BMB Weekly #18: May 5, 2023

 

Kuo Lab Receives R21 Grant! The Kuo lab receives an R21 grant entitled “A novel non-transgenic fly model for tauopathies” from the National Institute on Aging, NIH. This 2-year exploratory grant aims to develop a fly model for tauopathies, a class of neurodegenerative disorders that include Alzheimer’s disease, certain frontotemporal dementia, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. These diseases affect millions of Americans. There is no cure or prevention to date. By feeding adult flies the recombinant hyperphosphorylated tau protein produced in the Kuo lab, age-dependent neurological and behavioral deficits are see in the experimental flies. In addition to exploring the disease mechanisms, this “in cibo” (in food) fly model will also be used as a “pre-vertebrate gating assay” to identify drug candidates for Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies. Min-Hao Kuo and Sandhya Payankaulam are the principle investigator and the co-investigator, respectively.

 

 

The speaker list for the Fall 2023 BMB Colloquium Series will be available soon.

 

Elucidating the role of the TGF-β superfamily signaling in pulmonary vascular cell proliferation

 

The Graduate School invites doctoral students, MMs, MFAs, and postdocs interested in working toward the Certification of College Teaching to join the CCTI 2023, which will help you fulfill some workshop requirements of the Certification in College Teaching Program. By registering, you are committing to in-person attendance on May 11 and 12 and the online introductory session. Learn more here.

The MSU Genetics & Genome Sciences (GGS) Program is hosting our annual symposium entitled “Applications of Genomics”. This year’s invited speakers are Kari Ekenstedt (Purdue University), Francisco J. Sánchez-Rivera (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Ya Yang (University of Minnesota – Twin Cities). A poster session will be held from 1:00pm-2:00pm, and we encourage participation from graduate students and post-docs (posters can be on any research topic and do not need to relate to the symposium). Learn more and register here.

Each semester has a deadline for the initial submission of theses and dissertations to ProQuest. Plan your defense accordingly. The document submitted to ProQuest is expected to be a final version, meaning it has been successfully defended, corrections the committee wants have been made, and there are no more content changes. Students are highly encouraged to read and follow the Thesis and Dissertation information available on the Graduate School’s website at: https://grad.msu.edu/etd. This site gives instructions on formatting, required paperwork, and how to submit to ProQuest. 

ACES (Academic Culture and English Skills) is a three-week intensive English and academic culture program aimed at helping incoming international teaching assistants (ITAs) adjust to the American university teaching and learning context prior to their first semester at MSU. The program focuses on strengthening oral communication skills in English and developing an understanding of the American educational system and the roles and expectations of TAs and undergraduate students at MSU. Registration must be completed by the department (not the student). Learn more here.

 

Nominations are still open for the Outstanding Faculty Mentor and Outstanding Graduate Program Community Awards. These awards recognize graduate programs and faculty mentors whose practice exemplifies the Foundational Values for Graduate Student and Faculty Mentoring Relationships and who make exceptional efforts to sustain the rights and fulfill the responsibilities outlined in the MSU Guidelines for Graduate Student Mentoring and Advising. Learn more here. 

The Cultural Heritage Informatics Graduate Fellowship Program offers MSU graduate students the skills to creatively and thoughtfully apply digital methods and computational approaches to cultural heritage collections, materials, data, questions, and challenges. While the fellowship, which spans an academic year, involves workshops, collaborative development work, and technical experimentation, the overall organizational focus of the fellowship is the development (either individually or collaboratively) of a significant and innovative digital cultural heritage project. Learn more and apply here. 

The Graduate School and the Center for Teaching & Learning Innovation (CTLI) at Michigan State University invites applicants for the 2023-2024 graduate fellowship cohort. Fellows can expect to join a welcoming community to learn with us, influence the future of higher education, and further develop as leaders and public scholars by becoming a Graduate School/MSU CTLI Fellow. Learn more here.

 

The ITA Program is currently scheduling advising appointments for international graduate teaching assistants interested in taking ITA support courses in Fall 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.

 

One research associate (post-doc) position is available in the lab of Dr. Tommy Vo. This research position is to develop new biochemical methods for high-throughput in vivo mapping of localized protein interactomes in the fission yeast S. pombe. The work will employ genetic, genomic, molecular, microscopic and biochemical approaches to understand how proteins engage with different complexes within the cell. Overall, the associate can expect to develop excellence in three key areas: research, mentoring, and scientific communication. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

Research Associate, Fixed Term — Chruszcz Lab

This work involves production of recombinant proteins (allergens) and their characterization using different biochemical and biophysical methods. The work will also involve purification of allergens from natural sources. This work also requires planning, organization and execution of experiments. Moreover, it requires a detailed documentation of the performed experiments. It is expected that the candidate has the ability to work with significant quantities of inhaled and food allergens; proficiency in recombinant protein production and purification; and at least 3 years of experience in structural characterization of proteins using X-ray crystallography that is documented by relevant publications and the Protein Data Bank deposits. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

Research Associate, Fixed Term — He Lab

The successful candidate will have a solid background in cellular/molecular biology and developmental biology. Experience in neurobiology, disease mouse models, mouse behavioral analysis, and/or high-throughput sequencing experiments and bioinformatics analyses are a plus. Duties include: maintain mouse colonies, perform mouse behavioral analysis, perform mouse genetic analysis, histological analysis, and molecular analysis, collect data and analyze data, and write manuscripts. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

The Biological Sciences Program at MSU invites applications for a biology education research Postdoctoral Research Associate in developing a curriculum that explicitly supports connections across introductory biology courses. The Research Associate will join a diverse group of educators and discipline-based education researchers working to improve connections between courses in an introductory undergraduate biology curriculum. These courses are focused on supporting three-dimensional learning using evidence-based teaching approaches and are taught by instructional teams made up of faculty, graduate teaching assistants, and undergraduate learning assistants. 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 MSU. 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.

 

Jayakody, T. B., Hamilton, J. P., Jensen, J., Sikora, S., Wood, J. C., Douches, D. S., & Buell, C. R. (2023). Genome Report:
         Genome sequence of 1S1, a transformable and highly regenerable diploid potato for use as a model for gene editing and
         genetic engineering. G3 (Bethesda, Md.), 13(4), jkad036. https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkad036

Mathavarajah, S., Vergunst, K. L., Habib, E. B., Williams, S. K., He, R., Maliougina, M., Park, M., Salsman, J., Roy, S., Braasch, I.,
         Roger, A. J., Langelaan, D. N., & Dellaire, G. (2023). PML and PML-like exonucleases restrict retrotransposons in jawed
         vertebrates. Nucleic acids research, 51(7), 3185–3204. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkad152

Ostrowska, N., Feig, M., & Trylska, J. (2023). Varying molecular interactions explain aspects of crowder-dependent enzyme function
         of a viral protease. PLoS computational biology, 19(4), e1011054. Advance online publication.
         https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011054

Poole, L. G., Schmitt, L. R., Schulte, A., Groeneveld, D. J., Cline, H. M., Sang, Y., Hur, W. S., Wolberg, A. S., Flick, M. J., Hansen,
         K. C., & Luyendyk, J. P. (2023). Altered fibrinogen γ-chain cross-linking in Fibγ^Δ5 mice drives acute liver injury. Journal of
         thrombosis and haemostasis : JTH, S1538-7836(23)00317-3. Advance online publication.
         https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtha.2023.04.003

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, 19(7), 2064–2074. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.2c01255

 

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College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 56, No.18