BMB Weekly #24: June 21, 2024

 

"Meet James, 2024 Homecoming Court Member" Featuring James Suggitt. Read the full article here. BMB Students Win 1st Place Awards at 2024 UURAF Grace Best "Assessing the Effectiveness of DIY 2-Liter black light Moth Traps for Educational Use" Mentor: Dr. Brian Keas Caroline Downes "Conserved somatic mutation in ckit oncogene in mouse model of breast cancer associated with loss of expression" Mentor: Dr. Eran Andrecheck Caroline Erpelding "Inhibitory proteins push membrane reentrant loop of intramembrane protease outside the membrane" Mentor: Dr. Lee Kroos Dana Nzerem "Participant Characteristics associated with the vaginal microbiome based on Household Income in Pregnant Women" Mentor: Dr. Sarah Comstock Justin Strong ""She's going to write her own story": A mixed-methods study exploring caregivers' experiences with their children with medical complexities" Mentor: Dr. Emily Jensen Megha Suresh "Chloropicrin and Cell Death: in Vitro Study" Mentors: Dr Neera Tewari-Singh and Dr. Ebenezar Okoyeocha  Ethan Wolfe "Leveraging machine learning to predict antimicrobial resistance in ESKAPE pathogens" Mentor: Dr Janani Ravi Caleb York "Pathway Discovery - A deep dive into the S. pennellii root acylsugar biosynthesis pathway" Mentors: Dr. Robert Last and Dr. Jaynee Hart

 

 

 

Plagiarism - stealing the work of another - is an increasing problem in the scholarly community. At MSU, this ranks as the #1 allegation of research misconduct. This session will also aim to help you understand what plagiarism is, how to test for it within your own work, how to discuss plagiarism, and where to go for advice on plagiarism. Learn more and register here.

Attention Master’s Plan A and Doctoral students: Do you have questions regarding formatting your thesis or dissertation? Stop in during one of our help sessions to talk to Graduate School staff about any specific formatting questions you may have. These are walk-in sessions. No registration is required. Learn more here.

Kai-Ching Hsiao and Rachel Bonacci 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.

Here is another writing workshop opportunity offered by Prof. David Lowry, who will be leading a four-week workshop on demystifying the academic job application process this June. The overall goal of the workshop will be to gain a better understanding of how to approach writing all the components of an academic job package. We will read through successful applications and then break down what works well and what does not work well piece by piece. All four workshop meetings will take place on Fridays at 2-3pm Eastern Time. The first meeting of the workshop will be an organizational meeting that will also focus on Cover Letter writing. Please come prepared by reading a few sample cover letters from the repository of application package examples. Learn more here and register at this website. If you have any additional questions, please reach out to David Lowry (dlowry@msu.edu). 

Whether you are a new, international, or a returning Graduate Teaching Assistant, the Graduate Teaching Assistant Preparation Program offers sessions that provide policy training required of everyone and sessions to make you more effective in your teaching, including resources and professional development opportunities. Learn more and register here.

 

The Graduate Employees Union and Michigan State University agreed to add 500 additional tuition credits to the tuition waiver benefit for teaching assistants. This additional benefit will be in place for May 2024 - May 2028. The Fall tuition pool is available to students appointed as teaching assistants in Fall 2024. Learn more and apply here.

 

If you are looking for workshops on teaching and learning, please consider attending virtual summer workshops offered by MSU’s Colleges’ Online Learning Academy. To see which workshops are offered (and which ones fulfill competencies for the Certification in College Teaching), please follow the link below. Workshops are facilitated by faculty who engage in scholarship and research around digital teaching & learning in MSU’s Enhanced Digital Learning Initiative. Learn more and register here.

Whether students are feeling overwhelmed due to academic, social, or personal pressures or just need to connect, Togetherall is available 24/7 to remind them they are not alone. This free, anonymous, waitlist free, peer-to-peer mental health support community is monitored and moderated 24/7 by licensed clinicians and empowers students to give and receive support for a full range of concerns. Many students do not seek out campus in-person/virtual mental health treatment. Togetherall provides an alternative option for students seeking mental health support, offering an additional resource for students who are looking for an outlet to share and process their emotions. Learn more 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.

