BMB Weekly #12: March 20, 2026

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew Namanja from Abbvie will be presenting the lecture titled "Streamlining Hit identification and lead generation with protein-detected NMR".

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

The Spring BMB Seminar Series will run through April 23, 2026. 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.

 

 

Founded in 2020, the GradFUTURES Forum is a week-long professional development conference that is free and open to graduate students from other institutions across the country and around the world. Featuring dozens of keynote speakers, skill-building workshops, career panels, the conference offers dozens of online programs that support graduate students' and postdocs’ success and prepare them for diverse career pathways. Learn more and register here.

This unique opportunity allows Graduate Students the chance to connect with The Graduate School leadership and staff in a relaxed and informal lunch setting. Connect about career and school journeys, gain understanding of The Graduate School programs that empower graduate student success and engage in candid discussions about university and student life. Learn more and register here.

The message of resilience is often reduced to “try harder.” It also assumes that our baseline conditions are a state to which we should always return after recovering from whatever disruptions we are facing. We are trying to “bounce back” to the way things were before. A broader understanding of resilience invites us to recover but also to challenge and grow beyond our previous level of functioning. Grounded in social-ecological systems research, this workshop will help participants gain practical strategies that support a comprehensive and transforming resilience in the face of pressure, stress, and difficulties. Learn more and register here.

Join the Wisconsin Energy Institute for the second annual March Madness Forward in Energy Forum featuring the “Battle of the Biofuel Crops." Four scientists from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center will passionately pitch why their chosen plant is the most fascinating and useful feedstock for producing biofuels and bioproducts. The plants will compete in a friendly bracket-style competition, with two rounds of head-to-head battles and real-time audience voting to determine the ultimate champion. This event promises to be an entertaining and educational showcase of cutting-edge sustainability research, highlighting the characteristics and technologies that bioenergy scientists consider when working with plant feedstocks. Early registration is required. Learn more here. 

Join us for a peek at this beautiful space in the Union. And of course, morning beverages, treats and conversation. Learn more here.

In this PRI Networking Hour, PRI Communications Manager Morgan Koetje will go over introductory strategies for science communication. Attendees will learn how to develop a message for different audiences in order to promote their research. Please note this is the first part of two PRI Networking Hour seminars on science communication. Learn more and register here.

The 2026 Plant Resilience Institute (PRI) All-Hands Retreat will take place May 6-7, 2026, at the Michigan State University Multicultural Center. This event will provide an opportunity to meet other PRI members, share research, and establish common interests to facilitate collaborations.

PRI will be celebrating its ten-year anniversary in 2026! In honor of this landmark occasion, we are inviting PRI alumni and key stakeholders to join us on the first day of the retreat. We are also pleased to welcome Professor of Agronomy Dr. Ignacio Ciampitti from Purdue University as our keynote speaker. The PRI Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), Richard Dixon, Mary Lou Guerinot, Jan Leach, Corné Pieterse, and Anne Sylvester, will join us for the duration of the retreat to evaluate PRI’s research programs, progress, and impact. Learn more and register here.

 

The College of Natural Science is pleased to announce the Students Mastering AI Responsibly and Thoughtfully (SMART) Fellowship for Summer 2026. The SMART Fellowships will be awarded by competitive process to graduate student-mentor pairs who commit to dedicating a portion of their efforts to AI-driven study during summer semester, 2026 (US26). The fellowship will cover student stipend for US26 (equivalent to 1/2-time assistantship). Project mentors can be the primary research advisor/guidance committee chair or another appropriately qualified faculty/staff person at MSU. Learn more and apply here.

The Graduate Employees Union and Michigan State University agreed to add 500 additional tuition credits to the tuition waiver benefit for teaching assistants. For questions contact the GEU at tuition@geuatmsu.org. Learn more and apply here.

The Aitch Foundation and Michigan State University’s Office of Research and Innovation invite applications for graduate assistantships in cancer research. Eligible applicants must be current graduate students at Michigan State University who are conducting research in one of the following programmatic areas:

• Early cancer detection and diagnostics
• Genetic and cellular changes contributing to tumor development
• The identification of new cancer targets or therapeutic agents

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. Learn more and register here.

 

If you joined University Health & Wellbeing (UHW) at the 2026 Spartan Wellbeing Summit, you know how energizing and inspiring the conversation with keynote speaker Kiyaana Cox Jones was. If you were unable to attend, we don’t want you to miss out on the insights that shaped the day! Whether you’re revisiting the ideas from the summit or exploring them for the first time, this episode offers practical inspiration and thoughtful reflections on the work being done to create a culture of care at MSU. Watch or listen to the video on Spotify. Read the transcript here.

