BMB Weekly #12: March 21, 2025

 

BMB Attends Stand Up For Science 2025   "We’re Standing Up for Science – because science is for everyone." Photo submitted by Jon Kaguni.

 

 

Alberto Perez from the University of Florida will be presenting "Navigating the energy landscapes of proteins and their complexes".

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

The Spring BMB Seminar Series will run through April 24, 2025. 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.

 

TEDxMSU is a vibrant, non-profit initiative led by the spirited students of Michigan State University. Our organization represents a dynamic synergy of MSU's brightest minds – students, faculty, alumni – and the pulsating East Lansing community. Our annual conference features interdisciplinary talks with the purpose of promoting inquiry and critical discussion, as well as a diverse array of performances and an interactive marketplace. Experience the power of ideas at TEDxMSU – where we don’t just share ideas; we set them into motion. Learn more here.

Join us for MPS speaker Julia Kehr from the University of Hamburg. The seminar will be held at 4:00 p.m. via Zoom.

Julia’s talk is titled “Phloem Insights: The interplay of RNA, RNA-Binding Proteins, and Biomolecular Condensates”. We would like to invite graduate students and postdocs to join the speaker (via zoom) for a lunch and discussion on Monday, March 24th. Lunch will be provided at 12:00PM in PBL 168 (I’ll have zoom set up in this room so no need for your laptops). 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 at morrisk@msu.edu with any dietary restrictions by Thursday March 20, 2025 at 4pm.

Attend this seminar on Zoom. Passcode: 028299

Learn about vital campus resources through informal, expert discussions, providing insights, Q&A opportunities, and practical guidance for student success and well-being. This next session features Mary Ellen Rutemeyer, GEU (Graduate Employees Union) Chief Information Officer and Lamont Stephens, GEU Staff Organizer. Join this session via Zoom. Learn more and register here.

Whether you are working on the competencies for your Certification in College Teaching, your Diversity Statement, or your Teaching Philosophy Statement, join us for an in-person writing session. Please come to this working and scaffolding session prepared with questions, identify your needs so you can set goals to complete your work or make progress on your ongoing documents (e.g., teaching philosophy), and provide resources and feedback. Learn more and register here.

Do you need R for your research but are not sure where to start? Have you tried learning R but struggled to learn on your own? This seminar is for you! This seminar is designed as an accessible and inclusive resource on how to learn R and includes a 60-minute seminar session and access to a curated set of resources for learning R. Learn more and register here.

This three-hour workshop will introduce students to structural equations modeling (SEM) using the R software environment. The basic underlying mathematics will be covered, but the main focus will be on common applications including path/mediation analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Learn more and register here.

Michigan State University is celebrating its 15th annual César Chávez & Dolores Huerta Commemorative Celebration, honoring the legacies of local and national community leaders and organizers. This year’s theme is "De Aqui Y de Alla: Celebrating 15 Years of Empowerment, Community and Culture". This event will be hosted from 6-10 p.m. celebrating farmworkers through conversation, food, and dance. The College of Natural Science is pleased to be a sponsoring unit this year. The event is free and open to the public. We welcome MSU students, faculty, support staff and community members.  

This event is grown from the strength of the Latino/e and farmworker communities and the allies who stand in solidarity to raise awareness of the contributions, hardships, issues, and obstacles both ongoing and newly surfacing. It’s organized to honor the leadership and advocacy of César Chávez and Dolores Huerta. Learn more and register here.

 

The Colleges Online Learning Academy (COLA) program is now accepting applications for its 2025 cohort. This program is a summer fellowship that provides workshops and professional development around digital teaching and learning, developing your scholarly teaching identity, and inclusion & accessibility. The fellowship mentors participant cohorts through developing deliverables and reflections on your teaching practice. Learn more and apply here.

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.

The window for nominations for the MSU College of Natural Science awards is now open. The descriptions of each award and nomination information can be found here.

Award Categories Include:

• Teacher/scholar
• Teaching
• Outstanding faculty researchers (senior, mid-career, and early career)
• Mentoring of postdocs
• Mentoring of junior faculty
• Undergraduate teaching
• Distinguished academic staff
• Support staff

We encourage you to nominate deserving colleagues and students for these awards. Nomination packets will be considered for up to three award cycles for faculty and staff awards, provided the nominees remain eligible, though packet updates are encouraged. Nominations may be submitted to natsci.dean@msu.edu.

The Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Collaboration, Learning, and Engagement (CIRCLE) will support three doctoral graduate students in the CIRCLE Graduate Fellowship (CGFP). The CGFP is a guided fellowship focused on interdisciplinary research and practice. Fellows in the program will develop skills and knowledge related to the practice of interdisciplinary inquiry and collaboration, including qualitative and arts-based methods, team building, facilitation, and critical engagement with the concept of interdisciplinarity. Learn more and apply here.

 

The 27th Annual University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) will happen on Friday, April 11 at the Breslin Center from 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM and online from April 10 – 11.  Come celebrate the research and creative scholarship of over 1,000 students from across the 14 undergraduate colleges! UURAF is not possible without the help of event volunteers and presentation evaluators. We invite members of the MSU community to volunteer. Graduate Students and Post-doctoral Fellows are especially encouraged to participate as evaluators. Sign-up forms are open until March 26th.

