News

Congratulations to Ruoqi for Passing Her OPE!!

February 27, 2024

Congrats to Ruoqi Jiang for Passing her Oral Preliminary Exam! This is a very exciting milestone!

Congrats Baraa and Kerstin on Their Summer Internships

February 19, 2024

Congrats to Baraa Al-Jasim (left) and Kerstin Peterson (right) on an internship at St. Jude and BASF SE respectively for this Summer!

Congrats Cole and Joe on Their Epigenetic Flash Talk Wins

December 21, 2023

Congrats to Cole Scholtz (left) and Joe McPherson (right) on winning 2nd and 3rd place respectively for their Epigenetic Flash Talks! Way to go!

Congrats Chemistry Second Years for Passing Their WPE

December 21, 2023

Congrats to Ruoqi Jiang (left) and Pete Gabriel Ledesma (right) for passing their written preliminary exam (WPE)! We wish them all the best in preparing for their oral preliminary exam (OPE)!

Kerstin Receives Travel Award for the Peptides GRC

December 19, 2023

Congrats to Kerstin for being awarded a Department of Chemistry Graduate Student Travel Award for the Chemistry and Biology of Peptides Gordon Research Conference and Seminar in Ventura, California. 

The Pomerantz Lab Welcomes 2 New Members!

November 30, 2023

The Pomerantz lab welcomes two chemistry students, Bella Jacobsen (left) and Ethan Essenfeld (right), to the group!

Bella earned her B.A. in Chemistry from Grinnell College in 2021. She will be working on new degraders for male contraception. Her goals are to impact human health through working at the interface of chemistry and biology. In her free time, she likes to cook and bake, explore Minneapolis parks with her dog, play the flute, and watch reality TV. 

Ethan earned his B.S in Chemistry from Emory University in 2023. He will be working on degraders for a nucleosome remodeling complex and novel E3 ligase ligand development. His goal is to bring chemistry and biology together to help cure human diseases. In his free time, he enjoys writing and performing stand up comedy, playing board games, and reading comic books.

Pete Wins Pothapragada Fellowship

November 28, 2023

Congrats to Pete for winning one of the department’s first Pothapragada Fellowships!  Way to go Pete!

Congrats Baraa on Getting 2nd Place on Her Poster Presentation

October 2, 2023

Congrats Baraa on this awesome accomplishment!! Second Place: Baraa Al-Jasim for an outstanding poster at the 3rd annual Underrepresented Students in STEM Symposium - Twin Cities. Title:  "Synthesis and Structure-Activity-Relationship Study of 1,4-Acylthiazepanes as BD2-Selective BET Bromodomain Inhibitors"

Congrats Jackie on Passing Exams and Getting the Cancer Biology Training Grant

September 8, 2023

Double Congrats for Jackie: Congrats #1: Jackie passed her oral exam. Congrats #2: Jackie was also accepted on to the cancer biology training grant this afternoon!

Congrats Joe on Passing the Med Chem Written Exam

August 24, 2023

Congrats Joe for passing the Medicinal Chemistry written exam! This is a great milestone accomplishment!!

Dani and Erika Awarded UROP!

August 22, 2023

Congrats to Dani Dahlseid (left) and Erika Roderick (right) on being award an undergraduate research opportunity (UROP) award! Dani and Erika will be working with their mentors Kerstin and Cole on their respective projects in affinity proteomics and BRD4 inhibitor design. Look forward to having them back in the lab this semester!


Jiaqian Successfully Defends Doctoral Research!

July 5, 2023

Congratulations to Jiaqian who successfully defended his dissertation research titled: "Development of 19F MRI Tracers and MR-based Thermometry Sensors". Jiaqian will hang around for a short stint this summer while he finishes his postdoc interviews and works on our sustainable organofluorine chemistry project with Prof. Bill Arnold.


Nora Wins Third Year Talk Award

June 1, 2023

Nora won a travel grant for her outstanding presentation at the Chemistry Graduate Student Research Symposium! Congratulations, Nora!!

Chemistry Graduate Student Research Symposium

June 1, 2023

Brandon, Cole, and Nora all participated in the Chemistry Graduate Student Research Symposium and discussed their recent work with a broad audience of scientists. Well done, you three!!

Caroline Successfully Defends Doctoral Research!

May 31, 2023

Congrats to Caroline Buchholz for defending her Ph.D. research today, "Chemical Probe Development for Bromodomain and PHD Finger-containing Transcription Factor (BPTF) Reader Domains as Anti-Cancer Therapy." In addition to her scholarly research contributions, Caroline has made a significant impact in her leadership roles and advocacy in the UMN Women in Medicinal Chemistry group. Caroline will be here for the next month as she finishes up writing her last paper.

