UMBC Career Center

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http://hdl.handle.net/11603/12241
The UMBC Career Center, within the Division of Student Affairs, aims to empower all students and graduates to create their own success stories. We work with students at every academic level, from first-year freshmen to graduate students. Our services include career advising and counseling, networking events, on-campus recruiting, on-campus interviews, career and professional skills education, and applied learning opportunities (internships, co-ops, and research).

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Recent Submissions

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    Identification of the initial nucleocapsid recognition element in the HIV-1 RNA packaging signal
    (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020-07-09) Ding, Pengfei; Kharytonchyk, Siarhei; Waller, Alexis; Mbaekwe, Ugonna; Basappa, Sapna; Kuo, Nansen; Frank, Heather M.; Quasney, Christina; Kidane, Aaron; Swanson, Canessa; Van, Verna; Sarkar, Mitali; Cannistraci, Emily; Chaudhary, Ridhi; Flores, Hana; Telesnitsky, Alice; Summers, Michael F.
    Selective packaging of the HIV-1 genome during virus assembly is mediated by interactions between the dimeric 5ʹ-leader of the unspliced viral RNA and the nucleocapsid (NC) domains of a small number of assembling viral Gag polyproteins. Here, we show that the dimeric 5′-leader contains more than two dozen NC binding sites with affinities ranging from 40 nM to 1.4 μM, and that all high-affinity sites (Kd ≲ 400 nM) reside within a ∼150-nt region of the leader sufficient to promote RNA packaging (core encapsidation signal, ΨCES). The four initial binding sites with highest affinity reside near two symmetrically equivalent three-way junction structures. Unlike the other high-affinity sites, which bind NC with exothermic energetics, binding to these sites occurs endothermically due to concomitant unwinding of a weakly base-paired [UUUU]:[GGAG] helical element. Mutations that stabilize base pairing within this element eliminate NC binding to this site and severely impair RNA packaging into virus-like particles. NMR studies reveal that a recently discovered small-molecule inhibitor of HIV-1 RNA packaging that appears to function by stabilizing the structure of the leader binds directly to the [UUUU]:[GGAG] helix. Our findings suggest a sequential NC binding mechanism for Gag-genome assembly and identify a potential RNA Achilles’ heel to which HIV therapeutics may be targeted.
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    T-SITE: A UMBC Community of Transfer Scholars in Computing, Information Technology, and Engineering
    (ASEE, 2017) Tauryce, Danyelle; Rheingans, Penny; Blaney, Lee; desJardins, Marie; LaBerge, Charles; Martin, Susan; Slaughter, Gymama; Seaman, Carolyn; Spence, Anne Marie