Category Archives: Biochemistry

Biochemistry

Advanced diagnostic methods needed to prevent, treat cancer – The Tribune

Tribune News Service

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 4

To commemorate World Cancer Day, Central University of Punjab (CUP) on Tuesday organised lectures on topic, Cancer Prevention and Awareness, on February 3.

The programme was organised by the Departments of Biochemistry, Zoology and Human Genetics & Molecular Medicine under the leadership of Vice-Chancellor Prof K Kohli. Eminent oncologists Dr Praveen Bansal, Director, Baba Farid University of Health Science (BFUHS), Faridkot, and cancer immunologist Dr Sunil Arora, cancer immunologist, PGIMER, Chandigarh, were the guest speakers.

The speakers highlighted the need for lifestyle modifications to reduce the risk of cancer. Besides faculty members, non-teaching employees, over 300 students and research scholars took part in the event.

Dr Aklank Jain, a cancer biologist from the Department of Zoology, welcomed the guest speakers and introduced the programme theme. He said: There is a need for advanced cancer diagnostic methods to prevent and treat cancer.

Dr Parveen Bansal defined cancer as malignant growth caused due to uncontrolled division of cells. He said spices, vegetables and fruits kept diseases at bay. He emphasised practising asans such as upavasa, dinacharya and ritucharya in daily life to stay fit and healthy.

Dr Sunil Arora said it was essential to study tumour microenvironment to identify the growth and development of cancer cells. He said additional research was needed to study the origin and chemoresistance of cancer cells. Cancer can be cured by targeting the tumour microenvironment and by strengthening the immune system, Dr Sunil said.

Dr Shashank Kumar, cancer biochemist from the Department of Biochemistry, CUP, said according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) data, around 1.5 lakh new breast cancer cases occurred annually in the country. Stage 0 breast cancer is the earliest form of breast cancer and due to the absence of symptoms, it is hard to detect, he said. Dr Shashank said the periodic physical examination of breast by self or a trained health worker might help detect cancer early.

Dr Sabyasachi Senapati, human geneticist from the Department of Human Genetics & Molecular Medicine, CUP, said: Appropriate genetic tests for early diagnosis and preventive therapies for some forms of familial breast, prostate, uterine, colorectal, liver and ovarian cancer can reduce the risk of cancer by up to 40%. The Department of Health Research and the ICMR are creating awareness on the disease through several projects.

During the programme, university students presented a thematic poster. A nukkad natak to educate public about cancer prevention was staged by students.

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Advanced diagnostic methods needed to prevent, treat cancer - The Tribune

Biochemistry

Third annual Students of Color Symposium provides education, inclusivity – The Miami Hurricane

The Students of Color Symposium, in its third year and counting, continued to teach students about different identities and provide students with a safe space on campus.

For Kaley Kohen, a junior psychology major, said the symposium left her with new perspectives and made her think more reflectively about her identity. Kohn came to Miami from a primarily white school district, and having a space where she could talk to other students who go through the same experiences as her was important.

The program has definitely improved since my freshman year when it first started, Kohen said. They are doing such a good job at promoting unity within the students that attend.

The two-night event coordinated by the Office of Multicultural Students Affairs began on Jan. 31 with a panel discussion with featured panelists Jonathan Vilma- former American football linebacker and current ESPN college football analyst, and Kysha Harriell, associate clinical professor and program director for the Athletic Training Program at the University of Miami.

Julianne Bugsy, a freshman majoring in microbiology and immunology, said her favorite moment was when the panelists answered her question about her future.

I want to go to medical school, and thats 10 to 12 years of my life, Bugsy said. I asked them how they kept themselves from being daunted by challenges in their career, and they answered by saying to take a step back and breathe.

The panelists also stressed the importance of mentorship, another theme that was common at this years symposium.

The second and final day of events on Feb. 1 started with a talk from poet and educator Steven Valentine about how identity can shape all facets of a persons life, from mental health to education.

Rachel Bergeron, a freshman biochemistry major, said, It was enlightening to talk to different people from around campus who are also students of color and to really be able to reflect on the different world views that we have.

Next, professor Nebil Husayn and community psychologist and educator Donna Nevel spoke about Islamophobia.

The night concluded with a game of Factuality, a board game that illustrates the different prejudices and setbacks that certain populations face going through their daily lives. It was led by educator and advocate Queenstar Akrong.

Overall, Kohen said at the end of the event, As a black woman who faces discrimination, I never want to ignore it when it happens to others.

Fedeline Camile, a senior biochemistry and molecular biology major, was on the planning committee. Her goal for the event was to encourage students to educate themselves.

This conversation merely started here, it doesnt stop here, Camile said. The conversation needs to continue beyond the third floor of Shalala, and we need to understand that getting educated makes our voices strong.

