Neela Yennawar

Director, X-Ray Crystallography and Automated Biological Calorimetry Core Facilities; Research Professor

Neela Yennawar

Research Summary

Biological calorimetry, protein characterization, molecular modeling, X-ray crystallography, and small-angle X-ray scattering.

Huck Affiliations

Most Recent Publications

Disordered regions in proteusin peptides guide post-translational modification by a flavin-dependent RiPP brominase

Nguyet A. Nguyen, F. N.U. Vidya, Neela H. Yennawar, Hongwei Wu, Andrew C. McShan, Vinayak Agarwal, 2024, Nature Communications

Heme pocket modulates protein conformation and diguanylate cyclase activity of a tetrameric globin coupled sensor

Jacob R. Potter, Shannon Rivera, Paul G. Young, Dayna C. Patterson, Kevin E. Namitz, Neela Yennawar, James R. Kincaid, Yilin Liu, Emily E. Weinert, 2024, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry

Catalytic Activity of the Archetype from Group 4 of the FTR-like Ferredoxin:Thioredoxin Reductase Family Is Regulated by Unique S = 7/2 and S = 1/2 [4Fe-4S] Clusters

Divya Prakash, Jin Xiong, Shikha S. Chauhan, Karim A. Walters, Hannah Kruse, Neela Yennawar, John H. Golbeck, Yisong Guo, James G. Ferry, 2024, Biochemistry on p. 1588-1598

Understanding the stability of a plastic-degrading Rieske iron oxidoreductase system

Jessica Lusty Beech, Anjani K. Maurya, Ronivaldo Rodrigues da Silva, Emmanuel Akpoto, Arun Asundi, Julia Ann Fecko, Neela H. Yennawar, Ritimukta Sarangi, Christopher Tassone, Thomas M. Weiss, Jennifer L. DuBois, 2024, Protein Science

Characterization of recombinant human lactoferrin expressed in Komagataella phaffii

Xiaoning Lu, Chad Cummings, Udodili A. Osuala, Neela H. Yennawar, Kevin E.W. Namitz, Brittney Hellner, Pamela B. Besada-Lombana, Ross D. Peterson, Anthony J. Clark, 2024, The Analyst on p. 3636-3650

A Piecewise Design Approach to Engineering a Miniature ACE2 Mimic to Bind SARS-CoV-2

Yashavantha L. Vishweshwaraiah, Brianna Hnath, Jian Wang, Morgan Chandler, Arnab Mukherjee, Neela H. Yennawar, Squire J. Booker, Kirill A. Afonin, Nikolay V. Dokholyan, 2024, ACS Applied Bio Materials on p. 3238-3246

Oxygen-selective regulation of cyclic di-GMP synthesis by a globin coupled sensor with a shortened linking domain modulates Shewanella sp. ANA-3 biofilm

Ariel Schuelke-Sanchez, Neela H. Yennawar, Emily E. Weinert, 2024, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry

Structural Evidence for DUF512 as a Radical S-Adenosylmethionine Cobalamin-Binding Domain

Bo Wang, Amy E. Solinski, Matthew I. Radle, Olivia M. Peduzzi, Hayley L. Knox, Jiayuan Cui, Ravi K. Maurya, Neela H. Yennawar, Squire J. Booker, 2024, ACS Bio and Med Chem Au

Functional and spectroscopic approaches to determining thermal limitations of Rieske oxygenases

Jessica Lusty Beech, Julia Ann Fecko, Neela Yennawar, Jennifer L. DuBois, 2024, on p. 299-328

Computer-aided design, syntheses, and ITC binding data of novel flavanone derivatives for use as potential inhibitors of the papain-like protease of COVID-19

Anna J. Sigmon, Eleanora Margulis, Christy George, Tatiana N. Laremore, Hamzah Al-Quaid, Julia Fecko, Neela H. Yennawar, 2023, Results in Chemistry

Most-Cited Papers

Transaminase Inhibition by 2-Hydroxyglutarate Impairs Glutamate Biosynthesis and Redox Homeostasis in Glioma

Samuel K. McBrayer, Jared R. Mayers, Gabriel J. DiNatale, Diana D. Shi, Januka Khanal, Abhishek A. Chakraborty, Kristopher A. Sarosiek, Kimberly J. Briggs, Alissa K. Robbins, Tomasz Sewastianik, Sarah J. Shareef, Benjamin A. Olenchock, Seth J. Parker, Kensuke Tateishi, Jessica B. Spinelli, Mirazul Islam, Marcia C. Haigis, Ryan E. Looper, Keith L. Ligon, Bradley E. Bernstein, Ruben D. Carrasco, Daniel P. Cahill, John M. Asara, Christian M. Metallo, Neela H. Yennawar, Matthew G. Vander Heiden, William G. Kaelin, 2018, Cell on p. 101-116.e25

