Embryology

Scientists Are Learning How to Help Coral Reefs Save Themselves – AAAS

Cody Clements never saw the eel coming. The marine ecologist was collecting corals for an experiment in shallow waters off the island of Mo'orea, French Polynesia, when a six- to seven-foot moray eel shot out from a crevice in the reef. Before Clements could react, the creature sank its teeth into his hand and began yanking it around like a rag doll.

The eel released Clements' hand from its powerful jaws, but he quickly realized his ordeal was just beginning.

"My thumb was, like, dangling off," he said. "It was pretty bad. To be honest, in the moment I thought I might bleed to death."

Thinking quickly, Clements used his rash guard as a tourniquet while he rushed to shore. But preventing blood loss was no easy task. Moray eels, which rarely attack humans, have backwards-jutting teeth and toxic mucus that cause notoriously painful, bloody wounds. Fortunately, Clements made it back to shore and was taken to the hospital on Mo'orea, where he received 67 stitches. He underwent surgery in Tahiti the next day. Ten weeks later, the scientist had a scar extending the length of his palm, but he could finally move his thumb again.

Moray eel. | David Clode/Unsplash

Before he suddenly found himself grappling with the question of his own survival on the reef, Clements, a postdoctoral fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was puzzling over a matter of life-or-death for reefs themselves how does the diversity of coral species impact a reef's survival and productivity?

"Other people have tested how coral diversity impacts the number and diversity of local fish communities and things of that nature," said Clements. "But, 'How does biodiversity of corals impact corals?' That was a fairly novel question."

As climate change warms the world's oceans to ever-higher extremes, coral reefs face a bleak future. A 2021 report found that 14% of the world's reefs died due to rising ocean temperatures between 2008 and 2019.

As the situation grows more dire, researchers like Clements are going the extra mile to understand what makes corals tick. By learning how corals survive under different conditions and why some seem to be hardier than others, scientists may be able to assist corals in their battle against extinction.

These research efforts are as varied as the corals themselves. Some scientists are investigating how corals function as communities while others are hunting for specially adapted "super reefs." Still others are selectively breeding corals in the lab or applying biomedical techniques to understand the genetic basis of heat tolerance.

But while playing to corals' strengths may make some difference in helping these vital ecosystems withstand climate change, scientists urge that these efforts be paired with curbing emissions.

To investigate the impact of coral diversity on coral communities, Clements leveraged a method of planting corals that he had recently developed, which involved planting corals in Coke bottles.

"I can just screw them in and then unscrew them and weigh them," he said. "It's an easy way to manipulate them."

Building on this technique, Clements assembled what he calls "chess boards" Coke bottles with sawed-off necks embedded in cement blocks (the chess board squares), with corals planted in each bottle. To sufficiently replicate different levels of community diversity for an October 2021Science Advances paper published with Mark Hay, a professor in the school of biological sciences at Georgia Tech and an associate editor at Science Advances, Clements assembled 48 chess boards, each with 18 corals. The chess boards were assembled at random from a pool of nine coral species, with plots containing either one, three, six, or nine different species.

Clements' "chess board" coral experiments. | Cody Clements

The researchers found that corals performed better in more diverse communities at least, to an extent. Their performance peaked with three to six species, then declined again as the number of species per chess board rose to nine.

"We're still trying to chase down the mechanisms, but my pet hypothesis is that when you have multiple species present, it potentially helps dilute disease," said Clements. "I was seeing in some of my single species plots that a coral would start to get sick and then [the disease] would start spreading in the community. That also goes on in agriculture. There's evidence that if you have mixed-species crops and a disease comes through, [the crop diversity] is going to create barriers for transmission."

Clements noted that while these findings are encouraging, it is still difficult to know how findings about the benefits of diverse coral communities may benefit corals beyond his chess boards.

"We're testing the basic scientific notion, but extrapolating that up to how we're going to use it to rehabilitate reefs is much harder. I picked those nine species because they are some of the most common ones I see. But you don't ever really see that many species in an area as small as the 40 by 40-centimeter experimental coral plots that we created for our experiment."

"We're working from a shifted baseline, going out and looking at a reef that's really degraded now," he added. "But it might not have been like that in the past."

When Hannah Barkley was a graduate student, she and her colleagues discovered that some reefs have superpowers.

At the time, Barkley, now a Hawai'i-based research marine biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was working with coral researcher Anne Cohen, who runs a lab at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Researchers at Cohen's lab were interested in understanding how reefs respond to ocean acidification especially ways in which some reefs show resilience to this major threat to coral ecosystems. As an ocean absorbs carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from fossil fuel-emitting activities, its pH falls, resulting in fewer calcium minerals that coral reefs need to build and repair their skeletons, slowing their growth.

