News

Congrats to Alison on her PNAS paper titled “Capturing a methanogenic carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA synthase complex via cryogenic electron microscopy”!

Congrats to Dana and Paty on their PNAS paper titled “2.6-Å resolution cryo-EM structure of a class Ia ribonucleotide reductase trapped with mechanism-based inhibitor N3CDP”!

Congrats to our lab manager Becky for a Biology Spot Award!

Congrats to Gisele for getting the cover of Biochemistry!

Congrats Naike for his recently published paper “A single diiron enzyme catalyses the oxidative rearrangement of tryptophan to indole nitrile”!

Congratulations to Christa for her leadership award from MIT chemistry!

Congrats to Gisele on the publication of her paper in Biochemistry on allosteric regulation of E. coli class Ia RNR!

Congrats to Dana for their poster talk at the Electron Donor-Acceptor Interactions GRC!

Congrats to Cathy for her Keynote at the Molecular basis of microbial One-carbon Metabolism GRS!

Congrats to Andrea for her excellent talk at the Molecular basis of microbial One-carbon Metabolism GRS!

Congratulations to Naike Ye on his excellent talk at the Metallocofactors GRS!

Congratulations to Drennan lab UROP students Balyn Brotheridge and Delight Nweneka on receiving their Bachelor’s Degrees in Course 7 and 6-7, respectively.

Congratulations to Cathy on receiving the 2024 Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from MIT!

Congratulations to Cathy on her induction into the National Academy of Sciences!

Congratulations to Gisele Andree on successfully defending her PhD

Congratulations to Dr. Alison Biester for successfully defending her PhD!

Congratulations Naike, Andrea and Christa for passing their 3rd year orals!

Congratulations to Sheena for her recent publication, “Structural and biochemical investigations of a HEAT-repeat protein involved in the cytosolic iron-sulfur cluster assembly pathway”!

The Drennan lab welcomes new postdoc Jayoh Hernandez to the group!

The Drennan lab welcomes new postdoc Zhuangyu Zhao to the group!

Congrats to Francesca and Gisele and former lab members Daphne, David, Kenny, Dallas and Marco on their new paper in JBC “Structural insight into G-protein chaperone-mediated maturation of a bacterial adenosylcobalamin-dependent mutase”.

Congrats to Gisele Andree on receiving a Student Group Presidents’ Award from the Department of Chemistry at MIT and to Alison Biester on receiving a Leadership Award from the Department of Chemistry at MIT.

Congratulations to Cathy for being named a Structural Science Society (ACA) Fellow!

Congratulations to Cathy for being named the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Biochemistry!

Congratulations to Gerardo Perez Goncalves for receiving a Poster Award from the Protein Society July 2023

Congratulations to our 2023 Drennan Lab graduates! Daphne Faber (BS) Sheena Vasquez (PhD) Francesca Vaccaro (PhD) Talya Levitz (PhD)

Congratulations to Mary, Devin, Christa and Balyn on their iScience publication, “Development of an in vitro method for activation of X-succinate synthases for fumarate hydroalkylation”.

Congratulations to Sheena Vasquez for successfully defending her PhD!

Congratulations to Cathy on her election to the National Academy of Sciences! http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/2023-nas-election.html

Congratulations to former MSRP student Paulina Rios on receiving an NSF GRFP!

Congratulations to Talya Levitz for successfully defending her PhD!

Congratulations to Daphne on her ABRCMS 2022 poster presentation award!

Congrats to Mary for her selection as an NIH MOSAIC Scholar!

Congratulations to Francesca on her Student Group Presidents’ Award!

Congratulations to Christa on receiving the Department of Chemistry Award for Outstanding Teaching

Congrats to Sheena, Gisele and Mary on being invited to speak at the 8th Semi-Annual New England CryoEM Symposium June 2022

Congrats to Mary on her K99!! June 2022

Congratulations to Francesca on her review, “The role of nucleoside triphosphate hydrolase metallochaperones in making metalloenzymes.” in Metallomics.

