News

Congratulations to graduate student Steve Cohen for being selected as a 2019-2020 Martin Family Society of Fellows for Sustainability. Learn more here!

Congratulations to graduate student Sheena Vasquez for receiving the Teresa Keng Teaching Award for her work in 7.014!

Congratulations to Talya Levitz for successfully completing her PhD candidacy exam!

Congratulations to Percy Yang-Ting Chen on his first author paper, X-ray crystallography–based structural elucidation of enzyme-bound intermediates along the 1‑deoxy‑d‑xylulose 5-phosphate synthase reaction coordinate, in Journal of Biological Chemistry! Read it here!

Congratulations to former Drennan UROPPER Anne Ye on a success PhD defense at Stanford University! 

Congratulations to Drennan Lab EXROP Kiana Williams on her graduation from Drexel University in Philadelphia with a Bachelor’s in Chemistry! Kiana returns to the Drennan Lab summer for an EXROP Capstone experience. Welcome back to the Drennan Lab!

Members of the Drennan Lab were happy to welcome Squire Booker, PhD ’94, Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Eberly Family Distinguished Chair in Science at Penn State University, to MIT as he prepared to offer remarks at the 2019 Investiture of Doctoral Hoods and Degree Conferral Ceremony. Dr.… Continue reading The Drennan Lab welcomes Dr. Squire Booker to campus for the 2019 Doctoral Hooding Ceremony!

Congratulations to postdoc Emily Ulrich for her NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded for her project titled “Structural Characterization of AdoMet Radical Enzyme-Catalyzed Posttranslational Modifications in Bacterial Anaerobic Metabolism.“

The Drennan lab welcomes first year MIT Biology graduate student Gerardo Perez Goncalves and first year Harvard Biophysics graduate student Dante Avalos!  

Congratulations to Francesca Vaccaro for passing her Ph.D. candidacy exam!

On March 28th, Cathy had the opportunity to testify at the MA State House  as part of the “Legislative Briefing about Biomedical Research.” The briefing was organized by the Biophysical Society and hosted by State Representative Mike Connolly.         Cathy explaining the advances in resolution for Cryo-EM          … Continue reading Cathy testifies at the MA State House

Members of the lab had the opportunity to see Photograph 51 at Central Square Theater. The play recounts the competitive race to solve the structure of the DNA molecule using X-ray crystallography. Learn more about the play here and Central Square Theater here!  

Congratulations to Steve Cohen for his paper in Nature Communications! Read it here!

Congratulations to Cathy for being named the 2018-2019 King Lecturer Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, the Kenneth L. Rinehart Lecturer at the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, and  the William W. Wells Lecturer at Michigan State University!

Congratulations to Paty Feliciano on her first author paper in ACS Chemical Biology! Read it here!

Congratulations to Percy Yang-Ting Chen for his first author paper in Joule! Read it here!

On October 5th, MIT.nano’s Cryo-EM facility celebrated its opening with a day-long symposium hosted by the Department of Biology. The presenters had department affiliations ranging from biology  and chemistry to mathematics to electrical engineering and computer science, highlighting the diverse and exciting research that will now be possible on MIT’s campus. As part of the… Continue reading MIT.nano’s Cryo-EM facility celebrates its opening

Cathy was honored as the 2018 Herschbach teacher/scientist by Harvard University. This lecture series  honors emeritus  professor Dudley Herschbach, a Nobel-prize winning chemist and a devoted educator. For the lecture series Cathy was hosted by the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard Unviersity. Her… Continue reading Cathy honored as the 2018 Herschbach teacher/scientist by Harvard University

Congratulations to Tsehai on her first author paper in Journal of Biology Chemistry. Read it here!

Congratulations to Elizabeth for her first author paper in eLife which is highlighted by MIT News here! Read the paper here.  

Congratulations to postdoc Mary Andorfer for her NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship  awarded for her project titled “Taming radical enzymes through directed evolution and structural analysis”

Congratulations to Francesca on her teaching award for her efforts with 5.111 in Spring 2018!                     Francesca with her fellow recipients of teaching awards for the Department of Chemistry.

