External Grants

2005-2010            National Science Foundation, CAREER grant, “CAREER: Alternative Mechanisms of HINT domain autoprocessing: An integrated undergraduate research and education program”

2003-2005            National Science Foundation, Major Research Instrumentation, “Acquisition of Protein Purification and Analysis Equipment to Enhance Biochemical Research and Education at the College of the Holy Cross” 

2003-2005            Research Corporation, Cottrell College Science Award, “The Mechanism and Molecular Evolution of Hedgehog Proteins and Related Auto-Processing Domains”

2002-2004            Petroleum Research Fund (American Chemical Society), Type GB, “The Mechanism of Protein Splicing and the Molecular Evolution of Inteins.”

1997-2001            Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship

1995-1996            Barry M. Goldwater Fellowship

 

Publications (Undergraduate co-authors indicated by asterisk)

Holy Cross publications:

18. Mills, K.V., Herrick, R.S., Ditzler, M.A., Nestor, L.P., Shafer, H., and Guilmette, L.W. (2008) An Introduction to Electrochemistry: A Two-week Discovery Chemistry Experiment. J. Chem. Educ. In press.

17.  Herrick, R.S., Mills, K.V., and Nestor, L.P. (2008) Data Pooling in a Chemical Kinetics Experiment: The Aquation of a Series of Cobalt (III) Complexes. J. Chem. Educ. In press.

16.  Mills, K.V. and Guilmette, L.W. (2007) Thermochemical Analysis of Neutralization Reactions: An Introductory Discovery Experiment. J. Chem. Educ.84, 326-328.

15.  Bellin, R.M. and Mills, K.V. (2007) The Holy Cross Biochemistry Concentration: An Integrated Four-Year Program to Develop Undergraduate Research Scholars. In Developing and Sustaining a Research-Supportive Curriculum, ed K.K. Karukstis and T.E. Elgren, Council on Undergraduate Research.

14.  Mills, K.V., Connor, K.R., *Dorval, D.M., and *Lewandowski, K.T. (2006) Protein Purification via Temperature-Dependent, Intein-Mediated Cleavage from an Immobilized Metal Affinity Resin.  Anal. Biochem. 356, 86-93.

13.  Mills, K.V., *Dorval, D.M., *Lewandowski, K.T. (2005) Kinetic analysis of the individual steps of protein splicing for the Pyrococcus abyssi PolII intein. J. Biol. Chem 280, 2714-2720.

12. Mills, K.V., *Gareau, J.R., and *Garcia, A.M. (2005) Low-cost modification to the Copacabana method for spreading transformation mixtures.  BioTechniques39, 188.

11. Mills, K.V., Perler, F.B. (2005) The Mechanism of Intein-Based Protein Splicing: Variations on a Theme. Protein & Peptide Letters, 12, 751-755.

10. Mills, K.V. (2005) Protein Splicing. In Encyclopedia of Molecular Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine, Second Edition, ed, RA Meyers, 241-265, Weinheim: Wiley-VCH. 

9. Mills, K.V., Paulus, H. (2005) Biochemical Mechanisms of Intein-Mediated Protein Splicing. In Nucleic Acids and Molecular Biology16 (Homing Endonucleases and Inteins), ed. M. Belfort, 231-255, Berlin: Springer Verlag.

8. Mills, K.V., *Manning, J.S., *Garcia, A.M., *Wuerdeman, L.A. (2004) Protein splicing of a Pyrococcus abyssi intein with a C-terminal glutamine.  J. Biol. Chem.279, 20685-20691.

7. Mills, K.V. (2004) Self-Splicing Proteins.  In: Handbook of Proteolytic Enzymes, Second Edition, Vol. 2., ed. AJ Barrett, 2136-2140, London: Academic Press, Elsevier Science.

6. Mills, KV.  (2003) Post-Translational Control.  In: Genetics, Vol. 3., ed. R Robinson, 178-182, New York: Macmillan Reference USA.

Pre-Holy Cross Publications:

5. Mills, K.V., Paulus, H.  (2001) Reversible Inhibition of Protein Splicing by Zinc Ion.  J. Biol. Chem. 276, 10832-10838.

4. Lew, B.M., Mills, K.V., Paulus, H. (1999) Characteristics of Protein Splicing in trans Mediated by a Semisynthetic Split Intein. Biopolymers (Peptide Science)51, 355-362.

3. Lew, B.M., Mills, K.V., Paulus, H. (1998) Protein Splicing in Vitro with a Semisynthetic Two-Component Minimal Intein. J. Biol. Chem.273, 15887-15890.

2. Mills, K.V., Lew, B.M., Jiang, Sq, Paulus, H.  (1998) Protein splicing in trans by purified N- and C- terminal fragments of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis RecA intein. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA95, 3543-3548.

1. Broomfield, C.A., Mills, K.V., Meier, B.M., Lockridge, O.A., and Millard, C.B.  (1998) Reaction of human butyrylcholinesterase (BchE) H117 enzymes with carbamates.  In: Structure and Function of Cholinesterases and Related Proteins, 223-226.