Congrats to Talya, Gisele, Rohan, Dawson, and Becky on their PLOS one paper (June 2022) https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1371/journal.pone.0269572

Congrats to Cathy on being invited to speak at the Nobel Symposium on Bioinorganic Chemistry (May 2022)

Congratulations to Drennan lab graduates Abby (BS), Devin (BS) and Lindsey (PhD) (May 2022)

Congratulations to Abby on winning the Association of MIT Alumnae (AMITA) Senior Academic Award (May 2022)

Congratulations to Sorin and Andy on passing their prelim exams. May 2022

Congrats to Abby Scott on Phi Beta Kappa

Congrats to Sorin for being awarded an NSF fellowship

Congrats to Gerardo for being awarded an NIH predoctoral fellowship.

Congrats to Lindsey Backman for being selected as a Whitehead Fellow.

Congrats to Mary Andorfer for accepting an assistant professor position at Michigan State University

Congrats to Gisele and Lindsey for being invited to give talks at ASBMB 2022

Congratulations to Talya on her recent publication, “Ribonucleotide reductase, a novel drug target for gonorrhea.” DOI: 10.7554/eLife.67447

Congratulations to Alison on her recent publication, “Visualizing the gas channel of a monofunctional carbon monoxide dehydrogenase.” DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2022.111774

Congratulations to Gisele and Alison for passing their 3rd year original research proposal exams.

Big congrats to Dana Westmoreland and Kelsey Miller-Brown on receiving Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Postdoctoral Fellowships.

Congratulations to Talya on her publication in the Journal of Structural Biology, “Effects of chameleon dispense-to-plunge speed on particle concentration, complex formation, and final resolution: A case study using the Neisseria gonorrhoeae ribonucleotide reductase inactive complex.”

Congratulations to Mary, Lindsey, Phoebe, and Emily on their recent publication in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, “Rescuing activity of oxygen-damaged pyruvate formate-lyase by a spare part protein.”

Welcome to our new grad students in Chemistry, Andrea Marcano-Delgado, Christa Imrich, and Naike Ye!

Congratulations to Lindsey Backman on winning the Joe Wong Poster Award at this week’s SSRL Users’ Meeting, Metals in Biology workshop.

Congratulations to Alison Biester on receiving a Department of Chemistry Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Congrats to Dante Avalos on becoming a 2021 Gilliam Fellow.

Congratulation to Gerardo Perez Goncalves for successfully completing his PhD candidacy exams.

Congratulations to Lindsey Backman on winning a poster award at the Protein Society’s annual symposium

Cathy was interviewed for Roadtrip Nation’s “Do It Differently.” Roadtrip Nation is shown on many PBS stations. “Do It Differently” follows three young people on a journey to figure out how to redefine success on their own terms. Their stories and those of the inspiring people they meet are proof there’s no one way to… Continue reading Cathy on dyslexia at Roadtrip Nation

Congratulations to Paty Feliciano for her ACS Omega paper, Crystal Structure of the [4Fe–4S] Cluster-Containing Adenosine-5′-phosphosulfate Reductase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Congratulation to Gisele Andrée and Alison Biester for successfully completing their PhD candidacy exams.

Congratulations to Phoebe Li on receiving the Association of MIT Alumnae’s Senior Academic Award, for “demonstrating the highest level of academic excellence through her coursework and related professional activities at MIT.” And Congratulations to Lindsey Backman on being named an MIT Hugh Hampton Young Fellow.

Congratulations to Cathy for being named a Fellow of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Congratulations to Mary for her Preview article in Joule, “Fixing nature’s carbon inefficiencies.”

Congrats to Cathy for being awarded the 2020-2021 Sigman Lectureship Award from UCLA.

We’re excited that Mira May and Christa Imrich will be coming to MIT for grad school (Bio & Chem, respectively) this fall. They were both MSRP-Bio summer students in our lab.

At the March 29 Research Slam, Lindsey won both first place in the Judge’s award and the Audience Choice award for grad students (“Why does Poop Smell Bad?”), and Kelsey won the Audience Choice award for postdocs (“Avenging Our Immune System”).

Congratulations to first-author Dawson, along with Lindsey, on their paper in Cell Chemical Biology, “Molecular basis of C-S bond cleavage in the glycyl radical enzyme isethionate sulfite-lyase,” available here and highlighted here.

Congratulations to former Drennan lab MSRP students Luis Caldera and Mira May and current Drennan lab graduate student Gisele Andrée on receiving NSF awards and/or honorable mention from the NSF. Way to go!

