Congrats to Roksana Azad for an outstanding PhD defense talk and Q&A on Aug 24, wrapping up the work required for her Ph.D. in the GC Ph.D. Program in Biochemistry. With what is turning into the lab’s magic mix of biophysical & biochemical approaches – HDX-MS / cryo-EM / NMR / in vitro and cellular functional studies – she took on some of the lab’s oldest open questions in kinase regulation and answered many of them, substantially advancing our understanding of how the environment controls cellular activities through ingenious molecular switches.

On top of this, Roksana has truly been a visible ambassador of the lab, the ASRC, and CUNY in many different spheres.  Fiercely proud of her on many fronts, including her as an exemplar of someone taking full advantage of CUNY training (undergrad at York College, Ph.D. at the Graduate Center) to learn and excel in science.  Excited to see where she heads next in her postdoc!

Finally – many thanks as always to the collaborative and rich environment surrounding us at the ASRC Structural Biology Initiative , including our neighbors in the building, and right next door at CCNY’s Center for Discovery and Innovation and the New York Structural Biology Center.  Thanks also to Roksana’s committee for their mentorship and support, including Johns Hopkins’ Cynthia Wolberger, York College’s Emmanuel Chang, CCNY’s Ronnie Ghose, and the ASRC’s own Daniel Keedy!