Dr. Meg Younger Receives 2024 Sloan Research Fellowship
Three Boston University researchers have been named 2024 Sloan Research Fellows, a competitive award given annually to early-career researchers across a range of scientific disciplines. Among one of the three recipients is neurobiologist Dr. Meg Younger, in the Biology Department.
Since 1955, 59 faculty from BU have received a Sloan Research Fellowship, including this year’s winners. Fellows each receive $75,000 to be spent over two years on any expense to support their research. The foundation says fellows are chosen, in part, for their “potential to revolutionize their fields of study”; winners are selected by committees of distinguished scientists from their respective fields.
Dr. Meg Younger: How well can mosquitoes smell?
Dr. Meg Younger, a CAS assistant professor of biology, studies how mosquitoes use their sense of smell when looking for a person to bite. Her lab focuses on the Aedes aegypti, mosquitoes that spread numerous diseases like dengue fever, yellow fever, and Zika virus.
“I am excited to make discoveries that advance our understanding of the chemical senses,” Younger says. “Especially in the mosquito olfactory system, because of the relevance to global health, but also to learn how different animals detect and encode odors and find out what diverse strategies exist that enable animals to smell the volatile odorant chemicals in the world around them.”
You can read more about all three recipients and more about Dr. Meg Younger here.
Congratulations to Dr. Meg Younger!
Peter Buston Featured on the Brink
Congratulations to Dr. Peter Buston for his feature in the Brink article called "The Complex Lives of Clownfish". After studying clownfish for two decades, and has housed hundreds of these fish in his Marine Evolutionary Ecology lab, Buston put together an analysis on clownfishes' unique behaviors.
In the beginning, all clownfish are born male, with the capacity to change gender later in life. Once the female of a group dies, the next largest in the group changes gender from male to female, and becomes the new leader. The smaller fish all move up one spot in the social ladder, waiting their turn until they’re next in line to mate.
Dr. Buston described to the Brink:
“Their behaviors can be quite complex,” says Buston, who has studied clownfish behavior both in the lab and in the wild. And clownfish and anemones have a quintessential symbiotic relationship. In the ocean, sea anemones trap food with stinging cells on their tentacles that paralyze their prey. Clownfish, though, secrete a mucus that shields them from the stings. The bright-colored clownfish attract predator fish to the anemone, which then stings and eats the fish. And in return, the anemone provides a safe, protected environment for the clownfish.
To make matters more complicated, Buston and his team have found that clownfish can control their growth depending on the specific social context—so two rival males put together will race to get bigger and become dominant. The team is currently investigating the genetic mechanisms that allow the fish to do this. They’ve also learned how to introduce baby clownfish to new social groups in different-size anemones and created more than 10 social groups in the lab—with aims to create more soon.
Click here to read the full article.
Emerson Conrad-Rooney Receives ESA 2024 Graduate Student Policy Award
Emerson Conrad-Rooney, a Ph.D. candidate of the Templer Lab and a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow, received the Ecological Society of America (ESA) 2024 Graduate Student Policy Award.
“The caliber of this year’s awardees, as has been true for awardees in our program since its inception, reflects a promising future for ecological research and policy advocacy. These exceptional students exemplify the Society’s commitment to nurturing innovative minds dedicated to addressing our most pressing scientific and environmental challenges”, said ESA President Shahid Naeem.
Conrad-Rooney’s dissertation research focuses on how climate change—both warmer summers and less snowpack in winter—impacts the ability of Northeastern forests to be carbon sinks. They are also a trainee in the Urban Biogeoscience and Environmental Health Program which is an NSF Research Traineeship program that trains students in science policy, science communication, urban ecology and public health. Through this program, they conducted an internship with the U.S. Global Change Research Program in 2022–2023, during which they analyzed nature-related content in the Fifth National Climate Assessment. Their long-term goal is to become a professor of forest ecology and bring experience in both ecology and science policy to their teaching and research.
Read more here.
