University of Georgia
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors

Category: Faculty

Dr. Natarajan Kannan receives Lamar Dodd Creative Research Award- Congratulations Dr. Kannan!

iobadmin on April 24, 2023

Lamar Dodd Creative Research Award

 

Natarajan Kannan

Natarajan Kannan, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Institute of Bioinformatics, leads an internationally recognized program at the interface of bioinformatics and biochemistry. Developing and applying sophisticated statistical and computational tools, he maps the complex relationships connecting sequence, structure, function and regulation in large families of protein kinases. These enzymes turn signals on and off in cells, a critical part of cell communication. Kinases are involved in many diseases and in related drug development studies as anti-cancer and infectious disease targets. He has also developed powerful informatics tools and deep learning models for the classification and evolutionary analysis of glycosyltransferases, a large family of enzymes. He is leveraging new information from these proteins from different cell, tissue, disease types and organisms to develop predictions about how they propagate signals in diseases. And he continues to train the next generation of scientists to apply new computational tools for biological discovery.

 

 

 

 

research.uga.edu/research-awards/2023/04/05/natarajan-kannan-2/

Congratualtions to Dr. Leidong Mao for being elected into National Academy of Inventors

iobadmin on March 7, 2023

 INNOVATION | FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Three professors elected into National Academy of Inventors

By Brandon Ward

Leidong Mao, Christine Szymanski and Hitesh Handa.

(L to R) Leidong Mao, Christine Szymanski and Hitesh Handa

Christine Szymanski, Hitesh Handa and Leidong Mao were selected for their proven ability to invent and innovate

 

 

The National Academy of Inventors has selected three University of Georgia faculty as 2023 NAI Senior Members. NAI Senior Members are faculty, scientists and administrators selected for their proven ability to invent and innovate.

The UGA representatives of the 2023 class are Christine Szymanski, Hitesh Handa and Leidong Mao. With their selections, UGA now has 11 Senior Members overall.

“University of Georgia’s innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem is propelled forward by exactly the kinds of research performed in the labs of our three newest National Academy of Inventors Senior Members,” said Karen Burg, vice president for research. “We are proud of Drs. Handa, Mao and Szymanski not only for their benchwork but also for the efforts they’ve made to apply that work in addressing real-world problems. I congratulate them all on being selected as NAI Senior Members.”

Christine Szymanski

Szymanski is a professor, associate head of the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences Department of Microbiology and member of the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center. She is a leading researcher in the areas of Campylobacter pathogenesis and microbial glycobiology. Her trailblazing efforts have laid the foundation for researchers in this field and are critical for the development of vaccines and therapeutics for animal and human health.

In addition to her research, Szymanski has been named inventor on six U.S.-issued patents, along with many issued foreign patents and numerous pending patents. Her patents have been licensed to seven companies for the development of interventions against bacterial infections.  GlycoVaxyn, a specialist vaccine pharmaceutical company, was founded to leverage discoveries she made during her postdoctoral studies. The company was later purchased by GSK (formerly GlaxoSmithKline) for nearly $200 million. In 2013, Szymanski co-founded VaxAlta to develop glycoconjugate vaccines for human and animal health.

Leidong Mao

Mao is a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering. He is a leading researcher in the field of nanoscale engineering, specifically in nanoscale magnetism and its application in biomedical devices.

In 2012, Mao received an NSF CAREER Award and in 2013 the Young Scientist Award from the 13th International Conference of Magnetic Fluids. He has 20 invention disclosures and has been named inventor on five U.S.-issued patents with multiple pending applications. Three of Mao’s patents are licensed to biomedical companies for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic devices. He has also founded his own startup company, FCS Technology, to commercialize his patented discoveries.

Hitesh Handa

Handa is an associate professor in the College of Engineering. His innovative translational research in biocompatible coatings for medical devices led to the development of materials that can decrease the morbidity, mortality and hospitalization costs associated with current medical devices, such as indwelling catheters, by reducing thrombosis and infection.

Handa has generated 28 invention disclosures, leading to six issued U.S. patents with 25 pending applications in the U.S. and elsewhere. Many of these inventions are licensed to his startup company, Nytricx, and are in preclinical development while seeking additional funding.