• Sign up to evaluate presentations at the Breslin Center 
• Sign up to evaluate online presentations 

Hot off the press! The second University Health and Wellbeing Annual Report is now available! Explore the latest insights on how health and wellbeing was advanced on campus and delivered positive impact for the Spartan community in 2024.

The Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL) is looking for student volunteers! Learn about great volunteer engagement opportunities here.

The MSU Student Food Bank is a resource available to students and scholars who may be experiencing food insecurity. The Food Bank provides free food and other essential items to those in need within our MSU community. Learn more here.

 

The Office Coordinator of Michigan State University’s Plant Resilience Institute (PRI) provides high-level administrative support, ensuring efficient office operations of the PRI admin team while assisting PRI director and faculty with scheduling, correspondence, travel and HR support. This role requires exceptional organizational and time-management skills, attention to detail, soft skills, and discretion in handling confidential information. This role ensures smooth operations and administrative excellence. It is ideal for a highly organized professional who thrives in dynamic environments and contributes to organizational success. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting here.

 

Allahyartorkaman, M., Chan, T. H., Chen, E. H., Ng, S. T., Chen, Y. A., Wen, J. K., Ho, M. R., Yen, H. Y., Kuan, Y. S., Kuo, M. H., & Chen, R. P. (2025). Phosphorylation-Induced Self-Coacervation versus RNA-Assisted Complex Coacervation of Tau Proteins. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 10.1021/jacs.4c14728. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c14728

Bonacci, R. E., McGill, M., Le, N. T. A., Barkarar, M., Finnegan, C., Wilson, M., Ajagbe, O., Udekwu, C. C., Gorski, K., Manohar, J., Sboner, A., & Ogunwobi, O. O. (2025). Upregulation of the interferon-inducible antiviral gene RSAD2 in neuroendocrine prostate cancer via PVT1 exon 9 dependent and independent pathways. The Journal of biological chemistry, 108370. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2025.108370

Chatterjee, S., Rankin, J. A., Farrugia, M. A., J S Rifayee, S. B., Christov, C. Z., Hu, J., & Hausinger, R. P. (2025). Biochemical, Structural, and Conformational Characterization of a Fungal Ethylene-Forming Enzyme. Biochemistry, 10.1021/acs.biochem.5c00038. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.5c00038

Herr, S., Li, X., Wu, D., Hunter, C. T., Magallanes-Lundback, M., Wood, J. C., Kaczmar, N., Buell, C. R., DellaPenna, D., & Gore, M. A. (2025). Total tocopherol levels in maize grain depend on chlorophyll biosynthesis within the embryo. BMC plant biology, 25(1), 328. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-025-06267-6

Keng, M., & Merz, K. M., Jr (2025). In Silico Characterization of Glycan Ions from IM-MS Collision Cross Section. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 36(3), 504–513. https://doi.org/10.1021/jasms.4c00370

Khedia, J., Vishwakarma, A. P., Galsurker, O., Corem, S., Gupta, S. K., & Arazi, T. (2024). Tomato HAIRY MERISTEM4, expressed in the phloem, is required for proper shoot and fruit development. Horticulture research, 12(3), uhae325. https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhae325

Prado, K., Holland, B. L., McSpadden Gardener, B., Lundquist, P. K., Santiago, J. P., VanBuren, R., & Rhee, S. Y. (2025). Building Climate-Resilient Crops: Genetic, Environmental, and Technological Strategies for Heat and Drought Stress Tolerance. Journal of experimental botany, eraf111. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraf111

Pretto, S., Yu, Q., Bourdely, P., Trusso Cafarello, S., Van Acker, H. H., Verelst, J., Richiardone, E., Vanheer, L., Roshanzadeh, A., Schneppenheim, F., Cresens, C., Sassano, M. L., Dehairs, J., Carion, M., Ismail, S., Agostinis, P., Rocha, S., Bald, T., Swinnen, J., Corbet, C., … Mazzone, M. (2025). A functional single-cell metabolic survey identifies Elovl1 as a target to enhance CD8+ T cell fitness in solid tumours. Nature metabolism, 10.1038/s42255-025-01233-w. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01233-w

Tefft, N. M., Wang, Y., Jussupow, A., Feig, M., & TerAvest, M. A. (2025). Controlled Enzyme Cargo Loading in Engineered Bacterial Microcompartment Shells. Biochemistry, 10.1021/acs.biochem.4c00709. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.4c00709

Tracy, M., Sosa Alfaro, V., Campeciño, J., Hird, K., Hegg, E. L., Lehnert, N., & Elliott, S. J. (2025). Electrocatalytic Nitrite Reduction by a Monomeric NrfA: Commonality in Ammonification Mechanisms. Biochemistry, 10.1021/acs.biochem.4c00761. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.4c00761

Utley, D., Edwards, B., Budnick, A., Grotewold, E., & Sederoff, H. (2025). Camelina circRNA landscape: Implications for gene regulation and fatty acid metabolism. The plant genome, 18(1), e20537. https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20537

Utley, D., Edwards, B., Budnick, A., Grotewold, E., & Sederoff, H. (2025). Camelina circRNA landscape: Implications for gene regulation and fatty acid metabolism. The plant genome, 18(1), e20537. https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20537

 

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College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 58, No.12