BMB Weekly #33: September 9, 2022

 

Welcome and Congratulations!   Dr. Elia Hefner – Instructor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Dr. Elia Hefner began in her position on August 18.  She joins us from North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University and will work with Kathy Foley over the next year.  Dr. Hefner earned her PhD in Biological Chemistry at University of Michigan in 2016 and has a BSc in Biochemistry.   She has experience teaching chemistry/biochemistry courses as well as developing content and improvements for on-line teaching.  Welcome Dr. Hefner!

 

Please join us this Thursday where Dr. Jin He will present "Epigenetic mechanisms in neurodevelopmental diseases."

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

The Fall BMB Seminar Series will run through December 8, 2022. 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.

 

MSU graduate students are eligible to submit proposals for the Climate Change Research Support Program. This program is an important initial funding mechanism to support promising new initiatives in key areas of research, scholarship, and multidisciplinary collaboration in response to the global climate crisis. Learn more here.

Monday, September 12, we will welcome the first speaker for the Fall MPS Seminar Series. Dr. Doran Bennett from Southern Methodist University will present “Photosynthetic light harvesting from proteins to membranes.” The seminar will be held at 4:00PM in MPS 1200.
We would like to invite graduate students and postdocs to join the speaker for a lunch and discussion on seminar days. Lunch will be provided at 12:00PM in PLB 168. This is a great opportunity for students to meet our outside speaker in an informal environment.
If you would like to participate in the luncheon, please RSVP to Heather Sharick at sharickh@msu.edu with any dietary restrictions by noon on Friday, September 9, 2022.
All students and postdocs 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.

The Council of Graduate Students would like to invite you to our first COGS Tailgate of the year, this Saturday. (9/10) from 1PM - 4PM!
COGS Tailgates take place 3 hours before kick-off and are located in front of Chittenden Hall - 466 W. Circle Drive.  Come out and celebrate game day on campus with your fellow graduate & professional students. Enjoy some free food, Live DJ, lawn games and camaraderie!
DID YOU KNOW there is a dedicated Graduate/Professional Student Section in Spartan Stadium?  For information and ticket purchases, please contact the MSU Athletic Office: 1.800.GO STATE or 517.355.1610 or check out our webpage with links to MSU Athletics here.
We hope you'll join us for COGS Tailgates and other COGS Social Events and workshops throughout the year! Keep an eye on our Events page for updates and information.

The MSU AGEP Program is conducting a workshop series that will present NSF GRFP program information and provide structured practice to create competitive GRFP application. In the MSU workshop, STEM undergraduate and graduate students will participate in a 5-part series that will include an overview of the GRFP and application process, first-hand advice from GRFP reviewers and recent awardees, and two interactive sessions to review and revise their application documents. 

The Exchange is the weekly Tuesday morning event for graduate students. Please join us for our next meeting titled, "The Ph.D. qualifying exam—Tales from the Crypt and other true stories."

In bi-weekly Virtual Lunch and Learn & Best Practices in Teaching gatherings Graduate Teaching Assistants share their knowledge about teaching, teaching and technology tools as well as discuss research of teaching, book chapters relevant to work in an instructional setting. This session will be about engaging students using tools for online and in-person settings. Learn more and register here. 

This program seeks to advance the work of a student whose research has the potential to contribute to economic and scientific improvements in society, with a promise of practical applications that benefit U.S. economic interests. One (1) prize in the amount of thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) will be awarded annually. The use of funds will be restricted to direct costs of research excluding salary or stipends. Learn more and register here. 

MSU AGEP supports recruitment, retention, and graduation of underrepresented U. S. minorities in doctoral programs of the natural and social sciences, mathematics, and engineering. The MSU AGEP Learning Community is an informal environment where students from varying disciplines can gather, share their research in a 10-minute presentation, or discover that their graduate toils are not unusual. Learn more and register here. 

This interactive, hybrid writing workshop is designed to help you develop an individualized plan for graduate writing, especially comprehensive exams, dissertation proposals, and dissertations. Session 1 is generally designed for students in the early years of their PhD study. Session 2 is designed for students in the latter years of their PhD study.