Congratulations to Tsehai Grell! Her paper was just recommended by the Faculty of 1000 (F1000)! Check out the recommendation on F1000. The paper can be found on JACS.

Congratulations to Percival Yang-Ting Chen and Michael Funk for having their JBC paper selected as a JBC Editor’s Pick with Highlight by Brendon L. Green, Daniel G. Nocera, and JoAnne Stubbe, (2018) Basis of dATP inhibition of RNRs, J. Biol. Chem. 293, 10413-10414. Read the paper at JBC First author profiles for Percy and Michael… Continue reading Congratulations Percy and Michael!

 The Drennan lab welcomes first year MIT Biology graduate students Talya Levitz and Sheena Vasquez.

Congrats to freshly minted PhD recipients from the Drennan lab Dr. Tsehai Grell (PhD in Chemistry from MIT) and Dr. David Born (PhD in Biophysics from Harvard).

Congratulations to MIT senior Emily Damato, who won the “Audience Choice Award” at the April 26 SuperUROP poster session, with her poster “Applications of Machine Learning for Cryo-EM.”   Emily has been part of the Drennan lab for two years, this past year as a SuperUROP.  Her mentor in the lab, Ed Brignole, who now heads… Continue reading Congratulations to Emily Damato!

Congratulations to postdoc Mary Andorfer on her prizewinning poster “Taming radical enzymes through directed evolution and structural analysis.”  Mary’s poster received Third Place in the Postdoc Category for Best Poster at the April 10 Annual Poster Session of MIT’s Center for Environmental Health Sciences (CEHS) and Superfund Research Program (SRP).

A warm welcome to postdoc Emily Ulrich, who joined the Drennan lab on April 2.  Emily will receive her PhD this May from the University of Illinois.  Her thesis, written under the direction of Wilfred van der Donk, is entitled “Diverse Enzyme Reactions in Phosphonate Natural Product Biosynthesis.”    

Congratulations to Percival Yang-Ting Chen on his first author PNAS paper!  Read it online at PNAS.

MIT celebrated exceptional undergraduate teaching, and honored a new group of MacVicar Faculty Fellows, with a symposium on March 9 titled “Inclusive Pedagogies: Building a Vibrant Community of Learners at MIT.”  Cathy, a 2015 MacVicar Faculty Fellow, kicked off the symposium, speaking about stereotype threat.  Read the MIT News feature.

Congrats to Dr. Tsehai Grell and Dr. David Born on successfully defending their respective PhD dissertations!

Cathy (third from the right, with cast members) was the featured guest at ImprovBoston’s Spotlight Series on March 1. To a sold-out house, Cathy and the cast performed im- provised skits, working off a short on-stage interview with her.  This was Cathy’s second appearance with ImprovBoston. ImprovBoston’s Spotlight Series shines a light on Boston-area professionals… Continue reading Cathy featured at ImprovBoston

As reported in MIT News, Drennan lab research has contributed to the discovery of the structure of an important enzyme.  The results were published February 20 in the journal eLife.  Read more in the MIT News article.   

Congratulations to David Born on his first author Science paper.  See MIT News Story.

December’s Molecule of the Month is PhaC, which bacteria use to build biodegradable plastic, chosen by RCSB Protein Data Bank (PDB).            

Research scientist Ed Brignole has been appointed to direct the cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) facility at MIT.  Ed is excited about developing this research capability that will be housed in the nearly completed MIT.nano building. He looks forward to engaging broadly with scientists and engineers at MIT and continuing to work closely with the Drennan… Continue reading Congratulations to Ed Brignole

The Drennan lab welcomes Mary Andorfer.  Mary got her PhD in August 2017 from the University of Chicago; her thesis, written under the direction of Professor Jared Lewis, examined the use of halogenases as tunable catalysts for synthetic organic chemistry. Welcome Mary!    

MIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW) has published Cathy’s 5.111SC Principles of Chemical Science.  The course website includes a number of special features such as lecture notes, instructor insights, and a link to Behind the Scenes at MIT, a collection of short videos of MIT researchers talking about their research as well as their personal stories.  Read more… Continue reading Principles of Chemical Science published on MIT’s OpenCourseWare

MIT undergraduate Emily Damato has been chosen as an MIT EECS-Lincoln Laboratory Undergraduate Research and Innovation Scholar, receiving funding through the prestigious EECS Research and Innovation Scholars Program.  Emily will work in the Drennan lab as a SuperUROP on her project  Automating Electron Microscope (EM) Particle Reconstruction with Machine Learning, under the mentorship of Ed… Continue reading Congratulations to Emily Damato

Nominated by the Chemistry Department, Tsehai Grell was selected to be featured on MIT’s home page.  In her profile she speaks about growing up in the Commonwealth of Dominica, her research in the Drennan lab, and her commitment to making MIT more inclusive for graduate students.       

Five undergraduates are spending the summer of 2017 in the Drennan lab.  Newcomers are MSRP Bio student Gisele Andree, a rising junior at UMass Amherst majoring in Chemistry and Biochemistry; HHMI EXROP student Luis Caldera Guzman, about to begin his senior year at UC Berkeley, where he majors in Bioengineering, and Materials Science & Engineering;… Continue reading Drennan Lab welcomes five undergraduates for summer 2017

Congratulations to Lindsey Backman on receiving a Gilliam Fellowship, Steve Cohen on being selected for the MIT Biotechnology Training Program, and Manuel Ortega on receiving a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Enrichment Award!

Congratulations to Elizabeth Wittenborn on receiving her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry

Congratulations to Jessica Gable on receiving the Department of Chemistry Research Award for outstanding achievement in chemistry research! Jessica is a graduating senior and the Drennan Lab will miss her greatly, but we look forward to hearing about her amazing accomplishments in graduate school!  Read more…

Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Bridwell-Rabb on the publication of her Nature paper! Read the paper at Nature!

Cathy’s 5.111 course, an MIT staple, has been highlighted in MIT’s publication Spectrum! The article discusses her innovations and the OpenCourseWare class.

Congratulations to Martin McLaughlin for being featured in MIT News! His paper, titled “Crystallographic snapshots of sulfur insertion by lipoyl synthase” was published in PNAS!

Congratulations to Lindsey Backman on receiving a 2016 NSF graduate research fellowship!

Congratulations to Dr. Christina Zimanyi for her newly published paper in eLife! The paper, titled Molecular basis for allosteric specificity regulation in class Ia ribonucleotide reductase from Escherichia coli, has gotten a lot of press over the past few weeks from MIT News, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, and Science 2.0!

Congratulations to Dr. Marcus Gibson for being featured on MIT News! The article highlights his paper One-carbon chemistry of oxalate oxidoreductase captured by X-ray crystallography, published in PNAS, early edition on December 28th, 2015. photo credit: MIT

The Drennan Lab welcomes Lindsey Beckman and Steve Cohen to the group!

Congratulations to Jessica Gable for being selected as MIT Chemistry’s nominee for the Goldwater Scholarship!

Congrats to Marco for Having the JBC Paper of the Week! Paper here.

Congratulations Dr. Michael Funk for being featured on MIT News!

Congratulations to Marco Jost on his Nature paper Nature doi:10.1038/nature14950

Congratulations to Michael Funk on his JBC paper! doi:10.1074/jbc.M115.670737

The Drennan lab welcomes summer students Alessio Caruso, Lindsey Backman, and Sheena Vasquez!

The Drennan lab welcomes Rohan Jonnalagadda!

Congrats to Yang-Ting Chen for receiving a travel grant to ICBIC in Beijing.

Congrats to Drennan lab graduates Michael Funk, Marcus Gibson, Marco Jost, and Martin McLaughlin!

Congrats to Kenny Kang, Allena Goren and David Born on completing their Ph.D. candidacy exams.

Congrats to Martin McLaughlin for receiving the 2015 Department of Chemistry Alpha Chi Sigma Award, a 2015 Strem Prize, and for graduating Phi Beta Kappa!

Congrats to Martin McLaughlin and former Drennan lab undergraduate Ben Bell on being selected to receive the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Martin will be graduating from MIT with a BS in Chemistry in May 2015. Ben graduated from MIT in May 2014 and is currently working toward his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Physiology and Stanford.

Congratulations to former graduate student Peter Goldman on getting the cover of JBC!

