BMB Weekly #1: January 6, 2023

 

Congratulations to the Winners of the Snow Person Decoration Contest!  Many thanks to all who participated in the 1st BMB Snow Person decorating contest this past December! 10 labs jumped into action and provided fun, clever, and creative snow people for our competition: the TerAvest, Hegg, Hsu, Kuo, Henry, Arnosti, Kroos, Martinez-Hackert, Orlando, Vielle labs. There were 5 categories for voting: Creativity, School Spirit, Most Research Related, Funniest/Humorous, and Best Overall. And the winners were……….drum roll please: Creativity: Hsu Lab School Spirit: Henry Lab Most Research Related: Hsu Lab Funniest/Humorous: TerAvest Lab Best Overall: Orlando Lab Fun was had by all with lots of sweet treats, homemade hot chocolate, and prizes! Many of the Snow People displays are still up so if you have the chance please stop by and see them in person. Pictures of all are posted outside the 212 office too. Happy New Year! Looking forward to the 2nd Annual BMB Snow Person contest in December 2023! ~ Billy and Leslie

 

 

Please join us for our first seminar of the Spring 2023 BMB seminar series where Markos Koutmos from the University of Michigan will be presenting "At the crossroads of RNA processing and modification."

To join us on Zoom, click this link. Password: bmbseminar

The Spring BMB Seminar Series will run through the end of April. The complete schedule is available on the BMB Spring Seminar Series website. If you are interested in meeting with any of these speakers please email Leslie Williams, glady@msu.edu. Many speakers are planning to visit in-person. A zoom option will continue to be offered for all seminars.

 

MMG is hosting a blood drive and are seeking donors. All are welcome! Click here for more information. 

The PEER (Promoting Education & Emotional Resilience) Program seeks to empower students to learn about their mental health and develop positive coping skills.
This 6-week workshop will help students develop resiliency skills derived from evidenced-based practices such as Mindfulness, ACT, CBT, DBT, and Resiliency training in collaboration with the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD) and Counseling And Psychiatric Services (CAPS).
PEER participants will also have a dedicated practical application support group for deeper discussion and community building.
For the Spring 2023 semester, the program will run January 17th through February 22nd. Participants are expected to commit to both workshops & support groups for the 6 week duration of the program (a 2-hour weekly commitment). Weekly meetings will be held:
Psychoeducation Workshops: Tuesdays from 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Support Groups: Wednesdays from 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Click here to sign up. 

The Council of Graduate Students is pleased to announce that the 15th Annual Graduate Academic Conference will take place on February 18, 2023, at the MSU Union. We are now accepting abstracts for poster and oral presentations and applicants to participate in the famous Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition!  Abstracts & registration are due by January 31, 2023. Learn more here. 

The GAC is a forum for graduate students to gain experience communicating their research to a non-specialized audience. Our adjudicators are MSU Alums (many graduate school alums!)  with wide-ranging professional backgrounds who provide feedback that can help students fine tune their presentation skills.

As a presenter, you will benefit from constructive feedback that will help you learn to better communicate your research to generalized audiences as you progress in your research. You will also be able to network with your peers across disciplines as well as with your audience of judges and other interested professionals attending the conference! As an attendee, you will be able to view the great work being done by student researchers as well as have access to workshops geared to help all graduate/professional students!

Click here for more information. 

 

Applications are now being accepted for this fellowship, which provides support for MSU doctoral students whose dissertation research is related to the African diaspora and honors the legacy of Dr. Ruth Simms Hamilton, a former professor at MSU and member of the TIAA Board of Trustees. Learn more and apply here. 

Nominations are being accepted for the 2023 MAGS Excellence in Teaching Award competition. This Teaching Award is very competitive, so we are looking for exceptional PhD and Master’s students with great demonstration of teaching competence and knowledge of pedagogy, innovative teaching/instructional design, and effective mentoring skills and commitment to teaching professional development. Students must be nominated by faculty/deans. Learn more here. 

The L’Oréal USA For Women in Science fellowship program honors female scientists at a critical stage in their careers with grants of $60,000 each. Since 2003, they have awarded 95 postdoctoral women scientists nearly $5 million in grants. They are seeking five exceptional female scientists looking to advance their research and serve as role models for the next generation of girls in STEM. Learn more and apply here. 

The Julian Samora Research Institute at MSU is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for:

• The Julian Samora Endowed Scholarships (Graduate/Undergraduate) for 2023-2024
• The P. Lea Martinez Endowed Scholarship Fund (Graduate) for 2023-2024

Learn more here. 

The Asian Studies Center at Michigan State University will annually award multiple undergraduate and graduate fellowships under the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship program funded by the U.S. Department of Education for students pursuing the study of Asian languages and Asia area studies at MSU. Learn more here. 

 

To help field questions, Global Safety has developed a guide with recommended steps and resources. This is available as a PDF and on the Global Safety website at www.globalsafety.msu.edu/positive-COVID-19. The first step is to call ISOS for guidance.

