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Lab meeting schedule
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2021:
March 31, 2021: Eric got his first paper published in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, focusing on the effects of hopanoids on the dimerization of proteorhodopsin. You can read about it here. Congrats, Eric!
2020....
Sept. 28, 2020: Violetta got her first paper published in Langmuir, studying the effect of protonation on state III of pHLIP. Read all about it here. Congrats, Violetta!
Aug. 1, 2020: Blake was appointed the Helen C. Levitt chair as a Visiting Professor while at the University of Iowa. He will be on sabbatical with Prof. Michael Schnieders (BME/Biochemistry & Biophysics) working on a lipid force field for AMOEBA.
2019....
Nov. 22, 2019: Choongkeun got his second paper from the group published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B on his work on the color-tuning mechanism in proteorhodopsin. First group paper in JPCB! Congratulations on a hard-fought success, Choongkeun!
Nov. XX, 2019: Blake Edinboro University (PA) seminar
Nov. 1, 2019: Alex Wroe joined the lab as our soon-to-be first dual citizen. Welcome, eh!
Oct. XX, 2019: Blake West Liberty seminar
Oct. 2, 2019: Mike Crowley seminar
Aug. XX, 2019: First collaborative paper with the Barrera group....
March 2019: BPS meeting in Baltimore. Got the gang together again!
Jan. 16, 2019: We hosted Jeff Wereszczynski from Illinois Institute of Technology to give his departmental seminar on MD simulations...
2018......
Dec. 5, 2018: We hosted Pete Kekenes-Huskey from the University of Kentucky to give his departmental seminar on.....
Nov. 1, 2018: Chitrak got his paper on the binding of pHLIP and the variant, pHLIP-1, to POPC bilayers accepted to Biophysical Journal. Excelsior!
Oct. 17, 2018: We hosted Jeff Comer from Kansas State to give his departmental seminar on MD simulations of protein interactions with solid surfaces. A HUGE thank you for staying on Thursday to help everyone in the lab with their simulation projects, Jeff!
October 2, 2018: Sadegh published his paper on formation of a hydrated cytoplasmic half-channel in PR in Biophysical Journal. Salud!
Sept. 5, 2018: We hosted Fran Barrera from UT-Knoxville to give his departmental seminar on ATRAM membrane-active peptides. Looking forward to collaborative studies on ATRAM as well as pHLIP, Fran!
July 16, 2018: Chitrak successfully defended his dissertation. Congratulations, Dr. Gupta! FIRST 4-YEAR PHD IN THE MERTZ GROUP!
June 29, 2018: Sadegh successfully defended his dissertation. Congratulations, Dr. Faramarzi Ganjabad! FIRST PHD IN THE MERTZ GROUP!
April 12, 2018: Blake gave an invited seminar at West Virginia Wesleyan College on our recent work on pHLIP. Looking forward to helping mentor Wesleyan students in some computational projects next spring, Ed!
April 11, 2018: Blake gave an invited biophysics seminar at Johns Hopkins University on our recent work on pHLIP. Thanks for hosting, Kalina, can't wait to start modeling your pHD peptides!
March 21, 2018: We hosted Gavin King from Mizzou to give his departmental seminar on AFM of membrane-active peptides. Can't wait to hear that you've functionalized your AFM tip with pHLIP, Gavin!
January 24, 2018: We hosted Nathaniel Nucci from Rowan University to give his departmental seminar on reverse micelles. Really great topic and looking forward to applying that to our research in the future!
2017......
December 5, 2017: Blake gave an invited biophysics seminar at the Center for Computational Biology at the University of Kansas on our recent work on proteorhodopsin. Thanks for hosting, Yinglong!
November 27, 2017: Chitrak got his first paper published on pHLIP in ACS Omega. Finally cracked that nut, Chitrak....cheers!
October 1, 2017: NSF funded our MRI grant for the next generation cluster at WVU. YES! We can keep doing research.....read all about it here and here.
August 24, 2017: Sadegh and the Fairmont State folks got their paper published on self-assembly of micelles in Langmuir. First paper for Sadegh out of the Mertz lab. Salud!
July 25, 2017: Blake was awarded a Big 12 Faculty Fellowship to visit the lab of Professor Cory Berkland at the University of Kansas. Looking forward to this collaboration!
July 24, 2017: Our proposal to carry out basic research on the function and interactions of proteorhodopsin received funding from the NSF. Thanks for all the hard work from students working on this!
June 26, 2017: Blake gave an invited talk in Santa Fe at the Biological Membranes and Membrane Proteins: Challenges for Theory and Experiment conference on our recent work on pHLIP. Thanks for the invite, Scott and Greg!
May 22, 2017: Blake and Chitrak visited the Barrera lab at UT-Knoxville to learn about pHLIP experiments and brainstorm ideas. Thanks for hosting, Fran, it was the first of many trips, looking forward to the next one!
May 1, 2017: Ahmad Kiani joined the lab as a joint student with the Valentine lab. خوش آمدی !
April 20, 2017: Chitrak gave a talk on his work on pHLIP binding to bilayers at the Molecular Biophysics symposium at Virginia Tech. Knocked it out of the park!
February 1, 2017: We hosted Donald Hamelberg from Georgia State University to give his departmental seminar on allostery in proteins. Thanks for all the helpful suggestions for our work, Donald!
January 26, 2017: Blake gave an invited biophysics seminar at Texas Tech on our recent work on pHLIP. Thanks for hosting, Hongjun! Looking forward to initiating that collaboration together on proteorhodopsin.
January 10, 2017: The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (WV HEPC) highlighted our research with a video interview on the work that was published in JCTC in 2016. Way to go guys!
2016.....
November 30, 2016: We hosted Chris Neale from Los Alamos National Lab to give his departmental seminar on MD simulations of GPCRs. Thanks for all the helpful tips and great conversation with the lab, Chris :--)
October 12, 2016: We hosted Kalina Hristova from Johns Hopkins University to give her departmental seminar on FRET measurements of membrane protein dimerization.
September 28, 2016: We hosted Gary Lorigan from Miami (OH) University to give his departmental seminar on ESEEM techniques to measure membrane protein secondary structure.
August 26, 2016: Violetta Burns Casamayor has joined the lab as a first-year graduate student. Bienvenidos!
June 20, 2016: Our R15 proposal to carry out basic research on pHLIP got funding from the NIGMS. First externally funded grant! Thanks to everyone for your help in getting this funded!
May 26, 2016: Aleena Andrews (REU) and Jaycie Saseen (WVU ChemE) joined the lab to work on our undergraduate pHLIP project. Welcome, ladies!
May 18, 2016: Austin presented his, Zach's , and Nina's poster on unfolding of pHLIP in solution at the Central Region ACS (CERMACS) meeting in Covington, KY. First ACS meeting for Austin!
May 9, 2016: Blake gave an invited biophysics seminar at the University of Maryland on our recent work on pHLIP. Thanks for hosting, Jeff and Silvina.
April 12, 2016: Choongkeun published his work on charge transport in bacteriorhodopsin in Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation. First paper on bR from the lab! Kudos to you, Choongkeun!
March 23, 2016: Blake gave an invited seminar at Lehigh University on our recent work on pHLIP. Thanks for hosting, Damien.
March 16, 2016: We hosted Elsa Yan from Yale University to give her departmental seminar on thermal activation of the mammalian dim light photoreceptor, rhodopsin.
March 15, 2016: Chitrak won the 3 minute thesis competition in the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. BOOM!
March 12, 2016: Sadegh took 3rd prize at the local ACS chapter graduate student poster competition. You da man!
February 27-March 2, 2016: The Mertz lab was getting the word out on the street the 60th Biophysical Society National Meeting. Choongkeun and Jun gave oral presentations and Chitrak and Sadegh presented posters.
