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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

  • Down goes antimatter! Gravity's effect on matter's elusive twin is revealed September 27, 2023
    For the first time, in a unique laboratory experiment at CERN, researchers have observed individual atoms of antihydrogen fall under the effects of gravity. In confirming antimatter and regular matter are gravitationally attracted, the finding rules out gravitational repulsion as the reason why antimatter is largely missing from the observable universe.
  • Decreasing biodiversity may promote spread of viruses September 27, 2023
    How are environmental changes, loss of biodiversity, and the spread of pathogens connected? The answer is a puzzle. Researchers have now described one piece of that puzzle, showing that the destruction of tropical rainforests harms the diversity of mosquito species. At the same time, more resilient species of mosquitoes become more prevalent -- which also […]
  • Study sheds new light on strange lava worlds September 27, 2023
    In a new study, scientists have shown that sweeping molten oceans have a large influence on the observed properties of hot rocky Super-Earths, such as their size and evolutionary path.
  • New insights into the atmosphere and star of an exoplanet September 25, 2023
    A new study of the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 exoplanetary system has demonstrated the complex interaction between the activity of the system's star and its planetary features.
  • Did life exist on Mars? Other planets? With AI's help, we may know soon September 25, 2023
    Scientists have discovered a simple and reliable test for signs of past or present life on other planets -- 'the holy grail of astrobiology.' Researchers report that, with 90% accuracy, their artificial intelligence-based method distinguished modern and ancient biological samples from those of abiotic origin.

Contact:

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

Department of Chemistry
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616