BMB Weekly #31: August 9, 2024

 

"Eric Hegg recommended as dean of MSU’s College of Natural Science" Read the full article here. "Sugary Surprise nets UURAF Grand Prize" Featuring Coral Brock and Rachel Kerwin. Read the full article here.

 

 

Polly Hsu from Michigan State University will be presenting "The translational landscape and its regulation in plants".

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

The Fall BMB Seminar Series will run through December 5, 2024. 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.

 

Incoming graduate students are invited to participate a Fall Welcome Scavenger Hunt sponsored by the MSU Graduate School and the Council of Graduate Students! Participants will explore Michigan State University's campus while searching for key landmarks and locations. Try to complete the checklist for a chance to win some swag and prizes from the MSU Graduate School. Participants must be enrolled for the upcoming semester. Learn more here.

Tessa Jordan and Matt Faber 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.

MSU IT is offering a special series of back-to-school webinars to help students learn about the educational technology tools used in MSU classes. Learn about D2L Brightspace, Zoom, Microsoft Office 365, using generative AI as a college student, and more! Learn more and register here.

The Center for Integrative Studies in General Science has again arranged to have DPS provide an Emergency Training. The session is available to all NatSci faculty, staff, and graduate students, and will cover topics including Emergency Action Plans (EAP) and Emergency Action Teams (EAT), “types” of emergencies requiring action, Reporting an Emergency, Emergency Communications, Staying Prepared, and Active Violence (brief). In addition, Nicole Ziegler (DPS Operations Coordinator) can respond to any questions participants might have about any potential emergency situation. Faculty, staff, and graduate students who have attended the session in the past have indicated that it was very worthwhile. No registration is required. Learn more here.

The Integrative Pharmacological Sciences Training Program (IPSTP) Annual Retreat will be held on September 26th from 9 AM - 4 PM. It will feature student speakers, a poster session, and a Keynote from Dr. Rick Neubig. Lunch and an afternoon reception is included. Everyone from the MSU community whose research includes or is relevant to pharmacology is welcome to attend and present a poster! This includes students (graduate and undergraduate), postdocs, research assistants/technicians, and faculty. Poster presenters are eligible for poster awards, given at the end of day reception. Learn more and submit an abstract here.

• August 15, 2024: 1st Year Students

Scheduled to take place at Michigan State University, ComSciCon-MI is a free workshop focused on science communication. This event is tailored specifically for graduate students and postdocs in Michigan and neighboring regions, and this year, we are pleased to extend participation opportunities to undergraduates interested in science communication as well. ComSciCon is widely recognized for its impactful professional development programs, conceptualized and led by STEM graduate students. Each year, we select 40 participants to attend the workshop at no cost, thanks to the generous support of our sponsors. The program features panel sessions with approximately 20 invited professional science communicators, writing sessions to hone participants' skills, peer and expert review of writing, and a pop talk contest where participants showcase their science outreach projects and forge new collaborations. Learn more here and apply here.

With a mission to share the latest, most impactful research findings in the molecular life sciences, the ASBMB Annual Meeting offers an exciting agenda that includes talks by the field's foremost experts, interactive workshops on the latest trends, technologies and techniques, and an invigorating exhibition of posters, services and products. The meeting attracts researchers in academia and industry, educators, trainees and students from across the globe. It offers unparalleled opportunities for collaborating, networking and recruiting. ASBMB members are invited to submit proposals for interest group sessions and workshops for the 2025 ASBMB Annual Meeting. Learn more and submit a proposal here.

 

 

This event is available entirely virtually with select hybrid sessions and 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
• Intro to MSU Libraries
• Accessibility and blended learning skills
• Overviews of tools like D2L, Microsoft 365, Teams, Forms, and OneDrive
• And much more!

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.

 

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.

 

Bandopadhyay, S., Li, X., Bowsher, A. W., Last, R. L., & Shade, A. (2024). Disentangling plant- and environment-mediated drivers of active rhizosphere bacterial community dynamics during short-term drought. Nature communications, 15(1), 6347. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50463-1

Bibik, J. D., Sahu, A., Kim, B., Unda, F., Andersen, T. B., Mansfield, S. D., Maravelias, C. T., Sharkey, T. D., & Hamberger, B. R. (2024). Engineered poplar for bioproduction of the triterpene squalene. Plant biotechnology journal, 22(8), 2301–2311. https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14345

Hoh, D., Froehlich, J. E., & Kramer, D. M. (2024). Redox regulation in chloroplast thylakoid lumen: The pmf changes everything, again. Plant, cell & environment, 47(8), 2749–2765. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.14789

Hozumi, Y., & Wei, G. W. (2024). Analyzing Single Cell RNA Sequencing with Topological Nonnegative Matrix Factorization. Journal of computational and applied mathematics, 445, 115842. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cam.2024.115842

Li, Z., Bhowmik, S., Sagresti, L., Brancato, G., Smith, M., Benson, D. E., Li, P., & Merz, K. M., Jr (2024). Simulating Metal-Imidazole Complexes. Journal of chemical theory and computation, 10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00581. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00581

Rafnsdottir, S., Jang, K., Halldorsdottir, S. T., Vinod, M., Tomasdottir, A., Möller, K., Halldorsdottir, K., Reynisdottir, T., Atladottir, L. H., Allison, K. E., Ostacolo, K., He, J., Zhang, L., Northington, F. J., Magnusdottir, E., Chavez-Valdez, R., Anderson, K. J., & Bjornsson, H. T. (2024). SMYD5 is a regulator of the mild hypothermia response. Cell reports, 43(8), 114554. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114554

Rahman, M. M., Keya, S. S., Sahu, A., Gupta, A., Dhingra, A., Tran, L. P., & Mostofa, M. G. (2024). Acetic acid: a cheap but chief metabolic regulator for abiotic stress tolerance in plants. Stress biology, 4(1), 34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44154-024-00167-9

Wee, J., & Wei, G. W. (2024). Evaluation of AlphaFold 3's Protein-Protein Complexes for Predicting Binding Free Energy Changes upon Mutation. Journal of chemical information and modeling, 10.1021/acs.jcim.4c00976. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.4c00976

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, 119(3), 1226–1238. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.16844

 

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College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 57, No.31