BMB Weekly #13: March 28, 2025

 

MSU Plant Science Community showcases 'The World of Plants' at STEAM Expo Days "The Michigan State University (MSU) Plant Science Community is set to flourish at the STEAM Expo Days on April 5-6, a part of the annual MSU Science Festival (SciFest)." Read the full article here.

 

 

Paul Boutros from the University of California, Los Angeles will be presenting "Why don’t all cancers kill?".

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.

 

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.

In this workshop you will learn how to document your teaching and/or teaching professional development experiences to start crafting your teaching philosophy statement with the help of a rubric. At the end of this session, you will have a working draft of your teaching statement, which will encourage you to continue your efforts toward intentional and effective teaching and instruction. Learn more and register here.

Join us for MPS speaker Sacha Coesel from the University of Washington. The seminar will be held at 4:00 p.m. in room PLB 247.

Sacha’s talk is titled “Open Ocean Primary Production: Insights from Phytoplankton Metatranscriptomics”. We would like to invite graduate students and postdocs to join the speaker for a lunch and discussion on Monday, March 31st. Lunch will be provided at 12:00PM in PBL 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 at morrisk@msu.edu with any dietary restrictions by Friday March 28, 2025 at 12pm. 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.

Attend this seminar on Zoom. Passcode: 028299

Please join us on the first Friday of each month for three hours of dedicated time to advance your scholarship. Past participants have written journal articles, grant proposals, book chapters, theses or dissertations, curricula, pieces for public audiences, and community engagement portfolios. Participants should plan to write for the full three hours. We start the write-in by sharing writing goals for the day and wrap up with accomplishments and next steps. Learn more and register here.

Learn the exciting and latest science from BMB Undergraduates. Please stop by and show your support for our amazing students as they present their research posters!

From April 7 through 11, the Graduate School is holding various events and activities to recognize the hard work and achievements of MSU’s graduate and professional students. There will be meet & greets with MSU leadership, professional development activities, games, and more. We have also partnered with the MSU Dairy Store to feature a new ice cream flavor throughout April: Grad School Grind! Join us in celebrating our incredible graduate and professional students! Learn more 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.

Ph.D. students selected for this 12-month fellowship will collaborate with a Lyman Briggs College faculty member on a research project focused on undergraduate teaching and learning. Research topics may include developing and assessing curricular innovations such as inquiry-based labs, interdisciplinary teaching, science ethics, teaching with case studies, and strategies to improve retention and success of diverse STEM students.

Each Fellow will work closely with their faculty mentor and receive support to share project outcomes through peer-reviewed journals, conferences, and pedagogy-focused venues. Proposed projects for 2025–2026 are available on the SUTL projects webpage, and applicants may also propose additional ideas. Learn more and apply here.

 

Taxes are confusing! Especially when you are a funded grad/professional student! This workshop, versions available for citizen/resident and nonresident (international students), breaks down how to calculate your taxable income from your salary, stipend, fellowship, grant, and/or scholarships; minimize your tax liability using education tax benefits; and report your income, qualified education expenses, and estimated tax paid on your tax return. Learn more and register here.

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.

 

Feng, H., Zhao, J. Y., & Wei, G. W. (2025). Multiscale Differential Geometry Learning for Protein Flexibility Analysis. Journal of computational chemistry, 46(7), e70073. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcc.70073

Jiang, J., Chen, L., Zhu, Y., Shi, Y., Qiu, H., Zhang, B., Zhou, T., & Wei, G. W. (2025). Proteomic Learning of Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) Receptor-Mediated Anesthesia. Journal of chemical information and modeling, 10.1021/acs.jcim.5c00114. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.5c00114

Tefft, N. M., Wang, Y., Jussupow, A., Feig, M., & TerAvest, M. A. (2025). Controlled Enzyme Cargo Loading in Engineered Bacterial Microcompartment Shells. Biochemistry, 64(6), 1285–1292. 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, 64(6), 1359–1369. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.4c00761

 

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College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 58, No.13