The International Employee Resource Group (International ERG) is a place for Spartans to connect on issues related to our international community. The goal of the ERG is to connect, build community and share best practices. It is an opportunity to discuss everyday issues, relationships with friends and family, campus and community connections, and social activities that will help to build community. The International Employee Resource Group will meet every 3rd Thursday of the month, unless otherwise noted on our calendar due to holidays or other conflicts. Register here.

The University of Michigan BioInnovations in Brain Cancer is now accepting abstract submissions and registrations.  The symposium will bring together scientists to bridge the gap between brain cancer biology research and novel technological developments in order to advance the diagnosis and treatment of glioma.  The symposium will include talks from key opinion leaders from the basic sciences to translation covering a wide range of topics in pharmaceutical sciences, engineering, clinical care, and biomedical innovations. There will be a poster session, exhibitions and networking events in order to share knowledge and build a community of diverse expertise.  Learn more here.

One of the most difficult things about graduate school is having to sustain high levels of motivation for a very long time. If you are feeling your motivation fading and aren’t sure how to keep going, you are not alone! In this workshop, we will talk about specific strategies to build and/or recover sustainable motivational structures and practices in your life. Register here. 

The SCGSR program supports awards to outstanding U.S. graduate students to conduct part of their graduate thesis research at a DOE national laboratory or host site in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist — with the goal of preparing graduate students for scientific and technical careers critically important to the DOE Office of Science mission. Learn more here. 

The applications for the next class of Pauling Fellows are open. This is a prestigious fellowship that offers the candidate a great deal of freedom while working with national lab tools and expertise. For application help, please reach out to wendy.shaw@pnnl.gov. 

When it’s crunch time, we can push ourselves to the point of burnout, and once we’re truly burned out it may take a long time to recover. If we catch it early, we can stop ourselves from getting so overwhelmed that we shut down. We’ll talk about how to know when you’re getting close to burnout, and ways you can prevent it. Register here. 

 

A vibrant seminar series fosters discourse, exposes participants to diverse scientific thought, builds networks and cements community. Seminar participation is for everyone; graduate students gain insight into the wider world of research, postdocs make valuable contacts for future jobs and faculty members keep current on new trends and technologies. During the last two years, our full participation in MPS seminars has been hampered, but with the coming Fall series we can engage in this series more fully. We strongly encourage everyone now to set aside Mondays from 4:00-5:00 apart for this academic year. Attached you will find the schedule for our speakers with their topics. 

To increase participation in the seminar we offer the following changes and reminders about the series: 

• All the talks for the 2022/2023 year can be added to your calendar automatically using the attached icalendar file. 
• There will be an additional 15 minutes after the talk ends at 5:00 to meet with the speaker over refreshments 
• Nominees for the 2023/2024 year will be accepted on a continuous basis using paper submission or this link: https://bit.ly/3AnK55K 
• Note that all interested students and postdocs may join the luncheon with the speaker Mondays at 12:00 regardless of formal affiliation with the MPS program. If you would like to join the luncheon, simply let Heather Sharick (sharickh@msu.edu) know at least 5 days before the speaker comes. 

The PEER (Promoting Education & Emotional Resilience) Program seeks to empower students to learn about their mental health and develop positive coping skills. This 6-week workshop will help students develop resiliency skills derived from evidenced-based practices such as Mindfulness, ACT, CBT, DBT, and Resiliency training in collaboration with the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD) and Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS). Learn more and register here. 

There is a new webpage that has been created on the grad.msu.edu website (https://grad.msu.edu/etd) that provides information related to Electronic Theses and Dissertation submissions. You can access deadline dates, formatting guides, and more at this link.

To help field questions, Global Safety has developed a guide with recommended steps and resources. This is available as a PDF and on the Global Safety website at www.globalsafety.msu.edu/positive-COVID-19. The first step is to call ISOS for guidance.

