BMB Weekly #46: December 9, 2022

 

Congratulations 2022 BMB Undergraduate Awardees!

 

 

The speaker list for the Spring 2023 BMB Colloquium Series will be available mid-December.

 

This year’s Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology (PBGB) symposium on Plant Reproductive Biology will be held in person and livestreamed via Zoom on December 16th, 2022. For the most up-to-date information, explore the symposium website and follow PBGB on Twitter.
The symposium features research talks presented by world-class experts from both academia and industry. In-person registrants can also participate in round-table discussions over lunch with our keynote speakers and a graduate student poster session.

Registration is free and required for anyone interested in attending the symposium. A confirmation email with the final schedule and Zoom links will be sent out in the week leading up to the symposium. Please register at this link. 

MMG is hosting a blood drive and are seeking donors. All are welcome! Click here for more information. 

The Council of Graduate Students is pleased to announce that the 15th Annual Graduate Academic Conference will take place on February 18, 2023, at the MSU Union. We are now accepting abstracts for poster and oral presentations and applicants to participate in the famous Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition!  Abstracts & registration are due by January 31, 2023. Learn more here. 

The GAC is a forum for graduate students to gain experience communicating their research to a non-specialized audience. Our adjudicators are MSU Alums (many graduate school alums!)  with wide-ranging professional backgrounds who provide feedback that can help students fine tune their presentation skills.

As a presenter, you will benefit from constructive feedback that will help you learn to better communicate your research to generalized audiences as you progress in your research. You will also be able to network with your peers across disciplines as well as with your audience of judges and other interested professionals attending the conference! As an attendee, you will be able to view the great work being done by student researchers as well as have access to workshops geared to help all graduate/professional students!

Click here for more information. 

 

Nominations are being accepted for the 2023 MAGS Excellence in Teaching Award competition. This Teaching Award is very competitive, so we are looking for exceptional PhD and Master’s students with great demonstration of teaching competence and knowledge of pedagogy, innovative teaching/instructional design, and effective mentoring skills and commitment to teaching professional development. Students must be nominated by faculty/deans. Learn more here. 

 

Deadlines for Electronic Theses and Dissertations are coming up:

• Final Deadline – December 15 at 5 p.m. ET
  • Documents have been accepted and delivered for publishing, all required paperwork has been turned in, all milestones have been completed and all degree audits have been completed.

For more ETD information and resources please visit this link. 

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. 

In our pursuit of continuous quality improvement, the Graduate School will be upgrading the automation driving our process for “Graduate School-approved committee members—individual approvals” from December 12-18. During this time, the form will be unavailable, but requests submitted prior to December 12 will continue to route as before. Please direct questions to approvals@grd.msu.edu.

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.

 

We have developed computational pipelines to predict and annotate metabolic enzymes and pathways from sequenced genomes, which enables the generation of genome-scale metabolic networks. The successful candidate will leverage these resources in the Rhee Lab to model the metabolic networks field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense). Qualified candidates must have a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Biology, Plant biology, Microbiology, Systems Biology, Biochemistry, Computer Science, or a related field, and a strong background as demonstrated by journal publications in metabolic network reconstruction and analysis. Learn more about the job posting and apply at this link. 

We have multiple postdoc / staff positions to fill in the Riedel-Kruse Lab, Departments of MCB (and by courtesy) BME, Applied Math, and Physics, University of Arizona. The ideal candidate is strongly motivated and has a degree and experience in synthetic biology, systems biology, microbiology, bioengineering, biochemistry, chemical engineering, biophysics, modeling, or related. Interested candidates should email Prof. Ingmar Riedel-Kruse (ingmar@arizona.edu). Please provide a brief description of your research interests and your CV incl. publication list and the contact information of 2-3 references. 
Learn more about the job posting and apply at this link. 

Applications are now being accepted for a Postdoctoral Research Associate associated with Brandon Ruotolo’s laboratory in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. Specifically, A post-doctoral scholar is sought to pursue objectives associated with work in collaboration with Agilent Technologies, focusing on developing next-generation ion mobility-mass spectrometry equipment and methods for the analysis of biotherapeutics. Learn more about the job posting and apply at this link. 

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) at Michigan State University is seeking an innovative and engaging educator for a 12-month, fixed-term (non-tenure track) Instructor position to manage day-to-day operations and participate in instruction of intermediate and senior level undergraduate biochemistry laboratory courses. The initial appointment is for one year with reappointment expected based on satisfactory performance and continued funding. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing, Michigan is recruiting a Director for the Mass Spectrometry and Metabolomics Core. We seek applicants for this tenure-stream Associate Professor position in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology who possess expertise in the isolation, analysis, and annotation of small molecules within complex biological matrices and/or extracts using mass spectrometry and/or complementary approaches such as NMR, x-ray crystallography, cryo-electron diffraction and/or other structural techniques including synthesis. The position will involve managerial leadership and consulting with facility users regarding best analysis practices. The ideal candidate will have core leadership experience and an established record of achievements in the novel use and/or development of mass spectrometry, with a strong publication record supported by external, competitively obtained funds. Evidence of collaboration in the annotation of novel metabolites extracted from diverse biological matrices is highly desirable. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing, Michigan seeks applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the area of Mass Spectrometry and/or Metabolomics. Academic interests of candidates can be broad but are expected to possess expertise in the isolation, analysis, and annotation of small molecules within complex biological matrices and/or extracts using mass spectrometry and/or complementary approaches such as NMR, x-ray crystallography, cryo-electron diffraction and/or other structural techniques including chemical synthesis. Competitive applicants will have a record of achievement in the novel use and/or development of mass spectrometry. Commitments to collaboration, teaching, and the promotion of diversity and inclusion are expected. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

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.

 

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. 46