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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

  • New microscope can image, at once, the full 3D orientation and position of molecules in cells February 21, 2025
    A hybrid microscope allows scientists to simultaneously image the full 3D orientation and position of an ensemble of molecules, such as labeled proteins inside cells. The microscope combines polarized fluorescence technology, a valuable tool for measuring the orientation of molecules, with a dual-view light sheet microscope (diSPIM), which excels at imaging along the depth (axial) […]
  • How to get a robot collective to act like a smart material February 21, 2025
    Researchers are blurring the lines between robotics and materials, with a proof-of-concept material-like collective of robots with behaviors inspired by biology.
  • The brain perceives unexpected pain more strongly February 21, 2025
    Researchers used visual threat manipulation in the virtual reality environment and thermal stimulation to investigate how the brain perceives pain. They found that the brain perceives pain more strongly when the perceived pain is out of alignment with reality. In particular, pain was amplified when unexpected events occurred.
  • Brain-wide activity change visualized as geometric patterns February 21, 2025
    Researchers have applied a visualization technique to depict the brain's activity related to visual perception as geometric patterns. They visualized different shapes as the ever-changing neuronal activity in the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain during object recognition and recalling memories. This achievement promises further extraction of brain activity observed in various aspects of […]
  • Viking skulls reveal severe morbidity February 21, 2025
    Sweden's Viking Age population appears to have suffered from severe oral and maxillofacial disease, sinus and ear infections, osteoarthritis, and much more. This is shown in a study in which Viking skulls were examined using modern X-ray techniques.

Contact:

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

Department of Chemistry
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616