"The problem is that identifying resilience to ocean acidification is really challenging," said Barkley. "Most of what we know about ocean acidification has come from controlled laboratory studies. But laboratory conditions and laboratory responses don't always play out as we might predict in a real-life field setting."

To overcome the limitations of lab studies, Barkley said coral researchers have turned their attention to ocean locations where natural processes produce low pH conditions in the wild.

"None of these sites are perfect analogues for ocean acidification," Barkley said. "But when we look at them together, they can tell us something about how reefs might respond to pH changes in the future and what the most sensitive responses are to ocean acidification."

Among these sites are the Rock Islands of Palau, an archipelago of over 500 islands in the western Pacific. Coral reef environments in the area have an average pH of only 7.8, while most other reefs currently have pHs of about 8 to 8.1 a result of the long time the water lingers in the bays as it winds around labyrinthine rock, gradually growing more acidic.

"The Rock Islands are special because they currently experience predicted end-of-century conditions, both in terms of temperature and pH," said Barkley, referring to ocean heat and acidity projections for the end of the 21st century. "They have very low pH and very high temperature."

For a study published in Science Advances in 2015, Barkley and colleagues traveled to Palau to observe reefs on the archipelago. They found that the low-pH Rock Island reefs had the highest coral cover and coral diversity of any of the reefs they studied on Palau, even those living at high pH levels, where the researchers would have expected corals to do better.

In contrast to most laboratory results preceding the study, the team also found that low pH didn't inhibit the corals' growth they grew as fast in low-pH conditions as they did at high-pH conditions. The only downside to decreasing pH that Barkley and colleagues observed for corals in Palau was increasing rates of bioerosion, when organisms like mollusks or bivalves eat away at the coral skeleton.

"This result was really exciting because it was the first time that anyone in the coral reef community observed coral reefs that were not only surviving end-of-century pH conditions, but actually appeared to be thriving. Since then, we've seen other examples and other places with corals that share similar adaptive capacities," she said.

The Cohen Lab has uncovered such " super reefs" in the Dongsha Atoll of the South China Sea, Racha Noi, Thailand, and Kanton Island of the Phoenix Islands in the Republic of Kiribati.

Low pH coral reef in Palau. | Hannah Barkley

Barkley is quick to note that the study's findings don't imply that corals are off the hook when it comes to surviving increasingly acidic waters.

"Ocean acidification is still a threat to coral reefs," she said. "But we do see these unique places like Palau, where there are special coral reef communities that over the hundreds of thousands of years they've been exposed to low pH, have figured out how to deal with low-pH conditions. However, most reefs won't have the luxury of that long timeframe due to the rate of progressive ocean acidification over the century."

In a follow-up to the Palau study, Barkley and colleagues conducted a laboratory experiment in which they took corals from the low-pH sites on their trip and corals from the high-pH sites and put them in different pH conditions. These included ambient pH conditions on the high-pH reef, ambient conditions on the low-pH reef (the conditions they expect most reefs will see by the end of the century), as well as pHs that were lower than most reefs were expected to experience. They found that the low-pH corals remained healthy and continued to grow at the same rate regardless of what pH they were made to endure.

"This is important because it suggests that they're not only surviving now, but have the potential to withstand further decreases in pH in the future," said Barkley.

The researchers also conducted a habitat-swapping experiment in which they moved corals from a low-pH Palau reef to a high-pH reef and vice-versa, then observed them over 17 months.

"The transplants all died, which was not the result we expected," said Barkley.

"But I don't think this means that these corals can't ultimately seed populations or be the source of coral transplants to other areas," she added. "I think it means the answer is not that simple and that pH is one of many environmental variables that differ between various sites. Corals are so supremely adapted to the specific environment in which they live that it is not just a question of pH in terms of their ability to survive elsewhere."

In May 2022, Emily Howells found herself with a front row seat to watch a massive bleaching event unfold at the Great Barrier Reef a process in which corals expel their algae under stressful conditions, turning them white and causing many to starve. It was the kind of event that would have been almost unheard of during La Nia years in the past, when temperatures are generally cooler and wetter. But Howells knows firsthand how fast the reef is changing.

"From my own observations, I can report that I've observed bleaching each year I've been out working on the Great Barrier Reef for the past few years," she said. "And that's not something I have seen, say, when I was a Ph.D. student."

