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Dumont Receives 2018 Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

kielkopf lab door

Biochemistry professor Mark Dumont, Ph.D. is the recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award. Established in 2013, this award is given to an outstanding graduate student teacher for record of excellence in classroom instruction. Mark was nominated by graduate students Brandon Davis, Ashwin Kumar and Matthew Raymonda.

This award was presented at the School of Medicine and Dentistry Convocation Ceremony, September 6, 2018.

The department would like to extend congratulations to Mark on this well- deserved honor.

Dumont Selected as the 2017 Recipient of the Graduate Student Society Advocacy Award

Monday, August 28, 2017

Biochemistry professor Mark Dumont, Ph.D. has been selected as the 2017 recipient of the Graduate Student Society Advocacy Award. This award, established in 1994 by the Graduate Student Society (GSS), is bestowed annually to recognize a faculty member in the School of Medicine and Dentistry who has made significant contributions in promoting excellence in graduate education through participation, facilitation, and promotion of GSS goals and events. The faculty member may be nominated by any SMD student, and is chosen by a GSS Executive Board vote.

The award will be presented at the School of Medicine and Dentistry Convocation Ceremony on Tuesday, September 12th at 4:00pm in the Class of 1962 Auditorium.

The department would like to extend congratulations to Mark on this recognition, as it is a well-deserved honor.

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics Celebrates 15-Year Service Awards

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Sara Connelly and Shelley Burns

Sara Connelly (left) and Shelley Burns

We are pleased to celebrate Shelley Burns’ and Sara Connelly’s milestone anniversaries of working for the University of Rochester for 15 years in July 2014!

Shelley is an Administrator who wears many hats in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. She is an expert Grants Administrator for the department and has an uncanny knowledge of NIH forms and regulations, and she keeps the faculty on time and compliant with all grant applications. She also coordinates recruitment and hiring of postdoctoral fellows, manages renovations, and is an authority on immigration and human resources rules and regulations.

Sara is a Technical Associate in the lab of Mark Dumont, Ph.D.. She is a highly accomplished scientist with knowledge and experience in areas ranging from yeast genetics to G protein coupled receptors to HIV envelope protein. She also performs vital roles in managing the Dumont lab (often referred to as the Connelly lab), providing instruction and guidance to students, and making the 3-7500 hallway a fun place to work. We are deeply appreciative of Shelley’s and Sara’s many years of service to our department!

Using Yeast to Unravel Premature Aging Disorder

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Like a fence that encloses a backyard, all of the body's cells are surrounded by membranes. Each membrane has its own complement of membrane proteins, which perform critical functions like letting things in and out of the cell, and keeping the inside of the cell informed of what's happening on the outside. Mark Dumont, Ph.D., professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Pediatrics, says that more than half of the drugs on the market today target membrane proteins.

Despite their importance, the structures and mechanisms that determine how these proteins work are not very well understood. In a recent study in Science, Dumont and collaborators at the University of Virginia and the Hauptman-Woodward Institute in Buffalo describe the structure of a particular membrane protein called Ste24p that is involved in cutting up other proteins in yeast. If there's a defect in this protein, yeast can't mate.

The obvious next question is, how is yeast's inability to reproduce relevant to people? It turns out, the human equivalent of the protein Ste24p, when mutated, causes progeria -- a premature aging disorder in which children develop hair loss, joint ailments, and heart disease, which they typically die of in their mid-teens. Dumont says that better understanding how this protein works -- in yeast and in people -- will help scientists to design a drug or other treatment for this devastating disorder and learn more about the human aging process.

Nadia Fedoriw, a technician in Dumont’s lab, grows yeast used for protein production.
Nadia Fedoriw, a technician in Dumont's lab, grows yeast used for protein production

Dumont is a senior investigator of the Membrane Protein Structural Biology Consortium, one of nine NIH-funded centers across the country that are trying to solve the structures of membrane proteins. He worked with Kathleen Clark and Nadia Fedoriw from Pediatrics and Sara Connelly from Biochemistry and Biophysics on the study.

Read More: Using Yeast to Unravel Premature Aging Disorder