UT Chem/Biochem Dept

The 2003-2004 Beckman Scholars: Megan Breeden

Faculty Mentor: Professor Andrew D. Ellington Length of term: Summer 03, Fall 03, Spring 04, Summer 04. Honors & Awards:University Honors (Fall 01 - Spring 04); Dorothy B. Banks Charitable Trust Scholarship (2004); Laurence Baker Memorial Scholarship (2003); Weisberg Memorial Chemistry Scholarship (2002); TEXAS Grant Honoree (2001); American Scholar Award (2001); ACS Southwest Regional Conference Best Undergraduate Presentation Award (2003) Publications:Keller KM, Breeden MM, Zhang J, Ellington AD, Brodbelt JS. Electrospray ionization of nucleic acid aptamer/small molecule complexes for screening aptamer selectivity.J Mass Spectrom. 2005 Oct;40(10):1327-37.; Yan AC, Bell KM, Breeden MM, Ellington AD. Aptamers: prospects in therapeutics and biomedicine. Front Biosci. 2005 May 1;10:1802-27. ; 2 Presentations at ACS meetings (2003, 2004); 1 Patent Where is she now? Graduated with Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, December 2004. Megan worked at Baylor College of Medicine, and then M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. She is now at the University of Texas Southwestern pursuing her medical degree. How can I contact her? megan.breeden@gmail.com

Beckman research project in the Ellington Group:

The Inhibition of HIV-1 via Gene Therapy using Aptamers

The evolution of HIV-1 to evade inhibition by nucleic acid molecules is a project I am currently working on. I am responsible for the production and testing of inhibitory constructs. The production of inhibitory constructs involves synthesis of inhibitory nucleic acid molecules (aptamers), incorporation of the aptamers into a transporter (vector) and then the introduction of the inhibitory constructs into human cells. From there, I test the effectiveness of the inhibitory constructs through the addition of the HIV-1 virus and the appropriate assay. The future of this project will extend into the coalition of multiple constructs and the development of better ones.