Lara Mahal

Last updated
Lara K. Mahal
FS9A8018-Final.jpg
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Known forlectin microarrays in glycomics
miRNA regulation of glycosylation
unnatural carbohydrate incorporation
Children2
AwardsCERC in Glycomics (2019-)

Horace Isbell Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry (2017) NIH Director New Innovator Award (2008) Sloan Foundation Fellowship (2008) NSF CAREER Award (2007) Beckman Young Investigator (2004) Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow (2000) ACS Medicinal Chemistry Predoctoral Fellow (1998)

UC Regents Scholar (1993)

Contents

Scientific career
Institutions
Thesis Biosynthetic modulation of cell surface sialosides  (2000)
Doctoral advisor Carolyn Bertozzi

Lara K. Mahal is an American chemist who is the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Glycomics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. [1] She is also a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Alberta. [2] She is notable both for her pioneering work establishing lectin microarrays as a new technology for glycomics, [3] [4] her work on miRNA regulation of glycosylation [5] [6] [7] [8] and her graduate work with Carolyn R. Bertozzi on unnatural carbohydrate incorporation. [9] Work in her laboratory focuses on understanding the role of carbohydrates in human health using systems- and chemical biology-based approaches [10]

Academia

Mahal received her B.A. in Chemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1995. As an undergraduate, she worked on organic free radical chemistry in the laboratory of Professor Rebecca Braslau. In 1995, Professor Mahal joined the newly formed laboratory of Professor Bertozzi at the University of California, Berkeley where she worked on the incorporation of unnatural functionalized sialic acid derivatives onto the surface of cells. For this landmark work, Professor Mahal was awarded and American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Pre-doctoral Fellowship. After graduating in 2001, Professor Mahal did postdoctoral research on neuronal exocytosis in the laboratory of Professor Jim Rothman at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Center. During this time Professor Mahal was a Jane Coffins Child Cancer Research Fellow.

In 2003, Mahal joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Tenured in 2009, she then joined the faculty of New York University as an Associate Professor of Chemistry in the Biomedical Chemistry Institute. She was promoted to Professor in 2016. In 2019, Mahal became the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Glycomics at the University of Alberta. [11] Beyond the CERC, Mahal has received several major awards, including the Beckman Young Investigators Award (2004), [12] an NSF Career Award (2007), the Sloan Foundation Fellowship (2008), the 2008 NIH Director's New Innovator Award [13] and the Horace S. Isbell Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry (2017). [14]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glycome</span> Complete set of all sugars, free or bound, in an organism.

A glycome is the entire complement or complete set of all sugars, whether free or chemically bound in more complex molecules, of an organism. An alternative definition is the entirety of carbohydrates in a cell. The glycome may in fact be one of the most complex entities in nature. "Glycomics, analogous to genomics and proteomics, is the systematic study of all glycan structures of a given cell type or organism" and is a subset of glycobiology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consortium for Functional Glycomics</span> Glycomics research initiative

The Consortium for Functional Glycomics (CFG) is a large research initiative funded in 2001 by a glue grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to “define paradigms by which protein-carbohydrate interactions mediate cell communication”. To achieve this goal, the CFG studies the functions of:

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The terms glycans and polysaccharides are defined by IUPAC as synonyms meaning "compounds consisting of a large number of monosaccharides linked glycosidically". However, in practice the term glycan may also be used to refer to the carbohydrate portion of a glycoconjugate, such as a glycoprotein, glycolipid, or a proteoglycan, even if the carbohydrate is only an oligosaccharide. Glycans usually consist solely of O-glycosidic linkages of monosaccharides. For example, cellulose is a glycan composed of β-1,4-linked D-glucose, and chitin is a glycan composed of β-1,4-linked N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. Glycans can be homo- or heteropolymers of monosaccharide residues, and can be linear or branched.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carolyn Bertozzi</span> American chemist (born 1966)

Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi is an American chemist and Nobel laureate, known for her wide-ranging work spanning both chemistry and biology. She coined the term "bioorthogonal chemistry" for chemical reactions compatible with living systems. Her recent efforts include synthesis of chemical tools to study cell surface sugars called glycans and how they affect diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and viral infections like COVID-19. At Stanford University, she holds the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professorship in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Bertozzi is also an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and is the former director of the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Richard D. Cummings is an American biochemist who is the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He also the chief of the division of surgical sciences within the department of surgery. He is the director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Glycoscience, director of the National Center for Functional Glycomics, and also founder of the Glycomics Core at BIDMC. As of 2018 Cummings is also the scientific director of the Feihi Nutrition Laboratory at BIDMC. Before moving to BIDMC/HMS, Cummings was the William Patterson Timmie Professor and chair of the department of biochemistry at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia from 2006 to 2015. At Emory, Cummings was a founder in 2007 of the Emory Glycomics Center.