February 19, 2016: Blake gave an invited seminar at Ursinus College on our recent work on pHLIP. Thanks for hosting, Julia.
February 17, 2016: We hosted Damien Thevenin from Lehigh University to give his departmental seminar on drug delivery with pHLIP.
2015......
December 8, 2015: Jun published her work on hydration dynamics in proteorhodopsin activation in Biochemistry. First paper on PR from the lab! Congratulations, Jun!
December 1, 2015: Eric Sefah joined our lab as a first-year Ph.D. student. Willkommen!
November 11, 2015: We hosted Michael Lerner from Earlham College to give his departmental seminar on determining diffusion rates in lipid bilayer systems from MD simulations.
October 28, 2015: We hosted Jeff Klauda from the University of Maryland to give his departmental seminar on MD simulations of lipid bilayers and membrane protein systems.
August 10, 2015: Chitrak successfully defended his original research proposal. Way to go, Chitrak!
July 31, 2015: Jun, Conor, and Brandon had their work on the retinal flip in rhodopsin and docking studies of retinal in opsin published in a special themed issue of Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences. Congratulations, guys!
July 17, 2015: Jun published her work on PIP2-mediated interactions with focal adhesion kinase in PLoS ONE. Woot! Woot!
June 16, 2015: Jun published her work on the retinal flip in rhodopsin using MD simulations in the latest issue of Biophysical Journal. Congratulations, Jun!
June 8-12, 2015: Chitrak and Sadegh spent the week up in the Grossfield Lab at the University of Rochester picking up skills to better carry out their simulations and run analysis in LOOS. Thanks to the Grossfield group for all their help.
April 16, 2015: Yue Ren successfully defended her masters' thesis on her work simulating binding of pHLIP-1 to a POPC bilayer. Congratulations on your M.S. and being the first graduate from the lab, Yue!
April 15, 2015: We hosted Scott Feller from Wabash College to give his departmental seminar on MD simulations of polyunsaturated phospholipids.
March 31, 2021: Eric got his first paper published in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, focusing on the effects of hopanoids on the dimerization of proteorhodopsin. You can read about it here. Congrats, Eric!
2020....
Sept. 28, 2020: Violetta got her first paper published in Langmuir, studying the effect of protonation on state III of pHLIP. Read all about it here. Congrats, Violetta!
Aug. 1, 2020: Blake was appointed the Helen C. Levitt chair as a Visiting Professor while at the University of Iowa. He will be on sabbatical with Prof. Michael Schnieders (BME/Biochemistry & Biophysics) working on a lipid force field for AMOEBA.
2019....
Nov. 22, 2019: Choongkeun got his second paper from the group published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B on his work on the color-tuning mechanism in proteorhodopsin. First group paper in JPCB! Congratulations on a hard-fought success, Choongkeun!
Nov. XX, 2019: Blake Edinboro University (PA) seminar
Nov. 1, 2019: Alex Wroe joined the lab as our soon-to-be first dual citizen. Welcome, eh!
Oct. XX, 2019: Blake West Liberty seminar
Oct. 2, 2019: Mike Crowley seminar
Aug. XX, 2019: First collaborative paper with the Barrera group....
March 2019: BPS meeting in Baltimore. Got the gang together again!
Jan. 16, 2019: We hosted Jeff Wereszczynski from Illinois Institute of Technology to give his departmental seminar on MD simulations...
2018......
Dec. 5, 2018: We hosted Pete Kekenes-Huskey from the University of Kentucky to give his departmental seminar on.....
Nov. 1, 2018: Chitrak got his paper on the binding of pHLIP and the variant, pHLIP-1, to POPC bilayers accepted to Biophysical Journal. Excelsior!
Oct. 17, 2018: We hosted Jeff Comer from Kansas State to give his departmental seminar on MD simulations of protein interactions with solid surfaces. A HUGE thank you for staying on Thursday to help everyone in the lab with their simulation projects, Jeff!