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Third annual Students of Color Symposium provides education, inclusivity - The Miami Hurricane

Biochemistry

Physical forces at the interface with biology and chemistry – PLoS Blogs

Cell behaviour, tissue formation/regulation, physiology and disease are all influenced by cellular mechanics and physical forces. The field of mechanobiology has for a long time striven to fully understand how these forces affect biological and cellular processes, as well as developing new analytical techniques. At the same time, the properties of advanced smart materials, such as self-healing, self-reporting and responsive polymers, have been determined by a complex interplay between the thermodynamics, kinetics and mechanics of dynamic bonding strategies. These are tightly connected to the field of mechanochemistry, whichaims to elucidate and harness molecular level design principles and translate these to the bulk material level as emergent properties. At this interface between disciplines lies an emerging and exciting research area that has been strongly facilitated by the collaboration of physicists, chemists, engineers, materials scientists, and biologists.

We had the pleasure of speaking to Kerstin Blank and Matthew Harrington, who have been working on how mechanical forces influence biological systems, molecules and responsive biomaterials, about their views of the field and the recent Multiscale Mechanochemistry and Mechanobiology conference of which PLOS ONE was one of the proud sponsors.

How did you first become interested in this topic?

Kerstin: When I started in this field in 2000, I was mostly impressed by the technical possibilities. I was working with Hermann Gaub, one of the leaders in single-molecule force spectroscopy. I found it fascinating that we could stretch a single biological molecule and observe its response. I did ask myself sometimes if this was just something that physicists like to play with or if one could solve biomedically relevant questions with this approach. Now, almost 20 years later, it has become very evident that a large number of biological systems are regulated by mechanical forces in many different ways.

Matt: My educational background was primarily in biology and biochemistry, but I became fascinated with the capacity of certain biological materials to exhibit self-healing responses in the absence of living cells. I reasoned that this must arise from specific chemical and physical design principles in the material building blocks themselves, and I became obsessed with figuring out how this works. This led me to the self-healing materials community, which was largely populated with chemists and materials engineers, but not so many biologists. When I began to see that many of the same principles at play in synthetic self-healing materials were present in nature, and that in some cases nature was going well beyond the state of the art in synthetic self-healing materials, I realized the enormous potential at the interface of mechanobiology and mechanochemistry. I havent looked back since.

Which areas are you most excited about?

Kerstin: I find it very intriguing how cells utilize mechanical information from their environment and then feed it into intracellular biochemical signalling cascades. Understanding these mechanosensing and mechanotransduction processes requires knowledge of the cellular players and their interactions. But to develop the complete picture, we also need to investigate how cells interact with their extracellular environment. This also involves understanding the microscopic and macroscopic mechanical properties of the extracellular environment. I am highly excited about the development of molecular force sensors that convert mechanical force into a fluorescent signal. This allows for the localized detection of cell traction forces and, in the future, will also enable us to visualize force propagation inside materials that mimic the natural extracellular matrix.

Matt: I am currently most excited about understanding how and why nature uses different transient interactions to control the fabrication and viscoelastic mechanical responses of biopolymeric materials and the potential this has for the development of sustainable advanced polymers of the future. Recent discoveries in the field clearly show that in contrast to traditional polymers, living organisms commonly use specific supramolecular interactions based on dynamic bonds (e.g. hydrogen bonding, metal coordination or pi-cation interactions) to guide the self-assembly and mechanical properties of protein-based materials. The thermodynamic and kinetic properties of these labile bonds enable a certain dynamicity and responsiveness in these building blocks that provides potential inspiration for environmentally friendly materials processing and active/tuneable material properties. These concepts are already being adapted in a number of exciting bio-inspired polymers.

What progress has the field made in the last years?

Kerstin: It is now well-established that cells are able to sense and respond to the elastic and viscoelastic properties of the material they grow in. We have also learned a lot about how the mechanical signal is converted into biochemical signalling on the intracellular side. This is a direct result of many new technological developments, including the molecular force sensors described above. It is further a result of the increasing development of extracellular matrix mimics with well-defined and tuneable mechanical properties and microstructures.

Matt: Due to recent technological advances it is becoming possible to link specific aspects of mechanical material responses directly to structural features at multiple length scales. The better we understand these structure-property relationships, the better we can optimize the material response. This provides an intimate feedback loop that has enabled major breakthroughs in the fields of active matter, including self-healing and self-reporting polymers.

What is the real-world impact?

Kerstin: It is widely accepted that mechanical information plays a key role in stem cell differentiation. It has further been shown that mutated cells, e.g. in cancer or cardiovascular diseases, have different mechanical properties and show alterations in processing mechanical information. Understanding the origin of these changes and being able to interfere with them will have direct impact in disease diagnostics and treatment. Engineering materials with molecularly controlled structures and mechanical properties will further enable the community to direct stem cell differentiation in a more defined manner for applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Matt: Aside from biomedical impacts, the insights gained from understanding the structure-function relationships defining the mechanical response of molecules are also extremely relevant for the development and sustainable fabrication of next generation advanced polymers. Given the global threat of petroleum-based plastics processing and disposal, this is an extremely important aspect of the research in this field.

What are the challenges and future developments of the field?

