Glen Liszczak, PhD - Principal Investigator
I was born and raised in Manville, New Jersey (named after the Johns-Manville Corporation!). I received my B.S. in Chemistry and Biology from Ramapo College of New Jersey and my Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. As a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Ronen Marmorstein, I employed structural biology, enzymology, and other biochemical and biophysical approaches to delineate molecular mechanisms of protein amino-terminal acetyltransferase activation and catalysis. In 2013, I joined the laboratory of Professor Tom Muir as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University where I employed a wide array of chemical biology techniques to delineate epigenetic mechanisms and their misregulation in cancer. In 2018, I joined the Department of Biochemistry at UTSW as an Assistant Professor and an Endowed Scholar. I love Texas!
Throughout my career I have been fortunate to receive numerous awards for my research, including the Dr. Monica H.M. Shander Memorial Fellowship, a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, a Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Recruitment of First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Member Award, a UT System Rising STARs Award, and a Career Development Award from the American Heart Association.
Fun fact: He is "the best singer in the lab by a wide margin" according to passersby in the hallway and lab members.
Fun fact 2: He stole his first fun fact from Michael.
Favorite quote: “You better work….” -Britney Spears
Michael McConville - BC Graduate Student (MD/PhD)
Michael obtained his Bachelor's degree in Biology from Duke University in 2016. He is interested in characterizing the pathologic mechanisms of disease-associated genetic variation. He is "the best singer in the lab by a wide margin" according to passersby in the hallway, and enjoys spending his free time with his dogs, Boomie and Momo.
"Win big or go big" - Kyuto Tashiro
Ryan Beckner -BC Graduate Student (MD/PhD)
Ryan graduated from the University of Chicago in 2017 and spent the next two years studying cannabinoid receptors at the National Institutes of Health. He is interested in medical genetics and determining the function of understudied protein domains. In his free time, he enjoys light cardio.
“ABC: Always Be Cloning”
Christien Carter - Research Assistant
Christien received his BSc in Microbiology and MSc in Biology from beautiful UT Arlington. He is interested in a broad range of research topics including microbiology, biochemistry, antimicrobial resistance, and phage therapy. These days you can find him preparing semi-synthetic proteins for super cool biochemical and cellular experiments.
Fun fact: Christien once played basketball with Tibetan monks and lost horribly.
"Failure is success in progress" - Albert Einstein
Catherine Valadez - Research Assistant
Catherine earned a BS in biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and MS in biosciences and health policy from Rice University. She loves biochemistry, exploring cellular effects of genetic mutations, and molecular mechanisms of disease.
Fun fact: Catherine’s is car is held together with zip ties. They only malfunction when she is far from home.
“hiccups”
Lily Kim - Biochemistry graduate student
Lily received her BA in biochemistry from Vanderbilt University in 2023. She is interested in studying protein-protein interactions and uncovering novel protein biochemistry. Her pop culture knowledge is by far the worst in the lab, and she humbly accepts her crown for being the shortest lab member. While she has yet to submit a picture of herself, she agrees that the Monet cat is very appropriate as a substitute.
“I never said that; Michael is lying”
Tucker Burnett - Biochemistry graduate student
Tucker graduated in 2019 with a BS in Chemistry from Stanford University. Following graduation, he worked for a startup utilizing high-throughput gene editing techniques to optimize fermentation yields. He is interested in employing biochemical techniques to uncover genetic roots of disease. In his free time, he likes cooking food which is just a bit too spicy or salty for him to enjoy.
“Red Bull gives you wiiings”
Alumni
Vishnu Vasudev - STARS high school student
Jorge Sierra - Research Assistant
Abby Castro - STARS high school student
Sebastian Sanchez - postbaccalaureate (current position: UT Southwestern Ph.D. program)
Jugal Mohapatra - Biochemistry Graduate Student (current position: Genentech, Inc.)
Kyuto “Q” Tashiro - Biochemistry Graduate Student (current position: Amide Technologies)