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Biology

Gustavus BMB Major Earns Prestigious Accreditation – The American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology … – Gustavus Adolphus College

Gustavus is one of only nine colleges in Minnesota to receive the ASBMB distinction.

The Gustavus Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) Program recently learned that it has been accredited by the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), the fields professional organization. ASBMB accreditation is a national distinction, rarely bestowed, that will be recognized by graduateand professional schools and science industry employers as confirmation that Gustavus BMB graduates are thoroughly prepared for professional success in the field.

Gustavus already is the top-ranked liberal arts college in Minnesota to offer a BMB major. The College is one of about 100 schools in the U.S. to secure ASBMB accreditation, and one of just nine in Minnesota. BMB faculty members Jeff Dahlseid 90, Heather Haemig, and Janie Frandsen applied for accreditation in fall 2023 to bolster an already well-established program. Gustavus has had up to 20 BMB majors per year since its establishment in the early-1990s, graduating about 14 such majors per year in the past half-decade, making it one of our more popular majors.

Nationwide, schools that offer this major will often offer it as a second major within a biology department, or a second major within the chemistry department, said Dahlseid, the BMB program director. Ours is jointly sponsored by our Biology and Chemistry departments. It doesnt necessarily lean one way or the other, so we better support students with interests anywhere along that continuum.

This flexibility and range of options prepares Gustavus BMB students for career options including teaching, research, medicine, and other industry-specific fields that involve critical thinking and leadership. The accreditation reinforces how our students receive lots of hands-on learning with inquiry-oriented pedagogy, so that students are exceptionally well prepared to take next steps in industry or in graduate schools, where theyll actually need to apply the science theyve learned to real-world problems, Dahlseid said.

The ASBMB accreditation will run through 2030 and was granted because the organization affirmed Gustavus BMBs accomplishments in and commitments to the following areas, among others:

The really cool thing to me about the accreditation is that we didnt do anything different or new in recent years to get it, said Haemig, senior continuing assistant professor in BMB. This doesnt really change anything for those students that have already gone through the program, because we were doing all those things when they were here.

Gustavus has long been one of the only liberal arts colleges in the state of Minnesota to offer a full major in biochemistry and molecular biology, which this accreditation reflects. The fact that the program were offering has been recognized by the external society for the field demonstrates that the education our students are getting in the discipline is robust, said Frandsen, assistant professor in BMB.

She added that even though the BMB major has more course requirements than many other majors at the College, that doesnt keep BMB Gusties from participating in all aspects of Gustavus life in and out of the classroom. If anything, BMB students are more involved than the average Gustavus student, she said. Theyre athletes or in music. They have minors or second majors. Theyre doing it all.

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Media Contact: Director of Media Relations and Internal Communication Luc Hatlestad luch@gustavus.edu 507-933-7510

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Gustavus BMB Major Earns Prestigious Accreditation - The American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology ... - Gustavus Adolphus College

Biology

SARS-CoV-2 biology and host interactions – Nature.com

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SARS-CoV-2 biology and host interactions - Nature.com

Biology

Biology faculty member rethinks office hours with student needs first – University Times

By MARTY LEVINE

Every faculty member is required to hold office hours yet training on how to handle them is not part of Ph.D. programs.

When Department of Biological Sciences faculty member Dan Wetzel surveyed 1,225 students in STEM courses in 2020 and 2021, he discovered they were uncertain about attending office hours for many reasons. Not only did they have conflicts with the dates and times, they thought office hours were only for specific questions about the course content.

They also needed more reminders that office hours were available and even needed more encouragement to go. They felt unworthy of attending, ill-prepared to meet with professors, or embarrassed in general to attend.

Knowing from a previous Pitt survey of graduates in 2016 that alumni who report doing very well in their careers had some kind of positive relationship with faculty while here at Pitt, Wetzel designed the project, Help me help you: Enhancing student perception and usage of office hours, which won funding from the latest round of Discipline-Based Science Education Research (dB-SERC) awards for innovative education programs.

Until this survey, we didnt know why students werent coming to office hours, Wetzel said. What can we do to alleviate some of the barriers to office hours and for them to see it as a valuable experience?

He remembered his own early days as a faculty member a decade ago, when he held office hours for the first time in his life. I didnt know what to do here, he said. We have no training on it. There is no pedagogy on it.

In his previous Biostatistics classes, he only had one or two students per week visit him during office hours, and usually with technical questions about what is a very technical course.