Rapid heat stress experiments test coral thermal tolerance. | AIMS/ Jo Hurford

Howells is a coral biologist at Southern Cross University in Australia, where she studies the genetic basis of coral heat tolerance. Howells also works with the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program, measuring variation in heat tolerance among individual corals across the Great Barrier Reef.

"We have a couple of focal coral species and we are sampling up to a thousand corals of those species," said Howells. "We measure and rank their heat tolerance in a rapid heat stress experiment, and then see how much of the variation in heat tolerance among individuals can be explained by their genes."

While Howells admitted it is still too soon to identify the roles different genes play in corals' abilities to tolerate higher temperatures, her team's early research results show that there is a lot of variation in heat tolerance among individuals. The reasons behind this variation are bound to be complicated.

"There are many genes and variants that contribute to the heat tolerance of corals," she said. When Howells began receiving reports from other colleagues about signs of bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, she and her team went back to one of their research sites in an affected area to see how the corals they had tagged (each with their own GPS identifier) were holding up. While Howells found that most corals had probably experienced some bleaching, she noticed plenty of variation.

"We saw some that were severely bleached, kind of a glowing white color, and others that were living side by side that seemed to be doing okay," she said. "We look forward to kind of incorporating those observations in our understanding of the genetic basis of heat tolerance in corals and seeing if they share the same genetic variants as corals that we've identified as being heat tolerant in previous experiments."

When Howells was a postdoc, she spent time doing research at New York University Abu Dhabi, a campus located in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, which rests on an island off the mainland in the Persian Gulf. Compared to most bodies of water that support tropical coral reefs, the gulf is sweltering 36C (96.8F) or 37C (98.6F) in the summer.

To discover whether it was possible to transfer the genetic variants that gave the Persian Gulf corals their heat tolerance into the offspring of less-heat tolerant populations, Howells collected fragments of coral colonies from the reef and brought them to the university's lab. Next, she ventured to a reef on the Indian Ocean side of the United Arab Emirates, where temperatures are cooler, and collected fragments of the same coral species. Once she had gathered all of the specimens together, Howells waited patiently night after night for the corals to spawn.

Persian Gulf Platygyra coral spawning. | Anna Scott

At last, Howells and her colleagues succeeded in breeding 50 families of coral larvae some with both parents from the same region and others with fathers from Abu Dhabi and mothers from the Indian Ocean.

The findings, which were published in Science Advances in August 2021, revealed that selective breeding of corals from an Indian Ocean population with heat-adapted fathers from the Persian Gulf increased the thermal tolerance of offspring to the same level as those with both parents from the Persian Gulf.

"I thought that we would see some gain in heat tolerance, but I didn't think that it would be as high as what we saw," said Howells. "That was really a strong demonstration that heat tolerance is genetically determined and can be passed on to other populations [by selective breeding]."

Before Philip Cleves turned his attention to corals, his focus was biomedicine.

"It was always kind of the plan," he said. "When I was an undergrad, my 'aha' moment was when I learned that corals have algae that live inside their cells, undergo photosynthesis, and feed the corals. To me, as a young scientist, I was completely blown away by that."

Today, Cleves runs a lab at the department of embryology at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Baltimore, Maryland, where, like Howells, he works to understand the basis of resilience to heat stress in corals.

"What we're doing in my lab now is trying to apply biomedical techniques to corals, to better understand their genetics and molecular biology in order to better prevent and ameliorate the effects of climate on these ecosystems," said Cleves. "Just like it's important to understand the molecular basis of human diseases, we think that if we understand the molecular basis of coral biology we can better predict and make therapeutics to help preserve corals, just like we do for human diseases."

Cleves pointed out that even though coral reefs are being wiped out an unnerving rate 30% of the Great Barrier Reef was destroyed during a 2016 heat wave scientists actually don't know much about how corals work at the genetic level.

"The reason we know so little is because corals are really hard to study in the lab and we didn't have genetic tools like we have in other systems to really understand the genes involved," he said.

In recent years, Cleves has helped to overcome this barrier by developing and applying CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing technology to coral specimens from the Great Barrier Reef. "In the short term, what we're really excited about using CRISPR for is to be able to ask, really for the first time ever, 'what do genes do in coral?'" said Cleves. "We've been able to characterize some genes as master regulators of the coral heat stress response. So we have some clues as to the types of genes that protect corals from heat stress, and we're interested in developing these tools to better understand how corals work at the genetic level."

"I think it's mostly us in collaboration with great people around the world using genetic engineering to study corals right now," he added. "I hope there's going to be more attention to it and that the [coral gene editing] method will expand so that we'll really understand what's happening."