The Office of Admissions is raising the cutoff score for Duolingo from 105 to 110 for both undergraduate and graduate applicants, with a provisional admission score range of 95 to 105. This change will apply to Fall 2023 applicants and beyond. Learn more here. 

This course aims to raise awareness of how people develop written and digital literacy skills in an additional language and how to apply this knowledge when providing feedback on writing with multilingual writers in university contexts. Learn more here.

MSU graduate students can now have their professional documents (resumes, cover letters, etc.) reviewed by a Graduate Career Advisor through the Office of Graduate Career Development electronically and without needing to make an appointment. A response with feedback on your document(s) will be emailed with one week. Simply complete this form. You must be signed into Google via your MSU email address to access the form.

 

Kenyon College invites applications for a tenure-track position in the Department of Biology starting in July 2022. We seek a broadly trained biologist with expertise in plant biology at the organismal level. To complement current faculty expertise, we seek candidates whose research focuses on plants, including structure, physiology, systematics, biochemistry, plant disease, environmental biology, and related fields. Applicants should demonstrate a commitment to excellent teaching, and we seek candidates who will provide inclusive course experiences, effective mentoring, and strong academic support for our diverse student population. Teaching expectations are 5 courses per year, including introductory biology as well as existing (e.g. Plant Biology or Plant Physiology) and/or new courses at the upper level. Opportunities exist for interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship within and outside the sciences. We expect a vigorous research program that involves undergraduate students, leads to publications, and has potential to attract extramural funding. Applicants should hold a Ph.D degree; post-doctoral experience is preferred. We encourage applications from all groups historically underrepresented in the sciences. A full overview of the position can be found on the application page.

All application materials must be submitted electronically through Kenyon's employment website: http://careers.kenyon.edu. Review of applications will begin on September 12, 2022.  Please direct questions to Wade Powell, Search Committee Chair (powellw@kenyon.edu). 

Kalsec in Kalamazoo, Michigan, seeks a Lead Scientist to lead research efforts for their Novel Natural Compound Discovery platform. The ideal candidate would have experience in natural products chemistry/Pharmacognosy.  A bit about Kalsec: “Kalsec provides natural Taste & Sensory Solutions, Colors, Food Protection and Advanced Hop Products to the food and beverage industries. We capture the best nature has to offer and utilize over 60 years of experience and industry leading innovation to make food and beverage products look better, taste better and last longer. Family owned and headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan since 1958, Kalsec has regional offices, laboratories and sales teams locations in North America, Europe and Asia. As a certified B Corp, Kalsec makes ethical and sustainable decisions that serve our customers, employees, communities and the environment. We are proud to be using our business as a force for good. This position is within Global R&D on the Discovery & Open Innovation team, which leads our long-term innovation efforts.”  See the job posting and apply here.

The Vamsi Mootha lab at Massachusetts General Hospital is searching for a talented, independent analytical biochemist with expertise in small-molecule LC-MS and GC-MS to join their team as a full-time research scientist.  They have a highly collaborative team that combines a variety of methods to study mitochondrial biology and disease.  There will be ample opportunities for high-quality publications and compensation will be very competitive.   

If you know of someone in your group or department who might be interested in this position, please forward this email and attachment to them.  Please also consider posting the attached PDF of our ad on your bulletin boards.  Our posting can also be found at the HHMI careers site.  

Rob Quinn in BMB seeks a Research Associate to work on an NIH funded project to understand the role of the lung microbiome in Cystic Fibrosis. Patients with this disease battle complex lung infections throughout their lifetime and our laboratory is studying how microbial metabolism and dynamics may be responsible for the progression CF disease. This project involves a multi-faceted approach including microbial culture models of the lung environment, big data multi-omics analysis, and mathematical modelling. Skills in microbiology and multi-omics data generation, including mass spectrometry and high-throughput nucleic acid sequencing, are highly desirable. The research associate will work tightly with clinicians and other scientists in the laboratory to develop a comprehensive approach to understanding these important clinical events of CF disease.  This position will involve generation and analysis of metabolomics and microbiome sequencing data. There will also be a large culture-based approach involving multi-species biofilm communities and perturbations of the lung microbiome in a mucus-plugged bronchiole microcosm. This position will require an understanding of multi-variate statistics and methods for integration of multi-omics datasets. Experience with computer coding languages for data analysis such as Python and R are highly desirable. The Research Associate will also gain experience in mentoring undergraduates and graduate students in scientific studies related to the project.  Apply at MSU Careers posting 799757.

