Wellesley Biochemistry Program

Congratulations to the Carrico-Moniz research team for their recent publication that describes progress toward understanding and developing novel therapeutic agents for pancreatic cancer. Kudos to students Ronghao Zhou, Erika Kusaka, Yin Wang, and Angelina Zhang, and to faculty Andrew Webb and Dora Carrico-Moniz! You are making a difference in the world in true Wellesley fashion!

Isoprenylated Coumarin Exhibits Anti-proliferative Effects in Pancreatic Cancer Cells Under Nutrient Starvation by Inhibiting Autophagy Background/Aim: Due to the lack of early detection methods and effective treatments, pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest five-year survival rates among all cancers. We have previously identified novel isoprenylated coumarin compounds that exhibit preferential cytotoxicity against pancreatic aden...

Congratulations to our amazing '21-'22 Biochemistry Advocates for demonstrating collaborative leadership and earning a Camellia Student Leadership Award for their collaborative initiatives! Our advocates this past year were Nena Kotsalidis '22, Sabrina Koseki '22, Victoria Cottrell '22, Mariah Hassan '22, Cookie Uberoy '23, Erin Kim '22, Allie Chiou '22, Julie Bocetti '22, Sophia Pena '22, Alex Wheeler, '23, Anna Hu '22, and Val Alvarez '22! We look forward to continuing the momentum with continuing and new advocates next year!

Thanks to BIOC senior Nena Kotsalidis '22 for this amazingly creative way to spell out our beloved program abbreviation. Yay, BIOC seniors!

You can say it's in our BIOC students' DNA to be creative and thoughtful -- congrats to the BIOC class of '22 and thank you for the amazing decorations in the *new* Science Center. Faculty absolutely loved their door decorations too!

Check out this wonderful senior snapshot featuring BIOC Community member Sophia Peña ’22, whose collaborative work with other BIOC Student Advocates is having an impact on so many Wellesley STEM students already (just this morning another student told me how they valued getting to engage with these curricular modules in their classes!).

Senior Snapshot, Sophia Peña ’22: “Think Critically About the Science You’re Producing” When Sophia Peña ’22, a biochemistry major, saw peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters being targeted with tear gas during the summer of 2020, she wondered why scientists didn’t speak out against the way this chemical was being used. “I started to think, why did scientists make this in the ...

Attending the American Chemical Society meeting either virtually or in-person? Please cheer on some of our BIOC student advocates, Julie Bocetti '22, Sophia Pena '22, Anna Hu '22, Valentina Alvarez '22, and Alex Wheeler '23 as they present this afternoon about their amazing work to integrate issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity into our curriculum. Here they are practicing their talk! Congrats also to our alum Emiley Kim '21 who catalyzed a lot of this work as well!

Check out what current BIOC majors Valentina Alvarez '22 and Julie Bocetti '22 have developed to promote inclusivity within STEM -- one of many cool things our BIOC majors are doing to work toward creating a more diverse community at Wellesley and beyond:

How Do You Make STEM More Inclusive? Find Out How Two Wellesley Students Are Creating Change BISC116/CHEM116: Fundamentals of Chemistry and Molecular/Cellular Biology can be both engaging and challenging for first-year students. The course offers an interdisciplinary look at concepts such as the underlying molecular mechanisms of disease, how living systems use energy, and how pharmaceutica...

...and more on how various factors can affect microbiomes: BIOC faculty member Marc Tetel and collaborators recently published this review on how steroids affect microbiomes and women's health:https://www.wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/departments/neuroscience/files/graham2021.pdf
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34049772/

Gut and vaginal microbiomes on steroids: implications for women's health - PubMed This review discusses the interactions of steroids with the gut and vaginal microbiomes within each life phase of adult women and the implications for women's health. Each phase of a woman's life is characterized by distinct hormonal states which drive overall physiology of both host and commensal m...

Do you trust your gut? Wellesley BIOC professor Vanja Klepac-Ceraj and collaborators show how environmental factors can affect the gut microbiome in a new paper:

Family SES Is Associated with the Gut Microbiome in Infants and Children Background: While early life exposures such as mode of birth, breastfeeding, and antibiotic use are established regulators of microbiome composition in early childhood, recent research suggests that the social environment may also exert influence. Two recent studies in adults demonstrated associatio...

Profs. Darling, Goss, and Tantama are exemplary teachers, dedicated research mentors, impactful scientists, and inspiring community members, and we are so excited for all they will continue to bring to the BIOC Program for years to come! ...and on that positive note, we wish everyone in our extended BIOC family a wonderful holiday season and New Year!

...and the third of our inspiring BIOC colleagues to earn tenure, please join us in congratulating Prof. Mathew Tantama!

Mathew Tantama [Mathew Tantama]

...and the second of our three outstanding BIOC colleagues to earn tenure this past month: please join us in congratulating Prof. John Goss!

John Goss [John Goss]