In a surprising twist, UNC scientists discovered that SETD2, a tumor suppressor, also preserves nuclear structure during cell division—a hidden role that may explain its tumor-suppressive effects in cancer. UNC biochemists Brian Strahl, PhD, and Abid Khan, PhD, discovered that the enzyme also plays a crucial structural role in preserving the shape and integrity of the nucleus – part of the cell that stores DNA.

Jean Cook and lab thumbnail from the video from summer 2025

The Cook Lab at UNC investigates how cell proliferation is regulated and how diseases disrupt these processes. Their work provides the foundation for developing targeted therapies that have shown promising success in treating cancers such as breast cancer.

Research at UNC has doubled over the past 12 years, firmly establishing Carolina as one of America’s top-ranked research universities.

blue microscope image that resembles water and white circles image

Researchers in the lab of Jean Cook, PhD, chair and professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, have identified the cellular processes that occur when you take a cancer drug meant to stop rapid cell growth in tumors.

Gaorav Gupta, MD, PhD, Misty Good, MD, MS, and Jason Stein, PhD, were selected as Yang Family Biomedical Scholars in the eighth installment of this annual School of Medicine award.

Gaorav Gupta, MD, PhD, Misty Good, MD, MS, and Jason Stein, PhD, were selected as Yang Family Biomedical Scholars in the 8th installment of this annual School of Medicine award. Yang Family Biomedical Scholars Award Seminar will be held on Friday, July 11, 2025, from 12:30pm-2pm in Kirkland Auditorium, Koury Oral Health Sciences Building.

Dr. Chris Travis wearing a suit standing outside in 2025

Welcome to the new Director of the UNC Macromolecular Interactions Facility, Dr. Chris Travis. Before joining UNC, Chris spent time at GSK at a medicinal chemistry co-op working on a program in the pre-clinical stage...

Dr. Qi Zhang, Professor and Associate Chair of Community and Engagement in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, has been named the inaugural Arrel Toews Research and Teaching Distinguished Term Professor, effective July 1, 2025.

We are enormously grateful for everything Dr. Ash Tripathy has done for UNC research and the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics over the last 25+ years, and we wish him a relaxing and well-deserved retirement.

Cook lab research image with red and green

Researchers have discovered that an enzyme called USP37 plays a crucial role in ensuring our cells copy their DNA correctly. The findings were published in Nature Communications. (Thanks to the first three co-authors—Derek Bolhuis, Dalia Fleifel and Thomas Bonacci.)

Our researchers (Pengda Liu lab) and their colleagues have developed a small molecule that selectively degrades a protein implicated in Ewing sarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the bone and soft tissue that primarily affects children and teenagers.

Penny Gordon-Larsen, vice chancellor for researc

F&A costs are shared investments that the federal government makes to ensure our global competitiveness and leadership in science and innovations that save and transform lives, protect and defend our national security, feed our nation, and more.

We are pleased to introduce Dr. Shota Kudo, our new Visiting Scholar in the Kuhlman lab. Dr. Kudo comes from Japan and has an impressive background in pharmaceutical research.

Tag: Faculty & Lab News

UNC Scientists Uncover Hidden Role of Tumor Suppressor Gene in Protecting the Genome

Cook lab research video

UNC Research Facts and Rankings

Researchers Learn How Cancer Cells Divide Despite Treatment

Congratulations to the 2024-25 Yang Family Biomedical Scholars

Dr. Chris Travis will serve as New Director of the UNC Macromolecular Interactions Facility

Dr. Qi Zhang Named Inaugural Arrel Toews Research and Teaching Distinguished Term Professor

Dr. Ash Tripathy to step down as Core Director from the Macromolecular Interactions on July 1

Researchers discover an enzyme that protects DNA during rapid cell divisions (Cook lab)

Researchers develop molecule that targets Ewing sarcoma

The “A” in “F&A:” Understanding the Value of Research Administration

Welcome Dr. Shota Kudo Visiting Scholar in the Kuhlman lab