Congratulations to Emerson Conrad-Rooney!
Anna Berenson Receives First Place in the PhD on Tap 3MT Competition
Anna Berenson, a PhD candidate of the Fuxman Bass Lab, received joint first place in the 2023 PhD on Tap 3MT Competition. The competition took place as part of PhD on Tap, which is a full day research showcase sponsored by the Office of the Associate Provost for Graduate Affairs and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
In a project led by Anna, the Fuxman Bass Lab developed paired yeast one-hybrid assays to study DNA binding patterns of transcription factor pairs. Their work shows that extensive cooperativity and antagonism between transcription factors greatly affect their binding to gene promoters, and that viral proteins can modify the binding profiles of human transcription factors. You can check out their publication here.
Congratulations, Anna!
Explore the reasons behind the potential revival of Florida’s Coral Reef with Les Kaufman
Les Kaufman, a faculty member at BU's Biology Department, will deliver a presentation at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Miami, titled "Breathing New Life into Florida’s Coral Reef" on Wednesday, November 8, 2023.
Dr. Kaufman aims to present an optimistic perspective on the future of Florida’s Coral Reef. Despite this year's ocean warming causing significant coral bleaching and mortality, compounded by the Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease, there remains ongoing concern about the reef's future. However, amid these challenges, there is a glimmer of hope: Florida’s Coral Reef displays resilience, and robust conservation strategies are in motion.
Dr. Les Kaufman is a marine scientist, naturalist, and conservation biologist teaching at Boston University. His research focuses on ecosystem-based management in the ocean and great inland waters, particularly coral reef ecology and restoration, as well as climate change, marine food webs, fisheries, and aquaculture. During his presentation, Dr. Kaufman will narrate the journey, focusing on Mission: Iconic Reefs, a collaborative initiative led by NOAA that endeavors to rejuvenate and protect the reef.
Join us for the upcoming LIVE@Frost Science episode.
Spring 2023 Undergraduate Research Award Winners
Congratulations to Izzy Frenette, Ines Picard, and Judy Wong for receiving the Spring 2023 Undergraduate Research Award. This annual award is given to outstanding seniors of many majors performing research in Biology Department labs by the Biology Research and Honors Committee.
Isabelle Fernette (EBE/MAR Award) researched the urbanization impacts on aboveground tree dynamics with belowground characteristics in the Bhatnagar Lab.
Inès Picard (NEURO Award) investigated the role of complement component 4 overexpression on the intracellular trafficking of synaptic proteins in the Cruz-Martín Lab.
Judy Wong (CM Award) researched how the mutations in the IVD of the scaffold protein NEMO affect its higher-order structure formation in the Gilmore Lab.
Congratulations to Izzy, Inès, and Judy!
2023 Master’s Merit Scholarship Recipients
Molly Frank of the Lobel Lab, Noah Singer of the Rotjan and Novak Labs, and Michelle Feivelson are this year's recipients of the Master's Merit Scholarship for continuing MS students.
Molly completed her undergraduate degree in conservation biology and zoology in the Midwest, where she worked on a fresh water limnology research project for the Iowa DNR after graduating. She came to Boston University to get her graduate degree in biology, where she’s been focusing on marine biology. Her research interests include marine conservation and shark research/conservation. Molly also received an honorable mention for the 2022-2023 Outstanding TF in Biology award. |
Noah (he/him/his) is a second-year master's student in the Rotjan Marine Ecology Lab and Dr. Alyssa Novaks' Lab. He majored in Marine Science and Biology at The University of Miami RSMAS. He is working on restoring two half-acre sites by transplanting vegetative Eelgrass and planting over 300,000 Eelgrass seeds. Additionally, he will research bay scallop recruitment into newly restored Eelgrass environments and predation on bay scallops. He loves to go SCUBA diving, hiking, and other outdoor activities when he is not cheering on the New Jersey Devils or Boston Red Sox. |
Michelle is a second-year master's student in the Cell and Molecular Biology program. While she's not currently affiliated with a specific lab, she gained valuable experience during a rotation with Dr. Ana Fiszbein last Fall. During that time, she focused on computational biology, exploring alternative first and last exons in cardiac cells. This past summer, she interned at the Ayin Tech research lab in NY under the guidance of Yossi Buganim. Her research centered on Retinitis Pigmentosa, a retinal disease, and she employed cell-based methods and innovative approaches to tackle complex issues that conventional sequencing data couldn't resolve. Michelle's passion lies in leveraging cellular and molecular approaches to address challenging problems in the context of diseases. |
Congratulations, Molly, Noah, and Michelle!
