BMB Weekly #39: October 21, 2022

 

BMB Graduate, Toufic Jildeh, Returns to MSU as a Team Physician for MSU Athletics and the U.S. Olympic Ski & Snowboard Team! "Returning to MSU with the goal of providing an education to future health care professionals, Jildeh brings his knowledge from Wayne State University School of Medicine, he subsequently completed his orthopedic surgical residency at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit." Read more here.

 

Eunyong Park from UC Berkeley will be presenting "Mitochondrial biogenesis: How are proteins imported into mitochondria across the double membrane?"

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.

 

The MSU Museum CoLab Studio, a division for innovation and experimentation, is seeking a team of undergraduate and graduate students to experiment with gaming in MSU Museum exhibitions. Students will focus on designing a game to be part of the Smithsonian SITES exhibition “Knowing Nature: Stories of the Boreal Forest.” Learn more 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 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. Eunyong Park, UC Berkeley (Kelly Kim)
Cryo-EM of membrane proteins
Volunteers: Diego Granados-Villanueva, Shannon Donnelly, Majid Jafari

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. 

Facilitated by the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, this virtual series allows participants to examine bias and other key concepts that disrupt our community and begin the work of interrupting their own biases as well as those embedded within systems at MSU. We all play a role in MSU's ambition to achieve more inclusive and equitable environments, and this program will give you the tools to make a difference. Please register at this link. 
Note: There are modules in D2L to complete before each session.  

Many jobs, especially academic positions, ask applicants to submit a “teaching philosophy statement” with their application materials. You also need a teaching statement for Teaching Award applications at institutional and regional levels. In this workshop, we will walk you through the process of recognizing your teaching values and collecting evidence of effective teaching. Learn more and register here. 

Daniel Pfau (they, them) is an MSU Neuroscience PhD Alumnus who is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher and the University of Michigan will be presenting, "Moving Beyond the Biomedical Binary; Mouse Models of Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapies." Please join us for this exciting Zoom webinar! Please register at this link. 
Download Celebrating LGBT History Month Zoom background 

Political discourse in the U.S. has devolved from merely “polarized” and “uncivil” to much stronger descriptions: divisive, hateful, and sometimes toxic to learning environments that value truth, facts, and collegiality. While these are year-round challenges, they might surface more regularly during an election season. Join us during for a conversation with Nancy Thomas and Adam Gismondi of Tufts University’s Institute for Democracy & Higher Education about speech, disinformation, social media, inclusion, and the future and health of democracy.

Zoom Info:
When: Oct 26, 2022 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://tufts.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEvf--uqTwjHddQe5gSQZPOEel1fbmJsACj   

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

If you would like to join through Zoom, click here. Passcode: 837753

In each workshop, we will practice unique scenarios to help participants develop skills to handle bias incidents, microaggressions, and discrimination that occur in STEM classrooms and workspaces. Participants are welcome to attend one or both sessions; each includes unique scenarios. Please register at this link. 

Please join us for a day of exciting speakers featuring their work on integration of biological processes and technology. Speakers will highlight their work on Transplantation, Plant Development, Ovarian Biology, Robotic Odor Detection, and Extracellular Vesicles. Please register here by October 14th. 

Drop by and have some seasonal fun with us! We’ll be painting pumpkins in Chittenden Hall from 1PM to 4PM on Friday, October 28th. Supplies will be provided, cider and donuts too. Drop by and get creative!  Please pre-register here to make sure we have enough pumpkins.

Writing – Feedback & Revisions:  These are the parts of writing (and especially academic writing) that scientists don't always feel as well prepared for. Here we will cover material that has proven helpful in the past on giving helpful feedback and using feedback to revise. This will be framed as how these skills are tied to leadership in careers as well.

Join University Outreach & Engagement on the first Friday of each month (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. 

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. 

Emily Sorroche (she/her), Associate Director of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, will be presenting, "Beyond Land Acknowledgements." Please join us for this exciting Zoom webinar! Please register at this link. 

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. 

This fellowship is given to students who have clearly demonstrated leadership in their respective disciplines and/or professional societies at the local, state, regional, national, or international levels while a student at MSU. Learn more and apply here. 

MSU Council of Graduate Students (COGS) established this endowment in 2021 to recognize Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts by graduate and professional students in or through their program, unit, or department at MSU. The recipients are selected during Spring Semester 2023 to be awarded the following Fall Semester 2023. Recipients need to be enrolled for the Fall semester. Learn more and apply here. 

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. 

JB Ashtin, a medical communications company, is seeking applicants for a fellowship program that will provide real-world experience to recent advanced-degree graduates from life sciences or healthcare profession programs who are exploring a career in medical communication. Learn more here. 

Facilitated by the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, the goals of this two-session workshop are to explore and share inclusive teaching strategies that support student success and to revise/develop a teaching philosophy statement that integrates these ideas through a DEI lens. Please register at this link. 

 

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and Michigan State University Information Technology wants to ensure that you stay safe and secure online – which means more than just creating a strong password. You might not think your data is worth protecting, but your MSU credentials can be used as a gateway to important institutional data. The more aware you are, the more secure you will be. Visit go.msu.edu/cam221 to learn about the best ways to #SecureState.

The Graduate School has a new, streamlined process for requesting approval for recent MSU employees to remain on their graduate students' existing guidance committees. This process may be used if the employee has left or will be leaving MSU within 3 months of the day the form is submitted. Please direct questions to approvals@grd.msu.edu. Learn more here. 

The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning is holding multiple events in October that will benefit graduate students, including a workshop on how machine learning can enhance undergraduate research and a panel discussing teaching at community colleges. Learn more and register here. 

