BMB Weekly #41: October 17, 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!

 

 

 

Andrew Patterson from Pennsylvania State University will be presenting the Wells Lecture titled "Bile Acids at the Intersection of Liver, Gut, and Microbiome".

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.

 

The focus of this discussion-based workshop is on reviewing some real-world case studies illustrating examples of team power dynamics in authorship, determining who should be an author on a paper, authorship disputes in multi-team collaborations, and crossing the line into plagiarism. Following the training, participants will better understand what criteria should be met for determining authorship, learn about the benefits of authorship agreements and effective communication, develop some strategies for resolving authorship conflicts that might arise with a mentor or colleague, and recognize the different forms of plagiarism and best practices for avoidance. Learn more and register here.

Join the Graduate School team for a Dia De Los Muertos event at Chittenden Hall. There will be food, hot chocolate, traditional music, and other activities. Those who wish to eat food at this event should sign up using this link.

This webinar is designed for Plan A Master’s students and all Doctoral students who intend to graduate this semester. During this workshop students will receive information regarding the following:

• How to format their thesis or dissertation correctly
• How to successfully submit their thesis or dissertation via ProQuest
• How to successfully submit required paperwork, complete their Graduate School degree requirements, and receive their diploma

Students are encouraged to review the Graduate School's Electronic Thesis and Dissertation website where current information about formatting and requirements are listed prior to attending the workshop. Learn more and register here.

Join the Plant Resilience Institute for the "Cultivating Ideas: PRI Seed Grant Awardees Cohort 4 Proposal Showcase" webinar.

These hybrid workshops are open to all at MSU and focus on fostering engaging discussions on essential topics, such as responsible conduct of research, career development, writing skills, and more. Learn more and register here.

This interactive writing workshop is designed to help students develop an individualized plan for understanding graduate school more generally and graduate writing more specifically. This workshop is designed for students in both the early and later years of their master’s degree. This 3-hour workshop will concentrate on understanding the transition to graduate school, navigating master’s degree coursework and graduation options (thesis, exams, portfolios, etc.), locating and using professional and personal support resources, and writing for both the degree and future job. Learn more and register here.

The Alliance Incubator is a 68,000-square-foot, multi-tenant facility in the University Health Park on the west side of MSU. It supports emerging companies across various industries. Member companies benefit from collaborative workspaces, flexible labs, high-bay warehouse areas and startup services provided by the MSU Research Foundation. Join us to learn more about the exciting entrepreneurial scene and a networking reception. Learn more and register here.

The MSU Museum CoLab Studio is excited to present the fifth edition of Ignite Talks MSU, featuring the fast-paced stories of ten MSU student research rockstars. We can’t wait for you to be delighted and inspired by the ideas, passion, and knowledge at Michigan State! Watch videos from previous Ignite Talks MSU on our Interactive Media page. Learn more and register here.

 

This award provides financial support to domestic students who plan to travel to developing countries to provide technical assistance, conduct research, or engage in service projects. Funding may be used for travel, living expenses, and project costs. Learn more and apply here.

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.

MSU IT’s Educational Technology Department is excited to announce that applications are now open for the AT&T Excellence in Teaching with Technology Awards. These annual awards highlight successful uses of instructional technology to support student success in any courses at MSU and celebrate the educators responsible for implementing them. Learn more and apply here.

 

As part of MSU’s Modernization of General Education (MGE) initiative, the General Education Council (GEC) cordially invites you to participate in our upcoming feedback sessions. The GEC’s goal is to transform the general education curriculum to better prepare students for future success in an evolving workforce and world. Your experiences, concerns, and hopes will inform patterns and priorities for the GEC as we move from our current Phase 1 (Research, Campus Feedback, and Information Gathering) to Phase 2 (Curriculum Design) during the Spring of 2026. Learn more and register here.

Student Legal Services provides free professional legal assistance to enrolled MSU graduate & professional students (& undergraduates too). Learn more and schedule an appointment 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.

 

 

Devadasu, E., Schilmiller, A. L., Mahey, M., Gonzalez, N., Susanto, F., & Lundquist, P. K. (2025). Dynamic changes to the plastoglobule lipidome and proteome in maize over a dehydration-rehydration cycle. Journal of experimental botany, eraf453. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraf453

Devadasu, E., Susanto, F. A., Schilmiller, A. L., Mahey, M., Johnny, C., & Lundquist, P. K. (2025). Dynamic changes to the plastoglobule lipidome and proteome in maize during heat stress and recovery. Journal of experimental botany, eraf452. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraf452

Fathi Niazi, F., Yoon, S., Mbacke, K., & Dickson, A. (2025). Undirected Exploration of Binding Pockets with Flexible Topology. Journal of chemical theory and computation, 10.1021/acs.jctc.5c00825. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.5c00825

Liu, X., Huang, X., & Wei, G. W. (2025). Topological Learning Prediction of Virus-like Particle Stoichiometry and Stability. Biophysical journal, S0006-3495(25)00664-2. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2025.10.013

Mandal, S., Soriano, A., Erpelding, C., Ruffner, J., Smith, E., Orlando, B. J., & Kroos, L. (2025). Inhibitory proteins of Bacillus subtilis interact within the membrane to block intramembrane protease activity. Journal of bacteriology, e0018625. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.00186-25

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, 76(16), 4395–4413. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eraf111

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