{"id":13,"date":"2023-09-18T14:29:25","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T14:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/conwaylab.structbio.pitt.edu\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2024-08-08T18:44:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T18:44:12","slug":"members","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/conwaylab.structbio.pitt.edu\/index.php\/members\/","title":{"rendered":"Members"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Prof. <\/strong>James Conway
Principal Investigator<\/em>
jamesconway@pitt.edu
Phone 412-383-9847
ORCID<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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James received his B.Sc. from Massey University, New Zealand, and also completed his Ph.D. there in 1989 mentored by David Parry. He joined the lab of Alasdair Steven at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD, USA in 1990 as a Visiting Fellow, transitioning to a Staff Scientist in 1995 until departing in 1999. He joined the Institut de biologie structurale<\/em> (IBS) in Grenoble, France, as a CNRS Directeur de recherche<\/em> (DR2) and leading the Laboratoire Microscopie Electronique Structurale<\/em> on the retirement of Richard Wade. In 2005 James was recruited by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to join the newly established Department of Structural Biology and to build a new cryo-electron microscopy facility. Equipment included FEI Polara, TF20 and T12 microscopes, and in 2019 the Polara was replaced with a Krios G3i that now has a Selectris energy filter and Falcon 4i camera. James’ focus has been on virus structure, including herpesvirus and bacteriophage capsid assembly, and has expanded to the portals, tails and tail-tips. In addition, he has been providing cryoEM access to numerous local researchers at U Pitt, Carnegie Mellow University, and Duquesne University, as well as collaborations will faculty at Penn State University, Michigan State University, the NIH, and other institutions and become involved in solving structure of many kinds of protein complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Alexis Huet<\/strong><\/strong>
<\/strong><\/strong>Research Assistant Professor <\/em>
alh141@pitt.edu
ORCID<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Alexis received his B.Sc. from University Paris 7, where he went on to complete his M.Sc. and Ph.D. In 2006 he joined the lab of Lucienne Letellier at University Paris 11, Orsay, France, as a post-doctoral fellow studying the assembly of bacteriophage T5, and started in the Conway lab in 2010. He has used genetic, biochemical, biophysical and computational methods to investigate the relationship between the function and structure of proteins. He has worked on bacteriophages as well as their eukaryotic herpesvirus counterpart. The focus has been assembly of the capsid and addresses questions about how hundreds of proteins can precisely associate together to form a regular shell of a specific geometry and size. In addition, he studied how the large-scale conformational changes that occur during the virus life cycle are orchestrated and how those events have been evolutionarily translated in the eukaryotic world by studying in detail the structure of herpesviruses. Cryo-electron microscopy has become a prominent technique to obtain high-resolution structures of protein complexes and he developed new methods to solve entire viral structures, including the symmetrical capsids and symmetry-breaking portals, tails and tail-tips, pioneering our studies on the capsid portal vertex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Anna Belford<\/strong><\/strong>
<\/strong><\/strong>Graduate Student<\/em>
anb304@pitt.edu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Anna is a student in the Molecular Biophysics and Structural Biology (MBSB) graduate program since Fall 2020. She completed her B.Sc. at Saint Martin’s University, WA, and worked as a post-bac in the lab of Christopher Buck at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD, USA, before joining the MBSB program. She joined the Conway lab in 2021 where her work involves sample preparation, cryoEM data collection, and structure determination of herpesvirus and bacteriophage capsids and tails.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Robert Duda<\/strong><\/strong>
<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Consultant<\/em>
duda@pitt.edu
ORCID<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Bob received his B.A. from Hampshire College, Amherst MA, and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1983, mentored by Fred Eiserling with whom he continued as a post-doctoral fellow. He joined the lab of Roger Hendrix at Pitt in 1988 where he later bedame a Research Assistant Professor and Member of the Graduate Faculty. Bob’s work with Roger Hendrix (and many collaborators, including James) established the HK97 capsid as an important model system for studying virus assembly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Josh Maurer<\/strong><\/strong>
<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Technician<\/em>
jbm141@pitt.edu
ORCID<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Josh developed his skills working with bacteriophage biology, biochemistry and genetics with Bob Duda in the laboratory of Roger Hendrix, Dept of Biological Sciences at the Pitt School of Arts & Sciences. He started with Roger and Bob as an undergraduate researcher and later became a full-time technician. Josh recently joined the Conway lab to continue working on phage assembly, structure and function.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Former Members:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jamie Nassur
<\/strong>Undergraduate researcher<\/em>
2017-2020