Cleves hopes that scientists might eventually be able to find genetic determinants for corals that can withstand future climate scenarios, helping to focus limited conservation efforts on those most likely to withstand the coming changes.

"My dream would be that with a deeper understanding of what genes make corals resilient to climate change, we could go out into the field and use that genetic information," said Cleves. "Wouldn't it be cool to have like a 23andMe for corals? Or you go out and you say, okay, this animal, this animal, this animal these ones have genotypes that make them the corals of the future."

But Cleves' dream does not involve manipulating the genomes of corals in the wild. He limits his genetic engineering efforts to the lab, where he and his team try to make mutations that confer extra resilience on corals. The end game is to find resilient corals that already exist in nature and to propagate these evolutionary winners.

Montipora capitata, one of the coral species in Cleves' study of diagnostic markers of heat stress. | Ryan McMinds

"The idea of making genetically modified coral and releasing it is not really something that we are thinking about because our understanding of genetic information and the genetic basis of coral biology is really in its infancy," said Cleves. "We don't know the genes that could enhance tolerance even if we wanted to do that. Also, there would be a lot of regulatory and ethical considerations about releasing genetically modified corals."

Not all of Cleves' coral research involves gene editing. In a Science Advances paper published in January 2021, Cleves, first author Amanda Williams, and colleagues extracted and analyzed metabolites involved in growth and development from bits of Hawaiian corals that they bleached in a lab to investigate their physiological responses to bleaching. The researchers identified several metabolites that may offer diagnostic markers for heat stress in wild corals.

When it comes to saving coral reefs, Cleves admires scientists' myriad ideas. "There's talk aboutkind of everything," he said. "Assisted gene flow, probiotics, and moving corals from one part of the world to another."

"For all of these conservation efforts, we want to make sure that we're doing the appropriate scientific research to understand that the things that we're trying to do will actually benefit the ecosystems in the long run," he said. "There's nothing that I've seen that I have been particularly nervous about. I think there are a lot of really smart people doing smart things. I'm curious to see what the benefits, if any, of these conservation efforts are."

But ultimately, Cleves is convinced the strategy with the greatest chance of success would be to let corals do what they do best.

"I think the most promising scaling-up for conservation would be the type of scaling-up that led to the existence of the Great Barrier Reef in the first place the fact that animals like reproducing and like growing where it's appropriate for them to grow," he said. "I think the really important thing to do is to meet climate emission targets. The collapse of coral reefs is one of the early, traumatic things that's happening with climate change, and if we don't change our behavior, then that's how it's going to continue. The other things that are predicted will continue to happen."

Howells agreed that promising coral reef conservation strategies have their limitations. Noting that her own research does not focus on implementing interventions, she concluded that selective breeding could potentially make a difference but only for particular species in particular locations.

"You cannot counter the effects of global warming with solutions like this," Howells said. "Restoration efforts can only ever be deployed at a subset of reefs because of cost and logistical constraints. However, what you can do is give certain species a helping hand and target high-value populations."

"We'll try every technique we can to save reefs, but one of the best things to do would just be to stop putting so much carbon in the atmosphere," added Clements. "Otherwise, you're trying to put a Band-Aid on a wound that needs emergency surgery."

[Credit for associated image: Ruby Holmes]

Read the original here:
Scientists Are Learning How to Help Coral Reefs Save Themselves - AAAS

Biochemistry

UCSF Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics

The Stein and Moore Award, named for Nobel laureates Dr. William Stein and Dr. Stanford Moore, venerates their contribution to understanding the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active center of the ribonuclease molecule. Established in 1986, the Stein and Moore Award is given to recognize eminent leaders in protein science who have made sustained high impact research contributions to the field.

More...

View original post here:
UCSF Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics

Biochemistry

Clinical Biochemistry – Journal – Elsevier

Due to the COVID-19 situation, we fully understand most labs are fully or partially shut down so please let us know if you need additional support and contact your Editor to ask for an extension of your revision if you need one.

Clinical Biochemistry is the official journal of the Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists (CSCC). The journal publishes articles relating to clinical chemistry, molecular biology and genetics, therapeutic drug monitoring and toxicology, laboratory immunology and laboratory medicine in general, with the focus on analytical and clinical investigation of laboratory tests in humans used for diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and therapy, and monitoring of disease.

Read more from the original source:
Clinical Biochemistry - Journal - Elsevier

Biochemistry

Stress can throw off circadian rhythms and lead to weight gain – Medical News Today

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York say that stress-induced circadian clock disruptions may influence weight gain.

