News
Margaret O’Connor Receives Charles Terner Award
Margaret O'Connor of the Man Lab is this year's recipient of the Biology Department's Charles Terner Award. Margaret is investigating the X-linked protein NEXMIF, which is associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). She uses a transgenic mouse model to study the role NEXMIF plays in brain development, specifically neuronal growth and dendritic spine development. There are a number of human patients with NEXMIF dependent ASD. Her research currently focuses on the unique situation of female heterozygotes which mosaically express NEXMIF yet still develop ASD.
This award provides support for a CM or MCBB PhD candidate who has made significant contributions to their field. Charles Terner was a Professor of Biology at Boston University for over 20 years before he retired in 1985. Dr. Terner specialized in biochemistry and focused his research on the metabolic properties of male reproductive cells. The award was established in his memory after he passed away in 1998.
Congratulations, Margaret!
Dr. Thomas Gilmore Awarded NSF Grant for Interdisciplinary Research
Dr. Thomas Gilmore and Dr. Sarah Davies of Biology have received a four-year National Science Foundation research grant to investigate Transcription Factors in Cnidarian Immunity, Symbiosis, and Bleaching. This interdisciplinary research combines molecular pathway analyses with marine ecology and genomics to better understand immunity and stress responses, which are often impacted by climate change, in corals and sea anemones.
Remembering Sir Hans Kornberg
The MCBB Program mourns the loss of Sir Hans Kornberg, Professor of Biology, member of the MCBB program, and teacher of biochemistry to numerous MCBB students for over 20 years.
Born in 1928, Hans Kornberg fled to the UK from Nazi Germany at the age of 11. After finding an interest in chemistry, Dr. Kornberg studied in the Krebs Lab at the University of Sheffield and earned his PhD in Biochemistry in 1953. After working in several research labs in the US and the UK and lecturing at Oxford, Dr. Kornberg was a Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Leicester. He was the Sir William Dunn Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, and later served as the 34th Master of Christ's College and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for the University of Cambridge. Upon retirement in 1995, Dr. Kornberg was invited to serve as Director of the Boston University University Professors Program, which he did until the program's end in 2011. In addition to leading the UNI program, he was a Professor of Biology and he taught Biochemistry to undergraduate and graduate students at Boston University for the past 24 years.
He was the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He was appointed Fellow of the Royal Society in 1965, and was knighted in 1978. He holds 11 honorary doctorates and was a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, as well as a Foreign Associate Member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received the UK Biochemical Society’s inaugural Colworth Medal and the Warburg Medal of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Sir Hans’ research, conducted for over 70 years, was focused on the regulation of carbohydrate transport in micro-organisms. Starting out as a bottle washer for Hans Krebs, Hans Kornberg was an author of over 250 publications. Two of his significant scientific accomplishments were the elucidation of the glyoxylate cycle and the concept and mechanisms of anaplerosis, the former being a cycle used by plants and other non-animals to enable the biosynthesis of biomass from 2-carbon compounds, and the latter being an important mechanism assuring that carbon oxidation by the Krebs cycle can continue by replenishing the intermediates that are drained by various biosynthetic reactions.
Sir Hans will be greatly missed by his colleagues and students. Not just a brilliant biochemist and skilled educator, Dr. Kornberg always had an anecdote or witty story at hand, whether about his friendship with Julie Andrews in his youth or his affinity for Latin wordplay. Visitors to the Kornberg Lab were promptly invited to take part in the most important experiment of all: making coffee! Sir Hans is remembered for his generosity, incredible wit, many stories, endless puns, and cheerful nature.
Sir Hans was the dearly loved husband of Donna and of the late Monica; cherished father of Julia, Rachel, Jonathan and Simon; and adored grandfather and great-grandfather. The Funeral Service took place December 20th at the Falmouth Jewish Congregation in East Falmouth, MA. Donations may be made in Sir Hans' memory to the Hans Kornberg travel prize at Christ's College, Cambridge, England.
Dr. Xue Han Featured in The Brink
Dr. Xue Han was a co–corresponding author for "Population imaging of neural activity in awake behaving mice," recently published in Nature and featured in The Brink. The paper reports a new technique that gives the clearest picture ever of brain cell activity. Using a voltage-sensing molecule that fluorescently lights up when brain cells are electrically active, researchers at BU and MIT have shown that they can see the activity of many more individual neurons than before as they fire inside the brains of mice.
Read the full Brink article here.
Dr. Ji-Xin Cheng Receives 2020 Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award
Dr. Ji-Xin Cheng has recently been named the recipient of the 2020 Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award. The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP), a co-founder of the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, is the sponsor of the annual Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award. This award is for recognition of outstanding contributions in the field of spectroscopy, and is presented at the annual Pittsburgh Conference. The SPP aims to highlight the contributions of international leaders in the field of spectroscopy that have developed novel spectroscopies and/or demonstrated important novel applications.
Dr. Cheng was also featured in a College of Engineering news post; read the article here.
Sandy Serizier Wins Best Poster at UGSO Research Symposium
MCBB's Sandy Serizier of the McCall Lab won "Best Poster" at the First Annual Underrepresented Graduate Student Organization Academic Research Symposium on September 26th. Sandy is enthusiastic about basic research and is interested in cell communication during development. She is also very passionate about community outreach.
Congratulations, Sandy!
Dr. Daniel Starczynowski (GRS ’06) Recipient of the Katherine Stewart Waters Endowment Chair for Hematologic Malignancy
Dr. Daniel Starczynowski, MCBB alumnus from the Gilmore Lab and Professor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and at the University of Cincinnati, was awarded the Katherine Stewart Waters Endowment Chair for Hematologic Malignancy on August 27, 2019. Dr. Thomas Gilmore provided the opening remarks at the ceremony.
Andressa Mota Receives BU Women’s Guild Scholarship Award
MCBB Ph.D. student Andressa Mota of the Ho Lab recently received a BU Women's Guild Scholarship Award. Andressa studies the role of a transcription factor, FOXR1, and how a mutation on this protein leads to disease pathogenesis.
John Patrick Cleary Receives Outstanding Teaching Fellow Award for Biology, 2018/2019
MCBB Ph.D. student, John Patrick Cleary, of the Cheng lab was awarded the Outstanding Teaching Fellow of the Year Award for Biology (2018/2019). Patrick has served for the past two years as a teaching fellow in Biology, including for BI 108 (Biology 2) and BI 203 (Cell Biology), both cornerstone requirements in our curriculum. More recently, he has taught in BB 522 (Molecular Biology Laboratory), a highly interactive upper-level hands-on course. Patrick’s efforts over the past two years have contributed greatly to the success of the teaching mission of the Department of Biology and he received high praise from his teaching advisor for Cell Biology, Dr. Uwe Beffert, as well as from student evaluations. To quote one particularly enthusiastic student, he is a “very cool guy, and a tremendous TF. Keep on doing what you are doing!”
Dr. Ji-Xin Cheng’s Research Featured in BU Research
Read the full article in BU Research.