Work on Neuronal Communication Published in Molecular Cell by the Garcia-Marcos Lab
The Garcia-Marcos Lab has recently published a study in Molecular Cell titled, “Fine-tuning GPCR-mediated neuromodulation by biasing signaling through different G protein subunits.”
The paper describes how various signaling responses triggered by the same neurotransmitter receptor must be carefully scaled to ensure proper brain function. They found that the protein named GINIP shifts the balance of two different G protein sub-species activated simultaneously by G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a large family of surface receptors that respond to many neurotransmitters and neuropeptides (GABA, dopamine, serotonin, or opioids).
This mechanism operates in synapses that dampen neurotransmission and, when disabled, results in increased seizure susceptibility in mouse models. These findings have important implications for the fundamental understanding of neuronal communication and for the development of new therapeutic agents that act on GPCRs.
This work was co-led by Jong-Chan Park (Postdoc) and Alex Luebbers (Graduate Student) with collaborations from the Martemyanov Lab at UF Scripps Biomedical Research Institute and the Yano Lab at Northeastern University, and has been highlighted by Molecular Cell and Science Signaling.
Click here to read the full article.
Pamela Garcia Lopez Recipient of Kilachand Doctoral Fellowship
Pamela Garcia Lopez of the Siggers Lab recently received the Kilachand Doctoral Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded by the Multicellular Design Program (MDP), which combines research in Synthetic Biology, Microbial Engineering, Tissue Engineering, Data Science, and Biophysics to understand the design principles of multicellular systems. The mission of MDP, which is funded through the Rajen Kilachand Fund, is to understand the underlying design principles governing multicellular systems, and to leverage these principles for the development of new technologies.
Pamela is a second year PhD student in the Cell & Molecular Biology program. Her research aims to decipher the rules of cofactor recruitment by transcription factors in mammalian cells. She's particularly interested in the design of synthetic cofactors with the goal of building integrators of endogenous signaling pathways to understand how multicellular systems respond to signaling environments.
Congratulations, Pamela!
So Young Bae Wins Poster Prize from the American Crystallographic Association
So Young Bae, MCBB PhD student in the Tolan Lab, won the Journal of Chemical Crystallography poster prize at the recent international meeting of the American Crystallographic Association in Baltimore Maryland this past July 2023. The American Crystallographic Association is the preeminent society supporting structural science at all levels and disciplines. The Journal of Chemical Crystallography Poster Prize recognizes the best student, graduate or undergraduate, poster presentation in the area of chemical crystallography.
So Young’s poster was entitled, “Mode of Substrate Binding for Ketohexokinase across Isozymes and Species Implies an Induced-fit Mechanism.” Her award was acknowledged at the closing banquet. Her presentation showed that one of the most important isozymes, ketohexokinase-A (KHK-A), which is involved in moonlighting as a protein kinase and has roles in regulating expression of genes important in cancer cells, can undergo a conformational change. She showed this structural change by solving the first ever structure of mouse KHK-A by X-ray crystallography and revealing differences in structure from what was previously known. She also solved the structure of human KHK-A in complex with one of it’s natural substrates, fructose. This structure revealed yet another distinct structural difference from the either the unbound enzyme or the enzyme bound with both substrates. Her work will eventually determine if these structural changes are part of the switch from a sugar kinase to a protein kinase.
Congratulations, So Young!