I obtained my MS degree in chemistry
from Moscow State University and my PhD in Medical Sciences
from the University of South Florida. My research interests
concentrated on the application of rational drug discovery
techniques toward diverse biological targets.
During my first postdoc at the Scripps
Research Institute at Prof. Abagyan's laboratory of
computational biology, I was able to develop in silico
protein-ligand docking protocols which implicitly take into
account induced fit of the receptor, the bottleneck of
modern in silico drug discovery. These protocols were
successfully applied toward the discovery of novel
non-steroidal androgen receptor antagonists.
While at the Burnham Institute, at
the Prof. Terskikh's laboratory, I work on the development
of specific inhibitors of MELK, a serine-threonine kinase
thought to be responsible for maintenance of highly
proliferative potential of such common deadly cancers as
glioblastomas and colon carcinomas.
We live because of metabolites. Glucose, NAD,
ATP... You can see a that a gene is expressed with RT-PCR and you can
see the expressed enzyme in colorful pictures from your immunostaining
but if the substrate is not there, that enzyme will not work. On the
contrary, seeing a metabolite in a biological system assures you that
the related enzymes are there and that they are working. Every time
there is a metabolite there is also an enzyme that produced it. Defining
the metabolic state of a system gives us the largest amount of
information.
So...what is the metabolic
state of embryonic stem cells and what metabolic revolution happens
during the differentiation to other cell lineages? What is the effect of
the redox state on stem cells pluripotency? Can we control, at least to
some extent, the differentiation processes with small molecules?
Applying biochemistry to stem cells could answer these questions, giving
us a better picture of these very promising, therapeutically speaking,
kind of cells.
CAROL CURCHOE, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate View Photo
My research is focused on directing the
differentiation of human embryonic stem cells through the intermediate
neural precursor stage and pushing those down the path of neural crest
stem cells. The goals of the project are directed toward obtaining
neural crest derivatives with an eye toward basic biological research
which, is thought to recapitulate embryological development, as well as
toward potential therapeutic outcomes. I am also investigating aspects
of the maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (melk) in human cell and
mouse models.
Our previous findings have
suggested that maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (melk) is a
potential neural progenitor marker and may play a very important role in
cancer cells. However, very little is known about the molecular
mechanisms that switch melk signaling on and off. Therefore, my main
research task is focused on the identification of melk associated
molecules, to reveal the “secret” melk signal transduction pathways,
which function in maintenance and self-renewal of human stem cells, as
well as in tumorigenesis by using a transgenic mouse model.
