BMB Weekly #34: August 25, 2023

 

Welcome Olorunseun Ogunwobi! BMB welcomes Olorunseun "Seun" Ogunwobi as Chairperson.

 

 

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 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.

It is never too early to start thinking about and planning for your future career. In this session, we will highlight some of the programs and opportunities that are available to you as an MSU graduate student and introduce you to a framework to help you think about how to identify your career goals and design your graduate experience so that you can achieve them. Learn more and register here.

Your well-being is the foundation for a successful life no matter your field or focus. It is hard to keep your physical, mental, and relational health as a priority in graduate school, but it is not impossible. In this session, you will learn about the Graduate School’s value for well-being as well as practical tips to help you manage your health and well-being while advancing your academic and professional goals. You will also hear about workshops, programs, and resources offered at MSU that support these efforts. Learn more and register here.

The Handbook of your Program covers many set expectations that will guide you to success in your graduate education at Michigan State University. However, there are many important expectations that need to be made explicit and are often jointly set that require proactive and effective communication between you and your faculty advisors and mentors. This short workshop provides an opportunity to explore strategies for aligning expectations early in your trajectory in graduate school and will inform you about other activities and resources to help you in that task. Learn more and register here.

Registration is now open for the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning’s fall programming. The courses, workshops, and events cover a range of topics in teaching and learning in the college classroom: accessibility, evidence-based teaching fundamentals, academic professional development, teaching development for postdocs, science communication, and teaching-as-research. Learn more and register here.

 

MSU’s Institute of Cyber-Enabled Research and MSU IT Services are accepting applications from MSU doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers to join the fifth cohort of MSU Cloud Computing Fellows. We encourage applicants from all disciplines across campus to apply.

As a part of this program, during the Fall semester you will participate in a series of asynchronous activities and hands-on workshops that will teach you how to:

• Determine the aspects of your research that can be accomplished with cloud computing;
• Incorporate cloud-based systems into your research application or workflow; and
• Understand the strengths and limitations of commercial cloud computing with the goal of improving research yield and minimizing cost, and develop a workflow that utilizes that knowledge.

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.

 

BioRender is a cutting-edge, scientific graphic software designed to revolutionize the way the scholars communicate their research findings. Many faculty and students across the MSU research community are already using this exciting tool and have found great value in it. The Office of Research and Innovation is excited to offer BioRender at the subsidized rate of $100 per year, providing faculty and students with an affordable solution to create stunning, publication-quality graphics that effectively convey complex scientific concepts. Learn more 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.

 

The Rhee lab is hiring undergraduate researchers to investigate plant adaptive strategies to extreme environmental conditions such as drought and heat stress. We focus on metabolic traits at multiple scales including individual genes, pathways, and networks. Current work would assist in growing, genotyping, and transforming plants; developing phenotypic assays for plant growth and seed germination; live cell imaging and microscopy; data collection and analysis; and media preparation. This position has the potential for multi-year, part-time employment in the Rhee lab as well as the possibility to develop your own research projects. If interested, please send a description of how your interests align with our lab, your resume, and your availability to Sterling Field (fieldst4@msu.edu).

The Department of Biology at Colgate University invites applications for a tenure-stream position in molecular biology at the rank of Assistant Professor beginning fall semester 2024. The successful candidate will join a biology faculty committed to innovative teaching and undergraduate-accessible research in a liberal-arts setting. The successful candidate is expected to develop a productive independent research program in molecular biology or genetics with a preference for laboratory-based research. The individual hired will team teach in a foundations course called Molecules, Cells, and Genes; elective courses in molecular biology or genetics; and a senior research tutorial in their area of interest. Learn more and apply here.

The Office of Faculty and Academic Staff Development (FASD) is seeking a creative and innovative graduate student to help with data collection and benchmarking in support of our current work portfolio, as well as conducting landscape analysis to inform proposals related to MSU’s Strategic Plan. This half-time assistantship will require 20 hours per week and comes with a stipend, tuition reimbursement, and health insurance. Work hours are typically spread across weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Some work will be done in person (e.g. support, staff meetings), and some of the work can be done remotely. The position runs through May 15, 2024. Learn more and apply here.

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.

 

 

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, 19(15), 5088–5098. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.3c00409

Gruenberg, M. C., & TerAvest, M. A. (2023). A common inducer molecule enhances sugar utilization by Shewanella oneidensis
         MR-1. Journal of industrial microbiology & biotechnology, kuad018. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/jimb/kuad018

Hwang, J., Barman, S., Gao, R., Yang, X., O'Malley, A., Nagarkatti, P., Nagarkatti, M., Chruszcz, M., & Tang, C. (2023).
         Membrane-Active Metallopolymers: Repurposing and Rehabilitating Antibiotics to Gram-negative Superbugs. Advanced healthcare materials,
         e2301764. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202301764

Kaste, J. A. M., Green, A., & Shachar-Hill, Y. (2023). Integrative teaching of metabolic modeling and flux analysis with interactive
         python modules. Biochemistry and molecular biology education : a bimonthly publication of the International Union of Biochemistry
         and Molecular Biology, 10.1002/bmb.21777. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.21777

 

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College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 56, No.34