CURRICULUM VITAE

 

Melissa L. May

The University of Illinois at Chicago

The Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and

The Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy

900 South Ashland Avenue (M/C 870)

Chicago, IL 60607

Lab Phone:  (312) 996-1687

Fax:  (312) 413-9303

Email:  mmay6@uic.edu

 

EDUCATION

 

Graduate Student        Current      University of Illinois, Chicago

B.S.  Physiology          May 1994   University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

 

HOMETOWN     

Edina, MN

 

GRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECT

Kinetic and Biophysical Characterization of Two Putative Glutamate Racemases from Bacillus anthracis

 

EXPERIENCE

 

University of Illinois at Chicago, Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.  Graduate Research Assistant under Dr. Andrew Mesecar   and Michael Johnson.  Research focuses on the kinetic characterization, high throughput assay design, and application of x-ray crystallography for discovering lead compounds that inhibit enzymes from Bacillus anthacis.

 

2001                   University of Illinois at Chicago, Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. 

Teaching Assistant for Pharmacy courses.

 

2000-2001          Loyola University.  Responsible for teaching organic chemistry laboratory course.

Loyola University.  Department of Chemisty.  Synthesis of long chain alpha-beta unsaturated carotenoids such as lycopene.

 

AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

 

2002          Charles Wesley Petranek Memorial Scholarship Award.  UIC   College of  Pharmacy

2003          Paul Sang Award.  UIC College of Pharmacy.

2003          UIC Student Travel Award for presentation at the Biophysical Society 47th Annual Conference.

 

MEMBERSHIPS AND PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

 

*     American Crystallographic Association (ACA)

*     American Society for Microbiology

 

ABSTRACTS AND POSTER PRESENTATIONS

 

1)   Melissa May, Bernard D. Santarsiero, Michael E. Johnson, Andrew D. Mesecar.  (2004) “Characterization of Two Putative Glutamate Racemases from Bacillus Anthracis.”  Midwest Enzyme Chemistry Conference.  University of  Chicago, Chicago, IL.  October 9, 2004.

 

2)   Melissa May, S. Mehboob, J. Jacob, P. Thiyagarajan, L.W. Fung, M.E. Johnson. (2003) “Small-angle x-ray scattering comparison of N-terminal regions of human erythroid and nonerythroid spectrin recombinant peptides.” Biophysical Society 47th Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX. February, 2003. 

 

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

 

  1. Literature Seminar.  “Bioterrorism:  A New Era.”  University of Illinois at Chicago.  Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy.  March, 2003.

 

  1. Seminar for Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.  “Progress Report on the Kinetic and Biophysical Characterization of RacE1 and RacE2:  Two Putative Glutamate Racemases from B. anthracis.”  University of Illinois at Chicago. 2004.

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

  1. Mehboob S, Jacob J, May M, Kotula L, Thiyagarajan P, Johnson ME, Fung LW.
  2. Structural analysis of the alpha N-terminal region of erythroid and nonerythroid spectrins by small-angle X-ray scattering.  Biochemistry. 2003 Dec 16;42(49):14702-10.

 

CONFERENCES ATTENDED

 

Midwest Enzyme Chemistry Conference XXIV                     October 9, 2004

ACA Annual Meeting – Local Committee member               July 2004

         Organize Mentor/Mentee Dinner

         Facilitate Sessions

Biophysical Society 47th Annual Meeting                            February 2003

 

X-RAY INSTRUMENTATION EXPERIENCE

 

APS Synchrotron:        Argonne National Labs

                                                    Beamlines:          SER-CAT  monochromatic data collection

                                                  

X-ray Equipment:         In house system.                  Raxis IIc detector (Rigaku) on RU-200 rotation anode.

                                                                             Raxis IV++ detector (Rigaku) with inverted phi

        

LABORATORY SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES

        

*     Cloning and construction of expression vectors

*     Optimizing of expression conditions

*     Site directed mutagenesis

*     Protein Purification- column chromatography

*     Gel chromatography

*     SDS PAGE protein gels

*     Agarose DNA gels

*     Native protein gels

*     Analytical size exclusion chromatography

*     Circular Dichroim

*     UV spectrophotometer assays

*     Small angel x-ray scattering

*     Crystallization

*     Random Factorial and Optimization of growth conditions

*     Heavy atom soaks

*     Cryo conditions & Screening

*     Seeding

 

COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE

*     Familiar with:

*     Unix (including editors vi and jot)

*     Denzo/Scalepack (x-ray crystallography processing)

*     CNS (x-ray crystallography)

·       (x-ray crystallography)

*     HKL2000, Crystal Clear (x-ray crystallography)