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!
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.
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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!
2023 Dr. Marion R. Kramer Scholarship Winners
The Department of Biology is excited to announce the three recipients of this year’s Dr. Marion R. Kramer Scholarships: Hannah Axten of the Ho Lab, Alanna Carey of the Chen Lab, and Yuan Tian of the Man Lab.
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This award provides support for high-achieving female students majoring in Biology. The award was established in 2001 in honor of Dr. Marion Kramer who earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Boston University in 1963 and went on to a long and satisfying career in biology and medicine.
Congratulations, Hannah, Alanna, and Yuan!
E Schlatter Receives 2023 Dana Wright Fellowship
E Schlatter of the Buston Lab is the 2023 recipient of the Dana Wright Fellowship.
E uses a variety of theoretical and empirical approaches to address questions about the evolution of marine larval dispersal. Their current projects include: using quantitative genetics to ask about the evolutionary potential of dispersal-related traits in the clownfish Amphiprion percula; using a theoretical model to illustrate the roles of opposing components of selection in shaping dispersal patterns; and using genetic simulations and seascape information to create a quantitative link between empirical measures of dispersal and the resulting spatial genetic structure in the neon goby Elacatinus lori. As a whole, this work contributes to our understanding of how and why organisms have evolved to disperse through the ocean as they do.
This fellowship was established in memory of Dana Wright (CAS ’00), an alum of the BU Marine Program. After completing her studies, Wright went on to work in research in right whale acoustics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod.
Congratulations, E!
So Young Bae Receives 2023 Denton Award
So Young Bae of the Tolan Lab was selected as the winner of the 2023 Denton Award for her master’s research thesis in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry (MCBB) titled “Mode of Substrate Binding and Specificity for Ketohexokinase across Isozymes Implies an Induced-Fit Mechanism.” This award is given for excellence in scholarship and research accomplishment during a master’s thesis under the mentorship of a faculty member of the Department of Biology.
So Young received her BA from Boston University where she studied Biology. Before her admission to the MCBB master’s program in 2022, she worked as a staff research assistant in the Tolan lab and was critical in melding the CLIA-approved HFI laboratory into the Clinical Testing Laboratory that tested over two million samples during the coronavirus pandemic. During this time, she became interested in structural biology and learned X-ray crystallography through working with the Allen laboratory in the Chemistry department. So Young’s master’s research focused on the conformational changes important to catalysis in the first enzyme in the metabolism of fructose, ketohexokinase. She's currently a PhD student in the MCBB program.
Congratulations, So Young!
2023 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Recipients and Honorable Mention
The awardees and honorable mentions for the 2023 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) competition were recently posted and several Biology students were recognized. Biology PhD student Erin Frates of the Marlow Lab, Marine Science BA student Annabel Hughes of the Davies Lab, and Biology PhD student Renata Serio of the Fiszbein Lab were awarded with 3-year graduate research fellowships. Biology PhD student Shalom Entner of the Finnerty Lab received an honorable mention.
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Congratulations to the awardees and honorable mentions on your hard work and this well-deserved honor.
Hannah Aichelman Receives 2023 Belamarich Award
Dr. Hannah Aichelman of the Davies Lab was selected as the winner of the 2023 Belamarich Award for her doctoral dissertation in Biology titled “Exploring Coral Symbiosis Under Climate Change Stress Across Spatial and Temporal Scales.” This award is given annually to a recent PhD candidate for their outstanding doctoral dissertation completed in the Department of Biology. The selection committee was impressed by Hannah’s deft use of diverse techniques from physiological experiments to genomics to address her research questions, which resulted in an impressive body of work already having an impact in her research community. The committee also appreciated Hannah’s extensive outreach efforts, strong mentoring record, and generous service to the Department. More information about her research is below.
Coral reefs, along with the biodiversity and communities they support, are threatened globally. While research efforts have increased our ability to understand and predict coral bleaching events, fundamental questions remain surrounding how genetic diversity of the coral symbiosis and interactions with its environment can drive resilience or resistance under climate change. Hannah's dissertation research endeavored to fill this knowledge gap, and she built a research program that combined genomics, physiology, and lab experiments to investigate stress tolerance across both temperate and tropical coral species. This research provides valuable insights into the phenotypic and genotypic mechanisms that contribute to coral success in a changing climate.
Hannah is continuing her research career at BU as a postdoctoral scholar co-advised by Dr. Sean Mullen and Dr. Sarah Davies. She is leveraging whole genome sequencing to understand the genetic underpinnings of mimicry in butterflies, while still spending some time exploring coral reefs with the Davies Lab.
As in previous years, there will be a Belamarich Award Night to celebrate our award winner. The night includes a seminar given by the awardee, a brief ceremony, and a reception. The Seminar will be held on Monday, October 30th at 4:30pm in BRB 113. The Award Ceremony will take place immediately after, with the Reception following down the hall in BRB 117, from ~5:30pm-6:30pm. We are honored to have the Belamarich family joining us again to celebrate this year’s award winner.
We look forward to seeing everyone at Belamarich Award Night!
More about the Belamarich Award:
Frank A. Belamarich joined the BU Biology Department in 1963 as an assistant professor where he quickly gained international recognition for his research in the field of comparative hemostasis, the process of blood clotting. Throughout his tenure at BU he was a popular teacher of a core course in cell biology which he developed. Belamarich maintained research laboratories in Boston as well as at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole in Falmouth, MA as part of the BU Marine Program.
Congratulations, Hannah!