BMB Weekly #25: June 28, 2024 (2024)

Vol. 57, No.25

Upcoming Seminars

Coming Soon: Fall Colloquium Series

The speaker list for the Fall 2024 BMB Colloquium Series will be available soon.

Mark Your Calendar

Pizza Talk Series

July 2, 2024 — 12:00 p.m.

BCH Garden

Audience:Current Graduate Students

Isaiah Kaufman and Laleh Dinpazhouh will talk about their research, plans for future research, and/or journal article of interest, with plenty of time for questions and answers. Please join us for pizza and drinks, and a chance to hear what your peers are up to. We will meet outside at the picnic tables in the garden, or BCH 208 if inclement weather.

Inclusivity in the Classroom: Challenges and Opportunities

July 9, 2024 — 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

Hybrid

Audience:Current Graduate Students, Postdocs

In this session, we will discuss the challenges of Inclusive Teaching and how we can design flexible learning environments that accommodate individual learner differences. We will also touch on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and how it provides a more effective strategy, ensuring all students have equal learning opportunities. Learn more and register here.

PILOT Speaker Series

July 9, 2024 — 4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Zoom

Attention: Current Graduate Students

Held weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4 p.m. on Zoom, this program provides graduate students with insights and practical strategies for transitioning from academia to non-academic careers. Each Tuesday, guest speakers from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) will offer their expertise, while Thursdays will feature interactive workshops to further explore the topics discussed. Learn more and register here.

ETD Formatting Webinar

July 11, 2024 — 9:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m.

Zoom

Audience:Current Graduate Students

This webinar is designed for Plan A Master’s students and all Doctoral students who intend to graduate this semester. During this workshop students will receive information regarding the following:

• How to format their thesis or dissertation correctly.
• How to successfully submit their thesis or dissertation via ProQuest.
• How to successfully submit required paperwork, complete their Graduate School degree requirements, and receive their diploma.

Students are encouraged to review the Graduate School's Electronic Thesis and Dissertation website where current information about formatting and requirements are listed prior to attending the workshop. Learn more and register here.

Graduate Teaching Assistant Orientation and Preparation Program

August 16, 2024— August 22, 2024

Registration Deadline:July 30, 2024

Attention:Graduate Teaching Assistants

Whether you are a new, international, or a returningGraduateTeaching Assistant, theGraduateTeaching Assistant Preparation Programoffers sessions that provide policy training required of everyone and sessions to make you more effective in your teaching, including resources and professional development opportunities. Learn more and registerhere.

Awards, Grants and Fellowships

Stay tuned for exciting opportunities!

Announcements

D2L Brightspace Tips from MSU IT

Attention:Instructors

MSU IT is offering quick instructional technology and development recordings for educators in June. Check out the brief 5-minute videos below about D2L Brightspace to learn about impersonating the demo student, uploading grades, and using grade schemes to save time and efficiently manage courses. Learn more here.

UHW launches free, anonymous, peer-to-peer mental health support community!

Whether students are feeling overwhelmed due to academic, social, or personal pressures or just need to connect, Togetherall is available 24/7 to remind them they are not alone. This free, anonymous, waitlist free, peer-to-peer mental health support community is monitored and moderated 24/7 by licensed clinicians and empowers students to give and receive support for a full range of concerns. Many students do not seek out campus in-person/virtual mental health treatment. Togetherall provides an alternative option for students seeking mental health support, offering an additional resource for students who are looking for an outlet to share and process their emotions. Learn more here.

Online Active Violence Incident Training

Attention: Students, Faculty, Staff

The MSU Department of Police and Public Safety has released an online Active Violence Incident Awareness Training program that is available for students, faculty, and staff. This training includes a presentation explaining how to respond during an active violence situation. Throughout the training, knowledge checkpoint questions will appear on screen to evaluate participants’ understanding of the content. In addition, a video is in development, which will be included in the training at a later time. Learn more here.

MSU Food Bank

Eligible to undergraduates, graduates, and professional students enrolled in Fall/Spring semester and without a dining plan. Fruits, soups, pasta, rice, protein, cereal, bread, and fresh produce available year-round! To learn more about visiting the MSU Foodbank, or to donate, visit here.