Kerstin: At this moment, we usually try to relate the macroscopic material properties (measured in the lab) with the microscopic environment that cells sense. In my view, we are missing a key piece of information. We need to understand how the macroscopic properties of a material emerge from its molecular composition, topography and hierarchical structure. In combination, all these parameters determine the mechanical properties of a material and, more importantly, what the cells see. In fact, this is not only key for the development of new extracellular matrix mimics. The same questions need to be answered for understanding how nature assembles a wide range of structural and functional materials with outstanding properties, such as spider silk, cellulose composites and nacre. Here, I see a great potential for future collaboration between disciplines.

Matt: There are enormous challenges on the bio-inspiration side of the field involved with transferring design principles extracted from biological materials into synthetic systems. Biology is inherently complex, so there is a common tendency to distil the extracted concept to a single functional group or concept, while often there are collective effects that are lost by this more reductionist approach. On the biological side, a key challenge is ascertaining which are the relevant design principles. On the bio-inspired side, there are challenges in finding appropriate synthetic analogues to mimic the chemical and structural complexity of the natural system. Overcoming this barrier requires cross-disciplinary communication and feedback and is an extremely exciting and active area in our field.

Why and when did you decide to organize a conference on this topic?

Kerstin & Matt: While both working at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, we quickly realized that the cell biophysics, biomaterials, mechanochemistry and soft matter communities are all interested in very similar questions while using similar methods and theoretical models; however, we had the impression that they hardly interact with each other. We thought of ways to change this and organizing a conference was clearly one way to do it. The first conference with the topic Multiscale Mechanochemistry and Mechanobiology: from molecular mechanisms to smart materials took place in Berlin in 2017. When bringing this idea forward in our respective communities, we immediately realized that we hit a nerve. Now that the conference has taken place for the second time in Montreal in 2019, we really got the feeling that we are starting to create a community around this topic. There will be another follow up conference from August 23-25, 2021 in Berlin (@mcb2021Berlin).

What are the most interesting and representative papers published in PLOS ONE in this field?

Kerstin: The paper Monodisperse measurement of the biotin-streptavidin interaction strength in a well-defined pulling geometry, published by Sedlak et al., is a highly interesting contribution to the field of single-molecule force spectroscopy, which was also presented at the conference. This work highlights the methodological developments in single-molecule force spectroscopy since its very early days. The authors from the Gaub labhave re-measured the well-known streptavidin-biotin interaction, now with a very high level of control over the molecular setup. It clearly shows how far the field has come and also that protein engineering, bioconjugation chemistry, instrumentation development and data analysis all need to go hand in hand to obtain clear and unambiguous experimental results. Clearly, considering a defined molecular setup is not only crucial for this kind of measurement but also for the development of biomimetic materials with controlled mechanical properties.

Sedlak SM, Bauer MS, Kluger C, Schendel LC, Milles LF, Pippig DA, et al. (2017) Monodisperse measurement of the biotin-streptavidin interaction strength in a well-defined pulling geometry. PLoS ONE 12(12): e0188722,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188722

Matt: Accurately detecting and measuring the mechanical forces at play inside living cells is one of the key challenges in the field of mechanobiology, given the small size and dynamic nature of the intracellular environment. However, this information is extremely important for understanding the role of mechanics in regulating cellular functions such as growth, differentiation and proliferation, as well as disease states. In the Nuclei deformation reveals pressure distributions in 3D cell clusters paper from the Ehrlicher group, the authors address this challenge by using fluorescently labelled proteins in the cell nucleus coupled with confocal microscopy to measure compressive pressures within cells and cell clusters. Using this methodology, they explored the effect of cell number and shape of multicellular clusters on the internal compressive pressure within cells, providing potentially important insights for cellular signalling and function. These studies have potential applications in both in vitro and in vivo models, and provide a relatively simple methodology for acquiring intracellular mechanical data.

Khavari A, Ehrlicher AJ (2019) Nuclei deformation reveals pressure distributions in 3D cell clusters. PLoS ONE 14(9): e0221753,https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221753

Other PLOS ONE representative papers:

Kerstin Blank studied Biotechnology at the University of Applied Sciences in Jena and obtained her PhDin Biophysics under the supervision of Prof Hermann Gaub at Ludwig-Maximilians Universitt in Munich. After two postdocs at the Universit de Strasbourg and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, she became an Assistant Professor at Radboud University in Nijmegen in 2009. In 2014, she moved to the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces where she holds the position of a Max Planck Research Group Leader. Her research interests combine biochemistry and single molecule biophysics with the goal of developing molecular force sensors for biological and materials science applications.

Matthew J. Harrington is Canada Research Chair in Green Chemistry and assistant professor in Chemistry at McGill University since 2017. He received his PhD in the lab of J. Herbert Waite from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Afterwards, he was a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow and then research group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in the Department of Biomaterials. His research interests are focused on understanding biochemical structure-function relationships and fabrication processes of biopolymeric materials and translating extracted design principles for production of sustainable, advanced materials.

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Physical forces at the interface with biology and chemistry - PLoS Blogs

Biochemistry

Regional symposium aims to inform about the impact of plastics – – The Lasso

Texas Womans Unversity hosted the annual regional Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities symposium, held in the Ann-Stuart Science Complex Jan. 31, as Zero Impact event, focusing on the impacts of plastics in the environment.

