University of Idaho

Student success (2012) - Brooke Anderson received a grant from the Student Grants Program. Well done !

ACS Meeting (2012) - Dr. Hrdlicka contributed two presentations at the 2012 Spring ACS Meeting in San Diego.

Presentation (2012) - Dr. Hrdlicka gave an invited presentation at the RNA Institute (SUNY Albany).

Publication (2012) - Guankui's paper entitled: Gold-peptide nanoconjugate cellular uptake is modulated by serum proteins, has been accepted for publication in Nanomedicine NBM. Congrats Guankui !

Student success (2012) - Dale Guenther has passed her cumulative exams after seven of eight exams. Congratulations !

Student success (2012) - Brooke Anderson and Mamta Kaura have passed their proposal defense - congrats.

Graduation (2012) - Sujay P. Sau has fulfilled the requirements toward a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry. He is the second Ph.D-candidate from the Hrdlicka group to graduate. Congrats !

Presentations (2011) - Dr. Hrdlicka gave invited presentations at Carnegie Mellon University and University of Aarhus.

Three former team members enjoy success in the marketplace (2011) - Former postdoctoral fellow, VVR Sai, has been appointed Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology at Madras. Former graduate student, Bharat Baral is now Development Associate II at Geron. Finally, former visiting PhD-student, Santhosh Kumar, has secured a job with ChemGenes. Well done guys!

Publication (2011) - Saswata's paper entitled: High-affinity DNA-targeting using Readily Accessible Mimics of N2’-Functionalized 2’-Amino-α-L-LNA, has been published in the Journal of Organic Chesmitry.

Publication (2011) - Our review on pyrene-functionalized oligonucleotides and LNAs has been published in Chemical Society Reviews.

Presentation (2011) - Dr. Hrdlicka gave invited presentations at the Nucleic Acid Center (Univ. Southern Denmark) and the University of Copenhagen.

Publication (2011) - Our synthetic protocol on C5-functionalized LNA has been published in Current Protocols of Nucleic Acid Chemistry.

Publication (2011) - Our article describing optimized discrimination of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using C5-functionalized LNA has been published in Chemistry European Journal.

Publication (2011) - Our study on Au- and Ag-nanoparticle coated silica nanosprings as SERS-active materials has been published in Journal of Physical Chemistry C.

Adjunct faculty (2011) - Dr. Hrdlicka has joined the Department of Chemistry at Washington State University as an adjuct faculty.

Early Promotion and Tenure (2011) - Dr. Hrdlicka's application for early tenure and promotion to Associate professor has been accepted.

Student success (2011) - Sujay Sau secured another grant (3k$) from UI's Student Grant Program. Well done !

Student success (2011) - Saswata Karmakar has passed the cumulative exams after seven of eight exams. Congratulations !

Proposal Defense (2011) - Sujay P Sau has passed his proposal defense - congrats.

Group picture (2010)

Graduation (2010) - Michael E. Østergaard has fulfilled the requirements toward a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry. He is the first Ph.D-candidate from the Hrdlicka group to graduate. Congrats !

Publication (2010) - Our articles on the optimization of Glowing LNA and their use in mRNA imaging, have been published in JACS and Bioorganc Medicinal Chemistry Letters.

Publication (2010) - A collaborative research article with the Nucleic Acid Center (NAC) on enzymatic incorporation of C5-functionalized LNA uridine triphosphates has been published in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters.

Award (2010) - Dr. Hrdlicka received the Univ. Idaho, College of Science, Early Career Faculty Award.

DoD Funding (2010) - David McIlroy (Dept. Physics), Vladimir Dobrokhotov (W. Kentucky Univ.) and Dr. Hrdlicka have secured a three-year grant from the Department of Defense (DoD) to develop functionalized silica nanosprings for detection of explosives.