Jackie Passes Written Candidacy Exam!

May 24, 2023

Congratulations, Jackie, for passing her Ph.D. written candidacy exam in Pharmacology! 

Nora Wins Best Poster Award

April 30, 2023

Congrats to Nora on her best poster award at the MIKI-W 2023 conference! 

Luke Hired at University of Kansas

April 11, 2023

Congrats, Luke, on your new position in the Medicinal Chemistry Department at the Univeristy of Kansas! 

Caroline Awarded the Abul-Hajj/Hanna Award

March 3, 2023

So proud of Caroline Buchholz for being awarded the 2023 Abul-Hajj/Hanna Exceptional Graduate Student Award in Medicinal Chemistry.  So well deserved for her excellent research contributions and service to the department.

Richard, Kerstin, and Molly Pass Orals

Febuary 13, 2023

Congrats to Richard, Kerstin, and Molly for passing their oral exams and earning Ph.D. candidate status!

The Pomerantz Lab Welcomes 3 New Members!

January 10, 2023

The Pomerantz lab welcomes one medicinal chemistry student, Joe McPherson, and two chemistry students, Ruoqi Jiang and Pete Gabriel Ledesma, to the group!

Joe earned his B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Wake Forest University in 2022. He will be working on the BPTF PHD inhibitor development project.

Ruoqi earned her B.S in Chemistry from the Southern University of Science and Technology in 2022. She will be studying BET bromodomain-nucleic acid interactions.

Pete earned his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of the Philippines in 2022. He will be co-advised by Dr. Varun Gadkari and working on the peptide macrocycle and KIX interaction project.

Chun-Ju Passes Her Preliminary Exams 

November 10, 2022

Congratulations to Chun-Ju for passing her oral exam and earning Ph.D candidate status!

Caroline Earns Bighley Fellowship

October 7, 2022

Congratulations to Caroline for earning the Bighley Fellowship from the College of Pharamacy!

Pomerantz Lab Reports on Class I/IV Bromodomain Degraders

October 10, 2022

Congrats to Huda, Jeff, and Jennifer for their work on Class I/IV bromodomain degraders, reported in "Design of Class I/IV Bromodomain-Targeting Degraders for Chromatin Remodeling Complexes."

This is the labs second degrader paper. You can read more about this here.

Pomerantz Lab Publishes to ACS Med Chem Lett

September 29, 2022

Congrats to Anand, Cole, and Huda for the publication of "Development of an N-Terminal BRD4 Bromodomain-Targeted Degrader" to ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters.

This paper marks the first PROTAC publication in the lab, with BRD4 degraders.

You can read more about their work here.

Jackie Earns Her Masters Degree

August 30, 2022

Congrats to Jackie for earning her M.S. in Pharmacology, "Investigation of the CECR2 bromodomain binding interactions with H2A.Z histone variants using a new AlphaScreen assay." She will continue in the lab working on DNA-BET interactions as she starts her Ph.D. in Pharmacology. 

Dr. Noelle Olson Successfully Defends Doctoral Research!

July 19, 2022

Congrats to Noelle for defending her thesis today "Dissecting the Histone Code Involving Bromodomains and the Histone Variant H2A.Z"  Noelle will be heading off to start her new position at 3M this September. 

Pomerantz Lab Publishes to Journal of Fluorine Chemistry

July 6, 2022

Congrats to Noelle, Jorden, and Kerstin for the publication of "Development of a single culture E. coli expression system for the enzymatic synthesis of fluorinated tyrosine and its incorporation into proteins" to the Journal of Fluorine Chemistry.

This work expands the repertoire of biosynthetic labeling approaches for PrOF NMR.

You can read more about their work here.

Pomerantz Lab Welcomes Summer Students

June 30, 2022

Excited to welcome our new summer researchers! 

Left to Right: MSTP rotator Elliot Peterson, and summer researchers Zippy-Joy Mageria and Nayan Banerje

Molly Earns Chemical Biology Training Grant

June 29, 2022

Congratulations to Molly for being accepted onto the Chemical Biology Interface Training Grant! She will be researching the “Development of a Selective Inhibitor for the PHD Domain of BPTF as a Treatment Approach for Neuroblastoma” with co-mentor Dan Harki. 

Pomerantz Lab Publishes to Biochemistry

June 27, 2022

Congrats to Prakriti and Huda for the publication of "Alternative Mechanisms for DNA Engagement by BET Bromodomain-Containing Proteins" to Biochemistry.

This study shows a new mechanism for nucleic acid engagement within the histone binding pocket. You can read more about this work here.

Dr. Prakriti Kalra Successfully Defends Doctoral Research!

June 23, 2022

Many congratulations to Dr. Prakriti Kalra for defending her dissertation research this week, “Biophysical and structural studies of small molecule, protein, and nucleic-acid interactions with BET bromodomain-containing proteins.” Prakriti will be departing very soon to begin her job back in India at ImmunitoAI, an antibody engineering company. 

Dr. Huda Zahid Successfully Defends Doctoral Research!

June 10, 2022

Congrats to Huda for defending her dissertation research this week:  "Development of Small-Molecule Inhibitors and Biophysical Tools to Study the Epigenetic Protein BPTF."  Huda will be departing soon to start her new job at Arvinas, where she will be working on protein degradation. 

Brandon Passes His Preliminary Exams 

May 24, 2022

Congratulations to Brandon for passing his oral exam and earning Ph.D candidate status!

Caroline Wins AFPE Pre-Doctoral Fellowship

May 11, 2022

Congrats to Caroline for winning a AFPE Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in Pharmaceutical Sciences!  First one for the lab.

Dr. Huarui Cui Wins Departments Best Dissertation Research Award

April 7, 2022

Congratulations to Dr. Huarui Cui for winning our chemistry department's Best Dissertation Research Award! Her thesis research focused on the development of selective BRD4 inhibitors as antiinflammatory and anticancer agents. 

Kerstin Wins NSF GRFP

April 7, 2022

Congratulations to Kerstin for being awarded a highly competitive NSF GRFP fellowship!

Nora Passes Her Preliminary Exams 

February 28, 2022

Congratulations to Nora for passing her oral exam and earning Ph.D candidate status!

Cole Passes His Preliminary Exams 

February 15, 2022

Congratulations to Cole for passing his oral exam and earning Ph.D candidate status!

Kayla Earns Her Masters Degree

January 14, 2022

Congrats to Kayla for earning her Masters, "Exploring Epigenetic Mechanisms of CBP/p300 and BRD4 Through Peptide and Small Molecule Inhibitors." 

Pomerantz Lab Publishes to Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

December 22, 2021

Congrats to Huarui, Anand, Huda, Cole, Zach, Mikael, Jorden, and Amani   on the recent acceptance of our manuscript in J. Med. Chem. (4th of the year!), “A structure-based-design approach for generating high affinity BRD4 D1-selective chemical probes”. This has been a 6 year odyssey for developing BRD4 D1 selective inhibitors and hopefully is only the tip of the iceberg for good things to come! 

Pomerantz Lab Welcomes Fellowship Student

December 1, 2021

The Pomerantz lab welcomes Saba Samreen, a Ph.D Research Scholar who is joining the lab for a fellowship. She will be working on the thiazepane project and got her M.Phil in Chemistry (2017) from Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan. 

Pomerantz Lab Welcomes 3 New Members

November 16, 2021

The Pomerantz lab welcomes three new chemistry students to the group: Molly Vittengl, Kerstin Peterson, and Richard Ede. They will be working on important problems in chemical epigenetics developing inhibitors of methyl lysine binding proteins, genetic code expansion, and covalent inhibitors. 

Pomerantz Lab Publishes to Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

September 13, 2021

Congrats to Huda and Caroline on the publication of "New Design Rules for Developing Potent Cell-Active Inhibitors of the Nucleosome Remodeling Factor (NURF) via BPTF Bromodomain Inhibition" to the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

Their body of work provides a systematic structure-based design approach to generate some of the most potent inhibitors for the BPTF bromodomain. You can read more about their work here.

Dr. Huarui Cui Successfully Defends Doctoral Research!

August 6, 2021

Congrats to Dr. Huarui Cui for successfully defending her thesis today titled “Development of Small Molecule Chemical Probes for BRD4,” a beautiful body of work developing selective inhibitors for this important anticancer and anti-inflammatory drug target. Huarui will depart later this month to start her postdoc at MIT with Prof. Angela Koehler. 

Dr. Anand Divakaran Successfully Defends Doctoral Research!

August 3, 2021

Congrats to Anand Divakaran for successfully defending his dissertation titled "Development and Cellular Evaluation of Selective N-Terminal BET Bromodomain Inhibitors." Anand was co-advised with Dan Harki. He will be departing shortly to start a postdoc with Dan Nomura at UC Berkeley. 

Pomerantz Lab Publishes to RSC Chemical Biology

July 28, 2021

Congratulations to Caroline for the publication of "19F NMR viewed through two different lenses: ligand-observed and protein-observed 19F NMR applications for fragment-based drug discovery" to RSC Chemical Biology.

This review is a deep dive into 19F NMR in FBDD. You can read the full review here.

Pomerantz Lab Publishes to Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

July 8, 2021

Congratulations to Huarui, Anand, Huda, Caroline, Jorden, and Nora on the publication of "4-Methyl-1,2,3-Triazoles as N-Acetyl-Lysine Mimics Afford Potent BET Bromodomain Inhibitors with Improved Selectivity" to the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 

This is the newest paper on the triazole-series of BET inhibitors. You can read more about their work here.

Prakriti Earns Student Award at ACS GLRM

June 11, 2021

Congrats to Prakriti for a student award for her talk in the "Biologically Related Molecules and Processes" session at ACS Great Lakes Regional Meeting this past week. 

Pomerantz Lab Welcomes Summer Researchers

June 11, 2021

Excited to welcome our new summer researchers! 

Bottom from Left to Right) Kerstin Peterson, Yibo Chang, Zippy-Joy Magerla, and Zac Hoell

 

(Dani Dahlseid not pictured)

Anand and Caroline Earn MIKIW Conference Awards

April 30, 2021

Congrats to Anand for a third place finish in the oral talk competition on his BRD4 modulation research and Caroline for a first place poster presentation on her BPTF inhibitor work at the annual MIKIW Medicinal Chemistry Conference. 

Pomerantz Lab Welcomes Chun-Ju Tsou to the Group!

April 12, 2021

The Pomerantz lab welcomes a new chemistry graduate student to the group,  Chun-Ju (Victoria) Tsou,  she will be working on BPTF inhibitor synthesis.

She earned her B.S. in chemistry at National Tsing Hua University in 2017 and her M.S. in Biochemical Science National Taiwan University in 2019. Her long-term goal is to be a medicinal chemist and contribute herself to this field. Her hobbies include hiking, jogging and playing guitar.

Fun fact: I'm really bad at recognizing faces.

Pomerantz Lab Publishes to Current Opinion in Chemical Biology

March 8, 2021

Congratulations to Huda and Noelle for the publication of "Opportunity knocks for uncovering the new function of an understudied nucleosome remodeling complex member, the bromodomain PHD finger transcription factor, BPTF" to Current Opinion in Chemical Biology.

Their review focuses on BPTF and recent advances in understanding its function and oncogenic role, new chemical biology approaches, and reported small molecule inhibitors.

You can read their full review here. 

Jennifer Awarded an NCI-funded Postdoctoral Fellowship

March 4, 2021

Congrats to Jennifer on her NCI-funded postdoctoral fellowship! She will be exploring “Degradation of the Nucleosome Remodeling Complex, NURF, with Bromodomain-Targeting Heterobifunctional Molecules.” 

Dr. William Pomerantz named co-chair of ICBS Global Council

January 11, 2021

Congratulations to Dr. Pomerantz for being named as co-chair of the ICBS Global Council. The International Chemical Biology Society (ICBS) Global Council is made up of chemical biology leaders who drive new initiatives and communicate exciting new chemical biology research.

You can read the full press release here.

Epigenetics Consortium at the University of Minnesota Video

December 22, 2020

Check out the new video about the Epigenetics Consortium at the University of Minnesota featuring the Pomerantz lab.

You can watch this video here.

Huda Earns A Top Speaker Award

December 8, 2020

Huda was one of the winners of the 4th-Year Virtual Seminar Series for her talk "Development of Small-Molecule Inhibitors of the Bromodomain of Epigenetic Protein BPTF." Students were judged on effective communication, critical thinking, and highlighting safety. Congrats to Huda for a job well done.

The Pomerantz Lab Welcomes 3 New Lab Members

November 29, 2020

The Pomerantz lab welcomes three new chemistry students to the group: Brandon Datuin, Cole Scholtz, and Nora Vail. They will be working on important problems in chemical epigenetics developing 3D-fragments, PROTACs, and BET inhibitors respectively.

Brandon earned his B.S. in Chemistry, with a minor in Mathematics, from the University of Guam in 2020. He hopes to gain enough experience in the field, then hopefully go back to Guam to give back to the community. His hobbies include playing video games with friends, reading manga, and trying new foods.

Cole earned his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Central Missouri in 2020. His long-term goals  include eventually developing therapies for novel epigenetic targets using strutcure-based design. His hobbies include playing guitar, cooking for friends, and being outdoors to enjoy nature.

Nora earned her B.S. in Chemistry from Ithaca College in 2020. Her research interests are in drug design and BRD4 bromodomains. Her hobbies include crocheting, reading, and going to the beach.

