BMB Weekly #32: August 11, 2023

 

Congratulations to Jin He for Promotion! BMB congratulates Jin He for promotion from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with Tenure.

 

 

Danny Ducat from Michigan State University will be presenting "Photosynthetics: Illuminating cyanobacterial physiology via rational engineering"

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

The Fall BMB Seminar Series will run through December 7, 2023. The complete schedule is available on the BMB Fall 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.

 

Join Drs. Mordecai Harvey (Undergraduate Research), Colleen Hegg (Vet Med, Comparative Medicine and Integrative Biology) and Vannessa McCaffrey (Undergraduate Research, Chemistry) for a conversation centered around understanding and increasing belonging in the research space. If you are a graduate student or a post-doc looking to engage with other practitioners to talk about best practices, get advice on how to get started, or to share your experiences working with undergraduate students, this workshop is for you! To register or for more information, email Vanessa McCaffrey (mccaffr8@msu.edu) or Colleen Hegg (hegg@msu.edu).

Nick Moreno and Isaiah Kaufman will talk about their research, plans for future research, and/or journal article of interest, with plenty of time for questions and answers. Please join us for pizza and drinks, and a chance to hear what your peers are up to. We will meet outside at the picnic tables in the garden, or BCH 208 if inclement weather.

International student move-in will take place from Friday, August 18 through Sunday, August 20. This will be followed by International Student Orientation from Friday, August 21 through Wednesday, August 23. We encourage graduate program directors and graduate program assistants to make note of these dates in order to reduce overlap between International Student Orientation and any departmental orientation events, when possible.

Visit iTeach to register and learn about the 2023 Fall Educator Seminars, August 23 - 25. This virtual event features a variety of no-cost trainings and webinars to help MSU educators and staff prepare for the fall semester and beyond. The seminars will focus on ways to enhance student success and connect to an array of resources including:

• Intro to classroom technology
• Navigating AI in the classroom
• Intro to MSU Libraries
• Accessibility and blended learning skills
• Overviews of tools like D2L, Microsoft 365, Teams, and OneDrive
• And much more!

Learn more and register here.

Join the Graduate School and the Council of Graduate Students for a resource fair and welcome celebration on Saturday, August 26. The resource fair will begin with an address from Dean Pero Dagbovie and will include student organizations, campus groups, and community businesses. The resource fair will be followed by a welcome celebration at Benefactors Plaza (behind Chittenden Hall) which will include outdoor games and activities, food, music, and more. From August 28 through August 30, Graduate Student Success Workshops will be held to help prepare incoming graduate students for their life at MSU. Learn more here.

 

The STEAMpower Project is looking for graduate student fellows and faculty/staff-led teams that are interested in exploring the intersection of STEM and the arts/humanities. The theme for this year’s projects is sustainability. Graduate Fellows will earn $4,000 for participation during the academic year 2023-24, and Faculty/Staff-led Teams can access up to $20,000 for their interdisciplinary project over 2023-24. Learn more and apply here. 

This endowed award program seeks to advance the work of an MSU graduate student whose research has the potential to contribute to economic and scientific improvements in society, with a promise of practical applications that benefit U.S. economic interests. Applicants must be graduate students in good standing who have successfully completed their preliminary exam, have a track record of research accomplishment, and a project that is ripe for translation to impact through a commercialization/dissemination pathway. One prize in the amount of thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) will be awarded annually. Learn more and apply here.

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) is accepting applications for paid internship and fellowship opportunities at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

Opportunities and Internships include:

• Biomedical Engineering Doctoral Fellowship
• Internship in Molecular Toxicology and Ecotoxicology
• Biofilm Prevention and Treatment Fellowship

View more opportunities with DoD here.

 

International graduate students for the upcoming Fall 2023 semester will need to complete various tasks and attend events prior to the start of the semester. A list of these action items can be found 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.

 

A Postdoctoral Research Associate position is available to conduct computational research in the laboratory of Michael Feig in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Michigan State University. The Research Associate will focus on biophysical topics related to the structure, dynamics, and interactions of biological macromolecules. The research is typically conducted in collaboration with other lab members and external collaborators. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

Student-Athlete Support Services is hiring Learning Assistants for Fall 2023 and beyond. Learning Assistants will be assigned a caseload of students and will work 9-20 hours weekly. Responsibilities include meeting with student-athletes at least 2-4 times weekly, closely monitoring all academic-related activities, strict and detailed tracking of course information, and facilitating students’ progress. Learn more about this Graduate School posting and apply at this link.

The following openings are available for postdoctoral positions at University of Michigan, department of Biological Chemistry:

• Structural Enzymology of B12 trafficking: The project involves deorphaning proteins involved in human B12 trafficking, using
  structural enzymology approaches to study protein-protein interactions and elucidate the role of redox-linked coordination
  chemistry in controlling cofactor reactivity.
  
• H2S metabolic signaling: We are studying the enzymology and regulation of H2S biogenesis and oxidation enzymes and using
  cellular and animal models to study how H2S signals and to study the 3-way interaction between host-microbes-diet in the gut.

Interested candidates may email Ruma Banerjee, Ph.D.

The research associate will conduct research to determine the cryo-electron microscopic structure of a protein-DNA complex formed in the process of replication initiation using Escherichia coli as a model system. The individual will also obtain training in nucleic acid enzymology and molecular genetics. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

 

Donyapour, N., Fathi Niazi, F., Roussey, N. M., Bose, S., & Dickson, A. (2023). Flexible Topology: A Dynamic Model of a
         Continuous Chemical Space. Journal of chemical theory and computation, 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c00409.
         Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.3c00409

Jiang, Y., Li, Z., Sui, D., Sharma, G., Wang, T., MacRenaris, K., Takahashi, H., Merz, K., & Hu, J. (2023). Rational engineering
         of an elevator-type metal transporter ZIP8 reveals a conditional selectivity filter critically involved in determining
         substrate specificity. Communications biology, 6(1), 778. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-05146-w

Kulke, M., Weraduwage, S. M., Sharkey, T. D., & Vermaas, J. V. (2023). Nanoscale simulation of the thylakoid membrane
         response to extreme temperatures. Plant, cell & environment, 46(8), 2419–2431. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.14609

Steidemann, M. M., Liu, J., Bayes, K., Castro, L. P., Ferguson-Miller, S., & LaPres, J. J. (2023). Evidence for crosstalk
         between the aryl hydrocarbon receptor and the translocator protein in mouse lung epithelial cells. 
         Experimental cell research, 429(1), 113617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yexcr.2023.113617

Thompson, K., Suber, W., Nicholas, R., & Arnosti, D. N. (2023). Long-range repression by ecdysone receptor on complex
         enhancers of the insulin receptor gene. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2023.05.23.541945.
         https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.23.541945

 

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College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 56, No.32