INBRE-ITHS Funding (2010) - Deb Stenkamp (Dept. Bio. Sciences), Maureen Neitz (Univ. Washington) and Dr. Hrdlicka have secured a one-year grant from INBRE-ITHS to explore gene knockdown in zebrafish.

Publication (2010) - Our article describing the use of pyrene-functionalized triazole-linked 2'-deoxyuridines for efficient discrimination of single nucleotide polymorphisms has been published in Chemmical Communications.

Poster Award (2010) - Mason Frederickson has won poster awards at the 6th Annual College of Science Student Expo at UI and at the Pacific Northwest Undergraduate Research Symposium on Organic Chemistry & Chemical Biology.

Teaching Spring (2010) - CHEM372 students, on average, scored in the 79th national percentile on the ACS Standardized Organic Chemistry Exam. Outstanding performance, students - congratulations !

Graduation - Bharat Baral has fulfilled all requirements toward a M.S. degree in Chemistry. Congrats !

Student Awards - Saswata Karmakar and Sujay Sau have received financial support from the Student Grant Program, while Mason Frederickson has received a scholarship from Idaho INBRE. Congratulations !

ACS Meeting NORM (2010) - Dr. Hrdlicka co-chaired the Medicinal Chemistry session at the ACS NORM/RMRM Meeting held in Pullman, June 20-23.

Publication (2010) - Our article describing the use of Invader LNA to target isosequential double stranded DNA has been published in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry.

NIH EUREKA R01 Funding (2009) - Dr. Hrdlicka and Dr. Madhusudhan R. Papasani and Prof. Rod A. Hill (both Animal and Veterinary Science) have secured a three-year R01 award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) EUREKA (Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration) program to study novel gene knockdown agents termed Invader LNAs. A press release can be found here.

Publication (2009) - Our manuscript outlining the use of C5-functionalized LNAs for efficient RNA targeting has been published in ChemBioChem.

Student news - Brooke A. Anderson and Mamta Kaura have passed their cumulative exams. Congratulations!

Publication (2009) - Our manuscript outlining novel functionalized LNA as efficient DNA-binders using the triplex approach has been published in Chemical Communications.

Scholarship - Undergraduate researcher Mason Frederickson has received financial support from the Hill Research Foundation. Congratulations !

Poster Award - Michael E Østergaard and coworkers, won the poster award in the Graduate Student category at the Donald S. Matteson symposium held at WSU early October 2009. Congrats !

Publication (2009) - Our manuscript describing the use of intercalator-functionalized LNA for DNA targeting has been published in Journal of Organic Chemistry.

Publication (2009) - Our manucript describing a novel synthetic methodology to facilitate selective deacylations of peracylated ribonucleosides has been published in Tetrahedron Letters.

Publication (2009) - Our manuscript describing a concise synthetic route to isotopically labeled ribonucleosides has been published in Tetrahedron Letters.

Publication (2009) - A review on "1-Dimensional Silica Structures and Their Applications to the Biological Sciences" was prepared jointly by the BANTech team and has been published in “Nanomaterials for the Life Sciences, Nanostructured Oxides” (Wiley 2009).

Publication (2009) - A manuscript outlining the development of PNA-based biosensors has been published in Analytical Letters. This effort was spearheaded by the Maki group at the Univ. Idaho Research Park in Post Falls.

Publication (2009) - Our manuscript describing recognition of RNA strands in parallel orientation using beta-L-LNA has been published in Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry Letters.

2xStudent support- Brooke Anderson and Sujay Sau have received financial support from the Student Grant Program.

Student award - Michael E. Østergaard's UI COGS Doctoral Scholarship has been extended by another year.

Publication - Our manuscript outlining an optimized synthesis of LNA uridine nucleosides has been published in Tetrahedron Letters 2008, 7168-7170.

Funding - PJH has received funding from the Initiative for Bioinformatics & Evolutionary Studies (IBEST) to develop probes for targeting of dsDNA.

