12/16/24

We are very happy to welcome Mackenzie Smith as the newest PhD student in the Fuglestad Lab! She is in the Chemical Biology program and will be working on the GPx4 inhibitor design project. We’re excited to have you, Mackenzie!

11/11/24

We are happy to share our most recent work, a review on reverse micelles as membrane models in Biochemical Society Transactions! It covers the latest in development and applications on using RMs to investigate membranes and membrane associated proteins.

https://portlandpress.com/biochemsoctrans/article-abstract/doi/10.1042/BST20240830/235224/Advances-in-utilizing-reverse-micelles-to?redirectedFrom=fulltext

 
 

11/05/24

We are excited to welcome Kelly Petersen to the lab as a PhD student! Kelly joins us from the Chemistry PhD program after earning a BS at VCU. She will be working on biophysical and structural investigations of GPx4, a super exciting project. Welcome aboard, Kelly!

9/15/24

We are very happy to welcome Kyla Cang to the lab as our newest undergraduate researcher! She will be working with Rachel on biophysical and inhibitory studies on membrane anchoring domains. Glad to have you, Kyla!

7/22/24

Our newest publication is for all you future Reverse Micellers! This Bio-protocol provides a step-by-step guide for using our membrane-mimicking and native reverse micelles for NMR or other experiments on encapsulated proteins. Great work, Sara!

https://bio-protocol.org/en/bpdetail?id=5039&type=0

6/27/24

Check out our latest paper in JACS Au! Here we outline a new method for fragment screening peripheral membrane proteins in their membrane—bound state. We found a series of fragments that bind to GPx4 and were able to enhance their binding, outlining a path forward for non-covalent inhibition of GPx4. Super exciting!

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacsau.4c00427

5/07/24

We are elated to share our discovery of inositol hexaphosphate as an inhibitor of p47phox-PX membrane anchoring, which may be a regulatory mechanism of NOX2 activation in phagocytosis and other events. Also, this article is featured on the front cover of Biochemistry!

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.biochem.4c00117

5/02/24

Congratulations to Abdul! He defended his thesis today, his work is on deciphering the mechanism of lipid transport in the FABP system. It has been 5 year journey and we are very proud of Abdul’s hard work and dedication!

4/29/24

Courtney defended her thesis today, capping off her PhD studies in the lab! She worked on GPx4 function and inhibition in the membrane-bound state, among other projects. Way to go Courtney, and best of luck at UCLA!

4/25/24

Congratulations to Angela, who successfully defended her thesis today! Her thesis on the function and inhibition of the PX domain of p47phox was the culmination of nearly 5 years of hard work and dedication. Great work, Angela, we’re very proud!

3/4/24

We are very excited to have Dr. Aaron Birchfield Join our lab as a post-doctoral fellow! Aaron is joining us after earning his PhD from East Tennessee State University and is working on FABP4 functional studies funded by our R35 MIRA grant. Happy to have you, Aaron!

1/5/24

We are happy to welcome our newest lab member to the Fuglestad Group, Allyson Payne! Allyson is joining us as an undergraduate researcher, who will be working on expanding our reverse micelle formulations to better mimic specific cellular membranes. Welcome to the lab, Allyson!

10/31/23

We are excited to share our recent publication in Protein Science, which was featured on the front cover! The study outlines new reverse micelles using natural lipid sources, for use in protein NMR experiments. Great work everyone!

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pro.4786

9/29/23

Jake Breeden has joined our lab as the newest member! Jake is joining us after earning a BS in chemistry from VCU and will be working in our collaboration with the Sieber lab to develop inhibitors using a fragment-based strategy. We’re excited to have you, Jake!

09/15/23

We are excited to Welcome Rachel Signorelli as the newest member of our group! She is a PhD student in Chemistry and is joining us after earning her MS at ECU. She will begin by working on the FABP4 function project. Welcome to the Fuglestad Lab, Rachel!

4/24/23

Congratulations to Sara on passing her candidacy exam! We are proud of her hard work and can’t wait to see where the rest of her studies take her!

9/16/22

We would like to welcome Alana Thomas-Yates as our newest group member! Alana is joining us as an undergraduate researcher and is working on fragment based inhibitor design of peripheral membrane proteins. We’re happy to have you join us, Alana!

9/8/22

Our group was awarded an NIH NIGMS R35 MIRA. This 5-year grant funds our efforts in basic understanding, inhibition, and technology development focused on peripheral membrane proteins. We appreciate the NIH and all group members who contributed to this effort!

8/17/22

We are excited to have George Zorn join the group as an undergraduate researcher. George will be working with membrane binding domains of disease relevant proteins. Welcome aboard, George!

3/18/22

We are happy to share our work on a new, membrane mimicking reverse micelle formulation, published in Langmuir! This work is featured on the front cover!

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c03085

1/30/22

Sakinah Owens has joined the lab as our newest undergraduate research member! She will be working on inhibition of membrane related proteins. Welcome, Sakinah!

11/11/21

We would like to welcome our newest lab member, Sara Walters, to the team. Sara is joining us as a first year student in the Chemistry PhD program. We are looking forward to having Sara work with us!

9/10/21

We are excited to share our work on GPx4 functional interactions in Biochemistry!

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.biochem.1c00492

8/18/20

The Fuglestad Lab would like to welcome our newest undergraduate member, Farheen Zaman! Farheen worked with us through the summer of 2020 through the Honors Summer Undergraduate Research Program and will stay on as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Farheen!

11/14/19

The Fuglestad Lab welcomes its first members: Nadia Ali, undergraduate major in Chemistry and minor in Computer Science; Abdul Castillo, Chemistry PhD program; Angela Develin, Chemical Biology PhD program; Courtney Labrecque, Chemical Biology PhD program; and Jed Kucharczk, undergraduate double major in Biology and Chemistry, who is working jointly with the Fuglestad and Hartman labs. Welcome Everyone!!

5/22/19

The Fuglestad Lab at the VCU Department of Chemistry will begin research in August 2019. Stay tuned!