Joe Larkin Receives 2024 Rajen Kilachand Fund for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering Award
Dr. Joe Larkin is part of one of three groups to win a 2024 Rajen Kilachand Fund for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering Award. The Fund, launched in 2017, has awarded $14 million to support projects that have advanced science, built collaborative structures for interdisciplinary research, and expanded funding opportunities.
Dr. Larkin, along with Dr. Mary Dunlop, Dr. Douglas Holmes, and Dr. Harold Park, are leading innovative efforts to address the urgent global challenge of antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance poses a serious global health threat, with bacteria evolving faster than new drugs can be developed.
The team's project focuses on horizontal gene transfer and the single-cell level events that are involved in making an individual bacterium transition from being drug-susceptible to drug-resistant. Using optogenetics, they aim to trigger and observe this process in real time, offering novel insights into how bacteria transition from drug-susceptible to drug-resistant. Their innovative work could lead to groundbreaking strategies to combat the spread of antibiotic resistance.
Read the full announcement here.
Congratulations, Dr. Joe Larkin!
Dr. Mandy Pinheiro Published in the Journal Development
Dr. Amanda Pinheiro, an MCBB PhD alum of the Naya Lab, recently published a paper in the journal Development.
Dr. Pinheiro's paper was selected to appear as a “Research Highlight”, and both she and Dr. Naya were interviewed by the journal in “The people behind the papers” to discuss the significance of their work. This research article, “The Dlk1-Dio3 noncoding RNA cluster coordinately regulates mitochondrial respiration and chromatin structure to establish proper cell state for muscle differentiation”, demonstrates that these RNAs work together to regulate metabolism and epigenetics in muscle. You can read the paper here.
Congratulations Mandy!
Dr. Robinson Fulweiler Receives the Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship
Dr. Robinson Fulweiler recently received the 2024 Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship. The program supports researchers who have a strong track record of success and achievement in their current field, as well as a deep interest, curiosity, and drive to make contributions to a new discipline, in fields of natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, data science and computer science at academic institutions or equivalent positions elsewhere.
Dr. Fulweiler leads the Coastal Ecology and Biogeochemistry Laboratory, which focuses on answering fundamental questions about energy flow and biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen, phosphorus, silicon, carbon and oxygen in the environment. She is especially interested in how anthropogenic activities affect the ecology and elemental cycling of ecosystems on a variety of scales, from local nutrient loading to global climate change. Her latest research is centered on the transformations of elements across the land-ocean continuum, the ultimate fate of nitrogen in the marine environment, the impact of climate change on benthic-pelagic coupling and the role of coastal systems in greenhouse gas budgets. More recently, her group has been developing new instrumentation to enhance measurements of key biogeochemical processes. This instrumentation will aid in constraining coastal nutrient and carbon budgets and will help increase access to low-cost technology for democratizing science.
Dr. Fulweiler will use the Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship to lay the foundations of a research program in data science. She will be mentored by Mark Crovella, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Boston University and an expert in data science and machine learning, with a focus on computational biology, social impacts of computing and computer networking.
The full announcement can be read here.
Congratulations, Dr. Fulweiler!
New Book on the Natural History of the Belizean Island
This book began as an effort to educate BU students on the broader natural history of Calabash and the greater Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve, but it could serve a wider audience, including scientists and marine managers from Belize and elsewhere who conduct research at Turneffe.
As 100% of the proceeds will benefit Friends of Calabash Caye, this book will also serve as a small source of income to support the research and conservation activities at CCFS. This will benefit BU students in their Belize classes. Additionally, they hope to be able to offer ebooks and eventually print copies for free to students at the University of Belize who come to Calabash as part of their studies.
Alanna Carey Receives NIH Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative D-SPAN Award
Alanna Carey, a PhD student in the Chen Lab, recently received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award. The purpose of this award is to support a defined pathway across career stages for outstanding graduate students who are from diverse backgrounds, including those from groups that are underrepresented in neuroscience research. This two-phase award will facilitate the completion of the doctoral dissertation and transition of talented graduate students to strong neuroscience research postdoctoral positions and will provide career development opportunities relevant to their long-term career goal of becoming independent neuroscience researchers.
Alanna's current work utilizes a genetically diverse mouse model in an automated home-cage performing a goal-directed learning task to observe how genetic diversity influences learning capacity. Her dissertation aims to demonstrate that genetic variation related to learning can converge on specific neuronal cell types and investigate how molecular, anatomical, or functional properties of neuronal cell types vary to produce learning differences among individuals. Alanna’s long-term goal is to lead her own research laboratory studying how specific gene networks and cell-types mechanistically influence learning and memory in neurodevelopmental disorders, utilizing genetic diversity and environmental factors.
Congratulations, Alanna!
