BMB Weekly #40: October 10, 2025

 

BMB Shares Science at Annual Symposium

This year's BMB symposium at the MSU Union was a great success, offering a day filled with talks, posters, and colleague connections. Thank you to all who attended, and those who made the gathering possible with your organizing!

 

 

 

Brian Gregory from the University of Pennsylvania will be presenting "The nuclear cap-binding complex regulates subcellular RNA processing of coding and non-coding RNAs".

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

The Fall BMB Seminar Series will run through December 4, 2025. 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.

 

Spartans are known for their global impact, each forging a unique path of accomplishments. Yet no matter where life takes them, one thing remains the same — MSU is always home. Each year, Homecoming brings Spartans together to celebrate this unbreakable bond. Explore Homecoming details here, including parade information, the Grand Marshal, Homecoming Court, Glow Green initiative and student events.

Join us for MPS speaker Hongqing Guo from Iowa State University. The seminar will be held at 4:00 p.m.

Hongqing’s talk is titled “Elucidating Context-Specific FERONIA Receptor Kinase Signaling”. We would like to invite graduate students and postdocs to join the speaker for a lunch and discussion on Monday, October 13th. Lunch will be provided at 12:00 p.m. 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 October 10, 2025 at 1 p.m. 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 via Zoom. Passcode: 028299

The Michigan State University Mass Spectrometry & Metabolomics Core (MSMC) invites you to join us for our Open House! Come explore our newly renovated facilities, learn about our advanced capabilities, and connect with our expert staff. MSMC supports discovery-phase and translational research with cutting-edge technology, expert support, and collaborative opportunities across MSU and Henry Ford Health. Whether you are a seasoned user or new to metabolomics and mass spectrometry, this is a great opportunity to learn how MSMC can accelerate your research. Learn more here.

Participants will explore the various institution types during the session and discuss how to align their written materials with the mission and values of an institution to be a competitive candidate. Institution types range from primarily undergraduate institutions and comprehensive universities to research intensive, minority serving, and faith-based institutions. What is the best type for you? Learn more and register here.

All are welcome! Graduate students, postdocs and faculty are invited to a Water Alliance Early-Career Professionals networking event connecting our early-career professionals with faculty and specialists from across the university. Learn more and register here.

In this interactive workshop presented by CIRCLE and CTLI, you’ll hear from a panel of MSU educators about their innovative co-teaching experiences, practice skills that contribute to strong interdisciplinary collaboration, and leave with a personalized plan for interdisciplinary teaching. Learn more and register here.

The Office of Graduate Career Development announces three virtual career fairs this October hosted by the Big Ten consortium of 18+ institutions. Fairs are free to attend and designed specifically for MS, PhD, and postdoctoral scholars like you. Wherever you are in your academic training or postdoctoral work, now is the perfect time to begin shaping your next professional step. Registration is handled via Handshake, MSU's Career platform!

• BIG10 Graduate Student & Postdoc Industry Recruitment Event (GSPIRE)
  Thursday, October 23 | 12:00 – 4:00 PM ET
  Registration Deadline: October 13, 2025
  Open to: MS, PhD, and Postdoc students from all disciplines

Check out more great resources on the Graduate Career Development website.

 

Students enrolled in a graduate program at MSU studying any discipline, in good academic standing, are eligible to apply for the fellowship. Consideration will be given to graduate students who have clearly demonstrated leadership in their respective disciplines and/or professional societies through but not limited to, an award, presentation or participation in a panel discussion, or have been elected to serve in a leadership role on a professional society committee, or have been elected to serve in a leadership role on a professional society committee or nationally recognized graduate student organization. Awards may also be used to benefit or further research and/or cover expenses- travel, registration, and housing fees- for leadership development opportunities outside of MSU. Learn more and apply here.

Dr. Karen Klomparens Fellowship recipient(s) will receive a one-time fellowship award in the spring semester and will attend an event in honor of Dr. Klomparens' legacy. The Graduate School will contact your major advisor and ask for a letter of support. Applicants are asked to submit their application with enough time to allow the major professor/advisor to submit their letter of support. Applications without a letter of support will not be reviewed. Learn more and apply here.

 

This coming Spring (SS26) we will be offering the graduate course “Tools for Women in STEM” (NSC 844). This is a 2-credit course with practical tools that help graduate students advance their career goals and mitigate the challenges they may encounter. Learn more here.

MSU faculty, research staff, and graduate students can stop by to get their research questions answered in-person by an experienced statistical consultant on aspects of study design, data collection, and statistical analysis and reporting.

Drop-in office hours are as follows (excluding holidays):

• Monday: 10:00am - 12:00 p.m.
• Tuesday: Closed
• Wednesday: 3:00pm - 5:00 p.m.
• Thursday: 3:00pm - 5:00 p.m.
• Friday: 8:00am - 10:00 p.m.

Learn more here.

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!

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.

 

Michigan State University's Plant Resilience Institute (PRI) is seeking a highly motivated and skilled postdoctoral researcher to lead a project focused on discovering a new class of regulatory metabolites and their nuclear signaling mechanisms that govern plant resilience. The project integrates bioinformatics, molecular genetics, protein structural prediction, and experimental validation to investigate their roles in gene regulation and stress response. The postdoctoral researcher will lean efforts in gene characterization, reverse genetics and ligand screening using phenotyping and molecular genetic approaches. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to conceptual advances in plant stress hormone biology, while building tools and resources of broad utility to the plant science community. The successful candidate will join a highly interdisciplinary team led by Dr. Gregg Howe, with collaborators across PRI. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting here.

The Fitzsimmons lab in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is seeking a postdoctoral research associate for projects focused on the intersection of RNA biology and metabolism. The lab’s research directions include: 1) investigating molecular-level metabolic factors driving RNA modification changes; 2) understanding the regulation of RNA writers and erasers by metabolism; and 3) the role of tumor heterogeneity in RNA gene regulation. The lab employs multidisciplinary approaches from chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, and bioinformatics to investigate the role of RNA modifications and modification enzymes both in vitro and in vivo. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting here.

 

 

Arachchige, E. J., Rahman, M. S., Singendonk, K. S., & Kim, K. H. (2025). Structural and Functional Characterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Virulence Factor AaaA, an Autotransporter with Arginine-Specific Aminopeptidase Activity. Journal of molecular biology, 437(19), 169358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2025.169358

Arachchige, E. J., Rahman, M. S., Singendonk, K. S., & Kim, K. H. (2025). Structural and Functional Characterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Virulence Factor AaaA, an Autotransporter with Arginine-Specific Aminopeptidase Activity. Journal of molecular biology, 437(19), 169358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2025.169358

Hoang, Y., Dufour, Y. S., & Kroos, L. (2025). Segregation of sister chromosomes during the shape change of developing Myxococcus xanthus cells. Journal of bacteriology, e0032825. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.00328-25

Jiang, J., Chen, L., Ke, L., Dou, B., Zhu, Y., Shi, Y., Qiu, H., Zhang, B. G., Zhou, T., & Wei, G. W. (2025). Machine learning predictions from unpredictable chaos. Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 22(231), 20250441. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2025.0441

Jiang, Y., Nikolovski, M., Wang, T., MacRenaris, K., O'Halloran, T. V., & Hu, J. (2025). Targeting the selectivity filter to drastically alter the activity and substrate spectrum of a promiscuous metal transporter. Chemical science, 16(38), 17675–17687. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5sc03700j

Oliveira, J.dS., Dick, C. F., Pereira Nunes, G. H., Essus, V. A., Schrad, J., Subramanian, S., Abrahão, J., Meyer-Fernandes, J. R., Parent, K., & Cortines, J. R. (2025). Intracellular iron positively modulates the replicative cycle of mimiviruses, increasing virus production. Journal of virology, e0102525. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.01025-25

Sagresti, L., Benedetti, L., Merz, K. M., Jr, & Brancato, G. (2025). Simulating Metal Complex Formation and Ligand Exchange: Unraveling the Interplay between Entropy, Kinetics, and Mechanisms on the Chelate Effect. Journal of chemical theory and computation, 21(18), 8950–8962. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.5c01079

Saldivar, E. V., Field, S., & Rhee, S. Y. (2025). Cellular view of metabolism: metabolic biomolecular condensates. The New phytologist, 248(2), 555–562. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70474

Shammami, M. A., Virola-Iarussi, A., McCrary, I., & Ralston, A. (2025). Primitive means first, not worst: Critical roles for primitive endoderm in embryos and embryo models. Developmental biology, 528, 255–263. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.09.008

Violante, S., Kyaw, A., Kouatli, L., Paladugu, K., Apostolakis, L., Jenks, M., Johnson, A., Sheldon, R. D., Whitten, D., Schilmiller, A. L., Visconti, P. E., Cross, J. R., Levin, L. R., Buck, J., & Balbach, M. (2025). Sperm meet the elevated energy demands to attain fertilization competence by increasing flux through aldolase. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(39), e2506417122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2506417122

Xu, Y., Schmiege, S. C., & Sharkey, T. D. (2025). Time-resolved targeted metabolomics shows an abrupt switch from Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle to tricarboxylic acid cycle when the light is turned off. Photosynthesis research, 163(5), 51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-025-01173-2

Ziccardi, L. G., Kramer, D., Gonçalves, N., Nelson, B. W., Taylor, T., Albert, L. P., Campos, K. S., Prohaska, N., Restrepo-Coupe, N., Saleska, S. R., & Stark, S. C. (2025). Seasonal and intracanopy shifts in the fates of absorbed photons in central Amazonian forests: implications for leaf fluorescence and photosynthesis. The New phytologist, 248(1), 76–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70183

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