The QBI online seminar series presents Rebecca Scheck, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Tufts University. She performed her graduate work with Prof. Matthew Francis at UC Berkeley, where developed chemistry to modify proteins under mild conditions. In her postdoctoral work at Yale University with Prof. Alanna Schepartz, she applied a chemical tool to study the differential activation of a cell surface receptor in living cells. Since joining the Tufts University faculty, research in the Scheck laboratory has focused on developing new chemical approaches that can be used to report on inducible changes in protein function in living cells. 

Research in the Scheck laboratory focuses on understanding protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) that have been difficult to study using traditional tools. They have uncovered the molecular features that govern selective glycation, and are now using this knowledge to develop new methods that predictably modulate glycation outcomes in living cells. This approach is uniquely suited to explore the biology of glycation by enabling the rigorous study of glycation as a functional PTM. In a second project, they focus on ubiquitination, a PTM that occurs through a sequential multi-enzyme cascade. They have engineered a system that can trace specific ubiquitination events to specific enzymes within this multi-enzyme path. Fully dissecting the interactions that guide ubiquitin to individual target proteins will provide critical insight into ubiquitin signaling and will reveal new potential therapeutic targets. The Scheck lab is using these new chemical tools to address longstanding questions about the role of these vital, yet elusive, PTMs in diabetes, cancer, inflammation, and age-related diseases.

Talk title: New Chemical Strategies to Unravel Elusive Post-Translational Modifications

Hosted By: Michelle Arkin

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://ucsf.zoom.us/j/96217604194?pwd=QXp1WEhIODVHeDQ5SzZtVUlXM3RzZz09

Webinar ID: 962 1760 4194

Passcode: 729253