Home » Mo Hashemian

Mo Hashemian

Mo Hashemian

Education: B.S. Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, 2019 

From: Irvine, California

Joined David Lab: January 2021

Outside of lab: working out, watching TV

Research in David Lab:

In the lab, I utilize techniques in molecular and structural biology, protein biochemistry and enzymology. These skills were cultivated and applied in the process of solving the first full-length structure of an important human base excision repair glycosylase, MUTYH. This work has enabled us to characterize many functional features of the enzyme but has raised additional questions pertaining to the coordination of a zinc ion which is missing from the structure. My current work involves characterizing the structural motif that binds zinc, as well as characterizing naturally occurring cancer variants surrounding this motif. Our structure of MUTYH has also informed a second project, involving the potential discovery of a small molecule inhibitor that binds to a C-terminal substrate recognition motif, thereby diminishing enzymatic activity.

RSS Science Daily News

  • New Orleans is sinking—and so are its $15 billion flood defenses June 29, 2025
    Parts of New Orleans are sinking at alarming rates — including some of the very floodwalls built to protect it. A new satellite-based study finds that some areas are losing nearly two inches of elevation per year, threatening the effectiveness of the city's storm defenses.
  • Record-breaking 10-billion-year radio halo just rewrote the universe’s origin story June 28, 2025
    A newly discovered radio halo, 10 billion light-years away, reveals that galaxy clusters in the early universe were already steeped in high-energy particles. The finding hints at ancient black hole activity or cosmic particle collisions fueling this energy.
  • A mysterious mineral in asteroid Ryugu may rewrite planetary history June 28, 2025
    A surprising discovery from a tiny grain of asteroid Ryugu has rocked scientists' understanding of how our Solar System evolved. Researchers found djerfisherite—a mineral typically born in scorching, chemically reduced conditions and never before seen in Ryugu-like meteorites—inside a sample returned by Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission. Its presence suggests either Ryugu once experienced unexpectedly high temperatures […]
  • A giant pulse beneath Africa could split the continent — and form an ocean June 27, 2025
    Beneath the Afar region in Ethiopia, scientists have discovered pulsing waves of molten rock rising from deep within the Earth — a geological heartbeat that could eventually split Africa in two. These rhythmic surges of mantle material are helping to stretch and thin the continent’s crust, setting the stage for a new ocean to form […]
  • World’s largest camera just snapped the Universe in 3,200 megapixels June 27, 2025
    The LSST camera at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory has released its jaw-dropping first images, each capturing 45 times the area of the full moon in one shot. Over the next ten years, this cosmic giant will scan the southern sky in ultra-HD, helping scientists uncover everything from asteroids to the secrets of dark energy.

Contact:

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

Department of Chemistry
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616