SENCER is a faculty development reform and science education program created to educate people about issues relevant to social responsibility and civic engagement.

It is a faculty development [program], but it also helps faculty develop courses where students get involved where you take what youre learning in class and apply it to a real-life situation, Dr. Richard Sheardy, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said. We know from years of this being done that students actually learn better by getting involved. Civically engaged students are better citizens, and so democracy is strengthened, as well.

The topic of the symposium was Citizen Science: The Impact on Our Communities by Plastics in Our Environment. Sheardy said he got the idea for the theme after having dinner with one of the symposium speakers, Dr.Catherine Middlecamp. Middlecamp also suggested hosting the event as a Zero Impact event.

The goal of a Zero Impact event is to minimize the amount of waste used throughout the symposium. In order to effectively plan the carbon-neutral event, five TWU students and a faculty advisor teamed up with Middlecamp and two students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Zero Impact team came up with ways to lessen the amount of waste produced from the symposium like ordering from a local restaurant, buying dishes, fabric napkins and silverware instead of using plastic ones, and using reusable nametags.

We have other events on campus, so were going to reuse all of this, Dr. Nasrin Mirsaleh-Kohan, an associate professor at TWU and SENCER Center for Innovation Southwest co-director, said. So over time, were going to eliminate a lot of plastics. At some point, if anybody on campus has an event, they can borrow it.

Sheardy said he hopes that other groups on campus will also be willing to host Zero Impact events.

We have charged our team with reaching out to other groups and other student groups that might want to have an event, and they will help that group plan that event as a Zero Impact event, Sheardy said. And they can use our dishes.

The symposium began with several poster sessions that each discuss civic engagement. Sheardy said the topic of the posters sessions is not just limited to plastics in the environment, but how civic engagement is included in classes.

Adjunct faculty and Zero Impact team faculty adviser Alana Taylor presented about students learning sustainability and civic engagement in the class Sustainable Physical Science. Students were tasked with choosing five behavioral changes to implement in their lives for the duration of the semester as well as do five volunteer hours at an environmental organization local to them.

I started teaching the course in 2017, and I was trying to figure out a way to make sustainability fun and give them the opportunity to engage with the community and have behavioral change, Taylor said.

Taylor said many of her students enjoyed the assignment and felt as if though they made easy lifestyle changes.

My favorite [response] is my whole family changed after doing this project, Taylor said. That was one from one of my students who is a mother with three kids. She chose to do Trashless Lunch.

She didnt just do it for her. She did it for her whole family. She was able to report that her whole family will continue to do that, now, forever.

The rest of the symposium attendees listened to presentations ranging from topics on how to plan a Zero Waste event to how the chemistry community connects to policy decisions from speakers from the City of Denton, The New School, University of Montana, Belhaven University and many other universities.

As chemists, there are things we can do to address the problem, assess the problem and propose solutions, Sheardy said. We also need to educate the general public about the issues and what they can do to help. This is kind of like a kick-off to that.

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Regional symposium aims to inform about the impact of plastics - - The Lasso

Biochemistry

Q&A: Chemical Biologist Ken Hsu to Use NSF CAREER Award to Fight Cancer – University of Virginia

A promising University of Virginia scientist, Ku-Lung (Ken) Hsu, an assistant professor of chemistry, has earned one of the National Science Foundations coveted Early Career Development Program Awards, which support junior faculty members who perform outstanding research and are regarded as exceptional teachers.

Part of the grant is used to integrate education and research in academic activities. Hsus award is for $681,000.

Hsu uses chemistry to control biological systems, particularly to modify the immune system to become an active combatant against cancer. His work understanding and controlling the inflammation response spans the search for new non-addictive drug options for treating pain, to modifying immune cells so they can recognize and kill cancer cells.

The five-year NSF CAREER grants are among the most prestigious available to young faculty in science and engineering, and are designed to provide significant resources to the early stage development of careers.

Many of Hsus laboratory studies are conducted in collaboration with clinical researchers in the School of Medicines Cancer Center as part of UVAs efforts to enhance research into precision medicine using immunotherapy to target life-threatening diseases at the fundamental molecular level.

Hsu discusses here his research and grant for readers of UVA Today.

Q. What drew you to this area of chemistry?

A. Chemical biology is an exciting area of chemistry because it is very creative, highly interdisciplinary and allows scientists to answer fundamental questions that ultimately improve human health through drug discovery and other new therapies. I enjoy the opportunity to work with experts in so many different fields, including pharmacology, pathology, neurology and cancer biology. As a result, I learn something new from each project.

My students also benefit greatly from being in this field because of an emphasis on collaborations, which increases diversity through individuals they interact with and expands the skillsets they obtain during their training. Medical research is becoming increasingly collaborative, so my students are becoming well-prepared for the research environments in which they will spend their careers.

Activating the immune response to fight cancer represents a very exciting treatment modality and UVA is well-positioned to be a leader in this front. The UVA Cancer Center has been a major supporter of my research program, and I look forward to continued interactions and collaborations in this community.

