News Archive
December 9, 2024 - The Whelan group welcomes four new members! Samson Aruna and Jane March are first-year graduate students in Chemistry. Danielle Dotson is a first-year graduate student in Bioengineering. Susan Bilderback is second-year undergraduate majoring in Human Biology. Welcome to all, and we are looking forward to doing some great science together!
December 5, 2024 - Chien-Wei successfully defended his dissertation, "Characterizing the tandem repeat region of ovarian cancer biomarker CA125," and will earn his Ph.D. with honors. Congratulations, Dr. Wang!
November 20, 2024 - Chien-Wei and Trisha attended the Ovarian Cancer Midwest Focus (OCMF) Conference in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Both gave poster presentations about our current work to understand the molecular-level recognition of ovarian cancer biomarker CA125. They agreed that the gathering of experts, advocates, and those impacted by ovarian cancer made for a stimulating meeting and a valuable experience. Many thanks to the conference planning committee, which included our collaborator Dr. Andrew Godwin from the KU Medical Center.
November 19, 2024 - Congratulations to third-year graduate students Caitlin McEntee and Anubhuti Srivastava on passing their oral exams!
October 26, 2024 - Several members of the Whelan lab attended the 3rd Annual Chemical Biology Symposium at KU. Rebecca--in her role as co-director of the T32 training program--helped organize the meeting, Trisha received a poster prize, and Ashten got the award for best lightning talk. Congratulations, Trisha and Ashten!
October 15, 2024 - Rebecca, Chien-Wei, and Bhagya attended the ACS Midwest Regional Meeting in Omaha, NE. Rebecca co-chaired a day-long symposium on environmental and biomedical sensors co-organized by Denis Svechkarev (University of Nebraska - Omaha). Chien-Wei gave a talk, and Bhagya presented a poster. It was a great few days of sharing science!
October 1, 2024 - Our latest collaborative publication, "Immunoaffinity-free chromatographic purification of ovarian cancer biomarker CA125 (MUC16) from blood serum enables mass spectrometry characterization" has appeared in Analytical Methods. As an added bonus, art contributed by post-doc Miyuru De Silva landed us on the outside front cover. Congratulations to the entire team!
September 27, 2024 - Rebecca attended Emerging Technologies for Diagnostics and Liquid Biopsies in New Orleans. It was a great chance to discuss some cutting-edge research in an intimate setting. Many thanks to Professor Steve Soper for the invitation.
September 13, 2024 - Naviya's latest publication, "Generational diet-induced obesity remodels the omental adipose proteome in female mice," has been published in Nutrients. Congratulations to the collaborative team!
September 12, 2024 - Rebecca gave an invited seminar at the University of Mississippi. It was a terrific day of sharing science and making new connections. Many thanks to Professor Vignesh Sundaresan for extending the invitation and being a gracious host!
August 19, 2024 - Today we welcome Dr. Miyuru De Silva as a new postdoctoral researcher. Miyuru earned his Ph.D. at KU under the guidance of Professor Bob Dunn and was awarded the 2024 Takeru Higuchi Doctoral Progress Award. We are excited to do some great science together!
June 28, 2024 - Rebecca attended the Gordon Research Conference on Bioanalytical Sensors in Newport, RI this week. It was an honor to serve as co-vice-Chair of the meeting along with a great leadership team.
June 20, 2024 - Rising second-year graduate student Ashten Gentry has been selected as a trainee in the NIH-funded Graduate Training at the Biology-Chemistry interface program. Ashten's traineeship is also supported by matching funds from the KU Cancer Center. Congratulations, Ashten!
May 7, 2024 - At the recent Chemistry Department Awards, Scholarships and Graduation Recognition Ceremony, five Whelan lab members were honored! Trisha received the Keith & Dona Darlington Award. Caitlin got the Ray Q. Brewster Award. Chien-Wei received the Kristina May Paquette Scholarship. Eliza was named a Glen & Karen Cox Chemistry Scholar. Naviya was recognized with the J.K. Lee Award in Analytical Chemistry. What a great day for the lab! Congratulations to all!
April 22, 2024 - Eliza's most recent paper, "Combining the benefits of biotin-streptavidin aptamer immobilization with the versatility of Ni-NTA regeneration strategies for SPR" has been accepted for publication in Sensors. Congratulations, Eliza!
April 19, 2024 - Eliza successfully defended her dissertation, "Surface plasmon resonance method optimization and instrumental variability investigation: mapping antibody recognition of CA125." Congratulations, Dr. Hanson!
April 17, 2024 - Naviya successfully defended her dissertation, "Development of sample preparation methods to characterize clinically relevant biomarkers using mass spectrometry." Congratulations, Dr. Schuster-Little!