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James C. Paulson is an American biochemist and biologist known for his work in glycobiology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret-Ann Armour</span> Scottish-born Canadian chemist (1939–2019)

Margaret-Ann Armour was a Scottish-born Canadian chemist based at the University of Alberta. She is best known for her expertise in developing guidelines for hazardous lab waste disposal, and for being a vocal advocate for women in science. Armour founded the Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science and Technology (WISEST) program, and served as the first and only Associate Dean of Science for Diversity at the University of Alberta. Among her many honors, she was named a member of the Order of Canada (2006), a 3M Teaching Fellow (1996) and a Canada 150 ambassador (2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles E. Warren</span> American glycobiologist (1962–2005)

Charles E. Warren was an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of New Hampshire.

Ten Feizi is a Turkish Cypriot/British molecular biologist who is Professor and Director of the Glycosciences Laboratory at Imperial College London. Her research considers the structure and function of glycans. She was awarded the Society for Glycobiology Rosalind Kornfeld award in 2014. She was also awarded the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2021.

Jessica R. Kramer is an American biomedical engineer working as an Assistant Professor of Bio-engineering and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Utah. Kramer’s research lab focuses on the synthesis and application of glycopolypeptides.

Toshifumi (Toshi) Yokota is a biomedical scientist and professor of medical genetics at the University of Alberta, also holding the titles of the Friends of Garrett Cumming Research & Muscular Dystrophy Canada Endowed Research Chair and the Henri M. Toupin Chair in Neurological Science. Known for pioneering research in antisense therapy for muscular dystrophy that led to the development of an FDA-approved drug viltolarsen, research interests encompass precision medicine for muscular dystrophy and genetic diseases. Publications exceed 100 refereed papers and patents, with contributions as co-editor to three books in the Methods in Molecular Biology series from Humana Press, Springer-Nature, Roles include fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, a member of the editorial boards for numerous journals, a member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee of Muscular Dystrophy Canada, chief scientific officer of OligomicsTx, and a co-founder of the Canadian Neuromuscular Network (CAN-NMD).

Todd Lambert Lowary is an American carbohydrate chemist. He is a professor of chemistry at the University of Alberta and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

GlycoRNAs are small non-coding RNAs with sialylated glycans.

References

  1. ↑ Chairs, Canada Excellence Research (2012-11-29). "Canada Excellence Research Chairs". www.cerc.gc.ca. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
  2. ↑ "Faculty | Chemistry".
  3. ↑ Pilobello, K.T.; Slawek, D.; Mahal, L.K. A ratiometric lectin microarray approach to analysis of the dynamic mammalian glycome, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, 2007, 104, 10534-10539.
  4. ↑ Krishnamoorthy L.; Mahal L.K. Glycomic analysis: an array of technologies. ACS Chem Biol. 2009, 4, 715-732.
  5. ↑ Agrawal, P.; Kurcon, T.; Pilobello, K.T.; Rakus, J.F.; Koppolu, S.; Liu, Z.; Batista, B.S.; Eng, W.S., Hsu, K.-L.; Liang, Y.; Mahal, L.K. Mapping posttranscriptional regulation of the human glycome uncovers microRNA defining the glycocode. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, 2014, 111, 4338-43. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1321524111
  6. ↑ Kasper, B.T.; Koppolu, S.; Mahal, L.K. Insights into MiRNA Regulation of the Human Glycome. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 2014, 445, 774-9. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2014.01.034.
  7. ↑ Kurcon, T.; Liu, Z.; Paradkar, A.V.; Vaiana, C.A.; Koppolu, S.; Agrawal, P.; Mahal, L.K. miRNA proxy approach reveals hidden functions of glycosylation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, 2015, 112, 7327-32. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1502076112.
  8. ↑ Vaiana, C.A.; Kurcon, T.; Mahal, L.K. MicroRNA-424 Predicts a Role for β-1,4 Branched Glycosylation in Cell Cycle Progression. J. Biol. Chem., 2016, 291, 1529-37. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M115.672220.
  9. ↑ Mahal, L.K.; Yarema, K.J.; Bertozzi, C.R. Engineering Chemical Reactivity on Cell Surfaces Through Oligosaccharide Biosynthesis. Science 1997, 276, 1125-1128.
  10. ↑ "Home". glycocode.org.
  11. ↑ Edmonton, Contact Information University of Alberta Faculty of Science1-001 CCIS University of Alberta; Directory, Alberta Canada T6G 2E9 Map Main UAlberta Switchboard: 780-492-3111 Contact Us: Faculty of Science. "Sweet success: $20M in government funding brings new talent in sugar research to Canada and UAlberta". www.ualberta.ca. Retrieved 2020-09-09.{{cite web}}: |last2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ "Lara K. Mahal". Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  13. ↑ "NIH Director's New Innovator Award". Archived from the original on 2009-01-13. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  14. ↑ "Horace S. Isbell Awardees". Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry ACS CARB. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
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