NAI Senior Members will be formally inducted at the NAI annual meeting on June 25-27 in Washington, D.C. A full list of NAI Senior members is available on the website.

It’s intended to strengthen public health response to infectious disease threats and support workforce development

 

The University of Georgia and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) in partnership with the Georgia Department of Public Health, have received a five-year, $17 million cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to establish a Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence.

The center is intended to strengthen public health response to infectious disease threats and support public health workforce development.

The award is part of a $90 million investment by the CDC to build a network of centers in five states. Each Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence (PGCoE) consists of a health department and one or more academic institutions.

The Georgia Department of Public Health will provide overall leadership and prioritization of center efforts. UGA will be leading the effort to translate new discoveries into usable data and interventions. GTRI will be leading the operations and implementation arm of the Georgia-based center.

Collectively, this work will be focused on transitioning innovations out of academia and into use at public health departments across the United States.

“We really are trying to learn about outbreak epidemiology, those population-scale processes that are impacting disease spread. Patterns of transmission that are really hard to observe,” said Justin Bahl, an associate professor with joint appointments in UGA’s College of Public Health and College of Veterinary Medicine. Bahl will be leading the project at UGA.

More data, better targeting

Molecular epidemiology uses genomic data to learn how pathogens like the SARS-CoV-2 virus move and infect people within populations. This work is what allows scientists to trace the origins of a virus strain and track its spread as it moves from place to place.

Bahl says that adding pathogen genomic data to traditional epidemiological surveillance could dramatically strengthen the public health workforce’s ability to prevent and mitigate local outbreaks.

“We’re going to be able to work closely with these departments of public health, connect the genetic data from the pathogens to the actual population characteristics. That provides information for those public health practitioners to direct their interventions,” he said.

Researchers from GTRI will support the data management, data analytics and information security needs of the center toward a goal of providing disease information in real-time to public health organizations at the local and state levels.

“We want to support public health departments in getting out ahead of pathogen trends,” said Rebecca Hutchins, chief engineer in GTRI’s Advanced Concepts Laboratory. “With COVID-19, we had to stand up new genomic sequencing and data analytics capabilities. In future infectious disease outbreaks, this center will allow us to pivot from a reactive mode – responding to what the virus is doing – to a more proactive mode aimed at quickly taking preventive measures.”

By facilitating ongoing collaborations, the network will help ensure that academic researchers, public health agencies and others involved in a pandemic response will have systems in place to share crucial information and apply consistent data-gathering techniques. Sampling and sequencing innovations developed at the center will be shared with other centers and public health agencies nationwide.

“The true measure of success for the Georgia-based Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence will be the increased capabilities of public health departments across the United States to prevent and respond to infectious disease outbreaks,” said Hutchins.

Building on a deep foundation

“We have a very strong infectious disease research community here at UGA, especially with pathogen transmission modeling, and a lot of experience with integrating different types of data,” said Bahl. “There are probably not many other places that have the amount of expertise that’s here.”

This work will build on the innovative tools generated from UGA’s interdisciplinary infectious disease research centers, including the Center for Vaccines and Immunology, Center for Influenza Disease Emergence Research, and the Center for Ecology of Infectious Diseases.

“And now we have this center that is focused on taking all this wealth of information that we’ve generated and these new approaches and methodologies, and apply them at the population level, to inform public health response,” said Bahl.

This project, which will establish the Center for Applied Pathogen Epidemiology and Outbreak Response, is the fourth major funding investment the university has received in the past five years.

Bahl is optimistic that this investment in pathogen genomics will create more pathways for data sharing among scientists and practitioners and enhance genomic surveillance nationwide.

“We’re active, and we’re trying to learn more, translate more to the public health labs and be better prepared collectively to respond to these new threats,” said Bahl. “This investment is about trying to strengthen partnerships with public health. We’re part of that effort, building up public health across the board.”

The team

Team members include Tonia Parrott at the Georgia Department of Public Health and Amy Winter, Erin Lipp, Travis Glenn, Magdy Alabady, Liang Liu, Pej Rohani, Susan Sanchez, Mandev Gill and John Drake from UGA. They will be joined by Rebecca Hutchins and True Merrill at GTRI. The network across Georgia also includes researchers from Emory University, Georgia State University and Augusta University Medical College of Georgia.

