Congratulations to our new PhD, Matthew Cummins!

Dr. Cummins successfully defended his PhD, “Design of hyper-stable proteins completely from scratch that efficaciously inhibit oncogenic G proteins” June 6.

Dr. Matthew Cummins stands with his PhD advisors, Dr. John Sondek (left) and Dr. Brian Kuhlman (right) on the patio in front of the Genetic Medicine Building on UNC Campus after defending his PhD. — Dr. Matthew Cummins stands with his PhD advisors, Dr. John Sondek (left) and Dr. Brian Kuhlman (right) after defending his PhD.

PI/Mentor: Drs. John Sondek and Brian Kuhlman

Dr. Cummins has taken a position as a Postdoctoral Researcher with the deMello Group at ETH Zurich where he will be working on droplet microfluidics for high-throughput experimentation.

Publications

AlphaFold accurately predicts distinct conformations based on the oligomeric state of a de novo designed protein. Cummins MC, Jacobs TM, Teets FD, DiMaio F, Tripathy A, Kuhlman B. Protein Sci. 2022 Jul;31(7):e4368. doi: 10.1002/pro.4368. PMID:35762713. PMC9207892 (available on 2023-07-01)

Designer proteins that competitively inhibit Gα_q by targeting its effector site. Hussain M, Cummins MC, Endo-Streeter S, Sondek J, Kuhlman B. J Biol Chem. 2021 Dec;297(6):101348. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2021.101348. Epub 2021 Oct 27. PMID:34715131. PMC8633581

Perturbing the energy landscape for improved packing during computational protein design. Maguire JB, Haddox HK, Strickland D, Halabiya SF, Coventry B, Griffin JR, Pulavarti SVSRK, Cummins M, Thieker DF, Klavins E, Szyperski T, DiMaio F, Baker D, Kuhlman B. Proteins. 2021 Apr;89(4):436-449. doi: 10.1002/prot.26030. Epub 2020 Dec 11. PMID:33249652. PMC8299543

An Adaptation To LiPe In Acid Through A Novel Mevalonate Pathway. Vinokur JM, Cummins MC, Korman TP, Bowie JU. Sci Rep. 2016 Dec 22;6:39737. doi: 10.1038/srep39737. PMID:28004831. PMC5177888

We wish you all the best, Matthew!

Publications

More from Pharmacology