The lab of Tommy Vo, BMB, is seeking to hire a postdoc available to study the regulation of epigenetic histone modifications during development and stress response. Available projects in the lab will employ genetic, genomic, molecular, and biochemical approaches to understand the mechanistic role of transcription machinery in specifying and modulating histone modifications in the fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe. The position is in a young lab in which the research associate will uniquely benefit from experiencing, first-hand, a new lab environment.  Contact Tommy Vo for information votommyv@msu.edu. See job posting and apply at this link.

The Jin He lab in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is seeking a Research Associate to use mouse models to study the epigenetic mechanisms in brain development and neurodevelopmental diseases such as autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, and attention deficits/hyperactivity disorder.  A PhD is required in Neuroscience, Genetics, Molecular Biology.   Please contact Jin He directly hejin1@msu.edu.  See the job posting and apply at this link. 

The Guys/Girls Opt for Activities for Life (GOAL) trial research team is in immediate need of students to assist with this large-scale NIH-funded study.  We are starting in 4 urban schools with approximately 63 adolescent-parent dyads per school in the fall of 2022 and will continue into the spring of 2023. We are recruiting for Data Collectors, Physical Activity and Nutrition Intervention Coaches (1-2 days/week for 13 weeks), Intervention Leads (1-2 days/week for 13 weeks), Dietary Recall Specialists, as well as Process Evaluators. The positions that require transportation to schools will have transportation provided.

These research assistant positions offer $12.00-15.00/hour, in addition to gaining invaluable research experience to strengthen a resume.

Students can contact the Project Manager Aisha Hilliard of the GOAL trial at hillia51@msu.edu if interested in discussing these outstanding opportunities.

 

Bird, K.A., Jacobs, M. et. al.  “Parental origins of the cultivated tetraploid sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.).”  Plants People Planet. 
        (2022).

Bibik, J.D., Weraduwage, S.M., Banerjee, A., Robertson, K., Espinoza-Corral, R., Sharkey, T.D., Lundquist, P.K., Hamberger, B.R.
        “Pathway engineering, re-targeting, and synthetic scaffolding improve the production of squalene in plants.”  ACS Synthetic
        Biology Vol. 11, Iss. 6 (2022).

Orlowska, K., Fling, R. R., Nault, R., Sink, W. J., Schilmiller, A. L., & Zacharewski, T. (2022). Dioxin-elicited decrease in cobalamin
        redirects propionyl-CoA metabolism to the β-oxidation-like pathway resulting in acrylyl-CoA conjugate buildup. The Journal of
        biological chemistry, 298(9),102301. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2022.102301   

Rossi, M., Altea-Manzano, P., Demicco, M. et. al.  “PHGDH heterogeneity potentiates cancer cell dissemination and metastasis.”
        Nature 605, 747–753 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04758-2

Tinney, K.R., Dover, J.A., Doore, S.M., and Parent, K.  “Shigella viruses Sf22 and KRT47 require outer membrane protein C for
        infection.”  Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Biomembranes  Vol. 1864, Iss. 7 (2022).

See story on Sophia Lunt’s collaborative research on molecular workings of a certain form of metastatic Breast cancer in MSU Today.

Professor A. Daniel Jones recently contributed to a piece published online at The Conversation dealing with treating PFAS-contaminated wastes. Check it out here!  

To provide feedback or submit content, please email bmb.web@msu.edu. Don't forget to follow us on social media!

College of Natural Science | BMB Weekly | Vol. 55, No. 33