Funding - PJH was awarded his second UI Seed Grant - this time to conduct studies on biosensors using functionalized nucleic acids.

Publication - Our manuscript highlighting our use of N2’-functionalized 2’-amino-a-L-LNA for  structural engineering applications has been published in Journal of Organic Chemistry.

3xStudent Awards - Michael E. Østergaard, Dale Guenther and Thao T. Vo have received the Nash, Hill and Cooley-Juve awards, respectively - congratulations

2xSupport - Dale Guenther, undergraduate researcher in our team, has been awarded an INBRE scholarship, and has received financial support from the Student Grant Program.

Student award - Michael E. Østergaard, has been awarded the UI COGS Doctoral Scholarship to conduct studies on biosensors.

Publication - A NAC-driven multi-author manuscript on ‘Chemically Modified Oligonucleotides with Retained RNaseH Response’ has been published in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2008, 2296-2300.

Congratulation - Todd D. Pankratz has completed his master degree (non-Thesis MS).

2xSupport - Michael E. Østergaard and Brooke Anderson have received financial support from the Student Grant Program and a Hill Research Foundation, respectively.

Student award - Brooke Andersen, undergraduate researcher in our team, has been awarded the 2008 Senator Larry E. Craig Endowment Scholarship to participate in the 2008 ACS Spring meeting.

Presentations - PJH presented “N2’-Functionalized 2’-Amino-a-L-LNA: A Novel Class of Locked Nucleic Acids as Emerging Tools for Nucleic Acid Therapeutics and Diagnostics” at the 2008 Spring American Chemical Society Meeting in New Orleans, USA. Furthermore, Michael E. Østergaard presented a poster on our recent results on functionalized LNAs as versatile diagnostic tools.

4xPublications - Research papers outlining our recent collaborative efforts with Prof. Wengels group at the Nucleic Acid Center, have recently been published in Nucleosides Nucleotides Nucleic Acids 2007, 26, 1261/1403/1407/1415.

2xFunding - Idaho NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) will support our project on labeled nucleic acids. Funding was also granted to purchase a Karl-Fisher Titrator to determine water level in solvents.

Publication - The manuscript ““Pyrenylmethyl 2’-Amino-LNA for Sensitive SNP Genotyping in a Homogenous Fluorescence Dual-Probe Assay”, by T. Umemoto, P. J. Hrdlicka, B. R. Babu and J. Wengel has been published in ChemBioChem 2007, 8, 2240-2248.

Funding - PJH was awarded a UI Seed Grant to conduct studies on novel functionalized nucleic acid probes for targeting of dsDNA.

Publication - The manuscript “2’-N-(Pyren-1-yl)acetyl-2’-Amino-a-L-LNA: Synthesis and Detection of Single Nucleotide Mismatches in DNA and RNA Targets” by T. S. Kumar , J. Wengel and P. J. Hrdlicka has been published in ChemBioChem 2007, 8, 1122-1125.

Presentation - PJH gave an invited presentation at the Nucleic Acid Center, University of Southern Denmark.

Presentation - PJH gave a presentation at the Gordon Research Conference - Nucleosides, Nucleotides and Oligonucleotides.

Presentation - PJH gave an invited presentation on “Ångström-scale Chemical Engineering of Nucleic Acids – Enabling Biomaterials for Diagnostics and Therapeutics” at the AAAS Pacific Division/ACS Northwest Region meeting.

Support - We graciously acknowledge the BANTech center for supporting Michael E. Østergaard (Ph.D.-stud) on a Research Assistantship.

Support - Johanna Root and Joanna Hawryluk who stayed 8 weeks in our lab enjoyed support from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense (ASSURE Program) via the Neuroscience Program. In addition - UI undergrad Michael Chavez received support from NSF EPSCoR Idaho for a 10 week scholarship.

Support - Todd Pankratz (M.S.-stud) was awarded $1.500 from the Student Grant Program to support his project on intercalator-modified nucleic acids.