Jamie.Nassur@students.jefferson.edu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Jamie worked as an undergraduate researcher on bacteriophage capsid and tail structures before being accepted into the Medical School Program at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Patricia Campbell
<\/strong>Graduate Student<\/em>
2012-2019
patricia.campbellsoup@gmail.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Patricia joined the Conway lab as a student in the Molecular Biophysics and Structural Biology (MBSB) graduate program in 2012. She successfully defended here thesis in 2019: “Assembly and Structure of Bacteriophage Capsids and Tails.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ryan Casner<\/strong><\/strong>
<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Undergraduate researcher<\/em>
2016-2017
rgc2141@cumc.columbia.edu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Ryan worked on data analysis, including capsids and helical reconstructions. In 2021 he was working on his Ph.D. with Lawrence Shapiro at Columbia University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Toby Neef
<\/strong>Post-doctoral Fellow<\/em>
2013-2014
tobyneef@gmail.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Toby joined the Conway lab in 2013 while looking to transition from another lab in the Structural Biology Department, and started as a post doctoral fellow at Northwestern University in 2014. As of 2024 he is a Research Assistant Professor in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Joshua Yoder<\/strong><\/strong>
<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Post-doctoral fellow<\/em>
2012-2014
jyoder@gmail.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Josh joined the Conway Lab from Susan Hafenstein’s lab at Penn State. He worked on herpesvirus capsid structure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Katerina Toropova<\/strong><\/strong>
<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Post-doctoral Fellow<\/em>
2009-2011
e.toropova@bbk.ac.uk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Katerina received her Ph.D. at the University of Leeds and joined the Conway lab as a post-doc in 2007 working on virus structure and assembly. She is currently working in the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology at Birkbeck University of London, UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Roberto Lopez<\/strong><\/strong>
<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Undergraduate researcher<\/em>
2011-2012
nene.socrates@gmail.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Roberto worked in the Conway lab on virus structure analysis before starting Medical School at the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Carlos Lopez<\/strong><\/strong>
<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Undergraduate researcher<\/em>
2009-2010
karkis77@gmail.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Carlos worked in the Conway lab on virus structure analysis before Medical School at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2017 he had a fellowship in cancer survivorship care at Memorial Sloan Kettering.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Alexander Makhov<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
EM Manager<\/em>
2008-2020
amm924@gmail.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Alexander earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. at the Technical University, St. Petersburg, Russia, and his Ph.D. at the D.I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Moscow, Russia, in 1983. He continued working at the D.I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology as a Research and Senior Scientist until 1990. He joined Alasdair Steven’s lab at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD, USA, in 1991 as a Visiting Scientist, and moved to the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA, where he worked as a Post-doctoral fellow from 1992-1995. After a 2-year return to the D.I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, he rejoined the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1997 to 2008 as a Research Associate and later a Research Assistant Professor. Alexander joined the Conway lab in 2009 until his retirement in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dalaver Anjum
<\/strong>EM Manager<\/em>
2006-2008
dalaver.anjum@ku.ac.ae<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Dalaver received his B.Sc. at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, and his M.Sc. from Quaid-E-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He the completed a Ph.D. in 2002 at the State University in Albany, New York (SUNY) before joining the lab of Dorit Hanein at the Burnham Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA. He joined the Conway lab in 2006 as an EM Manager. Dalaver is currently a Senior Research Scientist at the Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James received his B.Sc. from Massey University, New Zealand, and also completed his Ph.D. there in 1989 mentored by David Parry. He joined the lab of Alasdair Steven at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD, USA in 1990 as a Visiting Fellow, transitioning to a Staff Scientist in 1995 until departing in 1999. He … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conwaylab.structbio.pitt.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conwaylab.structbio.pitt.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conwaylab.structbio.pitt.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conwaylab.structbio.pitt.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conwaylab.structbio.pitt.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/conwaylab.structbio.pitt.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273,"href":"https:\/\/conwaylab.structbio.pitt.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions\/273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conwaylab.structbio.pitt.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}