October 2, 2018: Sadegh published his paper on formation of a hydrated cytoplasmic half-channel in PR in Biophysical Journal. Salud!
Sept. 5, 2018: We hosted Fran Barrera from UT-Knoxville to give his departmental seminar on ATRAM membrane-active peptides. Looking forward to collaborative studies on ATRAM as well as pHLIP, Fran!
July 16, 2018: Chitrak successfully defended his dissertation. Congratulations, Dr. Gupta! FIRST 4-YEAR PHD IN THE MERTZ GROUP!
June 29, 2018: Sadegh successfully defended his dissertation. Congratulations, Dr. Faramarzi Ganjabad! FIRST PHD IN THE MERTZ GROUP!
April 12, 2018: Blake gave an invited seminar at West Virginia Wesleyan College on our recent work on pHLIP. Looking forward to helping mentor Wesleyan students in some computational projects next spring, Ed!
April 11, 2018: Blake gave an invited biophysics seminar at Johns Hopkins University on our recent work on pHLIP. Thanks for hosting, Kalina, can't wait to start modeling your pHD peptides!
March 21, 2018: We hosted Gavin King from Mizzou to give his departmental seminar on AFM of membrane-active peptides. Can't wait to hear that you've functionalized your AFM tip with pHLIP, Gavin!
January 24, 2018: We hosted Nathaniel Nucci from Rowan University to give his departmental seminar on reverse micelles. Really great topic and looking forward to applying that to our research in the future!
2017......
December 5, 2017: Blake gave an invited biophysics seminar at the Center for Computational Biology at the University of Kansas on our recent work on proteorhodopsin. Thanks for hosting, Yinglong!
November 27, 2017: Chitrak got his first paper published on pHLIP in ACS Omega. Finally cracked that nut, Chitrak....cheers!
October 1, 2017: NSF funded our MRI grant for the next generation cluster at WVU. YES! We can keep doing research.....read all about it here and here.
August 24, 2017: Sadegh and the Fairmont State folks got their paper published on self-assembly of micelles in Langmuir. First paper for Sadegh out of the Mertz lab. Salud!
July 25, 2017: Blake was awarded a Big 12 Faculty Fellowship to visit the lab of Professor Cory Berkland at the University of Kansas. Looking forward to this collaboration!
July 24, 2017: Our proposal to carry out basic research on the function and interactions of proteorhodopsin received funding from the NSF. Thanks for all the hard work from students working on this!
June 26, 2017: Blake gave an invited talk in Santa Fe at the Biological Membranes and Membrane Proteins: Challenges for Theory and Experiment conference on our recent work on pHLIP. Thanks for the invite, Scott and Greg!
May 22, 2017: Blake and Chitrak visited the Barrera lab at UT-Knoxville to learn about pHLIP experiments and brainstorm ideas. Thanks for hosting, Fran, it was the first of many trips, looking forward to the next one!
May 1, 2017: Ahmad Kiani joined the lab as a joint student with the Valentine lab. خوش آمدی !
April 20, 2017: Chitrak gave a talk on his work on pHLIP binding to bilayers at the Molecular Biophysics symposium at Virginia Tech. Knocked it out of the park!
February 1, 2017: We hosted Donald Hamelberg from Georgia State University to give his departmental seminar on allostery in proteins. Thanks for all the helpful suggestions for our work, Donald!
January 26, 2017: Blake gave an invited biophysics seminar at Texas Tech on our recent work on pHLIP. Thanks for hosting, Hongjun! Looking forward to initiating that collaboration together on proteorhodopsin.
January 10, 2017: The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (WV HEPC) highlighted our research with a video interview on the work that was published in JCTC in 2016. Way to go guys!
2016.....
November 30, 2016: We hosted Chris Neale from Los Alamos National Lab to give his departmental seminar on MD simulations of GPCRs. Thanks for all the helpful tips and great conversation with the lab, Chris :--)
October 12, 2016: We hosted Kalina Hristova from Johns Hopkins University to give her departmental seminar on FRET measurements of membrane protein dimerization.
