be sharing our most recent results.
The McCarty Research Group's three master's students from left to right;
Kyle Whitham, Kayla Croney, & David Cummins checking into the ASBMB 2023
We were not the only Vikings in the Emerald City as we ran into members of the WWU biochemistry research cohort. Getting to hear the results of their hard work was amazing.
Listening in on fellow WWU researchers from the Dr. Amacher lab Katy LIndblom and Elise Tahti's discoveries on the specificity of Sortase A.
The "Discover" in Discover ASMBMB 2023 was apparent as we found our flock of computational chemists. Ideas were flown about and we felt for the first time that someone actually understood us!
Meeting a fellow computational biochemist, Babak Sanei from Los Angeles, CA leads to opportunity for collaboration in the future.
As the last day's dust settles, our poster presentation drew a crowd of like-minded computational inquirers and novices as well. The Sortase B enzyme was well explained and the methods of analysis shown in great detail.
David Cummins & Kyle Whitham show their preliminary work on the molecular dynamics of chimeric loop swapped Sortase B enzymes and exploration of the catalytic mechanism via quantum mechanical studies.
In prime poster position is Kayla Croney's detailing of metadynamics and the way she used volume-based collected variables to overcome reaction barriers in product unbinding.
Kayla Croney presenting her findings via volume-based metadynamics of the yeast Cytosine Deaminase.
A mid day stroll down Pike St. brings us to the Pike's Place Market in downtown Seattle, WA.
Did you really travel to Seattle if you didn't see flying salmon at the Pike's Place Market?
From top left to bottom right: Abigail Andersen, Frederick Longshore-Neate, David Cummins, Jeanine Amacher, Kyle Whitham, Kayla Croney, Dr. Sierra Cullati, Hanna Kodama, & Elise Tahti.
And for the cherry on top, we ended the night with a reunion of lab mates at a hot-pot style Chinese restaurant. The food was to die for, and the fun we had reminiscing was unbeatable.
As the hot-pot style soothed our stomachs, meeting up with McCarty Research Group alumni Alden Harris and Isabelle Kim filled our hearts with sincere comradery.
We thank everyone we met, and all the people who put together the conference as well as the speakers and presenters. It was a formidable experience, and we would not miss out on next year in sunny San Antonio March 23 to the 26th 2024.
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