BMB Weekly #13: March 31, 2023

 

Save the Date: The Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Annual Awards Ceremony and Banquet! Please save the date for the BMB Annual Awards Ceremony and Banquet on Thursday, April 20 at the MSUFCU Club at Spartan Stadium. More information coming soon.

 

 

Susanne Gebhard from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany) will be presenting "Who guards the guards? Network structure in the activation of antibiotic resistance."

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.

 

During the first week of April, the Graduate School is celebrating graduate and professional students with a series of events and activities, including meet & greets with MSU leadership, headshot photography, career guidance, swag giveaways, and more. Learn more here.

The Exchange is the weekly Tuesday morning event for graduate students. Please join us for the following:
Journal Club: Aaron Reifler
Exploring careers with MSU resources

Cheeky Scientist is a platform that provides information, resources, and tools to STEM graduate students and postdocs who are industry-curious or seeking to transition to career paths beyond academia. This seminar will discuss the "63 Best Careers for Ph.Ds." and is open to all graduate students and post-docs in STEM. Register here.

On Thursday April 6th we will be hosting a Trivia Night at Harrison Roadhouse Pub at 7pm! Try your hand at trivia while hanging out with other graduate & professional students! Appetizer buffet included. Compete in teams of four for a prize. Whether you come with a group or come solo (you'll be placed on a team- no worries!), we'll have a great time! Must register to attend.

The Weill Institute Emerging Scholars Symposium in Ithaca, NY, is a one-day event in October where exceptional senior Ph.D. students from institutions external to Cornell are invited to share their research with the Weill Institute community, celebrate their academic achievements, interact with students and faculty, and explore post-doctoral collaboration and research opportunities. Learn more here.

The Graduate School is happy to invite graduate program directors to the 2023 Graduate Program Director Summit. This summit will allow us to come together to explore important aspects of graduate education in a setting that encourages engagement, interaction, and collaboration. GPDs are strongly encouraged to attend this event. Learn more and register here.

 

The Dr. Lillian M. Lowery Scholarship was established to support a student pursuing a master’s degree in education who embodies a spirit of commitment to furthering opportunities for all students. Learn more about eligibility and the application process here.

This annually awarded national scholarship is designed to support the educational goals of a graduate student from an underrepresented group who is pursuing a master’s or doctoral degree in mathematics education or a STEM discipline. The individual should also have a commitment to civic engagement. Learn more here. 

Ph.D. students selected for this 12-month program will work with an LBC faculty member on a new or existing disciplinary‐based education research (DBER), scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), or action research project. SUTL research topics may include developing and assessing various curricular interventions such as inquiry-based labs, interdisciplinary teaching and learning, science ethics, teaching with case studies, and efforts to increase the retention and success of a diverse STEM population. Learn more here.

The IIT Fellowship Program is for doctoral students with an interest in interdisciplinary inquiry and undergraduate teaching. The primary goal of the IIT Fellowship Program is to broaden and enrich the professional development experience of a diverse group of graduate students by placing them within an environment, James Madison College, with an established tradition in excellence in undergraduate teaching. Learn more here.

 

It's tax time and there are free resources available to help!

• MSU VITA: https://www.vita.msu.edu/appointments
• MSU College of Law Taxpayer Clinics: International Students and Scholars | Michigan State University (msu.edu)
• OISS: International Students and Scholars | Michigan State University (msu.edu)

Wharton Center for Performing Arts is pleased to offer free tickets to MSU undergraduate, graduate, and professional students for several performances this spring semester, including “The Boy Who Grew Flowers,” Imani Winds, The Okee Dokee Brothers, Cyrille Aimée, New York Philharmonic String Quartet, “Cross That River,” and “National Geographic Live: View from Above with NASA Astronaut Terry Virts.”   There is a 2-ticket limit per event. Graduate and professional students will need to visit the Wharton Center ticket office in person with their MSU ID to receive free tickets via this promotion. Learn more about this program here. 

In an effort to support students this semester, revised Credit-No Credit (CR-NC) grade reporting options are being put in place for Spring Semester 2023 only. MSU will return to the CR-NC policy listed in the Academic Programs Catalog effective Summer 2023. 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.

