The Biochemistry Bachelor of Science program at Clemson University has been fully re-accredited by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) for another 7-year cycle.
The website notes that ASBMB accreditation is a national, independent, outcomes-based evaluation system that recognizes excellence in B.S. or B.A. degree programs in biochemistry and molecular biology. A committee of experts from academia and the private sector judge three program areas: curriculum, faculty and infrastructure.
The benefits to an ASBMB accreditation can include recognition for upholding the highest standards of education, leverage in gaining outside resources and advantages in recruiting students.
The society noted our outstanding faculty, strong curriculum and continuous strides to improve the program.
Associate professor Rajan Sekhon along with a team of researchers at Clemson University and partner organizations have received a $2.4 million, four-year grant to map genes that control leaf senescence in corn. Funded by the National Science Foundation through both the Plant Genome Research Program and the Cross-Directorate Activities program, this project aims to sustain photosynthesis longer, improve yield stability and support smarter on-farm nitrogen use.
For International Microorganism Day Clemson News highlighted G&B’s Manuel Fierro and his research with the cell biology of the microorganism that causes malaria.
Three G&B lecturers were recently promoted to senior lecturer including Heidi Anderson, Michael Harris and Todd Lyda.
Graduate students Sky Lu and Roger Zhang gave poster presentations on their dissertation research at the North Carolina Chestnut Festival, where Sky won first prize for her presentation.
Recently Haiying Liang and her lab assisted at the Chestnut Return Farm in Seneca, SC and the North Carolina Chestnut Festival in Asheville, NC
Tara Doucet-O’Hare was invited to give a seminar to the Department of Biology at UNC Asheville. The title was “Diving into the dark genome: endogenous retroviruses in human health and disease.”
Pursuing a Ph.D. wasn’t always the plan for biochemistry alum Sydney Clark ’25, who is currently a first year Ph.D. student in the Healthcare Genetics and Genomics Laboratory under the School of Nursing at Clemson University.
“Although I had strong grades, I didn’t imagine I would be accepted into a PhD program right out of undergrad. I was told I needed to have a very clear trajectory for why I wanted to pursue graduate school and where I wanted to end up after I received a graduate degree. While I still do not have a perfectly defined path for my future, I know this was the best next step I could have taken.”
Originally from Charleston, SC, Sydney came to Clemson for undergraduate studies, graduating in May 2025 with a degree in biochemistry with minors in microbiology and biological sciences. Sydney first joined the Healthcare Genetics and Genomics Lab during her junior year and later applied to continue the Ph.D. research with the help of her mentor, Dr. Aubrey Mattingly.
“I am now working as a Graduate TA/RA for the HCG Lab, where I help train undergrad students in various aspects of cancer research.”
Sydney’s dissertation work focuses on the use of natural pharmaceutical extracts to treat breast cancer in a zebrafish model organism. Specifically, she studies how these herbal extracts influence the regulation of key anti-cancer genes involved in apoptosis, proliferation, migration, and other processes.
“This program has already allowed me to gain hands-on experience with a wide range of laboratory techniques, including culturing, fluorescent tagging, metabolomics, embryo microinjections and fluorescent microscopy, among others. More importantly, it has given me the freedom to explore, experiment and teach others the “why” behind what we do in research.”
When graduating Ph.D. student Sabrina Pizzaro was an undergraduate biology major at North Greenville University, she participated in the Biology National Science Foundation – Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) here at Clemson working with G&B’s Dr. Hong Luo. Though Luo’s specialty – plants – might not have sparked Sabrina’s interest, Clemson, the department and the Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovations Center (EPIC) did!
“It was a great experience! I loved the environment of the campus and knew I wanted to come back. I knew I was interested in some of the EPIC labs, so I got to meet with a handful of professors I was interested in working with, including Dr. Jim Morris. There was research that interested me, and I would be within an hour of both mine and my husband’s families; it seemed like a perfect fit!”
Sabrina arrived on campus in Fall 2019 and began courses, research and TA work.
“I taught in the teaching labs for three years! Getting to interact with our undergraduate students was truly an honor; we have amazing students in our program.”
