CV
Currently:
Postdoc, Lima lab, MSKCC
Education
2016 - 2021 Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Chemistry
2012 - 2016 University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, USA
Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Chemistry (Honors), Computer Science and Biology minors
2007 - 2012 Karachi Grammar School, Karachi, Pakistan
Awards
2021 SER-CAT Young Investigator Award, Southeast Regional Collaborative Access Team, APS, Chicago
2020 William B. Dickinson Educational Trust Award, Emory University
2018 Outstanding Teaching Assistant, Emory University
2016 Laney Graduate School Fellowship, Emory University
2016 Senior Research Achievement Award, Emory University
2015 Arts & Sciences Research Fellowship, University of Richmond
2013 & 2014 Spider Research Fellowship, University of Richmond
Research Experience
2022 - current Postdoctoral Fellow, Structural Biology Program, SKI, MSKCC, New York, NY
- Elucidating the molecular details of RNA decay mediated by RNA exosome complexes in Dr. Christopher Lima’s lab by reconstituting the human exosome complex to be used in functional and structural assays.
2016 - 2021 Graduate Research Assistant, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
- Studied the molecular mechanisms of programmed ribosomal frameshifting in the laboratory of Dr. Christine Dunham using biochemical (e.g. filter binding, molecular biology, RNA and protein purification) and structural biology (e.g. X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM) techniques.
2013 - 2016 Undergraduate Research Assistant, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA
- Investigated the fitness consequences of the flower-color polymorphism and the role of trichomes in Mimulus plants in the laboratory of Dr. Carrie Wu, with collaborations with Dr. Kristine Nolin (Chemistry), Dr. John Hayden (Biology) and Ms. Christie Davis (Microscopy and Imaging).
Publications
Click here for Google Scholar list
Mattingly, J. M., Nguyen, H. A., Roy, B., Fredrick, K., and Dunham, C. M. (2024) Structural analysis of noncanonical translation initiation complexes. J Biol Chem 300, 107743. PMID: 39222680
Marathee, N., Nguyen, H. A., Alumasa, J. N., Kuzmishin Nagy, A. B, Vazquez, M., Dunham, C. M. & Kenneth, K. C. (2023). Antibiotic that inhibits trans-translation blocks binding of EF-Tu to tmRNA but not to tRNA. mBio, e01461-23. doi:10.1128/mbio.01461-23. PMID: 37681945. PDB: 8FR3. *co-first
Nguyen, H. A., Hoffer, E. D., Fagan, C. E., Maehigashi, T., & Dunham, C. M. (2023). Structural basis for reduced ribosomal A-site fidelity in response to P-site codon–anticodon mismatches. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 299(4), 104608. doi:10.1016/j.jbc.2023.104608. PMID: 36924943. PDBs: 8FOM, 8FON
Laughlin, Z. T., Nandi, S., Dey, D., Zelinskaya, N., Witek, M. A., Srinivas, P., Nguyen, H. A., Kuiper, E. G., Comstock, L. R., Dunham, C. M. & Conn, G. L. (2022) 50S subunit recognition and modification by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis ribosomal RNA methyltransferase TlyA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119, e2120352119, doi:10.1073/pnas.2120352119. PMID: 35357969. PDB: 7S0S
Nguyen, H. A., Sunita, S. & Dunham, C. M. (2020) Disruption of evolutionarily correlated tRNA elements impairs accurate decoding. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, 16333-16338, doi:10.1073/pnas.2004170117 . PMID: 32601241. PDBs: 6OF6, 6OJ2, 6OPE, 6ORD
Bustamante Eguiguren, S., Nguyen, H. A., Caldwell, A., Nolin, K. A. & Wu, C. A. (2020) Convergence of glandular trichome morphology and chemistry in two montane monkeyflower (Mimulus, Phrymaceae) species. Flora 265, 151567, doi:10.1016/j.flora.2020.151567.
Nguyen, H. A., Hoffer, E. D. & Dunham, C. M. (2019) Importance of a tRNA anticodon loop modification and a conserved, noncanonical anticodon stem pairing in tRNAPro_CGG for decoding. J Biol Chem 294, 5281-5291, doi:10.1074/jbc.RA119.007410 . Editor’s Pick. PMID: 30782843. PDB: 6NDK
Nguyen, H. A. & Dunham, C. M. (2017) Genome mining: Digging the tunnel for chemical space. Nat Chem Biol 13, 1061-1062, doi:10.1038/nchembio.2480. PMID: 28926552
Courses
2019 “X-Ray Methods in Structural Biology”, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory