BMB Weekly #17: April 25, 2025

 

"Eric Hegg honored with IMPACT award"   "Eric Hegg, dean of the College of Natural Science and BMB faculty, recently received The Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) 2025 IMPACT Award — an honor recognizing Hegg's significant contributions to scientific understanding and practical applications in alternative energy research and bioenergetics." Read the full article here.   Student Spotlight: Sarah Marei Sarah Marei is a first year PhD student in MSU's Cell and Molecular Biology program where she conducts research in the Andrechek Lab, studying lymph node metastasis of breast cancer. Before joining MSU, Marei completed her bachelor's and master's degrees at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, which is where she spent the majority of her life. An advocate for open science and research communication, she's been a part of the Early Career Advisory Group for eLife journal. Outside of research, she enjoys reading, watching TV shows, hiking or anything in a sunny weather. Read the full article here.

 

 

 

 

University Health and Wellness and CAPS is promoting this suicide prevention fundraiser in collaboration with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention that will include memorial activities for those we have lost to suicide, food, music, raffle, support dogs, and an optional non-competitive walk around campus. Registration is free and folks can sign up as individuals or in teams here.

In this workshop, participants will explore platforms available to build their e-portfolio, especially to highlight their Certification in College Teaching. They will walk through simple steps of one e-portfolio platform and start drafting their own with materials they already have or to expand on or to fine-tune what they have already created. 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/working 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.

This workshop will review (i) non-disclosure agreements and  (ii) the different types of intellectual property created in the academic setting namely copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. The workshop will also introduce the participants to Export Control regulations. Export Controls are U.S. laws that regulate and restrict the release of critical technologies, information, and services to foreign nationals, within and outside of the United States, and foreign countries for reasons of foreign policy and national security. Learn more here and register here.

The CTLI welcomes you to our second all-day Grade-a-thon on May 5th in the Main Library. Enjoy coffee and dedicated time to finish your grading the day before MSU grades are due, with available consultations for all your D2L and grade submission questions. We will celebrate our day of grading in community with a pizza lunch. Educators are welcome to attend for the whole or part of the day. Learn more and register here.

The MSU Genetics and Genome Sciences Program is pleased to announce GGS Day 2025! This event is open to all MSU faculty, staff, and students, as well as members of neighboring institutions and the greater community. This year’s GGS Day will feature various talks, panels, workshops, poster sessions, and lunch provided by Barrio – East Lansing. The full agenda can be viewed here. Learn more here and register using this link.

This conference will bring together plant scientists and students to push the boundaries of plant science, promote collaborations, and empower the next-generation plant science leaders. This conference is organized by 10 universities in the states and provinces around the Great Lakes and open to anyone in the world. Learn more and register here.

 

The Henry Ford Health (HFH) Cancer Epidemiology Prevention and Control research program invites applications for a postdoctoral fellow to begin a 1-2-year fellowships to start in July 2025. The successful candidate will join a team of over 100 cancer researchers conducting studies across the cancer continuum and have the opportunity to share in Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences research mission to become an NCI-designation worthy cancer center with robust clinical, basic and population science research programs that translate findings into state-of-the-art clinical care for our cancer patients. Learn more and apply here.

This award program is a one-year, paid fellowship designed to introduce early-stage life science researchers to the process of bringing medical breakthroughs from the lab space to the commercial shelf. Fellows will be connected to researchers at UIC, Northwestern University, and University of Chicago, as well as members of the Chicago biotech startup community, and industry partners. Learn more and apply here.

Students seeking a career in pharmacological sciences require training in chemistry, molecular biology, biochemistry, cellular and integrative physiology, biostatistics, and interpretation of complex data sets. The IPSTP is committed to bringing these disciplines together in one cohesive training program reflecting the broad scope of knowledge required in pharmacology and drug discovery.

IPSTP students will participate in three week-long intensive boot camps on critical themes of the program (in vivo pharmacology, drug discovery, and computational pharmacology/big data). Students will also be provided non-classroom opportunities for career development planning, to develop critical thinking skills, grant writing experience, and a strong understanding of rigor and reproducibility and research ethics. The application process includes a form for the student to complete outlining how their proposed project fits into the fields of in vivo pharmacology or drug discovery and how they believe being part of the IPSTP will improve their training. The IPSTP Executive Committee completes a holistic review of the application packets every year. Learn more here and register here.

 

COGS Graduate Welfare Committee held an informative series of workshops this semester that focused on important resources around campus. Thank you to all our special guests who helped provide this information to graduate & professional students! You can check out the recorded sessions here: Meet the Resource. And we look forward to bringing similar resource workshops to you next year!

You can find the latest department news over on LinkedIn and BlueSky. Give us a follow and be sure to tag us with research updates, publications, and lab updates to help spread the word!

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 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.

 

 

 

Hayes, N., Wei, X., Feng, H., Merkurjev, E., & Wei, G. W. (2025). Persistent Sheaf Laplacian Analysis of Protein Flexibility. The journal of physical chemistry. B, 10.1021/acs.jpcb.5c01287. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.5c01287

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, 65(7), 3655–3668. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.5c00114

Jiang, J., Zhang, C., Ke, L., Hayes, N., Zhu, Y., Qiu, H., Zhang, B., Zhou, T., & Wei, G. W. (2025). A review of machine learning methods for imbalanced data challenges in chemistry. Chemical science, 10.1039/d5sc00270b. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5sc00270b

Sahu, A., Mostofa, M. G., Xu, Y., Serda, B. M., O'Keefe, J., & Sharkey, T. D. (2025). Isoprene deters insect herbivory by priming plant hormone responses. Science advances, 11(16), eadu4637. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adu4637

Tortorelli, G., Rosset, S. L., Sullivan, C. E. S., Woo, S., Johnston, E. C., Walker, N. S., Hancock, J. R., Caruso, C., Varela, A. C., Hughes, K., Martin, C., Quinn, R. A., & Drury, C. (2025). Heat-induced Stress Modulates Cell Surface Glycans and Membrane Lipids of Coral Symbionts. The ISME journal, wraf073. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/ismejo/wraf073

Vidossich, P., Manathunga, M., Götz, A. W., Merz, K. M., Jr, & De Vivo, M. (2025). Aliphatic Polyester Recognition and Reactivity at the Active Cleft of a Fungal Cutinase. Journal of chemical information and modeling, 10.1021/acs.jcim.5c00739. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.5c00739

Xue, B., Prado, K., Rhee, S. Y., & Stata, M. (2025). UnigeneFinder: An Automated Pipeline for Gene Calling From Transcriptome Assemblies Without a Reference Genome. Plant direct, 9(4), e70056. https://doi.org/10.1002/pld3.70056

 

 

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College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 58, No.17