Rohan Jonnalagadda’s paper, “Biochemical and crystallographic investigations into isonitrile formation by a nonheme iron-dependent oxidase/decarboxylase,” is out in Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Welcome to our new grad students in Chemistry, Andy Dorfeuille and Sorin Srinivasa.

Congratulations to Percy Yang-Ting Chen for his publication in Nature Chemical Biology, “Structural Basis for Non-Radical Catalysis by TsrM, a Radical SAM Methylase.” Available here or here (view-only but open access).  

Congratulations to Cathy on being elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. AAAS announcement here, and MIT’s here.

Steve Cohen et al., “Negative-Stain Electron Microscopy Reveals Dramatic Structural Rearrangements in Ni-Fe-S-Dependent Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenase/Acetyl-CoA Synthase,” Structure 28: 1-7.

We’re very happy to welcome Dana Westmoreland as a new postdoc in the Drennan lab. Dana joins us from Northwestern University.

Congratulations to Francesca Vaccaro, Gisele Andrée, and Steve Cohen on receiving the Department of Chemistry’s Award for Outstanding Service, and to Francesca for her Kirschstein Fellowship from the NIH.

The Drennan lab paper “Disruption of an Oligomeric Interface Prevents Allosteric Inhibition of Escherichia coli Class Ia Ribonucleotide Reductase” has been included in the Journal of Biological Chemistry‘s special issue, “Women in Biological Chemistry,” which brings together Editors’ Picks papers to commemorate the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote in the U.S.

Congratulations to current Drennan lab grad student Sheena Vasquez and former Drennan lab MSRP/EXROP student Santi Yori on receiving the prestigious Gilliam Fellowship from HHMI.

We’re very happy to welcome Kelsey Miller as a new postdoc in the Drennan lab. Kelsey joins us from the University of California, Irvine.

Congratulations to Steve Cohen and former Drennan lab member Elizabeth Wittenborn on their papers published this week in JACS and ACS Catalysis, respectively (links on our Publications page).

The Drennan lab closes to take part in (and organize in the MIT Bio & Chem departments) #ShutdownSTEM anti-racism workshops on June 10, 2020.

Officially graduating this week: Becky Bjork, Master’s in Biotechnology, Harvard Extension Steve Cohen, PhD in Chemistry, MIT C. Dawson, PhD in Biology, MIT Allena Goren, PhD in Chemistry, MIT Rohan Jonnalagadda, PhD in Biochemistry, MIT Kenny Kang, PhD in Chemistry, MIT

Congratulations to Dr. Rohan Jonnalagadda on his successful (virtual) thesis defense, May 12.

Congratulations to Dr. Steve Cohen on his successful (virtual) thesis defense, April 17.

Featured in MIT News and ACS’s C&E News: “Structure of a trapped radical transfer pathway within a ribonucleotide reductase holocomplex,” Science eaba6794.

Cathy has received the Protein Society’s Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Award, granted in recognition of exceptional contributions in protein science which profoundly influence our understanding of biology.

Featured in MIT News: Lindsey & Mary’s “Molecular basis for catabolism of the abundant metabolite trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline by a microbial glycyl radical enzyme,” eLife 9:e51420.

Congratulations to Dr. Dawson on his successful thesis defense, March 16. We were glad to be able to at least join him virtually.

Congratulations to undergrad Abby Scott for her induction into MIT’s Laureates and Leaders program as a member of the cohort of 2022!

Congratulations to Dr. Paty Feliciano for getting the cover of the December 31 issue of Biochemistry. 

The Drennan Lab welcomes first year MIT chemistry graduate students, Alison Biester and Gisele Andree, to the group!

Congratulations to Sheena Vasquez for successfully completing her PhD candidacy exam!

Cathy was recently featured on WBUR as part of the Edify’s Lessons Learned series.  She shared her story of how her experience with dyslexia shaped her career and life. Read the article and listen to the news story here!

Last official Starbucks run of the summer term. Best of luck to our summer interns and to Dr. Allena Goren who defended over the summer. The lab won’t be the same without you! 

Congrats to Steve Cohen for receiving an MIT Spot Award for his work on the Chemistry Graduate Student Council (CGSC), including serving as a President of the CGSC. 

Congrats to freshly minted PhD recipients from the Drennan lab:  Dr. Allena Goren and Dr. Gyunghoon Kenny Kang.