Joseph graduated last weekend with a BS in Biology and Biochemistry and a MS in Biology. He finished his research project in the Kern lab with an excellent thesis talk and we are sure he is fully prepared for his next step as a graduate student.
Congratulations, enjoy your break, and good luck in your PhD journey!
Our paper entitled “How directed evolution reshapes the energy landscape in an enzyme to boost catalysis” has appeared ahead of print on the Science website. In collaboration with the Hilvert lab @ ETH Zurich, we show the molecular origins of how directed evolution resulted in the fastest Kemp eliminase to-date. Congratulations to all involved!
Zachary Boswell started as a postdoctoral fellow after graduating from Texas Tech University. Welcome to the Kern Lab!
Congratulations to Dr. Patrick Finneran who successfully defended his PhD thesis already on August 17!
Patrick presented about “Resurrecting Ancient Kinases To Understand the Evolution of Kinase Specificity and Regulation” and did a terrific job explaining his thesis work to a large Zoom-audience.
Dr. Finneran started his new job as Senior Scientist Biophysics at Menten AI and on behalf of the Kern-lab family: best of luck to you in your new job and we know you’ll do great Patrick!
Congratulations to Dr. John Stiller who succesfully defendend his PhD thesis today!
In the first Kern-lab Zoom defense, John gave an excellent talk entitled “Beyond the Ground State: High Energy Structural Determination”. After about an hour of behind-closed-doors interrogation by his thesis committee, we held a small virtual event to celebrate his accomplishments.
John will stay around for a bit longer in the Kern-lab and hopefully we will be able to organize an in-person, pre-pandemic-style party in the not too far future.
Cheers to Dr. Stiller!