A study published in June showed that mice with artificially increased stress levels and interrupted hormone releases experienced an increase in fat cell growth. Its results appear in Cell Reports.

The second study, published in August, found that fat cell precursors commit to becoming fat cells only within a few hours at night. This work appears in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences (PNAS).

Mary Teruel, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry at Weill Cornell Medicine, was the senior author of both studies.

A lot of forces are working against a healthy metabolism when we are out of circadian rhythm, Dr. Teruel said in a press release. The more we understand, the more likely we will be able to do something about it.

In the Cell Reports study, Dr. Teruel and her team implanted pellets with glucocorticoids, a type of stress-related hormone, in mice. This was to mimic the effects of chronic stress or Cushings disease.

Cushings disease triggers elevated levels of cortisol, the bodys stress hormone.

The pellets released glucocorticoids under the skin of the mice at a steady rate over three weeks. The researchers also observed control mice with typical daily stress hormone fluctuations.

Although all the mice ate the same healthy diet, the mice with pellets ended up weighing over 9% more than the control mice.

The researchers observed whether the weight gain was from fat expansion and found that the brown and white fat of the pellet mice had more than doubled. Their insulin levels spiked as well.

To the teams surprise, the metabolic disturbances kept blood glucose levels low. Further, the disruptions prevented fat from accumulating in the blood or liver.

When the researchers removed the pellets, these changes reversed immediately.

Dr. Teruel explained to MNT: We saw this in our paper, basically, once we stopped flattening the corticoids, [the mice] started reversing [the fat mass gain] and the hyperinsulinemia went away so that increased insulin that seems to be causing the fat mass gains that went away when the restored rhythm.

She added that this study indicates that chronic stress can make weight gain more likely, even with a healthy, low fat diet.

If you stress the animals at the wrong time, it has a dramatic effect. The mice arent eating differently, but a big shift in metabolism causes weight gain, Dr. Teruel said in the release.

Dr. Teruels research team hopes that their findings lead to developing drugs that could help reset circadian rhythms to help people with obesity.

We dont know enough [yet], but one would think cortisol receptor antagonists or [] things that restore the cortisol rhythms would probably help a lot.

Dr. Mary Teruel, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry at Weill Cornell Medicine and senior author of both studies

Experts understand that flaws in circadian clock genes can alter cell differentiation in fat, immune, skin, and muscle cells.

The PNAS study revealed that even though differentiation happens over a few days, differentiation commitment happens within only a few hours. The findings also show that daily bursts of cell differentiation seem to be limited to evening phases when people are normally resting.

The decision to become a fat cell happens rapidly over 4 hours. It is like a switch, Dr. Teruel said.

Medical News Today discussed this with Dr. Mir Ali, bariatric surgeon and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California.

Dr. Ali explained how fat cells come to be: Fat cells form from [an] adipocyte progenitor cell or a type of cell that has not differentiated into its final form. The form it takes [to become] a fat cell depends on the hormonal and chemical stimulation it receives.

In the study, Dr. Teruel and her partners used fluorescent markers to observe daily fluctuations of fat cell production.

The researchers attached a red fluorescent protein to a protein that regulates circadian clock genes. They also attached a yellow fluorescent protein to peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG), a protein that controls fat cell production.

They discovered that during the rest period of the day, a certain circadian protein CCAAT enhancer binding protein alpha induces a rapid increase in the protein that regulates fat cell production.

The researchers also found that when PPARG levels hit a certain threshold, individual fat precursor cells irreversibly commit to differentiate within only a few hours, which is much faster than the rest phase and the overall multiday differentiation process.

Dr. Teruel and her team believe that working with this time window may open therapeutic strategies to use timed treatment relative to the [circadian] clock to promote tissue regeneration.

Dr. Ali said: These studies are interesting in that they show the timing and length of stimulation affect the formation and growth of fat cells. The implications of this are that if we can find a way to safely influence the cell to grow or not grow, it may affect obesity in humans.

However, he believed that more extensive research is needed to make the studies findings applicable to humans.

Dr. Teruel told MNT that she and her co-authors were just trying to work on basic mechanisms [] Right now, we need to show this is really a mechanism that happens []

The researchers do plan to replicate the studies with people. We are looking at protein ribbons and humans using saliva samples, Dr. Teruel shared with MNT. Were planning to do those kinds of experiments.

Their main objective, she said, is to figure out ways to restore circadian [rhythms].

Dr. Teruel mentioned that currently known strategies, such as meditation and regular sleep in the dark may help.

