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Riley Bednar

Riley Bednar

Postdoctoral Scholar
Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics

Riley Bednar

Postdoctoral Scholar
Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics

Riley is a postdoctoral scholar working in Ryan Mehl's lab. Originally from Sarasota, Florida, Riley earned a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of South Florida. After moving to Corvallis in 2015 to pursue a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology, he furthered his research at OSU, continuing in the Mehl lab as a Postdoctoral scholar and member of the Biochemistry & Biophysics department in 2021. Riley's research focuses on developing and applying genetic code expansion technologies, with an emphasis on basic tool development, genetic code expansion in Eukaryotic systems, and protein-protein and protein-surface bioorthogonal conjugations using tetrazine-based amino acids.

Education

Ph.D. Molecular & Cellular Biology, 2021 - Oregon State University

B.S. Microbiology, 2014 - University of South Florida

Publications

  • Van Fossen, E. M.; Bednar, R. M.; Jana, S.; Franklin, R.; Beckman, J.; Karplus, P. A.; Mehl, R. A. Nanobody Assemblies with Fully Flexible Topology Enabled by Genetically Encoded Tetrazine Amino Acids. Sci Adv 2022, 8 (18), eabm6909. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm6909.
  • Bednar, R. M.; Jana, S.; Kuppa, S.; Franklin, R.; Beckman, J.; Antony, E.; Cooley, R. B.; Mehl, R. A. Genetic Incorporation of Two Mutually Orthogonal Bioorthogonal Amino Acids That Enable Efficient Protein Dual-Labeling in Cells. ACS Chem. Biol. 2021, 16 (11), 2612–2622. https://doi.org/10.1021/acschembio.1c00649.
  • Chaparro Sosa, A. F.; Bednar, R. M.; Mehl, R. A.; Schwartz, D. K.; Kaar, J. L. Faster Surface Ligation Reactions Improve Immobilized Enzyme Structure and Activity. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143 (18), 7154–7163. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c02375.
  • Bednar, R. M.; Golbek, T. W.; Kean, K. M.; Brown, W. J.; Jana, S.; Baio, J. E.; Karplus, P. A.; Mehl, R. A. Immobilization of Proteins with Controlled Load and Orientation. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2019, 11 (40), 36391–36398. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b12746.