BMB Weekly #48: December 1, 2023

 

Congratulations to BMB Undergraduate Award Winners! Professor Richard L. Anderson Endowed Undergraduate Research Prize: Matthew Gagea Dr. James K. Billman, Jr., Undergraduate Research Award: Caroline Downes Curtis Chen Adannaya (Dana) Nzerem Michael Burdick Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Scholarship: Anika Babel Pamela J. Fraker Undergraduate Scholarship: Natali Gonzalez Moore-Billman Scholarship in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology: Nina Aitas Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award: Tuan Kiet (Kyle) Trinh Nikita Nel BMB Undergraduate Research Fellowship: MacKenzie Brasseur Alexandria Collier

 

 

Ray MacDonald from the University of Texas - Southwestern Medical Center will be presenting "Transcriptional control of pancreatic development"

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.

 

This upcoming Monday is the last of our Fall 2023 MPS seminars with the 2023 Hans Kende Award Seminar. Our awardee is Leah Young Davenport Johnson from Los Alamos National Laboratory. The seminar will be held at 4:00 p.m. in MPS room 1200 and Zoom.

Leah’s talk is titled “Understanding two types of communities: NMDC user research activities and characterizing bacterial-fungal interactions and their environmental roles”. We would like to invite graduate students and postdocs to join the speaker for a lunch and discussion. Lunch will be provided at 12:00PM in PLB 168. This is a great opportunity to meet our outside speaker in an informal environment. If you would like to participate in the luncheon, please RSVP to Keri Morris (morrisk@msu.edu) with any dietary restrictions by Friday, December 1, 2023 at noon. All students and post docs who are interested in this week’s seminar topic are welcome to attend. You do not need to be in the MPS program or affiliated with an MPS faculty member.

Information session:

• Presentation and Q&A session
• Open to all students, whether actively seeking employment or early in your career looking for more info
• Learn more about Merck, including:
  • Who we are as a company
  • Past and current initiatives and achievements
  • Our ongoing research areas
  • The role of Discovery Chemistry, Process Chemistry, and Analytical Research & Development in our company
  • Opportunities for full-time, post-doctoral scholar, internship, and co-op positions
• To join the session on Microsoft Teams:
  • MS Teams Meeting ID: 260 929 637 051
  • Passcode: Merck/MSU

For future inquiries, please contact Shivangi Chugh (shivangi.chugh@merck.com). Visit here to learn more about opportunities at our company. 

The Gender and Sexuality Campus Center hosts a monthly event called Cafe so Gay, which is meant for graduate students to have a time specifically for them to relax, grab free treats/coffee, and build community right here in the center, which is on the third floor of the Student Services Building.

KAUST will host the 11th Annual Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) Poster Competition on campus from January 13-19, 2024 for international university students pursuing a degree in STEM. Selected participants will receive a fully funded trip to KAUST where they will have the opportunity to engage with international faculty, researchers, and students while experiencing a new culture and presenting their research. Contact poster.competition@kaust.edu.sa for more information.

The MSU AGEP Learning Community is an informal environment where students from varying disciplines can gather, share their research in a 10-minute presentation, or discover that their graduate toils are not unusual. Those in attendance are privy to information regarding fellowships, career opportunities, even summer internships, pertaining to the group. Learn more here.

Share a story about a graduate student you’re grateful for. Viewers can vote on their favorite stories. The nominator and the student for the top 5 stories will both receive $50. Gifts for students are in the form of a fellowship deposited into the student’s SIS account. Gifts for faculty/staff are awarded to their department’s general fund account. Nominate a student here.

 

The Henry Ford Cancer (HFC) Cancer Epidemiology Prevention and Control research program invites applications for a postdoctoral fellow to begin a 1-2-year fellowships to start in 2024. The successful candidate will join a team of over 100 cancer researchers conducting studies across the cancer continuum and become part of the Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University (HFH + MSU) dynamic research community. Learn more and apply here.

The Henry Ford Cancer (HFC) Translational Oncology research program invites applications for a post-doctoral fellow to begin a 1-2-year fellowship to start in 2024. The successful candidate will join a team of over 100 cancer researchers conducting studies across the cancer continuum and become part of the Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University (HFH + MSU) dynamic research community. Learn more and apply here.

Nominations are being accepted for the 2024 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. If you intend to nominate a Graduate Student who meets the criteria above, please contact Dr. Stefanie Baier at stbaier@msu.edu by December 30, 2023. Learn more and make a nomination here.

 

MSU student researchers who are interested in sharing their work on the radio can reach out to WDBM to be featured on The Sci-Files. The goal of this segment is to increase scientific literacy and showcase research interests from MSU graduate students to Impact 89 FM’s global audience. If you are interested in being interviewed or have any questions, please email thescifileswdbm@gmail.com.

MSU IT is offering several virtual instructional technology and development recordings and workshops for educators in November. Take a deep dive into tools like D2L and learn how to leverage accessibility considerations and other technology- informed teaching strategies for a smooth final exams season. Learn more and register here.

Eligible to undergraduates, graduates, and professional students enrolled in Fall/Spring semester and without a dining plan. Fruits, soups, pasta, rice, protein, cereal, bread, and fresh produce available year-round! To learn more about visiting the MSU Foodbank, or to donate, visit 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.