She expressed hope that there could be some pharmacological ways [to] fix this in the future as well.

See the article here:
Stress can throw off circadian rhythms and lead to weight gain - Medical News Today

Biochemistry

Celebrating the sciences: SciFest 2022 | BrandeisNOW – Brandeis University

Students with majors across the scientific spectrum came together to present their summer research findings. Photo/ Heratch Ekmekjian

Sam Greene '23 explaining his research.

By Kennedy RyanAug. 15, 2022

Ashley Moushegian 23 spent the summer studying 'cobrooding.'

Members of the Brandeis community came together on August 11th to celebrate the 11th annual SciFest event. This scientific showcase, featuring poster boards across the scientific spectrum, highlighted each students summer of research.

Students with a variety of majors, including biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science, psychology and neuroscience, spent their summer working alongside the faculty and graduate students mentors to uncover new findings in their chosen field.

In addition to explaining their research, participants shared their exciting scientific revelations and moments of personal growth.

Ashley Moushegian 23, a psychology major, spent the summer researching co-brooding behaviors among students. This concept, when two or more people come together to share negative feelings, is a newer idea in the world of psychology. When negative feelings are shared among the group, each person feels worse as a result, affecting mental health.

While past studies focused on elementary-aged children, Moushegian wanted to study her fellow classmates. She used the timing of the pandemic to study mental health among students, seeing if there was an effect from co-brooding. She didnt find a correlation with the pandemic, but did see similarities between co-brooding effects on mental health.

Moushegian, who hopes to become a clinical therapist, believes her studies will impact the world of therapy beyond Brandeis.

This research helped me understand that there are different ways people can develop mental illness, said Moushegian. Im hopeful that my findings will contribute to therapy programs in the future.

Moushegians research was funded by The M.R. Bauer Foundation at Brandeis University.

Spencer Clark '23 (left) with his mentor, chemistry professor Hao Xu.

Spencer Clark 23, a biochemistry and chemistry double major, found that his research solidified his plans for graduate school.

His research, funded by the Blavatnik Family Foundation Summer Science Research Fellowships, focused on finding new ways to synthetically connect two sugars, an important discovery in the world of biochemistry. As he spent each day in the lab, he found himself growing more sure of his passion for the field.

Chemistry requires a lot of effort. You need to show up daily, putting in the time to try to find new takeaways, said Clark. It really gave me a sense of what it will be like as a graduate student studying synthetic chemistry. Luckily, I really enjoyed it.

Joanna Xiong 23 (right) shares her findings.

Joanna Xiong 23, a neuroscience major with a minor in Health Science, Society and Policy,

researched the molecular impact of memory formations in the brain, seeing different neurons that were activated during the memory process. Her biggest revelation was the power of leaning on others for support in the lab.

She found herself stepping out of her comfort zone by asking her peers in the lab to provide their insight on her project. Getting perspective from the fellow graduate students helped her form a well-rounded report.

I had the chance to really practice my oral communications skills, said Xiong. I received so much support from my lab mates throughout the entire process. It was a great experience.

Xiongs research was funded by the Blavatnik Family Foundation Summer Science Research Fellowships

His study focused on developments in the visual cortex of ferrets. He analyzed movement patterns in the brain, discovering that development occurs within two days after a ferret opens its eyes for the first time. He worked alongside Derek Wise, a graduate student who mentored him throughout the summer.

His research is in the preliminary stages, but hes confident in his ability to move forward because of his mentor support and new-found confidence.

My biggest takeaway is that anyone can do science, said Greene. I struggled to find my place at first, but I put in the work and time this summer. I made connections and really applied myself. Now Im confidently ready to approach my thesis this year.

Visit link:
Celebrating the sciences: SciFest 2022 | BrandeisNOW - Brandeis University

Biochemistry

Anthony Rizzuto named A.L. Hook Emerging Professor in Science and Mathematics – Today at Elon

Rizzuto, an assistant professor of chemistry, has been recognized for his record of scholarship and professional activity as well as his mentorship of students.

Anthony Rizzuto, an assistant professor of chemistry, has been named the A.L. Hook Emerging Professor in Science and Mathematics.

The professorship, which has a three-year term, is awarded to a member of the faculty who has ongoing, active scholarship, has a history of mentoring undergraduate research and has demonstrated the ability to impact students, their department and the university. Dabrowskis selection follows a committee review and recommendation, with the professorship appointed by the provost.

