BMB Weekly #10: March 8, 2024

 

Art Exhibit Features Historical Black Plant Scientists "The Plant Resilience Institute (PRI), in coordination with Plant Cell Atlas (PCA), is excited to announce an art exhibit featuring historically significant Black scholars in plant science on display in the Molecular Plant Science (MPS) building February 2024 to honor Black History Month." Read the full article here.

 

 

Rees Garmann from San Diego State University will be presenting "Capsid assembly and genome packaging in simple RNA viruses".

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

The Spring BMB Seminar Series will run through April 18, 2024. 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.

 

 

The GAC is an annual forum for graduate students from ALL disciplines to gain experience communicating their research to a non-specialized audience. In addition to the presentations, this daylong conference is packed with professional development-oriented workshops, resource areas, and other activities such as speed networking, live interviews conducted by The Sci-Files (an award-winning podcast!), Keynote, lunch, and more! Even if you are not presenting this year, you can come and enjoy the activities and amazing student presentations, including the 3-Minute Thesis competition! Learn more about this international-based competition here. View the full event schedule here.

Join us for MPS speaker Andrew Nelson from Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University. The seminar will be held at 4:00 p.m. in BCH room 101.

Andrew’s talk is titled “An exploration into RNA-mediated responses to environmental stress in plants”. We would like to invite graduate students and postdocs to join the speaker for a lunch and discussion. Lunch will be provided at 12:00 p.m. 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, March 8, 2024 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.

GWIS eboard will be attending Women*s Student Services StartSmart Salary Negotiation Workshop. The workshop will be an opportunity to "learn about the gender pay gap and how it affects you, assessing your value as an employee, the target salary and benefits for the job you're applying for, and proven strategies for negotiation." If you plan on joining us, please sign up at this form. Learn more about MSU Women's History Month events here.

This webinar is designed for Plan A Master’s students and all Doctoral students who intend to graduate this semester. During this workshop students will receive information regarding the following:

• How to format their thesis or dissertation correctly
• How to successfully submit their thesis or dissertation via ProQuest
• How to successfully submit required paperwork, complete their Graduate School degree requirements, and receive their diploma

Learn more and register here.

This is a virtual webinar series designed to help PhDs explore and evaluate their career options. Beyond Prof will walk participants through a series of exercises to help them evaluate career options and identify next steps in building their career either as faculty or beyond the professoriate. This series is uniquely designed for doctoral students, PhDs, and postdocs from all academic disciplines who are wondering:

• Is a faculty career path right for me?
• What other career options are available to PhDs in my discipline?
• How to identify career pathways that are right for me?
• What can I do with my PhD?

This series will be available through live and recorded sessions. Learn more and register here.

In this 3-hour workshop, plans for time management and working with others will be the main focus. Participants will create academic timelines for their PhD work at MSU and discuss technologies and habits that can help them stay on task. Participants will also discuss how to manage the stress that often pervades the life of PhD students and share strategies for overcoming writer’s block and procrastination.  Additionally, discussion about selecting and working with committees will provide a space for sharing about and learning how to communicate with faculty members about participants’ research and writing. Learn more and register here.

The Plant Resilience Institute's first International Plant Resilience Summit will convene an international cohort of world-class plant science researchers at Michigan State University from May 16-17, 2024. A detailed schedule is available online. The event is FREE and open to all MSU community members. Please register using the online form. Registration closes on Monday, April 15, 2024, at 5 pm ET. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Gaëlle Cassin-Ross (cassin@msu.edu).

 

The primary goals of the FAST Fellowship Program are to provide opportunities for a diverse group of doctoral students to have mentored teaching experiences and gain familiarity with materials on teaching and assessment techniques. The program is for doctoral students with interests in teaching, learning, and assessment in higher education who are enrolled in programs associated with the Colleges of Natural Science, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Engineering, Social Science, Nursing, Osteopathic Medicine, and Veterinary Medicine or whose college or department has an approved Certification in College Teaching Program. Learn more and apply here.

Application Deadline:

• Outstanding Doctoral Student Mentor Award: April 15, 2024
• Outstanding Graduate Program Community Award: May 15, 2024
• Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award: May 15, 2024

Nominations for this year’s Graduate School Outstanding Mentoring Awards are now open. These awards recognize graduate programs, faculty, and doctoral students who exemplify mentoring best practices. Learn more about the various awards and how to nominate a person or program by following this link.

