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DBMI Student Receives Grand Prize

Chris Li, a West High student working in the Facelli (Department of Biomedical Informatics) and Grossman (Huntsman Cancer Institute) labs received the Grand Prize at the University of Utah Science and Engineering Fair (USEF) and won fourth place at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Phoenix, Arizona in the category of Cellular and Molecular Biology for his project:

Utilizing Ligand Structuring Metaservers to Model Pathogenic p16 Mutation Effects on Binding Sites of Cell Signaling Pathways

In this project, he is analyzing the binding sites of adenosine monophosphate (AMP) in pathogenic p16 mutations. These mutations were modeled using I-TASSER. The 3D models obtained were then inputted into BSP-SLIM and RaptorX. Results from these metaservers indicated drastic shifts in AMP binding to p16. These findings are significant, as previous studies indicate a potential role for p16 in the regulation of intracellular AMP levels. AMP/ATP energy imbalances intracellularly prompt the activation of AMPK into the pAMPK pathway via phosphorylation