April 15, 2024 - Chien-Wei has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Newmark Award. The award honors the memory of Dr. Marjorie Newmark and Dr. Philip Newmark, two KU biochemistry professors, and is given to a KU graduate student for excellence in biochemical research. Congratulations, Chien-Wei!
April 15, 2024 - Our project "Clarifying the roles of glycoprotein sequence and cancer cell phenotype on the immunogenicity of ovarian cancer biomarker CA125," has been funded as part of the new NIH COBRE on Leveraging Big Data for Women's Health. We are thrilled to have this opportunity!
February 28, 2024 - Rebecca, Chien-Wei, Naviya, and Eliza had a great time attending Pittcon 2024 in San Diego. The meeting afforded a perfect opportunity to share our latest work in a beautiful setting! Seeing colleague Sue Lunte receive the Adams Award was a highlight.
February 5, 2024 - It's official! Our latest paper has been published in Cancer Research Communications. It is linked on our Publications page. Congratulations to the collaborative team!
January 10, 2024 - Our latest paper is now available as an "online first" article at Cancer Research Communications. Titled "A revised molecular model of ovarian cancer biomarker CA125 (MUC16) enabled by long-read sequencing," this study was done in collaboration with researchers at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Wisconsin. Chien-Wei and Naviya are the KU-based authors. Congratulations to all!
December 15, 2023 - An innovative approach that Eliza developed to reversibly capture proteins on sensing surfaces has been reported in a new application note by Nicoya Life Sciences. The app note can be found here. Congratulations, Eliza!
December 8, 2023 - The Whelan group is delighted to welcome three new members: first-year graduate students Bhagya Samarakoon and Ashten Gentry and undergraduate student researcher Trisha Nair. Looking forward to doing some great science together!
November 27, 2023 - Rebecca gave an invited seminar to the KU Department of Molecular Biosciences. There was a great turn-out and lively discussion on some of our recent work on MUC16 characterization. Many thanks to Professor Erik Holmstrom for the invitation!
November 14, 2023 - Rebecca attended the Eastern Analytical Symposium and presented a talk titled "Small separations and big data: using analytical chemistry to address challenges in cancer detection" as part of the awards session honoring Professor Robert T. Kennedy of the University of Michigan (and Rebecca's postdoctoral advisor). It was a great chance to share our science and catch up with many Kennedy lab alums. Many thanks to James Grinias (Rowan University) for organizing, and to Bob for the invitation to speak! Congratulations, Bob!!
November 3, 2023 - The Whelan group attended the Midwestern Universities Analytical Chemistry Conference (MUACC), which was organized this year by the University of Iowa. Six members of the group shared their current work through poster presentations, and Rebecca gave a chalk talk, in the traditional MUACC style. Congratulations to Naviya on winning a prize for her poster! Many thanks to Scott Shaw for organizing a great meeting.
October 19, 2023 - Rebecca attended the Midwest/Great Lakes regional ACS meeting and presented a talk titled "Strategies for improving analysis of cancer-relevant proteins using capillary electrophoresis" as part of the session "Innovative analytical measurements at the micro- and nanoscale." It was a great session, with exciting and diverse science. Many thanks to session organizer and chair Scott Martin (SLU) for the invitation!
October 13, 2023 - Several members of the Whelan group participated in the KU Chemical Biology symposium. Congratulations to Caitlin on her poster presentation and to Naviya on her lightning talk!
October 9, 2023 - Ph.D. candidate Naviya Schuster-Little delivered a talk titled "Affinity-free Enrichment and Mass Spectrometry Characterization of the Ovarian Cancer Biomarker CA125 (MUC16) from Ascites and Serum" in the Department's Analytical seminar series. Congratulations, Naviya!
August 23, 2023 - Rebecca and Naviya had a wonderful time presenting recent work on ovarian cancer proteomics and aptamer selection at the ACS Fall 2023 meeting in San Francisco. We were delighted to participate in the ACS Analytical Award symposium honoring our KU colleague Sue Lunte. The meeting was a great opportunity to connect with many Lunte lab alums and other friends from the across the country.
July 28, 2023 - The Whelan group has published two papers in Sensors this summer! Both report on uses of the Nicoya OpenSPR for biomolecular detection. Congratulations to Eliza on the publication of her review article "Application of the Nicoya OpenSPR to Studies of Biomolecular Binding: A Review of the Literature from 2016 to 2022" and congratulations to Eliza, Chien-Wei, and lab alumna Lisa Minkoff on the publication of their research report "Strategies for Mitigating Commercial Sensor Chip Variability With Experimental Design Controls."
July 22, 2023 - Welcome to the new Whelan group website!