IOB Director and IOB Faculty Awarded: CDC funds for Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence

iobadmin on November 28, 2022

CDC funds Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence

November 18, 2022
by Lauren Baggett

The new Georgia-based Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence aims to strengthen response to infectious disease threats and support public health workforce development. The team will be led by Rebecca Hutchins (left) with the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Tonia Parrott (center) with the Georgia Department of Public Health and Justin Bahl (right) with the University of Georgia. (Photo by Christopher Moore)

It’s intended to strengthen public health response to infectious disease threats and support workforce development

 

The University of Georgia and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) in partnership with the Georgia Department of Public Health, have received a five-year, $17 million cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to establish a Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence.

The center is intended to strengthen public health response to infectious disease threats and support public health workforce development.

The award is part of a $90 million investment by the CDC to build a network of centers in five states. Each Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence (PGCoE) consists of a health department and one or more academic institutions.

The Georgia Department of Public Health will provide overall leadership and prioritization of center efforts. UGA will be leading the effort to translate new discoveries into usable data and interventions. GTRI will be leading the operations and implementation arm of the Georgia-based center.

Collectively, this work will be focused on transitioning innovations out of academia and into use at public health departments across the United States.

“We really are trying to learn about outbreak epidemiology, those population-scale processes that are impacting disease spread. Patterns of transmission that are really hard to observe,” said Justin Bahl, an associate professor with joint appointments in UGA’s College of Public Health and College of Veterinary Medicine. Bahl will be leading the project at UGA.

More data, better targeting

Molecular epidemiology uses genomic data to learn how pathogens like the SARS-CoV-2 virus move and infect people within populations. This work is what allows scientists to trace the origins of a virus strain and track its spread as it moves from place to place.

Bahl says that adding pathogen genomic data to traditional epidemiological surveillance could dramatically strengthen the public health workforce’s ability to prevent and mitigate local outbreaks.

“We’re going to be able to work closely with these departments of public health, connect the genetic data from the pathogens to the actual population characteristics. That provides information for those public health practitioners to direct their interventions,” he said.

Researchers from GTRI will support the data management, data analytics and information security needs of the center toward a goal of providing disease information in real-time to public health organizations at the local and state levels.

“We want to support public health departments in getting out ahead of pathogen trends,” said Rebecca Hutchins, chief engineer in GTRI’s Advanced Concepts Laboratory. “With COVID-19, we had to stand up new genomic sequencing and data analytics capabilities. In future infectious disease outbreaks, this center will allow us to pivot from a reactive mode – responding to what the virus is doing – to a more proactive mode aimed at quickly taking preventive measures.”

By facilitating ongoing collaborations, the network will help ensure that academic researchers, public health agencies and others involved in a pandemic response will have systems in place to share crucial information and apply consistent data-gathering techniques. Sampling and sequencing innovations developed at the center will be shared with other centers and public health agencies nationwide.

“The true measure of success for the Georgia-based Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence will be the increased capabilities of public health departments across the United States to prevent and respond to infectious disease outbreaks,” said Hutchins.

Building on a deep foundation

“We have a very strong infectious disease research community here at UGA, especially with pathogen transmission modeling, and a lot of experience with integrating different types of data,” said Bahl. “There are probably not many other places that have the amount of expertise that’s here.”

This work will build on the innovative tools generated from UGA’s interdisciplinary infectious disease research centers, including the Center for Vaccines and Immunology, Center for Influenza Disease Emergence Research, and the Center for Ecology of Infectious Diseases.

“And now we have this center that is focused on taking all this wealth of information that we’ve generated and these new approaches and methodologies, and apply them at the population level, to inform public health response,” said Bahl.

This project, which will establish the Center for Applied Pathogen Epidemiology and Outbreak Response, is the fourth major funding investment the university has received in the past five years.

Bahl is optimistic that this investment in pathogen genomics will create more pathways for data sharing among scientists and practitioners and enhance genomic surveillance nationwide.

“We’re active, and we’re trying to learn more, translate more to the public health labs and be better prepared collectively to respond to these new threats,” said Bahl. “This investment is about trying to strengthen partnerships with public health. We’re part of that effort, building up public health across the board.”