Pomerantz Lab Publishes in Hepatology

November 11, 2020

In colloboration with Mayo Clinic, the publication "Endothelial p300 promotes portal hypertension and hepatic fibrosis through CCL2‐mediated angiocrine signaling" to Hepatology explores the molecular mechanisms of BRD4 in inflammation in the liver using our BRD4 D1 inhibitior, UMN627, both in cells and now in vivo. Congratulations to Huarui for her contributions.

You can read this work here.

Pomerantz Lab Publishes to ACS Chemical Biology

November 3, 2020

Congratulations to Prakriti, Logan, Jennifer, Anil, Huarui, and Anand for the publication of "Quantifying the Selectivity of Protein–Protein and Small Molecule Interactions with Fluorinated Tandem Bromodomain Reader Proteins" to ACS Chemical Biology. Their work highlights the design of fluorinated tandem bromodomains for PrOF NMR screening and characterizes the selectivity of 1,4-acylthiazepanes for BD2 of BRD4 and BRDT.

You can read more about their work here.

Blog Practical Fragments Covers Recent Pomerantz Paper

October 20, 2020

The blog Practical Fragments, a space for fragment-based drug design discussion, covered the screening workflow presented in Jorden and Noelle's recent publication to Molecules, "Combined Protein- and Ligand-Observed NMR Workflow to Screen Fragment Cocktails against Multiple Proteins: A Case Study Using Bromodomains."

You can read this blog post entitled "Fragment Mixtures vs. Protein Mixtures" here.

Pomerantz Lab Publishes to Angewandte

September 30, 2020

Congratulations to Huarui, Anand, Anil, Jorden, Huda, Zach, and Mikael for the publication of "Selective N‐terminal BRD4 bromodomain inhibitors by targeting non‐conserved residues and structured water displacement" to Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Their work highlights BET D1 selective inhibitors that preferentially bind to BRD4 D1.

You can read more about their work here.

Pomerantz Lab Publishes to Molecules

September 15, 2020

Congratulations to Jorden and Noelle for their publication of “Combined Protein- and Ligand-Observed NMR Workflow to Screen Fragment Cocktails against Multiple Proteins: A Case Study Using Bromodomains” to the special issue “NMR in the Drug Design” of Molecules.

You can read more about their work by following this link.

Pomerantz Lab Members Awarded Fellowships


September 9, 2020

Congratulations to Huda on being awarded an IEM fellowship for her work regarding “Multidisciplinary Training in Cancer Therapeutics: Developing Small-Molecule Inhibitors of the Epigenetic Protein BPTF using Virtual Screening.”

Congratulations to Noelle for winning a 4th year Excellence Fellowship. Noelle was awarded the Wayland E. Noland Fellowships in Chemistry for her excellence in graduate work.

Congratulations to Kinaan Taha for being awarded a University UROP fellowship to continue his work with Jennifer on bromodomain inhibitor synthesis.

Dr. Amani Lee Successfully Defends His PhD Dissertation!

September 9, 2020

Congratulations to Dr. Amani Lee, who successfully defended his dissertation "Diagnostic Nanoplatforms: Engineering Multifunctional & Multimodal Fluorinated Nanosensors for 19F MRI Diagnostic Applications" on August 26th, 2020. Amani was co-advised by Christy Haynes. He will soon be starting a postdoctoral position at the Mayo Clinic working on alcoholic liver inflammation treatment.

Dr. Jorden Johnson Successfully Defends Doctoral Research!

September 8, 2020

Dr. Jorden Johnson successfully defended her dissertation "Fragment Screening and Biophysical Method Development  for BET and non-BET bromodomain Inhibitor Discovery" on August 5th, 2020. Many  thanks to Jorden for her contributions  to  the  department  as well through  serving  as a lab safety  officer,  helping oversee and train  users in the shared Chemical Biology space, and establishing a writing moment  website for the department.  Jorden will be starting her postdoc in CEMS with Prof. Ben Hackel this Fall.

Caroline Earns Chemical Biology Training Grant

July 20, 2020

Congratulations to Caroline for being accepted onto the Chemical Biology Training Grant with co-mentor Laurie Parker regarding "Chemical Probe Development of BPTF Reader Domains." Additionally, congratulations to Caroline for passing her oral exam and earning Ph.D candidate status!

Pomerantz Lab Publishes Article to Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry

June 26, 2020

Congratulations to Peter, Huda, Noelle, Jorden and Siva for their publication of "New inhibitors for the BPTF bromodomain enabled by structural biology and biophysical assay development" to Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry. Their work highlights the cross-validation of inhibitor analysis for BPTF by using three different biophysical assays.

You can read more about their work by following this link.

Pomerantz Lab Publishes Two New Journal Articles

May 1, 2020

Congratulations to the members of the Pomerantz lab for their hard work in publishing two new journal articles.

