On December 19th, 2025, Derek Bolhuis, a graduate student in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, successfully defended his thesis titled “USP37 Earns its PH-D, and How it Ensures Cell Cycle Progression.”
Derek Bolhuis conducted his research jointly mentored in the labs of Drs. Nicholas Brown and Michael Emanuele. Through his 20 publications during graduate school, he explored biochemical, structural, and cell biological mechanisms for how ubiquitination controls cell cycle progression.
Beyond the lab, Derek was a dedicated leader and scientific communicator. He served as the Student Leader to the Molecular and Cellular Biophysics training program and co-coordinated the 2024 Mary Ellen Jones Distinguished Women in Science Lecture Series. Throughout his graduate training, he was the recipient of the 2024 Graduate Fellow Award in Basic Science and a Travel Award from UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and an oral communication award from the 2023 FASEB Ubiquitin Meeting.
After earning his PhD, Derek will remain at UNC through June 2026 to complete ongoing projects while he pursues postdoctoral fellowship opportunities.