BMB Weekly #36: September 30, 2022

 

Congratulations!   Dr. Amy Ralston Appointed Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Ralston, a professor in the NatSci Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB), was appointed associate dean for graduate studies, replacing Rich Schwartz. Read more here.

 

Yiliang Ding from John Innes Centre in Norwich, England will be presenting "RNA structure, a hidden regulator in living cells."

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.

 

This 6-week group provides doctoral students with a supportive, structured environment that helps mitigate the sense of isolation and frustration that often accompany the dissertation process. This group is open only to PhD students who are actively working on their dissertation. Learn more and 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.

The MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center is hosting a free event on Saturday. Attendees will be able to swap and shop clothes and books, tour the material recovery facility, meet student groups, and more. Attendees will receive a 22% off coupon for the Surplus Store and can enter to win one of four gift baskets. Learn more here. 

The Exchange is the weekly Tuesday morning event for graduate students. Please join us for our next meeting which will include the following:
Journal Club: Dr. Yiliang Ding, John Innes Centre (Polly Hsu)
RNA structure in gene regulation
Volunteers: Liz Harper, Anna Antoniak, Ben Dolgikh

"Impact Identity" is a concept that integrates one’s identity as a researcher with societal needs, personal preferences and skills, and institutional context. Come to this hands-on workshop to develop your impact identity and vision for achieving desired societal impacts throughout your career. Learn more and register here. 

Do you have questions regarding formatting your thesis or dissertation? Stop in during one of our help sessions to talk to Graduate School staff about any specific formatting questions you may have. This is a walk-in session. No registration is required.
There will be additional sessions on Thursday, November 3 and Monday, November 14. View the Graduate School calendar to learn more about these sessions.

The University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School chapter of the Bouchet Honor Society is hosting a national conversation regarding graduate student mental health. This event will feature Rackham Associate Dean Arthur Verhoogt, co-chair of the Rackham Graduate Student Mental Health Task Force; Yale University’s Mary O'Brien, director of clinical training with the Department of Psychology; and a panel of graduate students representing Bouchet Honor Society chapters from across the nation. Learn more and register here. 

On behalf of the Graduate School, we hope everyone's semester is off to a great start.  Once again, we are holding the Annual Graduate Program Directors (GPDs) Orientation primarily to assist new GPDs with transitioning into their new role and responsibilities. Current GPDs are also welcome and should be encouraged to attend.

The program will be held on October 7 in Room 110 Chittenden Hall, with the program running from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. (please consider coming at 8:30 a.m. to enjoy coffee and connecting with other Graduate Program Directors). Register here. 

Please join us on the first Friday of each month for three hours of dedicated time to advance your scholarship. Past participants have written journal articles, grant proposals, book chapters, theses or dissertations, curricula, pieces for public audiences, and community engagement portfolios. Participants should plan to write for the full three hours. Learn more and register here. 

Join University Outreach & Engagement on the first Friday of each month (October 7, November 4, December 2) for 3 hours of dedicated time and space for writing about your community engagement work. We offer in-person (at Brody Cafeteria) and virtual options, for free. Register 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. 

For more great workshops, programming and professional development events, check out The Graduate School Calendar here.

Thanks to all who came out to our last tailgate on Sep. 24^th !  We hope you'll come out to join your fellow graduate & professional students on Oct 15^th as we enjoy some food, Live DJ, lawn games and fun with friends old and new! COGS Tailgates take place 3 hours before kick-off and are located in front of Chittenden Hall - 466 W. Circle Drive. Want to go to the game? Click on this link for information for Graduate/Professional students. Go Green! Go White!

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.

In addition to its intellectual merits, each proposal submitted to the National Science Foundation (NSF) is reviewed according to the merits of its BI plan, or the benefits of the proposed research to society. Come to this hands-on workshop to learn more about NSF’s BI criterion and major BI goals, the six essential elements of a BI plan, and key resources to help you develop a winning proposal. Participants will leave the workshop with a draft BI plan. Learn more and register here.

MSU graduate students in any field of study who are engaged in practice and/or research that has to do with adverse childhood experiences, whether or not their work is focused on children, may apply. The funding amount is $1,000. Learn more and register here. 

The Center for PFAS Research is hosting the Inaugural Annual Symposium: Emerging Technologies in PFAS Remediation and Toxicity on Tuesday, October 25, 2022. This full-day symposium will be held at the East Lansing Hannah Community Center in East Lansing Michigan. The featured speakers include Dr. Marc Mills (US EPA), Dr. Suzanne Witt (Enspired Solutions), Dr. Hui Li (MSU), Dr. Moiz Mumtaz (ATSDR/CDC), Dr. Barbara Wetmore (US EPA), and Dr. Brad Upham (MSU). Learn more and 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. 

 

International Graduate Admissions – a friendly reminder that FS22 enrolled international graduate students who have not yet provided official copies of their final, international academic records (e.g., transcripts and diplomas) to the Office of Admissions must do so no later than Friday, September 30th.
Please ensure you work with your impacted students to meet this deadline. Please contact Patrick Leahy, Senior International Credential Analyst, in the Office of Admissions for assistance. Learn more here. 

The Association for Women in Science (AWIS) announced a new partnership with Michigan State University. MSU students, staff and faculty may join AWIS now free under the MSU institutional agreement. AWIS offers webinars, career resources and more. Learn more here. 

The Institute for Citizens & Scholars has opened its 2023 competition for several fellowships that support either dissertation completion or junior faculty progress toward tenure. Learn more here. 

The Sci-Files is always looking for MSU graduate & professional students to speak about their research on the MSU student radio station, Impact 89FM - https://impact89fm.org/. The Sci-Files is an award-winning show with over 150 episodes highlighting the research of MSU students. Students from any discipline are welcome to email scifiles89fm@gmail.com if you are interested in being interviewed.  Check out the Sci-Files Podcasts here: https://impact89fm.org/the-sci-files/.

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.

 

Hanover College is currently looking to expand its science programs, particularly the Biology and the Chemistry programs. See current job listings here. 
BMB graduate Dr. Natalia Hubbs (hubbs@hanover.edu) is a faculty member at Hanover College and would be glad to answer any questions about these three tenure-track positions in Biology, Chemistry, and Biochemistry. 

Description: The ideal candidate would be an MS- or PhD-level molecular biologist who can develop assays for testing novel gene therapeutic agents in a new state-of-the-art facility in Oakland/Berkeley for an NIH funded biopharma startup. Expertise in standard molecular biology techniques (PCR, cloning, characterization, etc.) as well as cell culture techniques (e.g. flow cytometry) is a requirement. Excellent communication skills are highly prioritized.
Education: M.S. or Ph.D in Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Bioengineering or closely related field from an accredited institution with 5 years or more of work experience. International applicants will be considered.
Contact: john.reville@vxbiosciences.com

VxBiosciences is a biotech startup located in Oakland, CA that is actively recruiting students from MSU. Their company is a spin out from the world-renowned UCSF Gladstone Institutes. They are currently developing a therapeutic for SARS-CoV-2 and other infectious diseases.

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. 36