Anil, Steve, Jorden, Jennifer, and Danika all worked on developing an efficient way to synthesize thiazapanes for 3D fragment screening libraries. Their article, "Efficient Synthesis of 1,4-Thiazepanones and 1,4-Thiazepanes as 3D Fragments for Screening Libraries" was published to Organic Letters. The full paper can be found here.

Noel, Samantha, Jorden, Huda, Peter, Jennifer, and Prakriti, investigated H2A.Z isoforms the their interactions with Bromodomains. Their article, "NMR Analyses of Acetylated H2A.Z Isoforms Identify Differential Binding Interactions with the Bromodomain of the NURF Nucleosome Remodeling Complex," was published to Biochemistry, and the full paper can be found here.

Undergrads Earn Departmental Scholarships

April 28, 2020

Congratulations to Zach, Logan, and Samantha for winning three departmental scholarships for academic and research excellence. We appreciate their hard work, and the wonderful mentorship from Prakriti, Huarui, and Noelle. Their awards and recognition can be seen below.


Zach earned the Dr. Paul F. and Patricia Guehler Chemistry Scholarship, which is awarded to a chemistry major who has shown outstanding academic achievement.

Logan earned the David A. and Merece H. Johnson Scholarship, which is awarded to chemistry majors who have shown outstanding academic achievement.

Samantha earned the J. Lewis Maynard Memorial Prize in Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, which is awarded for outstanding scholastic achievement in advanced inorganic chemistry.

Anand Earns Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship

April 21, 2020

Congratulations to Anand for earning the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. It is a competitive fellowship that will support his final track on completing his dissertation.

Multidimensional Nanoparticle Characterization Through Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry

January 22, 2020

Congratulations to Amani for his publication, "Multidimensional Nanoparticle Characterization Through Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry" to Analytical Chemistry in collaboration with the Hogan Lab.

The publication can be found here.

Caroline Completes 1st Medicinal Chemistry Seminar Presentation!

January 21, 2020

Congratulations to Caroline for her excellent and scholarly presentation on"Covalent KRAS G12C Inhibitors: Targeting the Elusive Oncoprotein, KRAS" during the medicinal chemistry seminar today. She is another step closer to completing her preliminary doctoral candidacy work.

The Pomerantz Lab Welcomes Kayla Vinh as a New Lab Member

December 16, 2019

The Pomerantz lab welcomes Kayla Vinh to the lab as our newest member. Kayla is a medicinal chemist who is interested in working on our new alpha/beta unsaturated ester approach to make macrocyclic peptides. She previously earned her Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry, with a minor in mathematics, from the University of Central Arkansas. Fun facts about Kayla: she can play the piano and violin, and in her spare time she likes to sew stuffed animals.

Zach Earns Undergraduate Research Fellowship!

December 9, 2019

Congratulations to Zach for earning an undergraduate research fellowship for next spring. Zach is currently working with Huarui Cui to make BRD4 inhibitors.

Pomerantz Lab Publishes Multiple Works in November

December 2, 2019

The Pomerantz lab has recently published three papers to scientific journals, as well as, a chapter in a scientific book. These are wonderful additions in our scientific story to utilize chemical biology to investigate small fragment inhibitors, bromodomains, and the epigenetic code.

Congratulations to Anand Divakaran and Dr. Steve Kirberger for their paper, "SAR by (Protein-Observed) 19F NMR" which was published to Accounts of Chemical Research. They discuss their efforts to use PrOF NMR for fragment-based ligand discovery.

Congratulations to Jorden Johnson, Dr. Kirberger, and Dr. Anil Pandey for their paper, "Evaluating the Advantages of Using 3D-Enriched Fragments for Targeting BET Bromodomains" which was published to ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters. They discuss their efforts in evaluating 3D fragment based libraries.

Congratulations to Dr. Peter Ycas and Noelle Olson for their paper, "2-Fluorotyrosine is a valuable but understudied amino acid for protein-observed 19F NMR" which was published to Journal of Biomolecular NMR. They discuss their findings of using 2-fluorotryosine for PrOF NMR.

Lastly, congratulations goes to Jorden, Dr. Ycas, and Dr. Pomerantz for their chapter "Applied Biophysics for Bromodomain Drug Discovery" in the new book: Topics in Medicinal Chemistry. The chapter contains insights on the timeline of bromodomain discovery and characterization techniques, as well as, a comprehensive review past and future outlook of bromodomain inhibitory discovery & development.

Dr. Peter Ycas Successfully Defends His PhD Dissertation!

