Dear BB Community,
Happy New Year! We ended a busy and turbulent term with a lovely holiday party that brought the BB community together for good science, food, and surprises. Thankful to you all for coming and making it a joyous event and in showing our appreciation and how much we value our students.
Some of the BB grads with gift baskets.
Maria Purice starts her appointment as an assistant professor this month. we are looking forward to more worms, and to learn more about glial cells and their role in aging and disease. There will be many activities this term, to list of few: We will be renovating our graduate program, through funding from the graduate school, hosting a large recruiting event for a new class of graduate students, and hosting the Tsoo King lectures, Jan 22-23. The students have invited national academy member Eva Nogales, a UC Berkeley distinguished professor of biochemistry, biophysics, and structural biology to talk about her discoveries with cryo-electron microscopy and her journey from rural Spain into cutting edge science. Graduate student Sarah Louie is planning the events for her visit, please reach out if you want to meet the speaker. I will be giving the Gilfillan public lecture this March, and I am excited about presenting topics that will engage the public. More than ever, we need to make science accessible, rewarding, and impacting people’s lives as we research for cures for diseases, better climate, and peaceful and inclusive society. Below I list some of our activities and successes last Fall compiled by Kimberly. Enjoy reading.
Phil McFadden submitted a University Graduate Laurels Block Grant for the 2025-2026 academic year, which has been selected for funding. The funding covers tuition for a first-year graduate student.
Nathan Mortimer and the project team Juan, Myriam, and Kari submitted an Academic Program Renovation proposal, to renovate our graduate program, which was selected for funding in the amount of $92,000! The funding includes money to cover some FTE and some summer salary for the project co-directors, and some money (FTE or summer) for other faculty who are willing to help develop new courses. The BB proposal was reviewed as deep, innovative, and overall exemplary and the best they have received! Thanks to all faculty and students who contributed ideas.
The Agilent Grants Board approved the joint Agilent/GCE4All Center proposal “Building a Public Repository of Annotated Mass Spectra to Support Biopharma Analysis Workflows and Training of AI” in the amount of $71,011.
Sarah Clark submitted an NIH R35 proposal titled “Molecular mechanisms of lipid transfer by bridge-like lipid transfer proteins” in the amount of $1,995,405.
Alysia Vrailas-Mortimer submitted an NIH R61/R33 proposal titled “Assessing Ecological Relevant Oxidative and Reproductive Stress Exposures on Aging, Healthspan, and Lifespan in Drosophila” in the amount of $2,575,206.
Elisar Barbar as lead PI along with Juan Vanegas and Chong Feng submitted a proposal to NIH titled “Training Program in Molecular Biophysics of Complex Systems” for $2,214,367.
Dan Liefwalker submitted a proposal to NIH titled “Restoring cell death through a novel negative feedback loop in MYC-dependent malignancies” for $2,564,170.00.
Elisar Barbar submitted a proposal to NSF titled “Regulation of dynamic protein complexes in vitro and in cellular machines” for $1,394,558.
Colin Johnson (PI) with co-PIs Vanegas, Clark, Cotten, Popp, and Baio submitted a SciRIS proposal titled “Development and application of tools to overcome challenges in understanding how proteins manipulate lipid membranes in health and disease” for $10,000.
Elisar Barbar was a panelist for the NIH Biomedical Technology Optimization and Dissemination Center (BTOD) study section ZRG1 BBBT-T (55) on 09/26/2024.
Fritz Gombart was a co-organizer for the CQLS Fall Conference held on 11/22/2024 Fritz Gombart was the chair of the organizing committee for the virtual XIII International Society for Immunonutrition (ISIN) Conference on Immunonutrition, Diet and Life Style Factors in Health and Disease, that was held October 28-31, 2024.
Ryan Mehl served on a review panel for SBIR/STTR grant applications in Drug Discovery and Development for NIH (Nov 18-19).
From the Gombart Group
Ma D, Su, Y, Sharma N, Hatcher G, Indra G, Indra A, Gombart AF, Xie J. "Prolonged Immunomodulator Delivery Boosts Monocyte Exosome Secretion and Elevates Cathelicidin/LL37 Content". 11-Dec-2024. Journal: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Manuscript ID: am2024-20695v.R1
Ryan Mehl was an invited speaker for a Botany & Plant Pathology seminar at OSU on October 17th, “The Limits of Labeling in Cells Using Genetic Code Expansion”.
Sarah Clark gave a seminar at the Academy for Lifelong Learning in Corvallis on September 26th.
Lauren Dalton with coauthor Robin Young gave a talk titled "Fundamentals of Cell Biology: A New Openly Accessible Textbook" at the teaching innovations subsection of the American Society for Cell Biology conference on December 15th.
Sarah Clark has a new course “BB 699: Cryo-Electron Microscopy” being offered Winter term. “Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a powerful technique for solving the three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules. Recent technological advances have pushed cryo-EM to the forefront of structural biology, enabling the study of previously inaccessible macromolecules, such as dynamic and heterogeneous assemblies. This course will cover the theory, practice, and application of cryo-EM. Students will learn the steps involved in sample preparation, data collection, and image processing. Further, through literature review, the course will explore new and exciting areas of cryo-EM development, such as in situ and time resolved cryo-EM.”
David Hendrix has a new course “BB 699: Special Topics – Grant Proposal Writing” in Winter term. “Learn the fundamentals of grant proposal writing and methods of persuasion. Students will write a grant proposal by the end of the term. Participants will be able to explain the components of a proposal, how to write compelling proposals, and how to improve them. Participants will learn the review process and acquire skills by reading and critiquing proposal drafts written by other participants. The course can be especially valuable for second year doctoral students who will be needing to prepare a thesis proposal.”