Inhibition of pancreatic lipase by black tea theaflavins: Comparative enzymology and in silico modeling studies

Shannon L. Glisan, Kimberly A. Grove, Neela H. Yennawar, Joshua D. Lambert, 2017, Food Chemistry on p. 296-300

Crystal Structure of the LSD1/CoREST Histone Demethylase Bound to Its Nucleosome Substrate

Sang Ah Kim, Jiang Zhu, Neela Yennawar, Priit Eek, Song Tan, 2020, Molecular Cell on p. 903-914.e4

Enhanced rare-earth separation with a metal-sensitive lanmodulin dimer

Joseph A. Mattocks, Jonathan J. Jung, Chi Yun Lin, Ziye Dong, Neela H. Yennawar, E Featherson, Emily R. Featherston, Christina S. Kang-Yun, Timothy A. Hamilton, Dan M. Park, Amie Boal, Joseph A. Cotruvo, J Cotruvo Jr., 2023, Nature on p. 87-93

Enhanced performance and stability in DNA-perovskite heterostructure-based solar cells

Yuchen Hou, Kai Wang, Dong Yang, Yuanyuan Jiang, Neela Yennawar, Ke Wang, Mohan Sanghadasa, Congcong Wu, Shashank Priya, 2019, ACS Energy Letters on p. 2646-2655

Precise Manipulation and Patterning of Protein Crystals for Macromolecular Crystallography Using Surface Acoustic Waves

Feng Guo, Weijie Zhou, Peng Li, Zhangming Mao, Neela H. Yennawar, Jarrod B. French, Tony Jun Huang, 2015, Small on p. 2733-2737

The GlcN6P cofactor plays multiple catalytic roles in the glmS ribozyme

Jamie L. Bingaman, Sixue Zhang, David R. Stevens, Neela H. Yennawar, Sharon Hammes-Schiffer, Philip C. Bevilacqua, 2017, Nature Chemical Biology on p. 439-445

Cooperative RNA Folding under Cellular Conditions Arises from Both Tertiary Structure Stabilization and Secondary Structure Destabilization

Kathleen A. Leamy, Neela H. Yennawar, Philip C. Bevilacqua, 2017, Biochemistry on p. 3422-3433

Identification of a mouse Lactobacillus johnsonii strain with deconjugase activity against the FXR antagonist T-β-MCA

Michael DiMarzio, Brigida Rusconi, Neela H. Yennawar, Mark Eppinger, Andrew D. Patterson, Edward G. Dudley, 2017, PLoS One

Structural basis for tRNA methylthiolation by the radical SAM enzyme MiaB

Olga A. Esakova, Tyler Grove, Neela H. Yennawar, Arthur Arcinas, Bo Wang, Wang, Carsten Krebs, Steven Almo, Squire Booker, 2021, Nature on p. 566-570

News Articles Featuring Neela Yennawar

Apr 15, 2024

Huck Leadership Fellows selected for 2024-25

For the 2024-2025 academic year, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences has appointed Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Scott Medina, Professor of Statistics Lingzhou Xue, and Associate Professor of Surgery Dino Ravnic to be Huck Leadership Fellows.

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Feb 28, 2024

New single molecule biophysics equipment expands research capability

A new addition to the Huck's instrumentation portfolio is expanding the options available to life science researchers, and uses powerful lasers as tweezers to manipulate individual molecules..

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Jan 25, 2024

Undergraduate research may contribute to COVID-19 treatments

Brandywine undergraduates worked with professor to investigate potential new therapies to inhibit an enzyme that helps the coronavirus replicate

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Jun 26, 2023

Neela Yennawar and Scott Lindner selected as 2023 Huck Leadership Fellows

Launched in 2022, the Huck Leadership Fellows Program was developed for faculty members seeking to sharpen their leadership skills with an opportunity for exposure to senior leadership within the interdisciplinary research unit.

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May 31, 2023

A protein mines, sorts rare earths better than humans, paving way for green tech

Rare earth elements, like neodymium and dysprosium, are a critical component to almost all modern technologies, from smartphones to hard drives, but they are notoriously hard to separate from the Earth’s crust and from one another.

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Oct 18, 2022

Newly engineered protein could be used to develop adaptation-proof COVID vaccine

A vaccine design approach that could protect against new variants of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — but also potentially protects against other coronaviruses is one step closer to reality as a result of research at Penn State College of Medicine.

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Jan 13, 2022

Core facilities director brings more than technical advice to research

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.

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Aug 20, 2019

Penn State Chemistry Alum Recognized with Young Scientists Award

Kathleen Leamy has been awarded the 2019 Gordon Hammes Scholar Award, based on a 2018 article she co-authored with the Huck Institutes' Neela Yennawar and Phillip Bevilacqua.

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