Some exciting news from Patrick E. Lackey Ph.D., 2016 BCBP and Marzluff lab alumnus.
One of the COVID studies that Dr. Lackey worked on as a co-author with the Duquesne chemistry department is on the cover of ACS Physical Chemistry Au in January!
The cover highlights the dynamic structure of the stem-loop II (s2m) RNA hairpin terminal loop (color gradient) in the SARS-CoV-2 genome, as revealed by molecular dynamics simulations and conformational analysis. The flexible nonaloop containing a palindromic sequence and possibly being involved in the formation of s2m kissing complexes was calculated to have higher absolute entropy than the rigidly pre-organized SARS-CoV s2m (creator: Adam Kensinger).
Patrick E. Lackey got his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 2016 and worked in the Marzluff lab. He is an Assistant Professor at Westminster College in Pennsylvania.