- Ken Hsu

Q. Describe the most compelling aspects of your latest research.

A. I am excited about two recent discoveries that embody research from our group in the field of chemical biology. Both reports are published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

In our first paper, we describe a new chemical reaction with broad applications for synthetic chemistry and drug discovery. The reaction we discovered possibly could come into common use for developing new treatments for cancer and other diseases in the future. This finding was especially rewarding because I teach related material in my organic chemistry course and our paper describes a new methodology for synthetic chemists and chemical biologists to tune chemical reactions for diverse real-world applications. This is compelling for my students, to know that what they are learning in class is also current and active to catalyze breakthrough research in our labs.

In our second report, our findings are directed toward fundamental discoveries in the realm of fat (lipid) molecules, which play a major role in the bodys metabolism at the cellular level. We used protein engineering to design artificial lipid kinase enzymes a specialized protein involved in cell growth, proliferation and other functions that can include the growth of cancers in order to better understand how cells regulate their fat composition. To our surprise and delight, we narrowed in on a very specific region of these lipid kinases that allow us to control how they operate in cells. Our findings will teach us and others in the field a more effective way to design therapeutics to combat these enzymes when they misbehave.

Q. How will this grant allow you to connect your research with teaching?

A. The NSF CAREER Award will provide new opportunities for applying our chemistry and technologies to study how individual cells control the metabolism of fats and lipids. We plan to develop compounds that attach to enzymes to illuminate how cells are similar or distinct based on their metabolism kind of like a molecular fingerprint. Our long-term goal is to create new opportunities for cell type discovery and push the boundaries of cell engineering.

The research is intimately connected to an educational outreach program designed to broadly impact Native American student communities by providing opportunities for UVA graduate students to teach how lipid biochemistry influences healthy food choices and eating behaviors in society.

Q. Where do you see your research going from here?

A. In the next five years, I am looking forward to applying our chemistry and technologies toward deeper understanding of lipid biology and metabolism in physiologically relevant models. We remain committed to discovery of new molecular pathways for immune system modulation, and our recent findings represent important steps toward our long-term goal.

Q. How promising is the future regarding immune system modulation?

A. Activating the immune response to fight cancer represents a very exciting treatment modality and UVA is well-positioned to be a leader in this front. The UVA Cancer Center has been a major supporter of my research program, and I look forward to continued interactions and collaborations in this community.

I believe the chemistry we are pursuing will provide new opportunities and technologies for exploring creative ways to study and control the immune system. Support from the NSF CAREER Award will pave the way for new ways to engineer immune cells for cancer and other potential disease indications.

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Q&A: Chemical Biologist Ken Hsu to Use NSF CAREER Award to Fight Cancer - University of Virginia

Biochemistry

Global Itaconic Acid Market 2020 expected to reach around XX Billion USD at the end of 2025 with outstanding CAGR rate – Jewish Life News

Itaconic Acid Industry Global, Regional and Country Overview- Industry Overview, Segment Analysis, Market News, Forecast and Current Industry Trends, and Major Stakeholders

This market research report divides the global Itaconic Acid industry based on the major product type, end-use, key product form, and distribution type. The primary factors estimated to influence the future market demand include changing consumer needs, evolving technologies, introduction of new marketing and promotion tools, strong research and development base. Also, the key manufacturers operating in the Itaconic Acid market are vigorously investing in product portfolio expansion and business diversification in order to attract a potential customer base across emerging economies. High consumer awareness and strong incline towards branded products is projected to deliver significant market opportunities for Itaconic Acid market in the coming years.

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This market study also deliversa comprehensive outlook on the major industry trends on regional, country, and global level. Market attractiveness in terms of product type, application industries, and regions will allow prospective investors to make sound business decision in the near future. In addition, the manufacturing cost analysis and raw material cost overview is provided to get in-depth knowledge about the upstream industry chain of Itaconic Acid market. The downstream buyers analysis is provided for different regions and country market.

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Key Market Competitors: Kehai Biochemistry, Guoguang Biochemistry, Huaming Biochemistry, Alpha Chemika, Zhongshun Science & Technology

Regional Segments: North America: Canada, The U.S., Rest of North America Europe: Spain, Italy, U.K., France, Germany, France, Rest of Europe Asia Pacific: South Korea, China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, Rest of Asia Pacific Latin America: Mexico, Brazil, Rest of LA (Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Peru, etc.) MEA (Middle East and Africa): South Africa, GCC Countries (Qatar, Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain), and Rest of MEAIf you have any query feel free to ask our experts @ http://www.marketresearchstore.com/report/global-itaconic-acid-market-report-2020-716035#InquiryForBuying

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Global Itaconic Acid Market 2020 expected to reach around XX Billion USD at the end of 2025 with outstanding CAGR rate - Jewish Life News

Biochemistry

Back Mountain students named to dean’s list at The University of Scranton – The Dallas Post

SCRANTON Back Mountain residents were among more than 1,600 students named to The University of Scrantons Deans List for the 2019 fall semester. The deans list recognizes students for academic excellence. A student must have a grade point average of 3.5 or better with a minimum number of credit hours during the semester to make the deans list.

