Group News
Spring 2024
Lab lunch @Lost Dog to celebrate a productive 23/24 academic year and to bid farewell to Dr. Zihan Xu, who has taken a project manager job in the biotech sector, and newly minted MA, Sabrina Reba, who is off to the world of scientific publishing.
Fall 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Zihan Xu on his successful thesis defense. A hard worker, great lab teammate and immensely talented protein biochemist. He will be missed!
Fall 2022
Kind gifts from Binghamton University students in Callahan’s Enzymes: Structure / Function Class, Fall 2022. Thank you! ….how did they know my two favorite things?!?
Spring 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Ciulla and Dr. Wagner - defended and hooded, it’s official. They are shown here with Callahan who is holding the Binghamton University hooding ceremony booklet opened to the page with Dr. Zhang’s dissertation, who successfully defended his PhD thesis from our group in December 2021. Congrats to all three who are on to bigger and better things!
Daniel Ciulla wins University-wide award for Graduate Student Excellence in Research. Congrats Dan!
Fall 2021
Congratulations to Xiaoyu Zhang for successfully defending his PhD Thesis: “Protein-Nucleic Acid conjugation based on hedgehog protein autoprocessing: method development and biosensing applications”. Strong work Xiaoyu - your future is bright!
Xiaoyu Zhang has paper accepted at ChemBioChem describing Enzymatic Beacons, or E-beacons, as ultra-sensitive biosensors of nucleic acid. E-beacons detect nucleic acid at picomolar concentrations with single base mismatch specificity. Congratulations Xiaoyu!
Andrew Wagner has paper accepted in Biochemistry describing the first sub-micromolar inhibitor of hedgehog protein autoprocessing, an important precedent for effectively blocking this elusive target. The research is selected for the cover feature. Congratulations Andrew!
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.1c00697
SPRING 2021
Group receives R03 grant from the NIAID to conduct pilot studies on two new molecular testing approaches for pathogen detection, specifically applied to SARS-CoV-2. The research builds on earlier studies by graduate student, Xiaoyu Zhang, on protein-nucleic conjugation.
Summer 2020
Congratulations to Dan Ciulla, 2nd year PhD student, as the first recipient of the prestigious John Eisch Summer Fellowship. Following the example set forth by Professor Eisch, Dan is a dedicated scholar, tireless worker and fearless experimentalist. Dan fully embodies the theme of the John Eisch Summer Fellowship: Chemical Research Beyond Expectation.
Despite a relatively short time in our Chemistry PhD program, Dan already has 5 peer-reviewed publications, a list that includes two first-author publications, one in JACS and one in ChemComm, and a co-first author publication, also in JACS. Dan’s first-author paper in JACS was selected by the journal editors as the cover feature! In his most recent work, Dan is applying the revolutionary CRISPR/Cas gene editing technology as a means toward discovering novel and more effective cancer therapies.
Dan’s newly created research tools have paved the way for an exciting collaboration focused on cancer drug discovery involving the Callahan lab and the National Institutes of Health!
Summer 2020
Group publishes a mini-review on the concept of paracatalytic induction with small molecules as a strategy for enzyme antagonism.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.0c00643
Spring 2020
Congratulations to C.J. Smith and Andrew Wagner on their paper in Biochemistry describing an unusual class of antagonist, called “paracatalytic inducer”, targeting hedgehog protein autoprocessing. Binding of the paracatalytic inducer by the hedgehog protein accelerates a side reaction at the expense of the native transformation.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.0c00013
Fall 2019
Carl “C.J.” Smith successfully defends his MS Thesis in Chemistry. Congratulations CJ and all the very best wishes — you will be missed!
Xiaoyu Zhang publishes a first author paper in Bioconjugate Chemistry that is featured on the journal’s cover. Congratulations Xiaoyu!
DOI: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.9b00550
Summer 2019
Andrew Wagner receives a research fellowship from the National Cancer Institute of ~$150K that provides funding for tuition, stipend, travel and supplies until Fall 2021. Congratulations Andrew!
Spring 2019
Dan Ciulla and Andrew Wagner receive summer fellowships of $4000 in recognition of teaching excellence during the Fall and Spring Semesters of the 2018-19 academic year. Congratulations Andrew and Dan!
Summer 2018
Carl "C.J." Smith receives a summer fellowship of $4000 in recognition of teaching excellence during the Fall and Spring Semesters of the 2017-18 academic year. Over this span, C.J. received consistent ratings of "excellent" for his instructional efforts. Congrats C.J.!
Spring 2018
Molly Heit, Sophomore Biochemistry Major, receives a summer fellowship from NASA's Space Life Sciences Training Program at the Ames Research Center. In this rigorous program, students work closely with renowned NASA scientists and engineers on cutting-edge research, benefiting from the concentration of bioscience expertise at Ames. Participants in the program receive a stipend and housing accommodations for the summer. In addition to learning about NASA life sciences, interns get an opportunity to experience life in Silicon Valley. Congrats Molly!
Rebecca Mancusi, Junior Biomedical Engineering Major, is awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. This scholarship of $7500 is designed to attract outstanding students into research careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. This is the first time a student from BU has won since 2015. Congrats Rebecca!
Spring 2018
Carl (C.J.) Smith, second year PhD student, receives ACS Travel Award! C.J. will use this award to attend the American Chemical Society National Meeting, this August in Boston MA. At the meeting, C.J. presents his recent discovery of small-molecule activators of hedgehog proteins. Congrats C.J.!
Winter 2018
Congratulations to Dan Ciulla, first year PhD student, whose recent paper was featured on the cover of the Journal of the American Chemical Society and written up in the journal's Spotlight section. In collaboration with the Giner lab at SUNY-ESF, Dan helped develop a new approach to control the activity of hedgehog proteins using site-directed mutagenesis and mechanism-guided chemical synthesis. Congrats Dan!
Citation: Ciulla, D.A,; Jorgensen, M.T.; Giner, J.L.; Callahan, B.P. Chemical Bypass of General Base Catalysis in Hedgehog Protein Cholesterolysis Using a Hyper-Nucleophilic Substrate. J Am Chem Soc. 2018, 140(3), 916-918.