Limited spots still available, but not for long! COGS has agreed to test out a new workshop for graduate/professional students to learn how to manage quarterly taxes.  If you are not having federal income tax withheld from your paychecks, which is typical for fellowship and training grant stipends/salaries, you may be responsible for making manual tax payments to the IRS up to four times a year. Filling out the Estimated Tax Worksheet in IRS Form 1040-ES will tell you whether payments are required and in what amount. This workshop helps students navigate the tricky world of fellowships taxes.  This particular workshop is applicable to US citizens only.  Please register at this link. 

Registration for a limited number students is free and others will be placed on a notification list by the vendor.  COGS is working with the vendor to provide additional discounted registration to MSU Graduate & Professional students.

Beginning on October 10^th  and through Election Day (November 8), MSU will host four rotating City of East Lansing Satellite City Clerk Offices for one-stop help on all things voter engagement.  Students, faculty and staff can take advantages of services normally provided at the City Clerk office, including:

• register to vote
• ask questions
• sign up for an absentee ballot
• pick up an absentee ballot
• vote in advance of Election Day

 Want to check out handy voting resources? Visit the MSUVote website.

From OFA, if you have fellowship questions and/or are unable to get a hold of John Garcia directly, please use ES.DL.OFA.GradFellowship@esp.msu.edu. This email should be used for internal communications as not shared with students.

The NSF-funded CyberAmbassador program offers training in communication, teamwork and leadership skills. This training is free and offered virtually approximately three times per year in partnership with Michigan State University and Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society. Participants will earn a certificate for completing the full training series. The 2022-23 training series begins next week. 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. 

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.

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.

 

The College of Natural Science (NatSci) is currently recruiting 6-10 people to join our DEI Facilitation team to lead Cultural Competency for Personal, Organizational, and Community Change workshops. We are recruiting new facilitators who have done their own work on issues related to power, privilege, and oppression, are continuing to develop an equity lens, and have thought carefully about why they want to be facilitators.

Expectations of facilitator trainees:

• Be an MSU faculty, staff, specialist, postdoc/research associate, graduate student or administrator planning to stay at MSU for at least 3 years
• Attend all the Facilitator Training sessions in spring 2023
• Attend the 1-hour monthly Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) facilitator team meetings
• Assist current facilitators with one of the 4-session, 2.5 hr. Cultural Competency workshop series in May 2023 or fall 2023
• After completing training, facilitators are expected to co-facilitate one workshop series and one to two 90-min workshops per academic year on an ongoing basis 
• Workshops will be open to employees and graduate students in NatSci, as well as to members of co-facilitators’ units.

If you are interested in applying, please complete this application by 10/28/22. The form includes short-answer questions about your previous DEI experiences, as well as demographic questions. If you have any questions, please contact Kendra Pyle at kpyle@msu.edu.

The lab of Charles G. Hoogstraten, BMB, is seeking to hire a postdoc available to study to study the biophysics of RNA recognition and tertiary interface formation.

Depending on interest and experience, projects will involve some combination of: 

• NMR spin relaxation and CEST analyses of functional minor conformations (“invisible states”) in RNA recognition and catalysis; 
• Biophysical (including ITC and/or SPR) and biochemical analyses of RNA structure-dynamics-function relationships; and
• Advanced molecular dynamics techniques as applied to low-probability sampling and tertiary interface formation. 

In addition to performing research, the postdoc will be expected to mentor junior lab members, help maintain laboratory equipment and protocols, participate in collaborative projects, write up results for publication, and present results at regional and national meetings. See MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

The Department of Biological Sciences at the University of North Texas (UNT) invites applications for a tenure-track position as an (1) Assistant Professor in Cell Biology and a tenure-track position as an (2) Assistant Professor in Microbiology and Microbial Genomics. UNT is a Hispanic-serving and Minority-serving public research university with a Research 1 (R1) Carnegie classification enrolling over 47,000 students across our system and awarding nearly 12,000 degrees each year. The official job postings can be found at https://jobs.untsystem.edu/postings/64484 and https://jobs.untsystem.edu/postings/64441. Initial review of applications will begin on October 28, 2022.

Description: In this Cincinnati, Ohio-based role you will report to a Category Technical leader, and will be the technical expert for flavor ingredients discovery of biomolecule (Protein/Carbohydrates/lipids/nuclei acids to small molecules) from natural sources such as botanicals, food items, enzymatic and fermentation processed products. You will contribute expert knowledge on macromolecule characterization, purification, structure/function, interaction with small molecules from natural source or enzymatic/fermentation process to discover the essential active ingredients which meet the business needs for taste & well-being. Conduct sensory guided separation and identification of taste active components using cutting edge chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques. Apply the fundamental principles to develop real-world solutions.
Education: PhD in Organic/Bio-organic Chemistry or a related field. 
Click this link to learn more about the position and apply! 

Description: DCDS anticipates the need for a long-term substitute capable of teaching biology and chemistry. The specifics of the teaching load will include sections of Biology (9th grade) and Introductory Chemistry (10th grade).
Qualifications: Bachelor’s Degree. Advanced degree preferred. A genuine passion for mentoring teens and embracing the challenges and joys associated with that work is essential. 
Candidates should apply at this link. Please include 1) a cover letter, 2) a resume, and 3) three references.

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. "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 (2022). 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

Sadre, R., Anthony, T.M., Grabar, J.M. et al. Metabolomics-guided discovery of cytochrome P450s involved in pseudotropine-dependent
        biosynthesis of modified tropane alkaloids. Nat Commun 13, 3832 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31653-1.  

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 about 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. 39