 

Two academic-year tenure-track assistant professor positions in Plant Biology are available at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. We invite applications from outstanding basic or translational scientists interested in contributing to the advancement of fundamental or applied plant biology research. Individuals who study biochemical processes in plants, particularly those who are using computational tools in their research, are encouraged to apply. Exceptional candidates working in non-plant systems but with an interest in collaborating with the broader plant community will also be considered. A successful applicant with these interests will be offered a position in the Department of Biochemistry. We also seek candidates addressing important questions in plant biology; for example, scientists with a focus on plant responses to changing environment or climate, or those who use computational tools and predictive modeling of fundamental processes, are particularly encouraged to apply. Individuals who use molecular, biochemical, genomic, and cell biological approaches in model plant and/or crop systems will be considered for this position. A successful applicant with these interests will be offered a position in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology. Learn more and apply here.

Applications are invited for a Research Associate (Postdoc) position in the Hegg lab. The project will focus on our patented Cu-AHP process for fractionating woody biomass into clean sugar and lignin streams suitable for biofuels and bioproducts. The global pulp and paper market is valued at over $165 B, and the US is one of the largest producers of pulp and paper products. Our Cu-AHP pretreatment technology effectively and economically fractionates woody biomass to generate clean lignin and sugars streams. The goal of this project is to: (a) optimize the process for treating wood chips to generate pulp and lignin-rich streams, (b) evaluate the prepared pulp for specific applications, (c) conduct technoeconomic analyses to identify key factors contributing to the production cost, and (d) collaborate with various companies for potential scale-up and commercialization of the technology. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

The selected candidate will work with members in the Kuo lab to perform drug discovery and disease mechanism studies of Alzheimer’s disease. Responsibilities include preparing recombinant proteins for in vitro and animal (mouse) studies. Experiments include, but not limited to, protein aggregation assays, cell viability quantification, mouse primary neuron isolation, mouse intracerebral injection and behavioral analysis, and immunohistological examination of mouse brain sections. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

A Postdoctoral Research Associate position is available in the laboratory of Melanie Balbach in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The Research Associate will focus on the metabolic changes and underlying regulatory pathways in the male germ cell during activation and during zygote development. Opportunities for professional development include participation in grant proposal writing, attending and presenting at scientific research symposiums and conferences, networking with other scientists within and outside MSU as well as mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

 

Bose, S., Lotz, S. D., Deb, I., Shuck, M., Lee, K. S. S., & Dickson, A. (2023). How Robust Is the Ligand Binding Transition State?. Journal of the
         American Chemical Society, 145(46), 25318–25331. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c08940

Favor, O. K., Rajasinghe, L. D., Wierenga, K. A., Maddipati, K. R., Lee, K. S. S., Olive, A. J., & Pestka, J. J. (2023). Crystalline silica-induced
         proinflammatory eicosanoid storm in novel alveolar macrophage model quelled by docosahexaenoic acid supplementation. Frontiers in immunology, 14,              1274147. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1274147

Heo, L., & Feig, M. (2023). One bead per residue can describe all-atom protein structures. Structure (London, England : 1993), S0969-2126(23)00401-X.
         Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.str.2023.10.013

Kaste, J. A. M., & Shachar-Hill, Y. (2023). Model validation and selection in metabolic flux analysis and flux balance analysis. Biotechnology progress,
         e3413. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/btpr.3413

Lei, L., & Burton, Z. F. (2023). The 3 31 Nucleotide Minihelix tRNA Evolution Theorem and the Origin of Life. Life (Basel, Switzerland), 13(11), 2224.                                 https://doi.org/10.3390/life13112224

Parent K. N. (2023). The phage fought the cells, and the phage won: a satellite symposium at the ASV 2023 annual meeting. Journal of virology,
         e0142023. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.01420-23

Raicu, A. M., Suresh, M., & Arnosti, D. N. (2023). A regulatory role for the unstructured C-terminal domain of the CtBP transcriptional corepressor.
         The Journal of biological chemistry, 105490. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2023.105490

Shajan, A., Manathunga, M., Götz, A. W., & Merz, K. M., Jr (2023). Geometry Optimization: A Comparison of Different Open-Source Geometry Optimizers.
         Journal of chemical theory and computation, 19(21), 7533–7541. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.3c00188

Siew, J. J., Chen, H. M., Chiu, F. L., Lee, C. W., Chang, Y. M., Chen, H. L., Nguyen, T. N. A., Liao, H. T., Liu, M., Hagar, H. T., Sun, Y. C., Lai, H. L.,
         Kuo, M. H., Blum, D., Buée, L., Jin, L. W., Chen, S. Y., Ko, T. M., Huang, J. R., Kuo, H. C., … Chern, Y. (2023). Galectin-3 aggravates microglial activation            and tau transmission in tauopathy. The Journal of clinical investigation, e165523. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI165523

Wang, R., Feng, H., & Wei, G. W. (2023). ChatGPT in Drug Discovery: A Case Study on Anticocaine Addiction Drug Development with Chatbots. Journal
         of chemical information and modeling, 63(22), 7189–7209. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.3c01429

 

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College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 56, No.48