The Hougland Lab welcomes a visiting scholar this semester, Dr. Nancy Krucher from Pace University, who will be working on a project entitled “Targeting ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY) to overcome therapy resistance in breast cancer and melanoma.” We are excited to have her join us and look forward to working together! Link
On May 15th, Jacob Moose defended his thesis and moved onto a new Position at Binghamton University. We will miss him but wish him the best of luck in all that’s to come. Link
In June, we welcomed two undergraduates who will be working in our laboratory for the next year,Danny Liu and Gabriela Padilla. Both have received SU SOURCE funding and were able to present their work at the research symposia at the beginning of August. Link
On July 10th, Sadie Novak defended her thesis entitled “Investigating the cellular localization, trafficking, and biological function of ghrelin O-acyltransferase”. She is currently an Eagleton Science Politics Fellow at the New Jersey Senate Democrats Office through Rutgers University. Well done and we will miss you greatly! Link
In July, Dr. Hougland attended the FASEB conference in Phoenix, Arizona and presented a talk entitled “How a peptide hormone GOAT acylated: The chemistry, biology, and endocrinology of ghrelin O-acyltransferase”. Link
In August, he and Andrea Sprague-Getsy attended the American Chemical Society conference in Denver, Colorado. Andrea presented a poster of her research entitled “Exploring the Environmental Impacts on Membrane Protein Structure and Activity: Solubilization of Ghrelin O-acyltransferase Reveals Unexpected Protein-detergent Compatibility”. Link
There was a chance meeting with lab alum Maria Campana in Colorado as well! Hi Maria… we miss you! Link
It was a wonderful Summer and we look forward to all that the 2024-2025 academic year brings for the Hougland Lab! Link
On August 10th, Brianna Gaspar and Caine Taft presented their Summer research. It was a joy to have both students in the lab this Summer and we will miss Bri as she heads back to California this weekend. Link
On August 2nd, Mariah Pierce defended her thesis and is now Dr. Pierce! Congratulations on a job well done and we will miss you so much. She moved onto the team at Sino Biological as an Associate Technical Account Manager. Link
Our awesome undergraduate researcher, Caine Taft, was awarded a SOURCE fellowship for Summer research this year. We have the privilege of working with him through the school year as well and we are proud of all he’s accomplished in the lab. Looking forward to another great year and good luck on the MCAT:) Link
Mariah Pierce defends on Wednesday, August 2nd at 1pm in LSB 105. Please come and celebrate with us! The title of her talk is “Expression, Purification, and Characterization of Enzymes Involved in Ghrelin Signaling.” Congratulations, Mariah, and good luck in all that comes next! Link
CONGRATULATIONS, HOUGLAND LAB, OLD AND NEW! The ligand paper is accepted! This labor of love is now in publication. So many colleagues and collaborators made this possible and we thank everyone who worked on it for your support and patience. On to the next one! Link
We welcome Brianna (Bri) Gaspar to the Hougland lab for the Summer. She joins us from Los Angeles, California where she attends Loyola Marymount University as an undergraduate. We are looking forward to a great Summer of research. Link
Congratulations to Mariah Pierce and James Hougland for publishing “A rising tide lifts all MBOATs: recent progress in structural and functional understanding of membrane bound O-acyltransferases” in the journal Frontiers in Physiology. And of course, we celebrated with a lab coffee outing. Link
