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Joshua Bumgarner

Joshua Bumgarner

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Education:

B.A. in Chemistry from Willamette University, Salem OR, 2017

From: Walla Walla WA

Joined David Lab: April 2018

Outside of lab: I like to go on hikes or spend time with my big goofy labradoodle. I’m also a big foodie who loves to try new restaurants and drinks

Research in David Lab:

BER glycosylases are usually highly specific in the type of damage they repair, and when they repair it. The NEIL family of glycosylases are unusual in their ability to work on a multitude of different DNA lesions, and can often do so in DNA contexts outside of canonical B-DNA. I work to understand what dictates when a NEIL enzyme repairs a lesion, and what influences when it when it does not. I have used a variety of different lesions to develop structure activity relationships between specific bases to better learn what structures of the base are required for recognition and repair, what which impair NEIL activity. In addition, most enzymatic assays are performed in dilute buffer systems, however this is not necessarily the case in a cell. The impact of the crowded environment of a cell, known as macromolecular crowding, can significantly impact enzymatic activity. I have been working to incorporate this into our enzyme assays and understand how it changes our understanding of the enzymes behavior between a test tube and the cellular environment.

Previous Research Experience:

I previously studied macromolecular crowding under Dr. Todd Silverstein at Willamette university, working to understand the influence of crowding agents on the pH profile of alcohol dehydrogenase, and how it altered the construction and pKa’s of the active site. I have also worked at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology studying the ability of coral to acclimate to increasing water temperatures over the past 40 years, and the inventible climb in ocean temperatures in the years to come.

RSS Science Daily News

  • Long-period oscillations control the Sun's differential rotation March 27, 2024
    The interior of the Sun does not rotate at the same rate at all latitudes. The physical origin of this differential rotation is not fully understood. It turns out, long-period solar oscillations discovered in 2021 play a crucial role in controlling the Sun's rotational pattern. The long-period oscillations are analogous to the baroclinically unstable waves […]
  • Artificial reef designed by MIT engineers could protect marine life, reduce storm damage March 27, 2024
    Engineers designed an 'architected' reef that can mimic the wave-buffering effects of natural reefs while providing pockets for marine life. The sustainable and cost-saving structure could dissipate more than 95 percent of incoming wave energy using a small fraction of the material normally needed.
  • Persistent hiccups in a far-off galaxy draw astronomers to new black hole behavior March 27, 2024
    Astronomers have found that a previously quiet black hole, which sits at the center of a galaxy about 800 million light years away, has suddenly erupted, giving off plumes of gas every 8.5 days before settling back to its normal, quiet state.
  • Robot, can you say 'cheese'? March 27, 2024
    What would you do if you walked up to a robot with a human-like head and it smiled at you first? You'd likely smile back and perhaps feel the two of you were genuinely interacting. But how does a robot know how to do this? Or a better question, how does it know to get […]
  • Researchers turn back the clock on cancer cells to offer new treatment paradigm March 27, 2024
    Scientists reversed an aggressive cancer, reverting malignant cells towards a more normal state. Rhabdoid tumors are an aggressive cancer which is missing a key tumor suppressor protein. Scientists discovered that removing a second protein from cancer cells already experiencing tumor suppressor loss can reverse cancer cell identity.

Contact:

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

Department of Chemistry
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616