UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Directors of the core facilities at Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences are more than expert technicians — they are also researchers in their own right. And though their unique contributions are not always consistently recognized within the broader community, faculty researchers who work in the core facilities are well aware of these unsung heroes' many impressive insights.
“With the breadth of research going on here and at the commonwealth campuses, our facility directors are used to working on a host of projects that test the technologies and their own expertise,” said Nigel Deighton, the Huck Institutes’ director of Core Facilities.
One of these individuals is Neela Yennawar, the director of the X-Ray Crystallography and the Automated Biological Calorimetry core facilities. Yennawar's extensive and unique expertise has contributed to winning six NIH grants and supporting other faculty in procuring research grants totaling over $40 million.
“The most exciting thing about working in a core facility is being able to partner in a wide variety of amazing research,” Yennawar said. “Core facilities are a model for teamwork and cross-disciplinary collaborations. I love the synergy of working with others.”
Directing two core facilities has enabled Yennawar to collaborate with researchers in the departments of biochemistry, chemistry, materials science, food science, biology, veterinary science, and bioengineering at Penn State. These partnerships have led to the determination of the X-ray crystal structures of 65 proteins, binding thermodynamics of protein and nucleic acid complexes and their solution-state conformation.
With the Penn State metallo-biochemistry group, Yennawar has built a first-of-its-kind facility for anaerobic structural studies. She has co-authored 54 peer-reviewed articles, and additionally, the facilities have enabled research towards 32 additional peer-reviewed publications.
Yennawar’s work has led to the understanding of the reaction pathway of novel enzymes including tRNA methylthiolation chemistry (published in Nature with the Booker group) and solving the puzzle of opposing enzyme reactions in globin coupled sensor proteins (published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences with the Weinert group).
“Collaborating with Yennawar is fantastic, she has been pivotal in helping design the best possible experiment to gain information on our system,” said Emily Weinert, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, Penn State. “She is also willing to train lab members and has spearheaded the acquisition of instrumentation that further expands scientific questions that can be addressed in house.”
Yennawar has trained 59 students and post-doctoral fellows across multiple disciplines focusing on structural biology approaches including X-ray crystallography, biological calorimetry, small-angle X-ray scattering, multi angle, static and dynamic light scattering, circular dichroism spectroscopy, micro electron diffraction and molecular modeling. The projects have ranged from RNA studies with the Bevilacqua lab (chemistry) to DNA in solar cells with the Priya lab (materials science and engineering).
“I have had the good fortune of working with Yennawar for many years,” said Philip Bevilacqua, distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry and molecular biology, Penn State. “She excels in running a cutting-edge facility with both conventional and unusual instrumentation. The core facilities have been an indispensable part of my group’s research.”
Yennawar’s influence extends beyond Penn State as well. She has worked with 22 health care industry labs for biophysical characterization of proteins, nucleic acids and their complexes. And through an NIH training grant, Yennawar and team hosted eight rural Pennsylvania high school teachers to share molecular stories, including their structure and function as deduced by X-ray crystallography and molecular modeling.
“Neela really embodies the Huck mission beautifully,” enthused Andrew Read, director of the Huck Institutes. “She not only serves as a technical catalyst for cross-disciplinary work, but she also develops young student scientists, engages external partners, and helps Penn State acquire the technology we need to stay at the cutting edge of life sciences research.”