Congratulations to Marco Jost for his paper titled “Visualization of a Radical B12 Enzyme with its G-protein Chaperone” being published by PNAS. The structures of the complex between this G-protein metallochaperone and one of its target proteins, a radical B12 enzyme, reveal the molecular architecture and the pathways that both sense and report on the cofactor loading state.… Continue reading Congrats to Marco Jost on his paper in PNAS!

Congrats to Ben Bell (Course 7, Class of 2014) for receiving the 2014 Ned Holt Prize, “For demonstrated excellence in scholarship as well as service to the MIT community”, and for being accepted to graduate school at Stanford University.

Congrats to Aileen Johnson (Course 5 – Class of 2014) for her acceptance to medical school.

Congrats to Martin McLaughlin (Course 5, Class of 2015) on receiving a 2014 Randolph G. Wei UROP Award for outstanding undergraduate research.

Congrats to Dr. Jeremy Setser, who defended his PhD thesis on May 2.

Congrats to Martin McLaughlin, recipient of the 2014 Department of Chemistry Junior Analytical Chemist Award!

Congrats to Dan Dowling on accepting a position at UMass Boston!

Congrats to former graduate student Christina Zimanyi on receiving a Jane Coffin Childs Fellowship!

Lab undergraduate alumni Samuel Thompson and Anne Ye received NSF Graduate Research Fellowships. Congratulations!

Congrats to Dan Dowling for getting the February cover of Nature Chemical Biology!

The Drennan lab welcomes our new first year students Kenny Kang, Allena Goren, and Yang-Ting Chen!

Congratulations to Peter Goldman for his paper “X-ray analysis of butirosin biosynthetic enzyme BtrN redefines structural motifs for AdoMet radical chemistry” in PNAS.

Congratulations to Elizabeth Wittenborn for being selected for the NIH Biotechnology Training Program at MIT.

Congratulations to Drs. Christina Zimanyi and Peter Goldman for receiving their PhDs and Samuel Thompson for receiving his BS.

Congratulations to Peter Goldman for his paper “X-ray structure of an AdoMet radical activase reveals an anaerobic solution for formylglycine posttranslational modification” in PNAS.

Peter Goldman and Christina Zimanyi successfully defended their PhD theses this week and will receive their diplomas at this year’s Commencement ceremonies on June 6th and 7th.

Congratulations to Drennan lab 4th year graduate student Marco Jost on receiving a 2013 Ludo Frevel Crystallography Scholarship Award.

Congratulations to Drennan lab 4th year graduate student Marco Jost on being selected to attend the 63rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.

Congratulations to 1st year graduate student Tsehai Grell on receiving an NSF fellowship.

Congratulations to Mishtu Dey and the HppE team for their paper “Mechanistic studies of an unprecedented enzyme-catalysed 1,2-phosphono-migration reaction“. The article was also highlighted in “Biochemistry: Positive and radical,” by Spencer C. Peck and Wilfred A. van der Donk.

Congratulations to Peter Goldman and Kaity Ryan for having their Chem Biol paper “An Unusual Role for a Mobile Flavin in StaC-like Indolocarbazole Biosynthetic Enzymes” highlighted in preview article ” “Babysitting Flavin for Biosynthesis,” by Sheryl Tsai.

Christina Zimanyi selected to give MIT Biochemistry Seminar September 24, 2012

Congratulations to Marcus Gibson for his selection as a member of the Martin Family Society of Fellows for Sustainability for the academic year 2012-13

Congratulations to Marco Jost for his selection as an MIT Poitras Fellow (2012-2013)

Congratulations to Nozomi Ando and Yan Kung for recent publication in JACS: “Transient B12-dependent methyltransferase complexes revealed by small-angle X-ray scattering.

Cathy Drennan to give Distinguished Scholar Seminar at 2012 SPIRE Postdoc Fellowship Program Workshop, UNC Chapel Hill on November 16, 2012 Congratulations to Nozomi Ando and Yan Kung for recent publication in JACS: “Transient B12-dependent methyltransferase complexes revealed by small-angle X-ray scattering. “Congratulations to Marco Jost for his selection as an MIT Poitras Fellow (2012-2013)