Job Postings

Research Associate, Fixed Term — Skirycz Lab

Application Review Begins: July 1, 2024

The small-molecule regulation group led by Dr. Aleksandra Skirycz seeks a postdoctoral researcher associate with expertise in plant molecular biology and biochemistry. Experience with untargeted metabolomics and compound identification is a plus. The research associate will lead or contribute to projects focused on the identification and functional characterization of novel small-molecule compounds involved in plant growth and stress tolerance and, more generally, organismal health. The starting point of our research is protein-metabolite interaction networks mapped in the group using an array of biochemical approaches and primarily co-fractionation mass-spectrometry. The available interactomes, spanning microbes, animals, and plants, are a treasure trove for discovery. The research associate will query the available interactomes for novel regulatory metabolite-protein pairings, followed by biochemical and functional characterization. The lab is working closely with the MSU metabolomics and proteomics cores. It is fully equipped for molecular and biochemical work, including state-of-the-art technologies to characterize protein-ligand binding. The lab has a strong collaboration network, and the research associate will be encouraged to tap into this network and forge their own collaborations. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

Support Staff — College of Natural Science

Applications Close: July 12, 2024 — 11:55 p.m.

We are seeking a responsible and enthusiastic individual to assist in investigating molecular mechanisms of gene expression and stress response in model plant Arabidopsis. The candidate will perform and document project-specific experiments (e.g. generate and characterize transgenic plants in Arabidopsis, DNA/RNA/protein-extraction, PCR, qRT-PCR, protoplast isolation, luciferase assays, western blot, and basic imaging analysis such as operating dissection microscope and light microscope), prepare lab reagents, and assist in lab organization. Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

Research Associate, Fixed Term — Rhee Lab

Application Review Begins: June 24, 2024

We seek to recruit a highly motivated and skilled postdoctoral researcher with training in molecular biology, plant genetics, or cell biology. The project will leverage recent advances in microscopy, genetics, and physiology to understand molecular mechanisms of dehydration and desiccation tolerance in Arabidopsis. This project is part of a recently funded NSF Biology Integration Institute called Water and Life Interface Institute (WALII, pronounced “Wally”). WALII studies how life interacts with water, from the molecular to the organismal level, across plants, fungi, and animals. WALII is a virtual institute, with scientists located at nine research facilities across the United States. Working together, WALII team members aim to uncover the rules by which organisms interact with water. The candidate selected for this position will be working primarily on Theme 2.Learn more about this MSU Careers posting and apply at this link.

Faculty Positions, Tenure Track — Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Application Review Begins: July 15, 2024

The Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology (IPMB), Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan invites applications for tenure-track faculty positions at the Assistant Research Fellow level (equivalent to Assistant Professor) in the research areas of plants and plant-related microbes. Successful candidates should have research records complementary to the current IPMB research capacities or have the potential to launch a new research direction. Preference will be given, but not limited to applicants with research experience in computational biology or sustainability. Learn more and apply here. Contact Dr. Chih-Horng Kuo for additional information.

Recent Publications

Chu, Y. H., Lee, Y. S., Gomez-Cano, F., Gomez-Cano, L., Zhou, P., Doseff, A. I., Springer, N., & Grotewold, E. (2024). Molecular mechanisms underlying gene regulatory variation of maize metabolic traits. The Plant cell, koae180. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koae180

O'Malley, A., Sankaran, S., Carriuolo, A., Khatri, K., Kowal, K., & Chruszcz, M. (2024). Structural hom*ology of mite profilins to plant profilins is not indicative of allergic cross-reactivity. Biological chemistry, 405(6), 367–381. https://doi.org/10.1515/hsz-2023-0366

Zhao, G., Richaud, A. D., Williamson, R. T., Feig, M., & Roche, S. P. (2024). De Novo Synthesis and Structural Elucidation of CDR-H3 Loop Mimics. ACS chemical biology, 10.1021/acschembio.4c00236. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acschembio.4c00236