 

The Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Michigan State University (MSU) seeks mid-career applicants for a tenure-stream position at the Associate or Full Professor level focusing on the biochemistry and engineering of plant metabolism. Of particular interest are pathways and metabolites with long-term potential for medical, industrial, or agricultural applications. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link. 

We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher, Research Associate, to study the molecular, physiological, and omics responses to drought in the field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) to uncover the genes and pathways that control acclimation to drought and use them to engineer drought resistant plants. Field pennycress is an overwintering biofuel crop related to both canola and arabidopsis. The goal of the project is to investigate genetic versatility, especially metabolic versatility, against drought to inform future plant metabolic engineering and breeding efforts. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link. 

The Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry Branch of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) in College Park, Maryland seeks a temporary researcher with a Doctoral degree to participate in our food safety research program. To support its mission, the FDA is developing and implementing non-targeted screening approaches using liquid chromatography/highresolution mass spectrometry (LC/HR-MS) for food safety purposes. Learn more about the job posting and how to apply at this link. 

We have developed computational pipelines to predict and annotate metabolic enzymes and pathways from sequenced genomes, which enables the generation of genome-scale metabolic networks. The successful candidate will leverage these resources in the Rhee Lab to model the metabolic networks field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense). Qualified candidates must have a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Biology, Plant biology, Microbiology, Systems Biology, Biochemistry, Computer Science, or a related field, and a strong background as demonstrated by journal publications in metabolic network reconstruction and analysis. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link. 

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) at Michigan State University is seeking an innovative and engaging educator for a 12-month, fixed-term (non-tenure track) Instructor position to manage day-to-day operations and participate in instruction of intermediate and senior level undergraduate biochemistry laboratory courses. The initial appointment is for one year with reappointment expected based on satisfactory performance and continued funding. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing, Michigan is recruiting a Director for the Mass Spectrometry and Metabolomics Core. We seek applicants for this tenure-stream Associate Professor position in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology who possess expertise in the isolation, analysis, and annotation of small molecules within complex biological matrices and/or extracts using mass spectrometry and/or complementary approaches such as NMR, x-ray crystallography, cryo-electron diffraction and/or other structural techniques including synthesis. The position will involve managerial leadership and consulting with facility users regarding best analysis practices. The ideal candidate will have core leadership experience and an established record of achievements in the novel use and/or development of mass spectrometry, with a strong publication record supported by external, competitively obtained funds. Evidence of collaboration in the annotation of novel metabolites extracted from diverse biological matrices is highly desirable. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

 

Broadwater, D., C D Medeiros, H., Bates, M., Roshanzadeh, A., Thing Teoh, S., P Ogrodzinski, M., Borhan, B., Lunt, R. R., & Lunt, S. Y. (2022).
         Counterion Tuning of Near-Infrared Organic Salts Dictates Phototoxicity to Inhibit Tumor Growth. ACS applied materials & interfaces,
         14(48), 53511–53522. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c16252

McClain, A. M., Cruz, J. A., Kramer, D. M., & Sharkey, T. D. (2023). The time course of acclimation to the stress of triose phosphate use
         limitation. Plant, cell & environment, 46(1), 64–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.14476

Medeiros, H. C. D., Yang, C., Herrera, C. K., Broadwater, D., Ensink, E., Bates, M., Lunt, R. R., & Lunt, S. Y. (2022). Phosphorescent Metal
         Halide Nanoclusters for Tunable Photodynamic Therapy. Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany), e202202881.
         https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202202881

Moauro, A., Kruger, R. E., O'Hagan, D., & Ralston, A. (2022). Fluorescent Reporters Distinguish Stem Cell Colony Subtypes During Somatic
         Cell Reprogramming. Cellular reprogramming, 24(6), 353–362. https://doi.org/10.1089/cell.2022.0071

Neugebauer, K. A., Okros, M., Guzior, D. V., Feiner, J., Chargo, N. J., Rzepka, M., Schilmiller, A. L., O'Reilly, S., Jones, A. D., Watson, V. E.,
         Luyendyk, J. P., McCabe, L. R., & Quinn, R. A. (2022). Baat Gene Knockout Alters Post-Natal Development, the Gut Microbiome, and
         Reveals Unusual Bile Acids in Mice. Journal of lipid research, 63(12), 100297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlr.2022.100297

Torruellas Garcia, J., Ballarin, S., Balusa, N., Bell, M., Caballero, S., Chan, J., Farez, M., Guillen-Tapia, A., Parent, K., Pierre-Louis, N.,
         Polishuk, V., Soni, B., Subramanian, S., & Crump, K. (2022). Complete Genome Sequences of Genamy16 and NovaSharks, Two
         Gordonia rubripertincta Bacteriophages Isolated from Soil in Southeastern Florida. Microbiology resource announcements, 11(12),
         e0097322. https://doi.org/10.1128/mra.00973-22

Walhout, P. K., He, Z., Dutagaci, B., Nawrocki, G., & Feig, M. (2022). Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Rhodamine B Zwitterion Diffusion
         in Polyelectrolyte Solutions. The journal of physical chemistry. B, 126(48), 10256–10272. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c06281

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College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 56, No. 1