Feeling overwhelmed as an international student? You're not alone. With growing uncertainty around visa status, SEVIS regulations, and shifting immigration policies—alongside academic, financial, healthcare, and cultural challenges—it's natural to feel stressed or isolated. In this international student support group, we hope to provide a safe, confidential space to connect with others, share experiences, explore resources, and support one another. All MSU students are welcome to participate based on the clinical recommendations of CAPS staff.

A pre-group meeting is required to join. Please schedule a phone consultation at caps.msu.edu/schedule and state your interest in this group during the appointment. You are welcome to join after the group has started.  If you have questions about the group, email Dr. Zari at carpe449@msu.edu

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.

 

The post-doctoral scholar will be responsible for assessing the data available for publications. Working with the PI, the fellow will perform or oversee data collection to complete 2-3 manuscripts that center around immune-oncology projects ongoing in the laboratory. Experiments will be primarily focused on in vitro or ex vivo data collections. In particular, molecular biology experience is a requirement and experience with metabolomics is an additional benefit. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting here.

Looking for Your Next Step? Check Out the Postdoc Opportunities Board

This free online resource connects you with postdoc positions at 18 world-leading institutions across 11 states. Explore openings and access advice to help you find the right postdoc position to thrive and succeed. Start your search today and take the next step in your career! 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.

Arriaza, R. H., Khatri, K., Abiskaroon, B., O'Malley, A., Chouhan, V., Godziashvili, D., Camini, A. M., Walshe-Roussel, B., Zhurov, V., Rebroš, M., Grbic, M., Grbic, V., Saraiva Macedo Timmers, L. F., & Chruszcz, M. (2026). Investigation of molecular and structural properties of two Mu-class GSTs from Tetranychus urticae. Journal of molecular biology, 169742. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2026.169742

Blanco-Gonzalez, A., Betancourt, W., Snyder, R. M., Zhang, S., Giese, T. J., Piskulich, Z. A., Götz, A. W., Merz, K. M., Jr, York, D. M., Aktulga, H. M., & Manathunga, M. (2026). Automated Force Field Developer and Optimizer Platform: Torsion Reparameterization. Journal of chemical information and modeling, 10.1021/acs.jcim.6c00528. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.6c00528

Ghafouri, H., Kadeřávek, P., Melo, A. M., Aspromonte, M. C., Bernadó, P., Cortés, J., Dosztányi, Z., Erdős, G., Feig, M., Janson, G., Lindorff-Larsen, K., Mulder, F. A. A., Nagy, P., Pestell, R., Piovesan, D., Schiavina, M., Schuler, B., Sibille, N., Tesei, G., Tompa, P., … Monzon, A. M. (2026). Toward a unified framework for determining conformational ensembles of disordered proteins. Nature methods, 10.1038/s41592-026-03003-2. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-026-03003-2

Haque, A. M., Takahashi, H., & Rouached, H. (2026). Sulfur in Dialogue with Phosphorus, Nitrogen, and Iron: Regulatory Networks in Plant Nutrient Homeostasis. Journal of experimental botany, erag119. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erag119

He, Y., Iha, S., Grotewold, E., & Jiang, N. (2026). Simple Induction and Detection of Anthocyanins in Arabidopsis thaliana: A Tool for Mutant Screening and Metabolic Analysis. Bio-protocol, 16(5), e5628. https://doi.org/10.21769/BioProtoc.5628

Khaemba, C. S., Feng, H., Chen, D., Chen, C. L., & Wei, G. W. (2026). Commutative Algebra Modeling in Materials Science - A Case Study on Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). Journal of chemical information and modeling, 66(5), 2584–2596. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.5c02817

Kilinc, C., Babin, K. M., Pioszak, A. A., & Dickson, A. (2026). Determinants of Improved CGRP Peptide Binding Kinetics Revealed by Enhanced Molecular Simulations. Biophysical journal, S0006-3495(26)00180-3. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2026.03.008

Roter, B., Crawford, A. M., Jin, Q., Glowacki, A. T., Lai, B., Marin, F. S., Maxey, E., Shi, X., Culotta, V. C., Wildeman, A. S., Patel, N. K., O'Halloran, T. V., & Jacobsen, C. (2026). Multifunctional bending magnet beamline with a capillary optic for X-ray fluorescence studies of metals in tissue sections. Journal of synchrotron radiation, 33(Pt 2), 319–330. https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600577526000925

Sharkey, T. D., Bellucci, M., Loreto, F., Mostofa, M. G., Sahu, A., Serda, B. M. L., Weraduwage, S. M., & Xu, Y. (2026). Revisiting plant isoprene emission: From atmospheric chemistry to plant stress resilience. Journal of plant physiology, 318, 154712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jplph.2026.154712

To provide feedback or submit content, please email bmb.web@msu.edu.

Don't forget to follow us on social media!