This fall, after trying four methods in class to improve office hours use (as proposed in the Help me help you project), a third to a half of the class attended office hours each week.

At the beginning of the semester, he gathered students weekly schedules so he could set office hours when it was most convenient for them, rather than for him.

Second, he began discussing in class on day one why office hours were important.

Third, at least once a week he repeated his invitation to attend.

Fourth, he created specific topics each week for office hours, from designing resumes to using students new programming skills for other tasks outside of class.

A post-class survey, which he is just now assessing, should gauge what their new perceptions of office hours would be and see which of the four interventions worked best.

The ultimate goal is to create graduates who report, as alumni did in 2016, that the increased use of office hours led to a greater sense of self-efficacy and motivation, both inside and outside the classroom.

Something worked this semester, because students were showing up. Did it change any of these other things? I dont know until the data are analyzed, Wetzel says. Once the best of the four interventions is pinpointed, he hopes to adapt it to be used for larger classrooms than his Biostatistics course, which usually has 30 to 36 students.

He plans to enlist other faculty to implement the most effective improvements, perhaps among those who are already participating in the SEISMIC Collaboration 10 institutions, including Pitt, aiming (according to its website) to explore and improve equity and inclusion in foundational STEM courses, of which Wetzel is a part.

Thats because data show that first-year and low-income students are much less likely to attend office hours and are less likely to have resources that they can use in lieu of office hours to get help outside of class. He hopes this pilot intervention will be of particular help to those students.

Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times.Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or412-758-4859.

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Biology faculty member rethinks office hours with student needs first - University Times

Biology

Penn State Altoona biology student to offer research presentation – Pennsylvania State University

ALTOONA, Pa. Nicole Flanders, a third-year biology student at Penn State Altoona, will offer a research presentation at the February general meeting of the Spring Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

The organization works to conserve, protect, and restore Spring Creeks coldwater fishery and watershed. Flanders will share the results of her undergraduate research projects on the New Zealand Mud Snail in local waterways.

The meeting will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 1, at the Comfort Suites in State College.

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Penn State Altoona biology student to offer research presentation - Pennsylvania State University

Biology

It’s alive! Soil biology and its pivotal role in crop production – Frederick News Post

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Biology

ASBMB names Mona V. Miller as next executive officer – EurekAlert

image:

Mona V. Miller will take the helm at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology on April 1, 2024.

Credit: Courtesy of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology today named Mona V. Miller its next chief executive officer, effective April 1.

Miller is an experienced association leader with significant experience in strategic planning, advocacy and fundraising. Most recently, she was CEO of the American Society of Human Genetics. Before that she held multiple high-level positions at the Society for Neuroscience.

Miller said she was drawn to the ASBMB because scientifically, biochemistry and molecular biology is at the forefront of knowledge that is transforming health and society.

She said she looks forward to focusing on the pivotal role of fundamental science and highlighting its inherent wonder and importance, its irreplaceable role as a foundation for downstream discovery and applications, and its centrality to economic growth and human advancement.

Millers appointment follows an exhaustive, nationwide search process, conducted by a search committee.

Ann Stock, president of the ASBMB and chair of the search committee, said Miller rose to the top of a deep pool of highly qualified candidates. The committee sought out someone who would be both a strategic thinker and an inspirational team manager, Stock, a distinguished professor at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University, said. With an impressive record of achievements in previous leadership roles, Mona checks these boxes and more.

Miller is steeped in nonprofit strategy and fundraising. At ASHG, she launched the strategic planning process and led a multiyear implementation. At SfN, she obtained more than $2.4 million in grants to support Latin American scientists, women in STEM, scientific workforce diversity and scientific rigor.

Joan Conaway is the ASBMBs president-elect, a member of the search committee and the vice provost and dean of basic research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. She said the committee found Miller to be an innovative and thoughtful leader with the financial-management experience needed to lead the ASBMB into its next phase.

Mona has a strong background in organizational leadership and financial management, said Conaway, the societys former treasurer. As CEO of ASHG, she grew revenue by 25% by diversifying and securing new revenue streams. At SfN, she had direct responsibility for SfNs financial management, including development and approval of its annual budget, reserve and membership revenue. She also led donor relations and oversaw annual meeting and journal finances.