November 22, 2019

Dr. Peter Ycas successfully defended his dissertation, "Biophysical  Methods  to Study  Bromodomain Interactions and 19F NMR Analysis  of p300/CBP KIX Domain Complexes," on November 13th, 2019. In addition to his scholarly work, he was also part of our first crop of teaching assistants to help establish the Chemical Biology lab, 4423W. Dr. Ycas will be departing shortly to head out to Boulder, Colorado as he finishes up  his final paper for Pomerantz lab.

Anand Earns Medicinal Chemistry Bighley Graduate Fellowship

October 31, 2019

Congratulations to Anand for earning the Bighley graduate fellowship along with two other awardees. The fellowship recognizes excellence in students conducting research in laboratories with an emphasis on collaborative and interdisciplinary work.  

Congratulations to Jorden for Earning SLAS Tony B. Academic Travel Award

October 16, 2019

Congratulations to Jorden for the Tony B. Academic Travel Award to attend the Society of Laboratory Automation and Screening 2020 Conference in San Diego. The Tony B. Academic Travel Award is a competative travel award offered both nationally and internationally. Through the SLAS Tony B.

Amani Lee Earns IEM Doctoral Fellowship & Best Poster Award

September 23, 2019

Congratulations to Amani Lee for earning the Institute for Engineering in Medicine (IEM) doctoral fellowship. The fellowship, which is available only to students of IEM members, includes a $25,000 stipend plus $2,500 for professional development.

In addition, Amani tied for 2nd place for the Best Student Poster-Awards, in the category "Frontier and Emerging Areas", at the IEM Annual Conference. There were 27 poster presenters in that category.

High School and Undergraduate Students Research In Pomerantz Lab For The Summer

August 28, 2019

This summer the Pomerantz Lab mentored several undergraduate students and one high school student. All the students showed their capability and eagerness to work at the interface of chemistry and biology. This highlight showcases the students from outside institutions.

Sophie Oubaha is from the University of Chicago and is pursuing a bachelors degree in Biological Chemistry. She worked with Anand Divakaran this summer to learn 19F and PrOF NMR to study bromodomain proteins.

Cole Scholtz is from the University of Central Missouri and is pursuing a bachelors degree in chemistry. He worked with Huda Zahid by synthesizing organic compounds to act as bromodomain inhibitors. He is interested in chemical biology and materials. He also enjoys the outdoors and cooking.

Diamond Thlang is rising junior from Harding High School. He worked with Jorden Johnson this summer as a SEED program student. They investigated the interaction between cyclic organic small molecules, as well as, the synthesis of 5-fluorotryptophan.

Sophie Oubaha, Cole Scholtz, and Diamond Thlang

ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters' Early Career Board Most Influential Articles

August 26, 2019

The Early Career Board, including our own Prof. Pomerantz, from ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters chose their most influential articles for the 10th year anniversary of ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters. The ACS Axial Highlight can be found here or follow this link: https://axial.acs.org/2019/08/14/acs-medicinal-chemistry-letters-early-c...

August 26, 2019

Early Career Board


Systematically Mitigating the p38α Activity of Triazole-based BET Inhibitors

August 2, 2019

Carlson, A.S.; Cui, H.; Divakaran, A.; Johnson, J.A.; Brunner, R.M.; Pomerantz, W.C.K.; Topczewski J.J. ACS. Med. Chem. Lett. 2019, pp. 1296-1301

DOI

The Bromodomain and Extra Terminal (BET) family of proteins recognize post-translational N-ε-acetylated lysine modifications, regulating transcription as “reader” proteins. Bromodomain inhibitors are interesting targets for the development of potential cancer, inflammation, and heart disease treatments. Several dual kinase-bromodomain inhibitors have been identified by screening kinase inhibitor libraries against BET proteins. Although potentially useful from a polypharmacology standpoint, multitarget binding complicates deciphering molecular mechanisms. This report describes a systematic approach to mitigating kinase activity in a dual kinase-bromodomain inhibitor based on a 1,2,3-triazole-pyrimidine core. By modifying the triazole substituent and altering the pyrimidine core, this structure–activity relationship study enhanced BET activity while reducing the p38α kinase activity >90,000-fold. A BRD4-D1 cocrystal structure indicates that the 1,2,3-triazole is acting as a N-ε-acetylated lysine mimic. A BRD4 sensitive cell line, MM.1S, was used to demonstrate activity in cells, which is further supported by reduced c-Myc expression.

Noelle Olson Earns Biotechnology Training Grant!

July 15, 2019

Congratulations to Noelle for her recent acceptance on the Biotechnology Training Grant, which will support her BPTF research for the next two years.

Preliminary Exams Passed!

July 11, 2019

Congratulations to Jiaqian for passing his preliminary exams in June and becoming a Chemistry PhD Candidate.