The BPS Journal Club is back! Friday mornings at 9:00am in the BB Library, starting January 10th with a presentation by Hannah Stuwe (Barbar Lab). All are welcome!
Dr. Maria Purice will be officially joining the BB Department starting January 1, 2025! We are excited to have her as part of our community.
Dr. Maria Purice
I was born in Romania and grew up in Portland, OR. I started my training at the Honors College at University of Oregon, pursuing a Biology Degree with a Neuroscience focus. I fell in love with research in Dr. Chris Doe's lab, where I helped generate a neuronal atlas of gene expression in the embryonic fly nervous system. I then pursued a PhD in Neuroscience in Dr. Mary Logan's lab at Oregon Health and Science University, where I used adult Drosophila to uncover molecular mechanisms involved in glial responses to nerve injury in young and aged brains. Following my doctoral work, I did a short post doc in Dr. J. Paul Taylor's lab at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital where I studied the link between dysfunction in stress granule dynamics and the accumulation of pathological TDP-43 inclusions. Due to my fascination with glial cells, I then joined Dr. Aakanksha Singhvi's lab at Fred Hutch. Here I have taken advantage of the simple yet complex nervous system of C. elegans, as well as its genetic power, to characterize the molecular signatures of the different glial cells in this organism. My lab at OSU will investigate how glia-neuron signaling shapes circuit function and behavior in disease and during aging, and its consequential effects on sensory and cognitive decline. I am excited to not only pursue my own independent program to uncover how glial cells can save neurons - but also to return to Oregon with my husband, daughter, and dog.
Stanis Stanisheuski attended the ASMS 35th Fall Workshop on native mass spectrometry (Nov 18-19).
Ryan Mehl attended and gave a session talk at the Oregon Bioengineering Symposium, hosted at OHSU (Nov 15).
Mukhtar Idris (Barbar Lab) presented a poster titled “Regulation of Dynein Intermediate Chain by Autoinhibition” at the 38th Annual Gibbs Conference on Thermodynamics in Carbondale, IL, September 28-October 1. Hannah Stuwe also presented.
The International GCE Webinar Fall 2024 speakers and topics.
The graduate committee reviewed over 80 applications and selected 24 for Zoom interviews. Of those who interviewed, 18 were given verbal offers of admission, and invited to visit Corvallis and OSU for a recruitment weekend, January 30th-February 1st.
Patrick Allen (Mehl/Cooley Lab) presented his 3rd year talk on October 9th, titled “Universal Tetrazine”.
Sarah Louie (Mehl/Cooley Lab) passed her preliminary exam on November 8th.
Mahya Payazdan (Gombart Lab) was awarded one of three Young Investigator Awards at the XIII ISIN Conference on Immunonutrition (an international virtual conference) for her oral presentation entitled, “Discovering how the expression of the cathelicidin gene is repressed by toll-like receptor signaling in response to vitamin D”
Lena Kinion (Dolan Lab) was awarded a Dissertation Completion Award for Winter Term.
BB student Jesse Howe (Barbar Lab) successfully defended his PhD thesis, "Connecting Function to Structure: Regulation of Cellular Functions by the Dimerization Hub Protein LC8", on October 17th.
Jesse Howe celebrating defending his PhD thesis.
Congratulations, Jesse!
BB graduate student Tilottama Chatterjee successfully defended her thesis, "Tyrosine Nitrated Proteins Hsp90 and RhoA Exhibit Distinct Structural and Functional Changes Dependent on the Site of Nitration", on October 29.
Tilottama Chatterjee celebrating defending her PhD thesis.
Congratulations, Tilottama!
Lauren Dalton attended a College of Science Pre-Med Committee Meeting and learned that the most recent BB undergrads have a 90% med school acceptance rate!
April Knox (Nutrition student getting a BB minor working with Fritz Gombart) gave an oral presentation at the XIII ISIN Conference on Immunonutrition (an international virtual conference) entitled, “Elucidating the mechanism behind TLR-mediated suppression of vitamin D-regulated cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide expression”
Alysia Vrailas-Mortimer and Ally Erlendson’s BB 315 Molecular and Cellular Biology Lab course held a mini symposium in which students presented posters on their research projects, identifying unknown mutations in flies that affects the fly eye.
Students viewing posters with information about biochemistry/biophysics.
Abigail Pung had a senior from Lowell High School job shadow her throughout the day to learn more about a day in the life of someone in their desired future career.
Alysia Vrailas-Mortimer and Myriam Cotten were selected for the OSU Research Advancement Academy as Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation Biohealth Fellowships.
Elisar Barbar as the 2024 recipient of the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Professor Award was honored at an event attended by the OSU president.
Elisar Barbar with OSU President Dr. Jayathi Y. Murthy
This award is given to a faculty member who demonstrates outstanding professional achievement through teaching and scholarship, service to the university and the community, and professional leadership, nationally and internationally.
Our first-year graduate students did an incredible job with their first rotation talks! Below is the list of students, the labs they rotated in, and the titles of their talks:
Ethan Beffert (Hokanson) “K-Tav-3 Cell Electrophysiology”
Davis Sharts (Clark) “Isolation of a Novel Photoreceptor in C. elegans”
Nadia Gonzalez (Clark) “Optimization of LITE-1 Isolation Conditions”
Abraham Kpirikai (Vanegas) “Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor (AT1R)”
Tepary Cooley (Hokanson) “Investigation of the Electrophysiology Characteristics of KTaV’s Cells”
Sarah Perkel (Mortimer) “How To Destroy a Vesicle in 5 Weeks”
Johnathan Dutra will give his rotation talk during Winter term.