Rizzuto joined the faculty at Elon in fall 2017 following the completion of his doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of California in Berkeley, California. Rizzuto graduated magna cum laude from Elon in 2011, and as a student was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and received the Senior Chemistry Achievement Award as the top graduating chemistry senior.

A dedicated mentor, Rizzuto has supported the undergraduate research of 12 students including three Elon College Fellows, three SURE fellows and a Glen-Raven scholar. Those research pairings have resulted in more than a dozen regional and national conference presentations, multiple external grant awards and numerous manuscripts prepared for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Our students are the next generation of leaders in the scientific community, and as such I have endeavored to foster a broad-reaching, collaborative research environment while encouraging the intersection of chemistry, biochemistry, environmental science and engineering, Rizzuto said of his approach to mentorship.

As a scholar, Rizzuto has co-authored five papers in high-impact publications, thanks in part to maintaining collaborations with colleagues at UC Berkeley. The Hook professorship will provide Rizzuto with additional time as well as resources to advance his research conducted with undergraduates in the area of spectroscopy and expose student researchers to equipment and concepts they might not otherwise become familiar with.

In her remarks before Rizzuto was recognized with the professorship during Opening Day ceremonies, Professor of Chemistry Kathy Matera noted that he was an engaged student who started at Elon thinking he would study history before becoming immersed in chemistry. Today, Tony is on the other side of the fence, and he is a highly sought-after research mentor, Matera said during the event in Schar Center. Tony encompasses the teacher-scholar-mentor model that he saw as a student and he now embraces as a chemistry professor.

Tommy Holmes and Harris L. Hendricks, Elon alumni, established the A.L. Hook Emerging Scholar Professorship in Science and Mathematics to honor former physics and mathematics professor, Alonzo Lohr Hook, and to support science, research and student involvement at Elon. Previous faculty members who have held the professorship are Crista Arangala, Kyle Altmann, Kathryn Matera, Chad Awtrey and Jennifer Dabrowski.

See original here:
Anthony Rizzuto named A.L. Hook Emerging Professor in Science and Mathematics - Today at Elon

Biochemistry

U of U Health awarded $28M to explore HIV’s inner workings | @theU – @theU

A University of Utah Health-led multi-institutional research center that studies the inner workings and vulnerabilities of HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, recently received a five-year, $28 million grant renewal from the National Institutes of Health.

Since its founding in 2007, theCHEETAH Center for Structural Biology of HIV Infection Restriction and Viral Dynamicshas published more than 300 research papers that have led to a better understanding of HIV and its potential treatments.

Wesley Sundquist, the centers director and professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry at U of U Health, is leading 20 research teams from 12 institutions. With the grant renewal, the researchers will focus on:

Wesley Sundquist, CHEETAH director. Photo credit: Charlie Ehlert.

The outstanding science stemming from this program is changing an understanding of HIV/AIDS, other viral diseases, and cellular biology, enabling the development of novel therapeutics such as lenacapavir and D-peptide inhibitors, saysRachel Hess, associate vice president for research at U of U Health, referring to two investigational drugs with roots in CHEETAH.

Just a half-century ago, HIV infection almost inevitably led to serious illness and death. Todays antiretroviral therapies can suppress the virus and prevent symptoms, but improvement is still needed. If these drugs arent taken daily, the virus can rebound and acquire drug resistance. The medicines can also cause difficult side effects. The underpinnings for two new investigational drugs that could help circumvent these issues are based on years of research by CHEETAH scientists.

Research from CHEETAH investigators Debra Eckert (left) and Michael Kay (right), and Wesley Sundquist and Christopher Hill (not pictured) and their teams have led to two investigational HIV drugs that are now being tested in clinical trials. Photo credit: Charlie Ehlert.

Research from Sundquist, Christopher Hill, distinguished biochemistry professor at U of U Health and other CHEETAH Center labs on the HIV capsida structure they found is vital for different steps of the HIV life cyclelaid the groundwork that led the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences to identify the capsid inhibitor lenacapavir. This investigational drug is now in phase 3 clinical trials and is already showing great promiseas a potent, long-acting treatment.

Taking a different approach,Michael Kay, CHEETAH investigator and biochemistry professor, andDebra Eckert, biochemistry research assistant professor, used synthetic chemistry to design a D-peptide inhibitor called CPT31 thatjams HIVs infection machinery. The molecule is now in phase 1 clinical trials sponsored by Navigen, Inc.

Often people forget that drug development builds from basic research, Sundquist says. These are two more cases where that has happened, and it is very satisfying.