September 28, 2016: We hosted Gary Lorigan from Miami (OH) University to give his departmental seminar on ESEEM techniques to measure membrane protein secondary structure.
August 26, 2016: Violetta Burns Casamayor has joined the lab as a first-year graduate student. Bienvenidos!
June 20, 2016: Our R15 proposal to carry out basic research on pHLIP got funding from the NIGMS. First externally funded grant! Thanks to everyone for your help in getting this funded!
May 26, 2016: Aleena Andrews (REU) and Jaycie Saseen (WVU ChemE) joined the lab to work on our undergraduate pHLIP project. Welcome, ladies!
May 18, 2016: Austin presented his, Zach's , and Nina's poster on unfolding of pHLIP in solution at the Central Region ACS (CERMACS) meeting in Covington, KY. First ACS meeting for Austin!
May 9, 2016: Blake gave an invited biophysics seminar at the University of Maryland on our recent work on pHLIP. Thanks for hosting, Jeff and Silvina.
April 12, 2016: Choongkeun published his work on charge transport in bacteriorhodopsin in Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation. First paper on bR from the lab! Kudos to you, Choongkeun!
March 23, 2016: Blake gave an invited seminar at Lehigh University on our recent work on pHLIP. Thanks for hosting, Damien.
March 16, 2016: We hosted Elsa Yan from Yale University to give her departmental seminar on thermal activation of the mammalian dim light photoreceptor, rhodopsin.
March 15, 2016: Chitrak won the 3 minute thesis competition in the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. BOOM!
March 12, 2016: Sadegh took 3rd prize at the local ACS chapter graduate student poster competition. You da man!
February 27-March 2, 2016: The Mertz lab was getting the word out on the street the 60th Biophysical Society National Meeting. Choongkeun and Jun gave oral presentations and Chitrak and Sadegh presented posters.
February 19, 2016: Blake gave an invited seminar at Ursinus College on our recent work on pHLIP. Thanks for hosting, Julia.
February 17, 2016: We hosted Damien Thevenin from Lehigh University to give his departmental seminar on drug delivery with pHLIP.
2015......
December 8, 2015: Jun published her work on hydration dynamics in proteorhodopsin activation in Biochemistry. First paper on PR from the lab! Congratulations, Jun!
December 1, 2015: Eric Sefah joined our lab as a first-year Ph.D. student. Willkommen!
November 11, 2015: We hosted Michael Lerner from Earlham College to give his departmental seminar on determining diffusion rates in lipid bilayer systems from MD simulations.
October 28, 2015: We hosted Jeff Klauda from the University of Maryland to give his departmental seminar on MD simulations of lipid bilayers and membrane protein systems.
August 10, 2015: Chitrak successfully defended his original research proposal. Way to go, Chitrak!
July 31, 2015: Jun, Conor, and Brandon had their work on the retinal flip in rhodopsin and docking studies of retinal in opsin published in a special themed issue of Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences. Congratulations, guys!
July 17, 2015: Jun published her work on PIP2-mediated interactions with focal adhesion kinase in PLoS ONE. Woot! Woot!
June 16, 2015: Jun published her work on the retinal flip in rhodopsin using MD simulations in the latest issue of Biophysical Journal. Congratulations, Jun!
June 8-12, 2015: Chitrak and Sadegh spent the week up in the Grossfield Lab at the University of Rochester picking up skills to better carry out their simulations and run analysis in LOOS. Thanks to the Grossfield group for all their help.
April 16, 2015: Yue Ren successfully defended her masters' thesis on her work simulating binding of pHLIP-1 to a POPC bilayer. Congratulations on your M.S. and being the first graduate from the lab, Yue!
April 15, 2015: We hosted Scott Feller from Wabash College to give his departmental seminar on MD simulations of polyunsaturated phospholipids.