The team

Team members include Tonia Parrott at the Georgia Department of Public Health and Amy Winter, Erin Lipp, Travis Glenn, Magdy Alabady, Liang Liu, Pej Rohani, Susan Sanchez, Mandev Gill and John Drake from UGA. They will be joined by Rebecca Hutchins and True Merrill at GTRI. The network across Georgia also includes researchers from Emory University, Georgia State University and Augusta University Medical College of Georgia.

Dr. Kannan: New UGA study maps the structural diversity of sugar building enzymes using AI

iobadmin on October 12, 2021

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 – 10:22am

By:Alan Flurry

Sugars in our bodies, and in nearly all living organisms, are synthesized and built by a large family of proteins called Glycosyltransferases (GTs) that adopt unique three-dimensional structures and folds to perform a diverse array of cellular functions. Understanding the structure and fold of these proteins is an important first step towards characterizing their functions, which is critical for developing effective glycovaccines and for improving crop yields and sustainable biofuels through the synthetic design of glycoproteins with desirable functional properties.

However, despite significant efforts in the structural characterization of GTs, mapping the full functional and fold landscape remains a challenge because of the large and diverse nature of these proteins and the cost and time associated with their structural characterization.

To address this challenge, an inter-disciplinary team of UGA researchers have leveraged recent advances in deep learning to predict and classify GT folds from primary sequences with high accuracy. Deep learning is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that uses interconnected artificial neural networks to automatically find patterns in large datasets.

The methods are designed to mimic the learning process of the human brain and are widely used in a range of applications from marketing to self-driving cars. However, their application in biology is only being realized, thanks to the massive amounts of biological data generated from gene sequencing studies.

“With over a half million GT sequences available, investigating the relationships connecting primary sequence, fold and function is a problem well poised for the application of deep learning methods” said Natarajan Kannan, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and the Institute of Bioinformatics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences who led the research team.

Their work, published in the journal Nature Communications, reports the development of an “interpretable” deep learning model for predicting GT fold and function from primary sequences.

“One unique aspect of our model is that it is simple and interpretable, meaning that the neural network can be tracked by identifying the neurons that get activated during the learning process, which, in turn, helps in the biological interpretation of the prediction and classification process,” said Sheng Li, assistant professor of computer science and co-author on the study. “This is conceptually different from most existing deep learning models that operate as a “black box.”

“By predicting GTs that can adopt novel folds, this study provides a range of structural templates along with their crucial functional features for the design and synthesis of novel GTs for various applications,” said Kannan, who received a Maximizing Investigator Research Award, or MIRA, from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences in March 2021.

“This method promises to be a valuable tool for the glycobiology community and marks a significant milestone towards leveraging the full potential of GTs in biomedicine and other industries. It’s one great advantage to receiving the NIGMS award, which provides us with the flexibility to move in new and exciting directions,” he said.

The award and the new study help support interdisciplinary graduate training in the Institute of Bioinformatics and the department of computer science, as well build new synergies with campus-wide AI initiatives at UGA.

Image: Figure 2 from the study. Dots represent 2D UMAP projection of features for individual sequences.

 

Chronicles Tagging:

faculty

research

glycovaccines

sugars

artificial intelligence

deep learning

biochemistry and molecular biology

computer science

bioinformatics

Kannan receives $2M NIH MIRA award

iobadmin on March 18, 2021

 BIOLOGY | MARCH 16, 2021

By Alan Flurry

University of Georgia faculty member Natarajan Kannan

(Photo by Dorothy Kozlowski)

 

University of Georgia faculty member Natarajan Kannan is a recipient of a highly prestigious Maximizing Investigator Research Award, or MIRA, from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The MIRA award is intended to provide investigators with greater stability and flexibility in funding to enhance scientific productivity and make important scientific breakthroughs. The program funds research by the nation’s most highly talented and promising investigators.

Kannan, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Bioinformatics, will use the $2 million award over a period of five years to map the complex relationships connecting sequence and function in biomedically important gene families such as protein kinases.