 

We seek to recruit a highly motivated and skilled postdoctoral researcher with training in molecular biology, plant genetics, or cell biology. The project will leverage recent advances in microscopy, genetics, and physiology to understand molecular mechanisms of dehydration and desiccation tolerance in Arabidopsis. This project is part of a recently funded NSF Biology Integration Institute called Water and Life Interface Institute (WALII, pronounced “Wally”). WALII studies how life interacts with water, from the molecular to the organismal level, across plants, fungi, and animals. WALII is a virtual institute, with scientists located at nine research facilities across the United States. Working together, WALII team members aim to uncover the rules by which organisms interact with water. The candidate selected for this position will be working primarily on Theme 2. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

The Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology (IPMB), Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan invites applications for tenure-track faculty positions at the Assistant Research Fellow level (equivalent to Assistant Professor) in the research areas of plants and plant-related microbes. Successful candidates should have research records complementary to the current IPMB research capacities or have the potential to launch a new research direction. Preference will be given, but not limited to applicants with research experience in computational biology or sustainability. Learn more and apply here. Contact Dr. Chih-Horng Kuo for additional information.

Dr. Xiaosa (Jack) Xu Lab in the Department of Plant Biology at the University of California, Davis is seeking a highly motivated and independent individual who is interested in pursuing an academic career in plant developmental genetics and single-cell genomics research. The postdoctoral scholar who secures this position will use cutting-edge single-cell genomics, spatial transcriptomics, and genome editing approaches to identify and characterize key genes in plant development and evolution, and inform crop improvement. The successful applicant will be responsible for conducting single-cell genomics and spatial transcriptomics experiments and data analysis, followed by genome editing validation. The applicant will work closely with a team in the Xu lab, as well as with collaborators at UC Davis and other institutions. They will have the opportunity to mentor graduate and undergraduate students, participate in the preparation and writing of manuscripts and grants. The candidate will also have opportunities to attend workshops/courses as required by ongoing and future research projects, such as the Frontiers and Techniques in Plant Science course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Contact Dr. Xiaosa Xu for further information. Learn more about this listing by following 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, 195(2), 1506–1520. https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiae100

Coronas, L. E., Van, T., Iorio, A., Lapidus, L. J., Feig, M., & Sterpone, F. (2024). Stability and deformation of biomolecular condensates under the action of shear flow. The Journal of chemical physics, 160(21), 215101. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0209119

Cottrell, S., Hozumi, Y., & Wei, G. W. (2024). K-nearest-neighbors induced topological PCA for single cell RNA-sequence data analysis. Computers in biology and medicine, 175, 108497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2024.108497

George, N. L., Bennett, E. C., & Orlando, B. J. (2024). Guarding the walls: the multifaceted roles of Bce modules in cell envelope stress sensing and antimicrobial resistance. Journal of bacteriology, e0012324. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.00123-24

Kopriva, S., Rahimzadeh Karvansara, P., & Takahashi, H. (2024). Adaptive Modifications in Plant Sulfur Metabolism over Evolutionary Time. Journal of experimental botany, erae252. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erae252

Liu, C., Zhang, Y., Botana, M. T., Fu, Y., Huang, L., Jiang, L., Yu, X., Luo, Y., & Huang, H. (2024). The bioenergetics response of the coral Pocillopora damicornis to temperature changes during its reproduction stage. Marine environmental research, 198, 106557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106557

Meyer, E., Saldivar, E. V., Kokot, M., Xue, B., Deorowicz, S., Rhee, S. Y., & Salzman, J. (2024). A reference-free algorithm discovers regulation in the plant transcriptome. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2024.05.23.595613. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.23.595613

Mikhova, M., Goff, N. J., Janovič, T., Heyza, J. R., Meek, K., & Schmidt, J. C. (2024). Single-molecule imaging reveals the kinetics of non-homologous end-joining in living cells. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2023.06.22.546088. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.22.546088

Rosling, A., Eshghi Sahraei, S., Kalsoom Khan, F., Desirò, A., Bryson, A. E., Mondo, S. J., Grigoriev, I. V., Bonito, G., & Sánchez-García, M. (2024). Evolutionary history of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and genomic signatures of obligate symbiosis. BMC genomics, 25(1), 529. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-024-10391-2

Sugimoto, K., Irani, N. G., Grotewold, E., & Howe, G. A. (2024). Catalytically impaired chalcone isomerase retains flavonoid biosynthetic capacity. Plant physiology, 195(2), 1143–1147. https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiae096

Walker, B., Schmiege, S. C., & Sharkey, T. D. (2024). Re-evaluating the energy balance of the many routes of carbon flow through and from photorespiration. Plant, cell & environment, 10.1111/pce.14949. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.14949

Xu, Y., Schmiege, S. C., & Sharkey, T. D. (2024). The oxidative pentose phosphate pathway in photosynthesis: a tale of two shunts. The New phytologist, 242(6), 2453–2463. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19730

Zhao, Y., Deng, L., Last, R. L., Hua, W., & Liu, J. (2024). Psb28 protein is indispensable for stable accumulation of PSII core complexes in Arabidopsis. The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology, 10.1111/tpj.16844. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.16844

 

To provide feedback or submit content, please email bmb.web@msu.edu. Don't forget to follow us on social media!

College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 57, No.24