Recent manuscripts by past trainees

We would like to congratulate Dr. Jared Johnson and Dr. Clint Stalnecker on their recent high-impact publications. Dr. Johnson was a graduate student in the Cerione laboratory who really helped to expand our understanding of the Rho Guanine Nucleotide Dissociation Inhibitor, and how it and its target Cdc42 interacted with cell membranes. He is now the senior author on a Nature paper, “The intrinsic substrate specificity of the tyronsine kinome”, which provides, in the words of the authors, “An atlas of the substrate specificities for the human tyrosine kinome”. Dr. Stalnecker was another graduate student in the Cerione laboratory, who in this case helped to expand our understanding of the metabolic enzyme glutaminase, and developed several new approaches to assaying its interaction with small molecule inhibitors. His recent manuscript in Science, “Determining the ERK-regulated phosphoproteome driving KRAS-mutant cancer”, helps to explain how tumors develop resistance to new KRAS-targeting drugs.

As is often the case, we couldn’t be prouder of our graduated trainees, and wish Jared, Clint, and everyone else the absolute best as they continue to push the boundaries of science.

Welcome New Students

This year, the Cerione laboratory has been fortunate enough to accept four new students: Yifan Fang, Biswanath Shaw, Saul de la Pena, and Yongsheng Wang. Yifan and Yongsheng will be working in the Department of Molecular Medicine, while Biswanath and Saul have set up shop in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. In addition, a fifth new student, Tomer Markovich will be spending a significant amount of time training with our laboratory. With this new infusion of talent and ideas, we expect many great things to come.

2nd place in 2nd annual kickball tournament

Many congratulations to the Cerione Filaments, who took 2nd place in this year’s Molecular Medicine kickball tournament. The Filaments began their day by utterly demolishing the Faculty team, ending the game with a massive 9-run lead. They concluded the day fighting a very competitive match with Team Kawate, but unfortunately lost following a series of minor mishaps and injuries. Still, a fun day was had by all, it was a great time to get out of the lab, and of course there’ll be the chance to win coming up again next year!

Welcome to Scott Ulrich

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Scott Ulrich to our laboratory. Scott is a Professor at Ithaca College, and has been working with us for several years, helping to develop new inhibitors of the metabolic enzyme Glutaminase, with hopes of eventually treating aggressive cancers. Now, he is doing a sabbatical in our laboratory at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, bringing in some much-desired expertise in synthetic chemistry, and learning from us some tips and tricks to do cell culture and protein structural characterization. We look forward to a highly productive year with Dr. Ulrich!

This Year's Graduates

It is always with a mixture of joy and sadness that we celebrate our graduates - joy at all they have accomplished, and at the incredible careers that await them, and sadness that they will be leaving us to pursue these incredible opportunities.

We begin by celebrating Dr. Fangyu Wang, who completed her thesis work on “The Role of the Lysine Deacetylase Sirtuin 1 in Regulating RNA Stability and the Production of a Secretome that Promotes Breast Cancer”, and has accepted a position at Mass General with Dr. William Kaelin, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Fangyu conducted her studies in the Molecular Medicine side of our laboratory, and was really heavily involved in our extracellular vesicle research, and helped to really perfect a lot of our isolation and characterization protocols.

We also wish to celebrate Dr. Feng Shi, who recently presented his thesis work “The Structural Basis for Allosteric Regulation of Protein Assembly in Cancer Progression and Circadian Rythms”, and Dr. Cody Aplin for his work “Biochemical and Structural Characterization of GPCR Associated Enzymes”. Feng Shi was a dually appointed student, mentored in both the Cerione and Crane laboratories in the Department of Chemistry, and has accepted a position at Stanford University with Dr. Brian Kobilka, who in 2012 shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Cody has chosen to pursue a career in industry, and is now working at Bio-Techne in Minneapolis, helping them in their mission to develop and supply reagents, diagnostics, and analytical instrumentation. Cody and Feng Shi worked to really introduce Cryo-EM approaches to the Cerione laboratory, and between the two of them solved a number of very important protein structures.

Congratulations to these no-longer students, and best of luck as you build your careers!

Cerione Lab Participated in Departmental Kickball Tournament

On July 22, the Cornell University Department of Molecular Medicine held its first annual Kickball tournament. The Cerione 968ers showed up in full force to participate in this event, and in fact had so many players available they lent some of their talent out to other teams who had a few no-shows and couldn’t field a full roster! At the end of the day, the 968ers scored an honorable third place, and retired with the other teams to enjoy a nice potluck BBQ. We hope to see everyone again next year!

Farewell to Jenny Guo

It is always with  bitter sweet emotions that we say goodbye to a member of our lab family. That time has now come for us to say farewell to Jenny Guo, who has served as our laboratory manager for over 35 years. As one of our longest-serving lab members, Jenny has been responsible for a number of duties within the lab, including maintaining our laboratory budgets and our supplies stocked. Nearly every vendor to the College of Veterinary Medicine knows Jenny's name, and her tireless efforts to keep their prices reasonable and fair. In fact, Jenny has been referred to as the 'lab mom', simply because every Cerione lab researcher in the last three decades has come to depend upon her so tremendously. At her going away party on June 17th, members of the lab past and present gathered to share fond stories, and to enjoy the first sunny day Ithaca had seen in over a week. As we face the challenges of running our laboratory without Jenny’s guiding hand, we wish her and her beloved husband Mason the best of luck and happiness in their retirement.

Welcome to Rebecca R Schmitt!

The Cerione laboratory would like to welcome our newest Postdoctoral scholar, Rebecca Schmitt. Rebecca received their PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the University at Buffalo in 2022, where they studied under the advisement of Dr. Paras N. Prasad. Their graduate research largely consisted of the design and development of polymeric nanoparticles for the treatment of central nervous system diseases, with additional work including the investigation of the pathogenesis of traumatic brain injuries. Now, in our laboratory, Rebecca will be stepping into the field of cellular signaling to investigate molecular mechanisms underlying the development and function of the mammalian nervous system.

New Undergratate Awardee

The Cerione laboratory would like to congratulate our undergraduate researcher, Joely Ventura Reyes, on her recent acceptance into the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. The McNair program is designed to help increase the number of students, historically underrepresented in academia, applying to graduate programs and earning PhDs. McNair scholars must undergo a highly competitive selection process, as only a dozen or so Cornell students each year are awarded the title of NcNair Scholar. More information can be found here.

Fangyu Wang awarded F99/K00 fellowship award

It is with great pleasure that we are able to report that one of our talented graduate students, Fangu Wang, has been awarded an F99/K00 predoctoral to postdoctoral fellow transition award through the National Cancer Institute. The F-portion of this award will enable Ms. Wang to continue her research examining how the enzyme Sirtuin 1 regulates the stability of RNA in breast cancers. She will also use this opportunity to examine the role of aging in cancers. Upon successful completion of the F-portion, and graduation, she will be able to enter a new laboratory to conduct postdoctoral studies while funded by the K-portion of the award.