Congratulations to Soyoung Bae on American Crystallography Association Early Career Scientist Spotlight
We are thrilled to announce that Soyoung Bae, a PhD graduate student in the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry (MCBB) program, has been featured in the American Crystallographic Association's (ACA) Early Career Scientist Spotlight for 2024. This Spotlight not only provides insight into Soyoung’s background and experience, but extolls the facilities and instruments at Boston University’s Chemistry Department used for her work. This honor stemmed from her participation in the ACA Meeting in Baltimore MD in the summer of 2023, in which she was awarded the Journal of Chemical Crystallography poster prize.
Since joining Professor Tolan’s Laboratory in 2021 in collaboration with the Karen Allen lab in Chemistry, Soyoung has made remarkable strides in structural biology, focusing on enzyme mechanisms and ligand interactions through advanced techniques such as X-ray crystallography, surface plasmon resonance, and ultra-fast X-ray/spectroscopy. Her innovative work on protein conformational changes, as well as her effort solving nearly a hundred enzyme structures in complex with various small molecules has been instrumental in informing structure/activity relationships for a drug development project in collaboration with a small pharmaceutical company. All of which underscores her significant contributions to the field. Soyoung’s success has been supported by exceptional resources and guidance, notably from Dr. Jeff Bacon, who has provided invaluable expertise with the advanced instrumentation at the BU-Chemistry Instrumentation Center (CIC).
Please join us in celebrating Soyoung's achievements and in wishing her the best as she advances her career in structural biology.
Congratulations to Soyoung Bae on winning a Stanford PULSE Scholarship
Soyoung Bae, a third-year graduate student in the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry (MCBB) PhD Degree program, has been awarded the prestigious Stanford PULSE Scholarship for the Ultra-Fast X-ray Summer School (UXSS) in June 2024. The UXSS program, hosted by Stanford's PULSE Institute at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) National Accelerator Laboratory, is renowned for its cutting-edge training in ultrafast (atto–femto second) X-ray science, and Soyoung’s selection is a testament to her exceptional research and potential in the field of structural biology. The award covered her lodging at the Stanford workshop, allowing her to participate in this highly esteemed program.
Soyoung’s research in the laboratory of Biology Professor Dean Tolan, where she employs sophisticated techniques such as X-ray crystallography and surface plasmon resonance, aligns perfectly with the innovative focus of UXSS. Her participation in this program will undoubtedly enhance her skills and knowledge, further advancing her impactful research on enzyme structure and function.
2024 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program (SURF)
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program at Boston University offers a unique opportunity for rising juniors and seniors, mostly from non-BU institutions, to immerse themselves in cutting-edge research. Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF-REU) and Boston University, this ten-week summer program is dedicated to enhancing diversity in the sciences by supporting students from traditionally underrepresented groups, including African-American, Hispanic, Native American, and Pacific Islander communities, as well as individuals with disabilities.
For summer 2024, participants engaged in research projects focused on Biology and the control of gene expression for biological outcomes, guided by BU's expert faculty. The program also includes on-campus housing, a stipend, weekly enrichment activities, social events, and an October weekend trip to present findings at the Boston University Undergraduate Research Symposium.
(from left to right) Alejandra Navarro-Rosado, Jaylynn McCurdy, Marie (Monica) Grochowski, Amanda Nazareth, Jean Messon Bird, Aden Nagree, Tom Gilmore (SURF director), Marvens Ravix, Marcos Navarro-Rosado, James Harrington
Victoria Zdanowicz Receives 2024 Denton Award
Victoria Zdanowicz of the Knott and Scmitt Labs was selected as the winner of the 2024 Denton Award for her master’s research thesis in Biology titled “Local ecology and dietary selectivity at indicators of differing orangutan habitat quality within Gunung Palung National Park, Borneo, Indonesia.” 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.
Victoria conducted a challenging field study of how anthropogenic disturbance impacts the trees and lianas utilized by wild orangutans in Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia. Her research focused on understanding why orangutans utilize degraded secondary forest habitats, analyzing relationships between forest structure data, plant phenology data (fruiting and flowering patterns), dietary selectivity records, and nest survey data. She discovered that orangutan nests vide higher densities of preferred fruits than primary (undisturbed) forests. Her thesis illustrates that degraded habitats can safeguard wild populations of threatened and endangered species, advancing our understanding of anthropogenically altered habitat suitability for wildlife. Victoria now conducts outreach work at the Stone Zoo.
Congratulations, Victoria!
Charley Mitchell Receives 2024 Master’s Research Award
Charley Mitchell of the Novak and Finnerty Labs is the inaugural recipient of the Master’s Research Award. This award provides a one-semester Research Assistantship to a continuing Biology MS student who stands out in their field of research.
During Charley's undergraduate career at Boston University, he looked at the effect of fish grazing on seagrass beds and its potential impact on carbon sequestration. For his master’s research, he is examining the potential microbial shift in seagrass that contains seagrass wasting disease (SWD) vs. those that don’t, as well as analyzing whether SWD impacts the plant's ability to sequester carbon. In his free time, Charley likes to play with his cat and run along the Charles River.
Congratulations, Charley!