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The Horatio Alger Foundation of Distinguished Americans, Inc. selected biochemistry PhD candidate Dalal Azzam as a recipient of the 2026 Dennis Washington Graduate Leadership Scholarship program.  

Scientists have identified a long‑sought enzyme that controls a fundamental chemical process critical for healthy bones and cartilage, according to a study accepted to Nature Chemical Biology. The enzyme, MESH1, regulates levels of PAPS, the chemical “fuel” cells use to add sulfate tags to proteins and other molecules. The researchers found that MESH1 breaks down PAPS, reducing sulfation; when sulfation is too low, cartilage and bone don’t form properly, contributing to skeletal disorders and possibly osteoarthritis. Lowering MESH1 activity boosted sulfation and improved bone density in a mouse model with a sulfation defect. By also solving the enzyme’s 3D structure bound to PAPS, the study opens the door to drug development, suggesting that inhibiting MESH1 could help restore sulfation in patients with related diseases.

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As insects become resistant to current insecticides, researchers are looking for new options to protect crops and prevent disease. In research published in Nature Communications, a team led by Seok Yong-Lee, PhD, George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology, reveals insights about how insects sense their environment and how certain insecticides disrupt that process.

Researchers led by Ken Yokoyama, PhD, have revealed a long-sought missing step in how a powerful new class of antibiotics are produced in nature — insight that could guide discovery or design of new antimicrobial drugs.

Dalal Azzam has been awarded two years of support from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Graduate Diversity Enrichment Program.

Sai Kwan Khal, a PhD student in the lab of Michael Boyce, PhD, has been awarded a competitive Summer Research Fellowship for Summer 2026 from the Duke University Graduate School.

The final project for Structural Biochemistry II (BCH659) culminated in an exciting “Shark Tank”-style competition, where student teams pitched innovative biotech concepts to a pa

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When your brain was forming, an enzyme had to pull off a powerful chemical reaction. One wrong move, and the process could fail — leading to a rare disorder that causes seizures and, ultimately, death. Now, researchers at Duke University School of Medicine have uncovered how this enzyme called MoaA tames one of nature’s most reactive chemical players to make this life-or-death reaction happen.