Recognized students are:

Amanda M. Danishanko, of Wyoming, a freshman biochemistry, cell, molecular biology major

Ivy J. Fox, of Dallas, a freshman biology major

Kyle B. Hromisin, of Dallas, a freshman biochemistry major

Lindsey X. Jorda, of Shavertown, a freshman biochemistry, cell, molecular biology major

Michael Quinnan, of Shavertown, a freshman biochemistry, cell, molecular biology major

Caroline E. Ries, of Tunkhannock, a freshman international studies major

Ethan M. Zawatski, of Dallas, a freshman biology major

Eric R. Wisdo, of Tunkhannock, a sophomore biochemistry major

Jacob S. Ridilla, of Shavertown, a junior physics major

Jake D. Selingo, of Shavertown, a junior chemistry major

Ashley C. Spencer, of Tunkhannock, a junior biology major

Kyle Zaboski, of Wyoming, a junior strategic communication major

Madeline J. Grant, of Dallas, a senior criminal justice major

Jared J. Fernandez, of Tunkhannock, a freshman nursing major

Gianna M. Scotti, of Tunkhannock, a sophomore occupational therapy major

Rachel A. Fernandez, of Tunkhannock, a junior occupational therapy major

Caroline N. Banas, of Dallas, a senior nursing major

Olivia R. Mennig, of Dallas, a senior nursing major

Samantha L. Pollick, of Wyoming, a senior nursing major

Nicole C. Cavanaugh, of Dallas, a junior accounting major

Maxwell J. Kneeream, of Wyoming, a junior accounting major

Alissa A. Zamber, of Tunkhannock, a senior accounting major

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Back Mountain students named to dean's list at The University of Scranton - The Dallas Post

Biochemistry

Bruins go to downtown Los Angeles to share the big potential of the very small – UCLA Newsroom

Los Angeles has a well-earned reputation as a world center for arts and entertainment but thats just one part of the picture according to Paul Weiss, UCLA distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry. He told a downtown Los Angeles audience that he believes that the same restless creative energy also drives the research community on campus.

Weiss was speaking as part of a new collaboration between UCLA and MindshareLA; that partnership is a key component of UCLAs commitment to share the knowledge its scholars are creating with people in communities beyond Westwood. The night served as the kickoff for a yearlong, four-event series, called Vision 2020.

We have this pressure on us here that if youre not doing something a little crazy and going out on a limb, youre not doing your job, said Weiss, a member and former director of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. Its a very different environment than the typical conservative academic places that many of us have seen in our training.

Weiss, who also is a distinguished professor of bioengineering and of materials science and engineering, relates this atmosphere of ingenuity and freedom to the sometimes-surprising collaborations hes part of as a nanoscientist, connecting with everyone from neuroscientists to transplant surgeons.

The potential of interdisciplinary work involving nanoscience explorations at the scale of billionths of a meter was a theme that cropped up repeatedly during It Came from Nanospace , an evening of presentations and hands-on experiences produced by UCLA and MindshareLA. Weiss was among four from UCLA who were featured in the Feb. 1 event at the Cross Campus office space in downtown Los Angeles, to a crowd of about 275 attendees.

Weiss, who holds a UC Presidential Chair and is founding editor-in-chief of the journal ACS Nano, shared highlights of his own activities as a leader in his field, from his work while at IBM on a microscope capable of imaging individual atoms to his involvement with ambitious public research initiatives launched during the Obama era. He also discussed the part that nanoscience itself an interdisciplinary field encompassing chemistry, physics, engineering and more is playing in tackling problems in other fields.

It Came from Nanospace began with a presentation by Adam Stieg, a UCLA research scientist and an associate director of CNSI. He provided a brief and engaging history of computing, leading up to a new paradigm hes exploring in his own research with UCLA distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry James Gimzewski: nanoscale devices physically and functionally modeled after certain aspects of the human brain. Potential future devices based on this approach wouldnt separate processing and memory, as contemporary computers do, and as a result are expected to operate with much greater energy efficiency.

Stieg noted that such interdisciplinary work fits naturally with nanoscience.

As much as nano is a thing of scale it absolutely is it ultimately becomes something of thinking, where we have to think differently about what we expect, because things dont behave as we would expect them to at the smallest of scales, he said.

We need to expect to see the unexpected, he continued, and to think creatively about how to leverage and harness these unique properties, and in many cases that requires talking across disciplines that we normally wouldnt.

Marc Roseboro/UCLA

Attendees enjoy the It Came from Nanospace event, which combined presentations and hands-on experiences in downtown Los Angeles.

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After a musical interlude, the attendees heard from Clarice Aiello, UCLA assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and a member of CNSI. She discussed her investigations into the quantum behavior behind chemical sensors in nature such as those that underlie birds ability to use faint signals from Earths magnetic field to guide their migration.