 

This Personal Finance for PhDs workshop is provided to you for free by the Graduate School Office of Well-Being, Council of Graduate Students, and the Graduate School at Michigan State University. This workshop teaches you the federal higher education tax benefits available to you, including how to tabulate, calculate, and report your funding and education expenses. Learn more and register here.

The MSU Department of Police and Public Safety has released an online Active Violence Incident Awareness Training program that is available for students, faculty, and staff. This training includes a presentation explaining how to respond during an active violence situation. Throughout the training, knowledge checkpoint questions will appear on screen to evaluate participants’ understanding of the content. In addition, a video is in development, which will be included in the training at a later time. Learn more 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.

 

The Zacharewski lab in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department is looking for a laboratory technician to assist with ongoing research activities performed by undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers. The candidate's duties will include assisting with the management of transgenic mouse colonies including daily monitoring, genotyping, and supporting active experimental protocols such as weighing, substance administration, and tissue collections. They will also assist with general lab maintenance activities including maintaining materials and reagents stocks, regular monitoring of eye wash stations and other safety requirements as well as assist with coordinating EHS inspections and disposal of hazardous way. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

Applications are invited for a Post-Doctoral (Research Associate) position available in plant biochemistry at Michigan State University in the laboratory of Dr. Peter K. Lundquist. We study the function and formation of plastoglobule lipid droplets of chloroplasts which are highly relevant to plant stress responses and play an active role in membrane remodeling and numerous lipid metabolic pathways. Duties of the incumbent will include gene cloning and heterologous protein expression, protein purifications, in vitro assays, phosphoproteomic analyses, manuscript writing, and training of other lab personnel. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

The First-year Research Immersion (FRI) program at Binghamton University invites applications for a three-year renewable, full time Research Assistant Professor (also known as the Research Educator) position, to begin August 2024. This is a unique 10-month non-tenure track faculty position that directly combines teaching and research. This position is for Biomedical Chemistry (open to individuals with appropriate background in biochemistry, molecular biology, chemistry and/or pharmacology). Candidates must have completed PhD degree before starting. Learn more and apply here.

Quinn Laboratory in collaboration with the Coral Resilience Lab (PI: Drury) at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology are looking for a postdoctoral scholar to study the microbiome and metabolome of coral reefs. This project is a fully funded position from the National Science Foundation under its Organismal Response to Climate Change program that aims to understand the biochemistry and microbiology of coral bleaching. Recent research from our group has shown that unique lipids in the coral’s dinoflagellate symbiont reflect its tolerance to thermal stress. This project will integrate multi-omics analysis in the Quinn Lab with field sampling experiments in Kāneʻohe Bay, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi to further understand the dynamics of coral biochemical and microbiological response to temperature stress. Methods used will include mass spectrometry-based metabolomics and high-throughput nucleic acid sequencing. Experiments are designed to mimic future climate conditions and include direct restoration of reefs in Hawaii as part of the program. The position is based in East Lansing but will include field trips and experiments in Kāneʻohe Bay, Hawaiʻi. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

 

Cook, R., Froehlich, J. E., Yang, Y., Korkmaz, I., Kramer, D. M., & Benning, C. (2024). Chloroplast phosphatases LPPγ and LPPε1 facilitate conversion of extraplastidic phospholipids to galactolipids. Plant physiology, kiae100. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiae100

Kulicke, C. A., Swarbrick, G. M., Ladd, N. A., Cansler, M., Null, M., Worley, A., Lemon, C., Ahmed, T., Bennett, J., Lust, T. N., Heisler, C. M., Huber, M. E., Krawic, J. R., Ankley, L. M., McBride, S. K., Tafesse, F. G., Olive, A. J., Hildebrand, W. H., Lewinsohn, D. A., Adams, E. J., … Harriff, M. J. (2024). Delivery of loaded MR1 monomer results in efficient ligand exchange to host MR1 and subsequent MR1T cell activation. Communications biology, 7(1), 228. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-05912-4

Sugimoto, K., Irani, N., Grotewold, E., & Howe, G. A. (2024). Catalytically impaired chalcone isomerase retains flavonoid biosynthetic capacity. Plant physiology, kiae096. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiae096

Wu, H. L., Ai, Q., Teixeira, R. T., Nguyen, P. H. T., Song, G., Montes, C., Elmore, J. M., Walley, J. W., & Hsu, P. Y. (2024). Improved super-resolution ribosome profiling reveals prevalent translation of upstream ORFs and small ORFs in Arabidopsis. The Plant cell, 36(3), 510–539. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad290

 

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College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 57, No.10