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David W. Kastner on Muck Rack

David W. Kastner

(He/Him)
Boston
As seen in: Nature, Wiley Online Library, ACS Publications, Royal Society of Chemistry, BioRxiv, Cell Press, The Journal of Biological Chemistry
Covers:  protein engineering, bioengineering, molecular dynamics, quantum mechanics
MIT Bioengineering Ph.D. student and artist studying high-valent metalloenzymes. illustratedatom.com
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David W. Kastner’s Journalist Portfolio

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ASCL1 represses a SOX9+ neural crest stem-like state in small cell lung cancer

ASCL1 represses a SOX9+ neural crest stem-like state in small cell lung cancer

genesdev.cshlp.org — ASCL1 is a neuroendocrine lineage-specific oncogenic driver of small cell lung cancer (SCLC), highly expressed in a significant fraction of tumors. However, ∼25% of human SCLC are ASCL1-low and associated with low neuroendocrine fate and high MYC expression.
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MYC Drives Temporal Evolution of Small Cell Lung Cancer Subtypes by Reprogramming Neuroendocrine ...

MYC Drives Temporal Evolution of Small Cell Lung Cancer Subtypes by Reprogramming Neuroendocrine ...

Cell — MYC activates Notch signaling to dedifferentiate neuroendocrine small cell lung cancer (SCLC) in a conserved trajectory from ASCL1+ to NEUROD1+ to YAP1+ non-neuroendocrine subtypes, suggesting that these are not distinct subtypes but different stages of progressive evolution of SCLC.
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Impact of Dehydroamino Acids on the Structure and Stability of Incipient 310-Helical Peptides

Impact of Dehydroamino Acids on the Structure and Stability of Incipient 310-Helical Peptides

Journal of Organic Chemistry — A comparative study of the impact of small, medium-sized, and bulky α,β-dehydroamino acids (ΔAAs) on the structure and stability of Balaram’s incipient 310-helical peptide (1) is reported. Replacement of the N-terminal Aib residue of 1 with a ΔAA afforded peptides 2a–c that maintained the 310-helical shape of 1. In contrast, installation of a ΔAA in place of Aib-3 yielded peptides 3a–c that preferred a β-sheet-like conformation.
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Humanin induces conformational changes in the apoptosis regulator BAX and sequesters it into fibe...

Humanin induces conformational changes in the apoptosis regulator BAX and sequesters it into fibe...

ScienceDirect — The mitochondrial, or intrinsic, apoptosis pathway is regulated mainly by members of the B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) protein family. BCL-2-associated X apoptosis regulator (BAX) plays a pivotal role in the initiation of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis as one of the factors causing mitochondrial outer-membrane permeabilization (MOMP). Of current interest are endogenous BAX ligands that inhibit its MOMP activity.
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Computational Modelling of Peptides Containing Non-Standard Amino Acids

Computational Modelling of Peptides Containing Non-Standard Amino Acids

scholarsarchive.byu.edu — Peptides represent a class of abundant and potent pharmaceutic compounds. Despite their appeal, the design, synthesis, and engineering of biologically relevant peptides remain a challenge. Chapter 1 introduces the various computational methods that will be used. Chapter 2 focuses on the incorporation of a special class of amino acids called bulky dehydroamino acids into the turn of β-hairpins to proteolytically stabilize peptides.
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"The Ultimate Triumph of Truth"

"The Ultimate Triumph of Truth"

speeches.byu.edu — Valedictorian speech for the graduating class of 2019. The speech emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary study and focuses on the life of Leonardo da Vinci as a model for interdisciplinary study: “Everything connects to everything else. It is our job to discover, create, and engineer those connections wherever they are missing. The world is counting on us."
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Bulky Dehydroamino Acids Enhance Proteolytic Stability and Folding in β-Hairpin Peptides

Bulky Dehydroamino Acids Enhance Proteolytic Stability and Folding in β-Hairpin Peptides

ACS Publications — The bulky dehydroamino acids dehydrovaline (ΔVal) and dehydroethylnorvaline (ΔEnv) can be inserted into the turn regions of β-hairpin peptides without altering their secondary structures. These residues increase proteolytic stability, with ΔVal at the (i + 1) position having the most substantial impact.
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Synthesis and evaluation of potent yaku'amide A analogs

Synthesis and evaluation of potent yaku'amide A analogs

Royal Society of Chemistry — Two full-length analogs of the anticancer peptide yaku'amide A (1a) and four partial structures have been synthesized. These analogs were identified by computational studies in which the three E- and Z-ΔIle residues of the natural product were replaced by the more accessible dehydroamino acids ΔVal and ΔEnv.
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Probing the Mechanism of Isonitrile Formation by a Non-Heme Iron(II)-Dependent Oxidase/Decarboxyl...

Probing the Mechanism of Isonitrile Formation by a Non-Heme Iron(II)-Dependent Oxidase/Decarboxyl...

ACS Publications — The isonitrile moiety is an electron-rich functionality that decorates various bioactive natural products isolated from diverse kingdoms of life. Isonitrile biosynthesis was restricted for over a decade to isonitrile synthases, a family of enzymes catalyzing a condensation reaction between l-Trp/l-Tyr and ribulose-5-phosphate.
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MOFSimplify, machine learning models with extracted stability data of three thousand metal-organi...

MOFSimplify, machine learning models with extracted stability data of three thousand metal-organi...

Nature — We report a workflow and the output of a natural language processing (NLP)-based procedure to mine the extant metal-organic framework (MOF) literature describing structurally characterized MOFs and their solvent removal and thermal stabilities. We obtain over 2,000 solvent removal stability measures from text mining and 3,000 thermal decomposition temperatures from thermogravimetric analysis data.
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Computational Chemistry To Reveal Nature’s Blueprints for Single-Site Catalysis of C–H Activation

Computational Chemistry To Reveal Nature’s Blueprints for Single-Site Catalysis of C–H Activation

ACS Publications — The challenge of activating inert C–H bonds motivates a study of catalysts that draws from what can be accomplished by natural enzymes and translates these advantageous features into transition-metal complex (TMC) and material mimics. Inert C–H bond activation reactivity has been observed in a diverse number of predominantly iron-containing enzymes from the heme-P450s to nonheme iron α-ketoglutarate-dependent enzymes and methane monooxygenases.
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