A large family of enzymes, protein kinases function as molecular switches in most living organisms by turning “on” and “off” cellular signals at the right place and time. Abnormal functioning of these proteins in our cells is causally associated with diseases such as cancer, diabetes and neurological disorders. This project will answer fundamental questions related to protein kinase functions in disease and normal states and develop new tools to predict disease phenotypes from genotypes. In so doing the project will accelerate the targeting of these proteins for drug discovery and personalized medicine. The MIRA award also provides the flexibility to extend the specialized tools and approaches developed for the study of kinases to other gene families such as glycosyltransferases, which is a major area of focus in the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center at UGA.

Predicting disease phenotypes from genotypes is a grand challenge in biology and personalized medicine. Kannan’s evolutionary systems biology group is focused on addressing this challenge using a combination of computational and experimental approaches that incorporate techniques from diverse disciplines including biochemistry, bioinformatics, cell biology and computer science.

“Professor Kannan’s work is so impactful because he is not afraid to tackle the big questions. Furthermore, he freely shares his unique expertise in collaborations that help make for new discoveries in other labs as well,” said Christopher West, professor and head of the department of biochemistry and molecular biology. “He previously received a National Science Foundation CAREER award and the UGA Creative Research Medal in Natural Sciences and Engineering, and the NIH MIRA award is a further tribute to his outstanding contributions. We are lucky to have Professor Kannan as part of our scientific community.”

“We have made important contributions towards uncovering the functional impact of natural and disease variants in biomedically important gene families, and our success is attributable to the interdisciplinary team of highly motivated and talented students, fellows and research scientists working towards a common research goal,” said Kannan. “We are also fortunate to be part of a strong network of national and international collaborators and a highly collaborative research environment at UGA.”

 

 

IOB Academic News & Events | week of APR 3rd, 2020

iobadmin on April 2, 2020

To download a PDF of this news letter click HERE

Research News:

David Montgomery: COVID-19 collaboration submitted to PLOS Pathogens. The title is: “Glycosaminoglycan binding motif at S1/S2 proteolytic cleavage site on spike glycoprotein may facilitate novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) host cell entry”.  

 

Dr. Justin Bahl interviewed on COVID-19:

New York Times

NPR

CGTN

On-line Seminar:

Dr. Alexander Bucksch (is the tenth presenter in the IPPN online webinar.

Title: Computers, Roots & Big Data from the Field: Can new methods identify uncharacterized phenomena in existing data?

To join this webinar on the 10th of April 2020, go on time to Join Zoom Meeting  https://zoom.us/j/734731883   Meeting ID: 734 731 883

Dial by your location – Meeting ID: 734 731 883.  Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abyh97W3SI

Dr. Justin Bahl interviewed on NPR to discuss mutational patterns of COVID-19

iobadmin on March 27, 2020

 

IOB faculty member, Dr. Justin Bahl, was recently interviewed on NPR to discuss mutational patterns of the coronavirus.  Please see the links below details.

 

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/26/822107691/the-coronavirus-is-mutating-relatively-slowly-which-may-be-good-news

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/25/820998549/the-coronavirus-is-mutating-but-that-may-not-be-a-problem-for-humans

Bergman, Casey

ovprweb on September 9, 2015

Research interests:

Research in the Bergman lab aims to infer the mechanistic and evolutionary forces that have shaped modern genomes over long periods of time in their natural environments. Current projects in the lab focus on detecting and analyzing transposable element insertions in Drosophila and yeast population genomic data, and using evolutionary and functional genomic data to understand the molecular basis of the Drosophila-Wolbachia symbiosis. The basic rationale underlying research in the lab is that evolutionary processes have encoded functional and historical signals in genomes that can be decoded using computational methods. This inferential approach complements classical experimental methods in biology, and has the potential to reveal deep insights into biological processes that are not possible using in vitro or in vivo methods.

Bensasson, Douda

ovprweb on September 9, 2015

Research interests:

Genomes only make sense in the light of evolution, so we use a combined evolutionary and bioinformatics approach to study the parts of genomes people know least about: centromeres, repetitive and other noncoding DNA. We are also interested in the invisible world of microbes. By studying the genomes of wine yeast we hope to answer fundamental questions about domestication, and ultimately to predict how microbial biodiversity could be affected by climate change. By joining the lab you can train in bioinformatics, genomics, evolutionary biology, population genetics and statistics.