Introducing the Loren E. Wold Research Awards
The Loren E. Wold Research Awards have been established by Biology alumnus Dr. Loren E. Wold (CAS ’97), a distinguished research scientist and Professor at Ohio State University. Dr. Wold is a strong advocate of undergraduate research and mentoring.
Each award supports summer research projects by funding the student's UROP stipend and providing a $200 Conference Travel Award. Four awards will be given annually beginning in 2019. The award is open to high-achieving Biology undergraduates working in research labs of faculty in the Department of Biology and other departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Medicine, or the School of Public Health, as well as Boston University undergraduates from other majors working with a Department of Biology faculty member.
Awardees will be selected from the funded UROP applicant pool, in consultation with the Chair of Biology and the Biology Honors Committee.
Caron Family Donation Funds Alzheimer’s Research
In honor of the Caron Family and their generous gift to support the Ho/Beffert and Stern laboratories to study Alzheimer’s disease at Boston University, Boston University's Development Office created the following short film. The Caron Family created the Harold and Margaret Southerland Alzheimer’s Research Fund to honor Susan Caron’s late parents who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Their support allowed the Ho/Beffert laboratory to generate preliminary data for the recently awarded $2.4 million NIH grant to study the role of apoE and one of its receptors apoER2 and elucidate the functional roles of its many splice variants found in the human brain. The film can be viewed here.
Katey Lesneski Receives Best Poster Award at Student Conference on Conservation Science – New York
Katey Lesneski, Ph.D. candidate co-advised by Dr. John Finnerty and Dr. Les Kaufman, was recently awarded the Best Poster Award for "Best Use of Quantitative Methods in Conservation Research" at the 2018 Student Conference on Conservation Science in NYC. Her poster titled "Identifying resilient individuals of an endangered coral for reef restoration" focused on the physiological outcomes of a multi-year experiment she has been conducting at Turneffe Atoll, Belize.
Professor Traniello Named AAAS Fellow
Professor James Traniello has been selected as an AAAS fellow! James is one of 416 new fellows announced by the AAAS on November 27, 2018 and he will be honored in Washington, D.C. in February 2019. See the articles here and here.
Nahomie Rodriguez-Sastre Receives Outstanding Poster Award at Developmental Biology of the Sea Urchin (DBSU)
Nahomie Rodriguez-Sastre, Ph.D. student in the Bradham Lab, recently received the "Outstanding Poster Award" at the Developmental Biology of the Sea Urchin (DBSU) in Woods Hole, MA for her poster titled: "Ethanol treatment perturbs skeletal patterning during sea urchin development."
Nahomie's research uses the sea urchin to identify the pathway that EtOH is affecting that gives rise to physical defects and some neurological problems that might be similar to fetal alcohol syndrome.
Babak Mehrara (CAS ’89) in Science
BU Biology Department alum Dr. Babak Mehrara (CAS '89) is featured in this month's issue of Science, where he discusses his team's ongoing work on lymphedema and the immune system. The article can be read here.
Assistant Professor Juan Fuxman Bass Receives 5-year, $3.7m NCI Grant
Assistant Professor Juan Fuxman Bass, in collaboration with Drs. Marc Vidal (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) and Martha Bulyk (Harvard Medical School), has received a 5-year $3.7 million U01 grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study gene regulatory network rewiring in breast cancer by transcription factor isoforms. This grant is associated with the Cancer Systems Biology Consortium, a larger enterprise by the NCI to integrate experimental and computational approaches to study the complexities of cancer.
Leah Williams Gives Invited Talk at Cnidofest
Ph.D. candidate Leah Williams from Dr. Tom Gilmore’s lab gave an invited talk at Cnidofest: The Cnidarian Model Systems Meeting, held at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience in St. Augustine, Florida from September 6-9, 2018. The title of her talk was “Cnidarian Toll-like Receptor Signaling.” Leah’s research explores the evolutionary origins and molecular mechanisms of immunity in basal marine organisms such as coral and sponges. Her research has been supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the National Science Foundation.
Shawna Henry Receives Best Poster Award at Gordon Research Conference
Shawna Henry, Ph.D. candidate in the Ho Lab, recently received the "Best Poster Award" at the Gordon Research Conference: Neurobiology of Brain Disorders in Barcelona, Spain for her poster titled: "Conformational Switch of Mint1 Controls APP Binding and Processing."
Shawna's research examined how perturbing the interaction between Mint1, a neuronal adaptor protein, and amyloid precursor protein (APP) can decrease Aβ production associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Assistant Professor Jerry Chen Named NIH New Innovator
Assistant Professor Jerry Chen has been awarded an NIH New Innovator Award of $2.5 million over the next five years. This money will fund Chen’s efforts to crack the neural code of the brain and better understand the relationship between the genetic and electrical influences that control cognitive functions like sensory processing, decision making, and learning and memory. This research was highlighted in BU Research, and you can also learn more in his NIH New Innovator profile and Project Information.