Miller has a bachelors degree in sociology from Tulane University, a masters degree in public policy (concentrating in nonprofit management) from Harvard University and an executive education certificate in change management from New York Universitys School of Business.

She started her career in communications, holding roles over six years at the American Womens Economic Development Corporation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the office of U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. She then entered public affairs consulting, working for multiple firms and for herself for five years before joining the Pew Charitable Trusts in 2004.

Miller entered the scientific society sphere in 2007. She did communications and public affairs for SfN and was promoted to deputy executive director in 2012. She became CEO of ASHG in 2017 and remained there until November 2023.

Stock said ASBMB engages in a broad scope of activities that reflect the diverse interests of society members. Monas previous experience in many different areas coupled with her passion for science will make her an effective partner with Council, staff and volunteers to advance initiatives to support our members, she said.

Miller succeeds Stephen Miller (no relation), who is retiring March 31 after serving the society in several roles since 2004 and as its executive director since 2021.

About the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Founded in 1906, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) is a professional scientific organization located in Rockville, Maryland, with a storied history of advancing the mechanistic understanding of nature through promoting the highest-quality research in biochemistry and molecular biology. As an international nonprofit scientific society with over 11,000 members, it is one of the most important learned scientific societies.

The ASBMB is devoted to its mission of advancing science and scientific research, education, and the understanding of the molecular nature of life processes. It serves the scientific community through publications, meetings and events, education and professional development programs, advocacy, and diversity and inclusion initiatives.

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ASBMB names Mona V. Miller as next executive officer - EurekAlert

Biology

Ask the Author | UI alum Ted Anton discusses new book ‘Programmable Planet: The Synthetic Biology Revolution’ – UI The Daily Iowan

An alum of the University of Iowa, Ted Anton has written for The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Publishers Weekly, Chicago, The Chicago Tribune, and more. His novel, The Longevity Seekers, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2013, has gotten endorsements from Dr. Oz and Oprah.

Anton is a professor emeritus of English at DePaul University. He will read from his new book, Programmable Planet: The Synthetic Biology Revolution, at Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City on Friday.

He is also currently a nominee for a National Magazine Award in Reporting and a Carl Sandburg Award-winner in nonfiction.

The Daily Iowan: In your book, your focus is geared toward one aspect of science synthetic biology. How would you describe synthetic biology and its impact on our world?

Ted Anton: Synthetic biology is changing life by changing DNA. This goes back to the beginning of agriculture and all the crops. Of course, then, it was done the old-fashioned way by breeding. But in the 1970s came this thing called gene editing. Scientists had this breakthrough to create insulin by modifying microbes whereas, before, youd have to kill tens of thousands of calves to get your insulin. Nowadays, the techniques have improved so much that you can change many genes at once; you can direct evolution, you can create whole circuits in a cell, new kinds of cells, and even new forms of DNA. Synthetic biology did for life what Apple did for the computer: It made it easier to program.

Do you think synthetic biology is a positive advancement, or could it be seen as something harmful?

Personally, I think it has a lot more positive effect. Its a great breakthrough that can help us live more sustainably with the planet, biofuels, meatless meat, all the cheese we eat is made through synthetic biology using the enzyme rennet, which is used in jet fuel, and other really important sustainable products. But its a big question. The COVID-19 vaccine that you and I took, which saved the world, was created from this research. Some people still wonder if the virus originated in the lab that was modifying viruses in Wuhan, China.

What was your favorite part about writing Programmable Planet: The Synthetic Biology Revolution, and why?

I loved talking to the scientists; its a field particularly dominated by women. I also loved visiting labs and talking to cool people who are generally younger than me, funny, excited, and trying to make the world a better place.

Coming from being a UI Writers Workshop graduate to receiving endorsements from figures like Dr. Oz and Oprah Winfrey, what is one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

I think people coming out of the humanities field are a little afraid of science. Science writing is this really cool field where you can continue to do your photography and your poems, and yet you can be writing about research and cutting-edge things that make the planet better and getting paid well. Most of literature is about things going wrong and most of journalism is the same old story over and over again.

Science is whats new, its whats hopeful. So that would be what I would tell myself; you can do it, have a little confidence, and everybodys going to help you because researchers love it when young people want to write about them. Its also very helpful for them; they have to publicize their work because its our taxpayer money that pays for it.

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Ask the Author | UI alum Ted Anton discusses new book 'Programmable Planet: The Synthetic Biology Revolution' - UI The Daily Iowan