 

A Project Administrator is sought to work in a translational cancer research laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The selected candidate will provide organizational and administrative support, as well as support for collaborations with clinical, behavioral, community, and population science researchers, to the Principal Investigator. We seek a highly organized, committed and motivated candidate with a Master’s degree in a relevant field preferred.  The candidate must have demonstrated ability to provide organizational, administrative, and leadership support to demanding research programs. The Project Administrator will provide administrative support for day-to-day operations of the research program related to fiscal management, budgeting, progress reports, communication with collaborators, arrangement for collaboration meetings, and coordination with other researchers, as needed. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

The School of Packaging in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources is seeking qualified applicants for a Graduate Program Director at the Assistant, Associate or Professor rank. The Graduate Program Director (GPD) serves as the administrative supervisor and coordinator of graduate studies within the School of Packaging, overseeing all components of graduate education and promoting academic quality and integrity. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

This Communications Manager I position is a dual reporting position that supports two core departments in the MSU College of Natural Science (NatSci): the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (50%) and the Department of Chemistry (50%). The position is a part of the NatSci Communications infrastructure, with a primary reporting relationship within the departments and a secondary reporting relationship to the NatSci Senior Communications and Marketing Director. Key responsibilities for this position include identifying, researching, producing and editing releases and feature materials for on-line communications, media, and publications. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

We are inviting applications for multiple postdoctoral positions in a cancer biology laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Michigan State University. Candidates competitive for these postdoctoral positions will be highly motivated, creative, and have interest in translational cancer biology. A qualified candidate is expected to have had outstanding graduate training, experience and/or training in mammalian cell culture, mouse tumor studies, molecular biology techniques, cell biology techniques, genome engineering techniques, and biochemical techniques. They will be expected to collect, and analyze data, and supervise students. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

The Biological Sciences (BioSci) Program at MSU is seeking two fixed-term faculty members to join the BioSci Program teaching team. The successful candidate for the first position will serve as curriculum coordinator and instructor for BS172, a large enrollment introductory organismal biology lab course designed for life-science majors. The successful candidate for the second position will serve as an instructor for introductory biology lecture and lab courses designed to actively engage life-science majors in three-dimensional learning and will work with teams of faculty to develop curriculum for these courses. Questions regarding the position may be directed to Dr. Katie Krueger, BioSci Program Assistant Director and Chair of the Search Committee (krueg172@msu.edu). 

 

Cholico, G. N., Orlowska, K., Fling, R. R., Sink, W. J., Zacharewski, N. A., Fader, K. A., Nault, R., & Zacharewski, T. (2023).
         Consequences of reprogramming acetyl-CoA metabolism by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin in the mouse liver. 
         Scientific reports, 13(1), 4138. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31087-9

Dutagaci, B., Duan, B., Qiu, C., Kaplan, C. D., & Feig, M. (2023). Characterization of RNA polymerase II trigger loop mutations
         using molecular dynamics simulations and machine learning. PLoS computational biology, 19(3), e1010999. Advance online
         publication. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010999

Feng, H., Elladki, R., Jiang, J., & Wei, G. W. (2023). Machine-learning analysis of opioid use disorder informed by MOR, DOR,
         KOR, NOR and ZOR-based interactome networks. Computers in biology and medicine, 157, 106745. Advance online
         publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2023.106745

Ferlez, B. H., Kirst, H., Greber, B. J., Nogales, E., Sutter, M., & Kerfeld, C. A. (2023). Heterologous Assembly of Pleomorphic
         Bacterial Microcompartment Shell Architectures Spanning the Nano- to Microscale. Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach,
         Fla.), e2212065. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202212065

Kang, H. J., Chargo, N., Chennupati, S., Neugebauer, K., Cho, J. Y., Quinn, R., McCabe, L. R., & Parameswaran, N. (2023).
         Korean Red Ginseng extract treatment prevents post-antibiotic dysbiosis-induced bone loss in mice. Journal of ginseng
         research, 47(2), 265–273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgr.2022.08.006

Liu, J., Hiser, C., Li, F., Hall, R., Garavito, R. M., & Ferguson-Miller, S. (2023). New TSPO Crystal Structures of Mutant and
         Heme-Bound Forms with Altered Flexibility, Ligand Binding, and Porphyrin Degradation Activity. Biochemistry,
         10.1021/acs.biochem.2c00612. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.2c00612

Smith, M., Li, Z., Landry, L., Merz, K. M., Jr, & Li, P. (2023). Consequences of Overfitting the van der Waals Radii of Ions. 
         Journal of chemical theory and computation, 10.1021/acs.jctc.2c01255. Advance online publication.
         https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.2c01255

Strand, D. D., Karcher, D., Ruf, S., Schadach, A., Schöttler, M. A., Sandoval-Ibañez, O., Hall, D., Kramer, D. M., & Bock, R.
         (2023). Characterization of mutants deficient in N-terminal phosphorylation of the chloroplast ATP synthase subunit β. 
         Plant physiology, 191(3), 1818–1835. https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiad013

 

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College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 56, No.13