Home » Steven Merrill

Steven Merrill

Steven Merrill

Education:

B.S. Biochemistry, California State San Bernardino 2016, Magna Cum Laude

From: Chino, California

Joined David Lab: January 2019

Outside of lab: Exploring the Davis area with my wife, exercising, or catching up on the latest Marvel project (:

Research in the David Lab:

Oxidative DNA damage requires repairment to maintain genomic integrity. The Base excision repair pathway is initiated to remove undesirable nucleobases and inserts proper nucleobase. The pathway is initiated by a class of enzymes known as DNA glycosylases- initiation occurs following the identification and excision of an aberrant nucleobase. In case of the DNA glycosylase MutY, MUTYH in humans, the base to be removed is adenine following it’s misplacement across an oxidized guanine during replication. My work in the David lab is aimed to further explore and develop a model for early nucleobase identification and verification- processes that occur prior to but demonstrate to be influential in set up for proper catalysis. Specific residues investigated as part of this work are in conserved motifs of various MutY orthologues and curiously a subset of these residues have variants in which there is a suspicion of elevated cancer susceptibility. My work has a combined structural, biochemical and cellular components to propose a comprehensive understanding of particular regions of interest within MutY.

RSS Science Daily News

  • Earliest days of Earth's formation March 26, 2025
    New research sheds light on the earliest days of the earth's formation and potentially calls into question some earlier assumptions in planetary science about the early years of rocky planets. Establishing a direct link between the Earth's interior dynamics occurring within the first 100 million years of its history and its present-day structure, the work […]
  • A cleaner future for tires: Scientists pioneer chemical process to repurpose rubber waste March 26, 2025
    Every year, millions of tires end up in landfills, creating an environmental crisis with far-reaching consequences. In the United States alone, over 274 million tires were scrapped in 2021, with nearly a fifth of them being discarded into landfills. A study has now pioneered a technique for breaking down this rubber waste and transforming it […]
  • Cuttlefish 'mesmerize' their prey with a moving skin pattern, study finds March 26, 2025
    While sneaking up on prey, cuttlefish employ a dynamic skin display to avoid detection in last moments of approach, researchers have found.
  • Cleaning microplastics March 26, 2025
    Proof-of-concept work uses unique, safe particles to remove microplastics in a single cycle.
  • A safe nuclear battery that could last a lifetime March 26, 2025
    Lithium-ion batteries, used in consumer devices and electric vehicles, typically last hours or days between charges. However, with repeated use, they degrade and need to be charged more frequently. Now, researchers are considering radiocarbon as a source for safe, small and affordable nuclear batteries that could last decades or longer without charging.

Contact:

Dr. Sheila S. David
ssdavid@ucdavis.edu
(530)-752-4280

Department of Chemistry
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616