The question that my group and other groups are trying to answer is, Can quantum physics be established or refuted to account for relevant biological phenomena, and importantly be manipulated and controlled for technological and therapeutic advantage? said Aiello, who leads the Quantum Biology Tech Lab at UCLA, known as QuBIT.

She spoke about recent discoveries about cryptochrome, a protein found in the retinas of birds that is believed to be the key to their magnetic sense. She also provided examples of potential applications for knowledge about these kinds of quantum-based biochemical reactions: drugs that protect from the harmful effects of radiation, magnetic therapies that correct metabolic disorders and quantum computers that work at room temperature instead of requiring extreme cold.

Aiello echoed the importance of collaborations across scientific fields.

I really think that by joining forces we can actually solve a lot of more-interesting problems than if we are just restricted to our own disciplines, she said.

Attendees also enjoyed musical performances and hands-on experiences such as Noise Aquarium, an art installation by Victoria Vesna, professor of design media arts and director of the UCLA Art|Sci Center, which is a collaboration between the design media arts department in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture and CNSI.

The interactive installation provided participants with an immersive virtual reality trip beneath the oceans surface, where they had close encounters with enlarged projections of plankton collectively the largest source of oxygen in our atmosphere and experienced the underwater noise pollution that results from human activities such as sonar navigation and fracking.

A collaboration involving artists and scientists in Vienna, the installation uses three-dimensional scans of the microscopic plankton, as well as actual sounds recorded in the ocean. Noise Aquarium, which evolved from a linear video that has been presented to audiences around the globe, is meant to bring awareness to issues such as climate change and pollution.

MindshareLA is an event series and mecca for entrepreneurs, designers, technologists and other creative, forward-thinking Angelenos seeking inspiration and connection. It has hosted 150 events and spawned numerous successful companies and countless relationships.

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Bruins go to downtown Los Angeles to share the big potential of the very small - UCLA Newsroom

Biochemistry

Fake doctor tried to kill his family when he feared his secret would be exposed – Telegraph.co.uk

A failed medical student who spent up to a decade pretending he was a qualified doctor attempted to murder his family when he feared his secret would be exposed, a court heard yesterday.

Satya Thakor, 35, was jailed for 28 years for trying to kill his mother-in-law, wife and two other relatives during a stabbing rampage at a home in Wraysbury, Berks.

Reading Crown Court heard Thakor met his wife Nisha while studying biochemistry at a university in London. After failing his exams to qualify as a doctor, he lied by saying he had passed and kept up the pretence for up to a decade.

The court heard he visited a library every day to read medical books so that he sounded professional to his family and that he often pretended to work night shifts.

In May last year, Thakor realised his deception was about to be uncovered when his wife suggested a dream holiday to Los Angeles with their daughter and, because he had not been earning money, he could not provide the necessary funds.

He decided instead to buy some time by killing his mother-in-law, the court heard.

On May 14 last year, Thakor attacked his mother-in-law Gita Laxman with a knife while also trying to cover her head with a pillow. The woman's screams alerted Nisha who found her husband trying to attack her mother.

The court heard that Thakor then lunged at his wife and tried to stab her in the neck, successfully knifing her at least once and then again in the leg as she fell to the floor trying to kick him away.

He went on to stab his brother-in-law, Primal Laxman (corr), who tried to intervene, before going into a room where Rishika Laxman, his sister-in-law, was sleeping. He stabbed her too, Judge Dugdale was told.

In December, Thakor was convicted of three counts of attempted murder in relation to his wife, his mother-in-law and his brother-in-law. He was convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm in relation to Rishika Laxman.

Judge Paul Dugdale, sentencing, said: "You chose an extreme act of violence to get out of the difficulty that you were in. You could have stopped it as the madness that it was and as the idiotic decision that it was, but you chose not to."

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Fake doctor tried to kill his family when he feared his secret would be exposed - Telegraph.co.uk

Biochemistry

Preventing childhood trauma and reducing its long-term effects – Iowa Now

WhenCorinne Peek-Asawas an undergraduateatthe University of New Mexico,the idea of becoming anepidemiologist wasnton herradar.

In fact, she says,It was through a series of fortuitous events that I discovered what Iloved.

After graduating with a degree in biochemistry, Peek-Asa went to medical school thinking it would align with her interests in public health andresearch.

But duringclinical rotations,Peek-Asasoonrealizedshe didnt want to focusonpatient care.After transitioningtoforensic pathology,sheworkedin a medical examiners officecollecting tumorsfora cancer study and met a publichealth researcher whogave herthe opportunity to assist witha studyonpedestriansinNew MexicosPueblopopulation.

I didnt know it at the time, but I was really seeking something interdisciplinary,something that looks intocomplex problems thatrequirea lot of fields to solve, she says.SoI quit med school, applied foragraduateprogram in epidemiology, and it was very much afit.

Peek-Asa earneda masters in public health and a PhDfrom the University of California, Los Angeles, where she trained as an epidemiologist to investigate patterns and causes of injury.Specializingin implementing andanalyzingprevention programs and policies, Peek-Asais interested inthe larger goal of reducing thelong-termnegative health outcomesthat traumatic injuries cancause.