Sabrina’s Ph.D. research in EPIC focuses on Trypanosome brucei, the parasite that causes African Sleeping Sickness. In these parasites, glycolysis occurs within specialized peroxisomes, called glycosomes, rather than in the cytosol, and the bloodstream form of the parasite is completely reliant on glycolysis for ATP production.
“Our lab focuses on how to target the glycolytic pathway. I’ve worked on two main projects; one where I have studied using peroxisomal targeting sequences to traffic drugs into the glycosome where they can inhibit glycolytic enzymes and the other where I studied two putative proton transporters involved in regulating the pH of the glycosome.”
Something other than coursework and research that has been a prevalent part of Sabrina’s time at Clemson is the Genetics and Biochemistry Graduate Student Association (GBGSA).
“For the past few years, I’ve served on the leadership team for the GBGSA. The main goal of GBGSA is to foster community within our graduate student body, and that goal really resonates with me. I think that community is incredibly important in every aspect of life, and grad school is far from an exception to that rule.”
When not on campus, Sabrina loves to bake sourdough, watch Clemson Women’s gymnastics, rock climb, lead worship at church, grow carnivorous plants, crochet amigurumi and design nail art.
On October 22nd, Sabrina presented her Ph.D. defense titled Exploring Glycosomes as Therapeutic Targets for Trypanosome brucei and will graduate this December.
Dr. Robert Anholt was asked by Chem Senses to write the obituary for well-renowned artist and scientist Bert Menco when he passed earlier this summer after the pair had worked together for years.
At the Louvain Institute of Biomolecular Science and Technology at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.
In the session “Biotechnology approaches for animal and crop improvement and environmental risk assessment of genetically engineered organisms” of the Society For In Vitro Biology 2025 Meeting in Norfolk, VA.
At Lanzhou University as a part of their seminar series.
At the International Pastureland and Forage Industry Congress 2025 in Hulunbuir, China.
Dr. Stephen Dolan and Ph.D. students Jessica Aycock, Shafi Mondal and Lindsay Pauls attended the Gordon Research Seminar & Conference on Microbial Adhesion and Signal Transduction in Newport, RI, where all three gave research presentations.
Zane Tolbet, a Ph.D. candidate, gave an oral presentation at the Midwest DNA Repair Symposium at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Fabio Morgante was invited to speak at the CM Statistics 2024 conference in London and at Clemson University for the Medical Biophysics Seminar Series. The titles of his talks were “A variational empirical Bayes approach to multivariate multiple regression, with applications to polygenic prediction” and “Exploiting Complexity to Improve Phenotype Prediction,” respectively.
Post doctoral fellow Anurag Chaturvedi gave an oral presentation, titled “Unravelling toxicogenomics: From single cell to populations” as part of a workshop at the Drosophila Research Conference in San Diego.
Dr. Robert Anholt presented a workshop presentation skills and was a panel member of a grant review writing session at the 2025 SC INBRE Career Development Workshop at the USC School of Medicine in Columbia, SC. He also served on the NIH Special Emphasis Panel/Scientific Review Group for Program Projects: Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) Phase 1.
Dr. James Morris received the grant “Optimization of delivery of HEX for treatment of primary amebic encephalitis” from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences/NIH.
Dr. Rajan Sekhon received a $2.4M NSF grant, titled “BIO-AI: RESEARCH-PGR: Harnessing Multi-Omics and AI/ML to Unveil Nutrient Recycling Mechanisms in Maize Senescence,” a collaboration between Clemson University (lead), Cornell University, and the University of Florida. The project uses systems genetics and AI/ML to identify key mechanisms of maize leaf senescence and nutrient remobilization, guiding improvements in nitrogen use efficiency, grain quality, and crop resilience.
Graduate students Xiaotong Chen and Zhaohui Chen were awarded travel grants to attend 2025 Society for In Vitro Biology Meeting held in Norfolk, VA in June.
Dr. Andrew Jezewski was awarded a South Carolina Department of Agriculture – Agribusiness Center for Research and Entrepreneurship (SCDA-ACRE) grant to study “Biocontrol of Salmonella using nutritional yeasts.”
Post doctoral fellow Anurag Chaturvedi received a $25,000 grant from the Clemson University Research Foundation to develop high-throughput screening of drugs using Drosophila.
