Congratulations to Matthew Cruz for being selected for the 2021 MilliporeSigma Fellowship
Mr. Matthew A. Cruz joined the lab of Dr. Gregory Bowman, Associate Professor, in the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, where he studies the relationship between an ebolavirus protein’s structural dynamics and its function. Through computational and experimental techniques he is measuring how changes in protein dynamics affect RNA binding. Matthew is applying this research to find drugs that disrupt protein dynamics to combat ebolavirus infections.
Matthew received his B.S. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from Rice University in 2017. He then joined the Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis as part of the Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology program.
The Sigma award provides funds for educational expenses. Sigma Chemical Company, which is now MilliporeSigma, created the fellowship in 1958 as a gift to the Department of Biological Chemistry (now Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics) in memory of Dr. Gerty Cori. Dr. Cori and her husband, Dr. Carl Cori, performed research in the Department of Biological Chemistry. They won a Nobel Prize in 1947 for their discoveries of how glycogen is broken down and re-synthesized within the body.