 Also, congratulations to Caroline for passing her Medicinal Chemistry written exam!

Pomerantz Students Receive Awards and Honorable Mentions!

April 10, 2019

Congratulations to Danika on her UROP award to support her research on developing new ligands for bromodomain interactions.


Also, congratulations to Caroline on an NSF graduate research fellowship honorable mention.  Both are excellent accomplishments!

Pomerantz Lab Welcomes Caroline as New Lab Member

February 14, 2019

The Pomerantz lab welcomes Caroline Buchholz to the group. Caroline is a medicinal chemist who is interested in working on the PHD domain of an epigenetic regulating protein. She earned her Bachelors of Science at Iowa State University and desires to work in industry after obtaining her degrees at the University of Minnesota. A fun fact about Caroline: she loves reading, so much that she has earned awards for the number of books she has read.

Prakriti Passes Her Preliminary Exams!

February 10, 2019

Congratulations to Prakriti for passing her oral exam and earning Ph.D candidate status!

New Paper Published to Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry

February 10, 2019

Congratulations to Dr. Kirberger, Peter Ycas, Jorden Johnson, Huda Zida, and Dr. Urick for publishing their paper, "Selectivity, ligand deconstruction, and cellular activity analysis of a BPTF bromodomain inhibitor" to Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry!!

Noelle Passes Her Preliminary Exams

January 23, 2019

Congratulations to Noelle for passing her oral exam and earning Ph.D candidate status!

Huda Passes Her Preliminary Exams

January 16, 2019

Congratulations to Huda for passing her oral exam and earning Ph.D candidate status!

Dr. Steve Kirberger Successfully Defends Doctoral Research!

December 19, 2018

Congratulations to Dr. Steve Kirberger, who successfully defended his dissertation research this week, "Development of peptide-based 19F MRI agents and BPTF-bromodomain inhibitors". We are proud to have Steve as both a BS and PhD alumn of the Chemistry Department.

Anand and Huarui Publish to the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry!

September 25, 2018

Congratulations to Anand and Huarui, as well as past members, Dr. Siva Talluri, Dr. Neeraj Mishra, and Alex Ayoub, on the acceptance of their paper, Molecular Basis for the N-Terminal Bromodomain and Extra Terminal (BET) Family Selectivity of a Dual Kinase-Bromodomain Inhibitor to J. Med. Chem!

Molecular Basis for the N-Terminal Bromodomain and Extra Terminal (BET) Family Selectivity of a Dual Kinase-Bromodomain Inhibitor

Huarui Passes Her Oral Preliminary Exam

May 18, 2018

Congratulations to Huarui for passing her oral exam and earning Ph.D candidate status!

Dr. Pomerantz is tenured!

May 10, 2018

Dr. Pomerantz has been promoted from assistant professor to associate professor with tenure by the University of Minnesota Board of Regents! Congratulations to Dr. Pomerantz and lab members who have shown hard work and great dedication.

Dr. Pomerantz named McKnight Presidential Fellow

April 3, 2018

Congratulations to Dr. Pomerantz for being named a McKnight Presidential Fellow by the University of Minnesota. This prestigious fellowship is only awarded to five University professors annually. Great appreciation to the many lab members who's work contributed to the accomplishments and recognition of the Pomerantz Lab.

Amani wins SIBBA Scholarship

March 20, 2018

Congratulations to Amani Lee on winning the Academic-Leadership Collegiate Scholarship, granted by the State of Iowa Black Belt Association (SIBBA) - this award recognizes Amani's leadership and academic merit!

Dual Labeling of the CBP/p300 KIX domain for 19F NMR leads to identification of a new small molecule binding site

February 11, 2018

C.T. Gee, K.E. Arntson, E.J. Koleski, R.L. Staebell, W.C.K. Pomerantz. ChemBioChem, 2018, 19 (9), 963-969.

VIP paper

DOI

Congratulations to Dr. Clifford Gee, Keith Arntson, Ed Koleski, and Racheal Staebell on the acceptance of their paper, Dual Labeling of the CBP/p300 KIX domain for 19F NMR leads to identification of a new small molecule binding site, to ChemBioChem!

Prof. Pomerantz receives Career Development Award

January 22, 2018

Congratulations to Dr. Pomerantz for receiving the 2018 Guillermo E. Borja Career Development Award from the College of Science and Engineering (CSE). This award is given to promising young CSE faculty members in recognition of their research and scholarly accomplishments during their probationary period as assistant professors. He is the first professor from the Department of Chemistry to receive this award, which comes with $3,000 for scholarly and research activities. Special thanks to all lab members for their significant contributions.