BMB Weekly #9: February 27, 2026

 

 

 

 

 

Pramod Wangikar from IIT Bombay will be presenting the lecture titled "Mapping the spectrum from well-being to disease using metabolomics".

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.

 

 

Get ready for an epic night of Detroit pride and Spartan spirit at the Detroit Spartans Gala 2026—join us for an unforgettable evening! This signature event will be held at The Whiskey Factory - Detroit City Distillery, located on Maple Street in the heart of Detroit. Proceeds will support the 313 Endowed Scholarship, a campaign to help students from Wayne County attend MSU. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to connect with old friends, make new ones, and show your Spartan pride. Mark your calendars and get ready for an amazing night! Learn more here.

As a scholar and researcher in the College of Natural Science, you help solve the world’s most pressing problems. To truly impact others, your voice needs to be heard more broadly to help create a more engaged and informed society. The How to Amplify Your Work through Media & PR workshop provides tips and techniques for successful media interviews, including what journalists are looking for during an interview. Learn more and register here.

In this session, we will discuss the challenges of Inclusive Teaching and how we can design flexible learning environments that accommodate individual learner differences. We will also touch on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and how it provides a more effective strategy, ensuring all students have equal learning opportunities. Attendees of this session will have the opportunity to get a deck of Inclusive Teaching Cards. Learn more here.

The MSU Museum CoLab Studio is excited to present the sixth edition of Ignite Talks MSU, featuring the fast-paced stories of nine 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.

The University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) is MSU’s signature annual showcase of research, scholarship, creativity, and inquiry. This campus-wide event brings together undergraduate students from all colleges and disciplines to present their original research, scholarly projects, and creative works to a broad audience. As a judge, you’ll engage directly with student presenters, offering questions, feedback, and encouragement that enrich their learning experience.

We welcome all MSU faculty, staff, advisors, administrators, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students to serve as judges. You will have the opportunity to serve as either a General Reviewer or Subject Matter Expert, wherever you feel most comfortable. No specialized expertise is required - just curiosity, thoughtful engagement, and a commitment to supporting our students. Judges will be contacted in late March to assign final time slots and categories. Learn more and sign up here.

 

The Walker Hill International Award is an award that can be used for pre-dissertation visits to a doctoral research site in a country outside the United States. International students who undertake research in the country of their origin are not eligible. Learn more and apply here.

The Bailey Scholars Program is offering the opportunity for graduate students (Master’s and Ph.D.) in any discipline to apply to be a Graduate Fellow with the program to further their development in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Learn more and apply here.

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.

The Colleges Online Learning Academy (COLA) program is now accepting applications for 2026. COLA is a summer fellowship that provides a stipend for engaging in professional development around teaching and learning, developing your scholarly teaching identity, and inclusion & accessibility. Fellows develop deliverables and reflections on their teaching practice with mentored peer groups. Learn more and apply here.

 

The AI in Higher Ed Distinguished Lecture Series was held last week. In this series of lectures, Dr. Wes Fondren spoke about the impacts of artificial intelligence on undergraduate and graduate education, information technology, course design, and more. Recordings of the lectures and a list of resources can be found on the Graduate School website using the button below. Learn more here.

Schedule:

• Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon and 3 to 5 p.m.
• Wednesdays from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
• Thursdays from 3 to 5 p.m.

The Center for Statistical Training and Consulting (CTAT) offers free drop-in office hours for MSU graduate students, faculty, and research staff. Learn more here.

Hot off the press! The third 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 2025.

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 Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS) in Germany has open research positions for both PhD students and postdoctoral scholars. In CEPLAS, interdisciplinary researchers investigate the characteristics and mechanisms of complex plant traits and their impact on plant performance and adaptation. This knowledge builds a foundation for sustainable cultivation of food, feed and energy crops. CEPLAS is a joint venture of the Universities of Cologne and Düsseldorf, the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, the Leibniz Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research Gatersleben, and the Forschungszentrum Jülich.

Open appointments include:

• 7 Doctoral Researchers – candidates must hold a M.S. Degree and will enter the PhD phase of the CEPLAS Graduate School directly
• 12 Postdoctoral Research Associates – preferably candidates who have received their PhD within the last 2-3 years

Learn more and apply 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.

Cottrell, S., Yoon, S., Wei, X., Dickson, A., & Wei, G. W. (2026). Computational Drug Repurposing for Alzheimer's Disease via Sheaf Theoretic Population-Scale Analysis of snRNA-Seq Data. Journal of medicinal chemistry, 69(4), 4221–4238. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5c02862

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, 10.1021/acs.jcim.5c02817. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jcim.5c02817

Kim, S. H., Quinn, M. A., Ananyev, J., Mcpeek, A. C., Leszczynski, E. C., & Ferguson, D. P. (2026). The Effect of High-Intensity Interval Training on Neuroplasticity-Related Proteins in the Cerebrum of Postnatally Growth-Restricted Mice. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003964. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000003964

Lyu, T., Han, L., Jin, J., Wang, J., Zhou, H., Xu, X., Feng, S., Yu, J., Last, R., & Fan, P. (2026). The plasma membrane ABC transporter Sl-ABCB5 mediates acylsugar secretion from tomato trichomes to confer insect resistance. Plant communications, 101780. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xplc.2026.101780

Moss, D. H., Pear, O., Guío, J., Libonati, A., Ducat, D., Bay, R. K., & Khakhar, A. (2026). Uncovering the Design Rules for Sustainable Growth of Mineralized Mycomaterials. ACS synthetic biology, 15(2), 655–664. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.5c00713

Owumi, S., Pius, E. M., Abdulganiyu, H. A., Alabi, I. O., Eso, V. O., Sanusi, A. A., Owolabi, O. M., Arunsi, U. O., Babalola, J. O., Otunla, M. T., Akomolafe, A. P., Olapade-Olaopa, E. O., Oyelere, A. K., Ogunwobi, O. O., & Amadi, C. M. (2026). Exploring Sulpiride as an Alternative to Testosterone Propionate for Inducing Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia in Rodent Models. Toxics, 14(2), 180. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics14020180

Susanto, F. A., Hiser, C., Mahey, M., & Lundquist, P. K. (2026). Cyanoglobule lipid droplet accumulation as a stress response to nitrogen starvation in a non-N2-fixing mutant strain of Anabaena sp. PCC 7120. PloS one, 21(2), e0343220. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0343220

Yadav, N. S., Raza, S., Wang, Y., Landa, J. F., Hegg, E. L., Hausinger, R. P., & Vermaas, J. V. (2026). Quantifying selective metabolite transport for the bacterial microcompartment from Haliangium ochraceum with molecular dynamics simulations. Nanoscale, 10.1039/d5nr03156g. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5nr03156g

 

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