Anassociate dean for research in the University of Iowa College of Public Health and professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health,Peek-Asadirects IowasInjury Prevention Research Center (IPRC)and is an appointed member of the National Academy of Medicines Global Violence PreventionForum.

Peek-Asa will deliver Iowas 37th annual Presidential Lecture, Violence, Syndemics, and the Biology of Trauma, on Feb.16.

Why is childhood trauma so important to the research youll be focusing on in yourlecture?

Were learning about how trauma and violence in early childhood not only impact your development but can do so in a way that sets you up for many different health problems. So this leads to the question, if we can prevent extreme childhood adversity, traumatic stress, and abuse, can we show a lifelong trajectory of improved health? We need to look at a lot of outcomes, and the framework that takes this approach is called asyndemic.

Adverse childhood events, or ACEs, are traumatic experiences that impact brain development, causing a cascade of reactions that influence long-term health. These types of trauma can include emotional abuse and neglect, physical and sexual violence, household violence, substance abuse, mental illness, and even parental separation or divorce. Increasinglyall over the world, but especially in the U.S.ACEs are being recognized for their damaging impact on brain development. This concept is recognized as the biology of trauma. In short, the brain will organize around the most common and intense experiences, turning them into a baseline, defining what is normal. We know that people with six or more ACEs have a life expectancy 20 years shorter than those withnone.

How does a syndemic differ from an epidemic, and how does one unfold? Are we experiencing any syndemics in theU.S.?

As we know, an epidemic is a health problem affecting a large number of people that has increased beyond what was anticipated. In addition to the current opioid epidemic in our country, were also dealing with an epidemic of suicides and substance use. According to a report from the nonprofit Trust for Americas Health, this can actually be seen as a larger epidemic of despair. Were seeing increases in substance abuse, alcohol, and violence, and recognizing that theres an underlying epidemic of despair leading tothese.

A syndemic is a cluster of related epidemicssynergistic epidemicswhich are epidemics that have related causal factors and outcomes and involve larger socialdeterminants.

Another component of a syndemic is that the underlying causal factors interact with each other. So, for example, a child who falls off of their bike, then gets exposed to a cold virus at the same time is not experiencing interacting causal factors. Instead, imagine a child who is a victim of abuse: suffering from that abuse leads to having a depressed immune system, which then leads them to being susceptible to infectious disease. So, the risk factors are not just paralleltheyinteract.

Adverse childhood experiences, which have health implications so early in life, are a component of many violence syndemics. Childhood adversity, for example, is an underlying element in many of the diseases of despairsubstance use, alcohol use, and suicide. The work we do at the Injury Prevention Research Center is pushing the boundaries of how we can address some of the larger social determinants of these violence syndemics. For example, policies in the workplace can reduce the risk for homicide and suicide and can support a trauma-informed environmentone that is sensitive to the past experiences that might be predicting current health andbehavior.

What sparked your interest in syndemics, and how do you see it being most useful in your areas ofresearch?

The component of syndemics that most interests me has to do with cultural and social determinants. In other words, the nexus of adverse childhood experiences and substance use is concentrated in populations of people with limited access to health care, lower education levels, less access to resources, and fewer social connections. From a public health standpoint, its important to address these connections to social inequity and poverty. And that can include changing the way we design our studies to think about these broader contexts. For example, we have done some studies in Romania showing that when the country joined the European Union, new roads were built in ways that did not accommodate pedestrians, especially those who had some physical limitations, like the elderly; they were having challenges getting across the road. It became clear that safety had not been a priority in decisions about transportationinfrastructure.

So the syndemic framework is helpful in that it shows us were not going to solve the problem by installing lights, adding more stop signs or crosswalks, or having police do more patrols. Were only going to solve the problem by building roads that accommodate all users, and by making health and safety a priority in transportation decisions. This approach, called Health in All Policy, is becoming a higher priority everywhere from the U.S. Department of Transportation to the WorldBank.

What kinds of shifts in public health, or society at large, might be required to see more effective prevention orintervention?

We need to invest in early childhood injury intervention and prevention programs, and to think much more about health outcomes as a life trajectory. When we think about adverse childhood experiences and their ties to future substance use, we need to realize that a systems-oriented solution goes far beyond helping addicted people in rehab; a systemicapproach will prevent the adverse childhood experiences. How do we as a society think about preventing child abuse? Thats a really hard question because its such a complex issue. Abuse isoften

intergenerational. It can be hard to detect. So, while were working on answers to this question, I want us to do our work thinking more in the big picture, focus on prevention, and how it can fit into these thorny societalissues.

What does being selected for the Presidential Lecture mean toyou?

Its a wonderful opportunity to show how much of the work the UI does in this area of public health and how it truly impacts the community, how much it helps the populations not just in Iowa but all over theworld.

Academics are passionate about their research, so to have the opportunity to showcase itand that others are interested in itmeans a lot to me as well as to my team. Its really a greathonor.

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Preventing childhood trauma and reducing its long-term effects - Iowa Now