The Hart Lab

It’s been a long time coming! The project initiated by one of my first thesis students, Miranda Villanueva, is now published in Protein Science. Congrats to all of the amazing co-authors, especially Miranda, Lauren, Drew, and Devin, who worked on this project as thesis students. You can check out the (somewhat unexpected!) story here.

The end of the semester is always so bittersweet! The Hart Lab will miss Elise and Devin, but wishes them the best in their next chapters. In the fall, Elise will be starting a Ph.D. at Columbia University, and Devin will be doing research at the NIH (not too shabby!)

One last Lickety Split run! Left to right: Devin Biesbrock ’23, Elise Kuwaye ’23 and Prof. Hart

Right after hosting a dozen preschoolers in our lab to make slime. Left to right: Elise Kuwaye ’23 and Prof. Hart

Celebrating seniors at the Chemistry commencement breakfast. Left to right: Prof Hart, Lexi Poindexter ’23, Devin Biesbrock ’23 and Lesley Winston (Devin’s mom).

Devin Biesbrock ’23 (left) and Elise Kuwaye ’23 (right) show off their hard work to students and faculty at our first-ever fall thesis poster session (and discover that presenting a poster is so much more exhausting than giving a talk!) Thanks for doing such a great job representing the Hart lab! Now go take a nap.

Elise fielding questions from an ever-enthusiastic Professor Christau.

Devin mastering her spiel the millionth time through. Way to keep up the energy!

Congratulations to all co-authors on our latest paper in ACS Biochemistry!

The lab surprised me with champagne and cake to celebrate, but first they scared the bejesus out of me by sending me this text “Errrr could you by change rush over to lab there’s a bit of a situation.” Thanks, Megalan!

Left to right: Sonya Lee ’22, Prof. Hart, Megalan Tso ’22 and Devin Biesbrock ’23

Chemistry Professor Katie Hart Wins NIH Grant

Check out these amazing women profiled in the Eph Spotlight:

https://ephsports.williams.edu/sports/wxc/video/EPH_SPOTLIGHT-_Emily_Harris_-Cross_Country_and_Track-

https://ephsports.williams.edu/EPH_SPOTLIGHT-_Lauren_Vostal_-19_Women-s_Basketball

Miranda, Cynthia and I had a great time at the Protein Society 32^ndAnnual Symposium in Boston, MA! Miranda presented a poster and was chosen to give a talk. She received good questions and feedback from other students and experts in the field. Cynthia presented a poster and received a cash prize! Both Miranda and Cynthia were honored by the Society for their presentations during the meeting’s final reception. Way to go Hart Lab!

Miranda (fourth from left) and Cynthia (fifth from left) were honored by the Protein Society for their research.

Miranda gave a great talk about her thesis research!

Cynthia won the coveted poster award for her presentation (which included a cash prize!)

At the end of the Spring semester, we said “goodbye” to our beloved Bronfman and “hello” to the brand new South Science Center! After much hard work packing, moving, unpacking (and troubleshooting temperamental equipment), the Hart lab is once again live and ready to SCIENCE!

before

During

after

We are engaged in an arms race with pathogens. And we’re losing. Just as quickly as we can develop new antibiotics or antiviral treatments, resistant strains emerge – often within the year. Evolution, it turns out, doesn’t always take eons. In fact, we are watching microbes evolve in real time in clinics, on farms and in the natural environment, which gives us the opportunity to both study how evolution occurs on short timescales and learn how to combat drug resistance.

My lab studies how drug resistance evolves at the molecular level with a particular focus on protein stability. Many forms of drug resistance depend upon a small number of mutations that result in changes to a protein’s amino acid sequence. By investigating how these changes affect protein structure, stability and function, we can begin to understand how evolution works at the molecular level and leverage these insights to inform the design and implementation of new drug treatments.