CHEETAH continues to bring an understanding of HIV, related viruses and host biology in new directions through collaborations between its scientists, who come from a variety of disciplines. The CHEETAH Center is doing exciting, interdisciplinary science in a collaborative environment that allows us to accomplish projects that wouldnt otherwise be possible in any single lab, says Pamela Bjorkman, a professor of biology and biological engineering at Caltech.

Nels Elde, professor of human genetics at U of U Health, turns to evolution for inspiration, noting that many animals are not as susceptible as humans to disease caused by HIV. He is collaborating with fellow CHEETAH scientists to explore whether a gene found in mice and squirrel monkeys that prevents HIV from exiting cells after replicating could become the basis for anew type of antiviral.

Nature has done seemingly countless billions of experiments that got us to where we are today, Elde says. Can we learn from whats happened and borrow and deploy them in ways that are useful?

At 130 nanometers, HIV is about 60 times smaller than a red blood cell. Advances in cryo-electron microscopy (left) and molecular modeling (right) have made it possible to see the virus in unprecedented detail. Image credit: Owen Pornillos, Barbie Ganser-Pornillos.

By contrast, Owen Pornillos, a CHEETAH investigator from the University of Virginia who received his doctorate from the U, takes advantage of his biochemistry expertise to take a different approach. In a collaborative project with several CHEETAH Center members, he is removing the virus from the complex environment of the host cell and bringing it to the test tube. By adding back specific ingredients a few at a time, the team is identifying key virus and host cell components that are essential for early stages of viral infection and replication. Combining this approach with new microscope technologies is allowing them to visualize these steps with unprecedented clarity.

CHEETAH is committed to doing excellent science and is always planning for where we envision the field will be five years from now, Pornillos says. Its exciting to be a part of it.

These diverse tactics are providing valuable insights into virology and biology, and uncovering targets for new types of therapeutic intervention.

See the original post:
U of U Health awarded $28M to explore HIV's inner workings | @theU - @theU

Biochemistry

Lasting leadership – The Source – Washington University in St. Louis – Washington University in St. Louis

Physician turned internationally renowned biochemist and pharmaceutical executive P. Roy Vagelos, MD, never planned his career path. Each step led to the next, he says. Recognition was never my motivation. I wanted to work where I could be productive and make important things happen.

Following a decade at the National Institutes of Health, Vagelos joined the faculty of Washington University School of Medicine in 1966 as head of the Department of Biological Chemistry, now called the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics. During his nine years at WashU, he founded two pioneering programs: the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), combining elements of the MD and PhD programs into a rigorous curriculum for future physician-scientists; and the Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences (DBBS), a transformative model for interdisciplinary education and research across the life sciences that united WashUs main and medical campuses. He also was instrumental in recruiting a cohort of Black medical students from historically Black colleges and universities to diversify thestudent body and advance racial equity in health care.

Vagelos left WashU in 1975 to direct research at Merck & Co., where he eventually became CEO and chairman. Since then, both MSTP and DBBS have risen to top ranks nationwide. Graduates of these lauded programs are advancing medicine and improving health across the globe.

In 2021, Vagelos and his wife, Diana, contributed $15 million to DBBS to fund graduate fellowships and bolster undergraduate programs. Theirgift honors the late Chancellor Emeritus William H. Danforth, who recruited Vagelos to WashU, supported his visionary ideas and became a longtime friend. The university renamed DBBS the Roy and Diana Vagelos Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences in recognition of the couples generosity.

After I graduated from medical school in 1954, I was assigned to the National Institutes of Health to complete two years of required service to the federal government. There, I met Earl Stadtman, a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, who was one of the outstanding biochemists of the world. Although he had never worked with an MD and I had never worked in a laboratory, he agreed to take me on. For two years, he led me through biochemistry. With his encouragement, I stayed at the NIH eight more years, conducting research independently and starting my career as a scientist.

Every successful scientist has had a mentor like Earl, who turned him or her on to science. Colleagues at the medical school and I introduced the idea of giving training and research opportunities to undergraduates through DBBS for this reason. Getting these students into laboratories so that they can participate in real experiments, not just learn from a textbook, is so important. This access sparks an interest in the sciences early on in a young persons life and helps build the pipeline of future scientists.

Nearly every improvement in health care in the last 50 years began with a basic science breakthrough. When a scientist makes a discovery at a molecular level, others leverage that knowledge to learn even more, as we recently saw with messenger RNA and the development of COVID vaccines. Answering fundamental questions about the body and disease is key to identifying therapeutic approaches.

The critical importance of basic science to medicine underlies the role of the physician-scientist, who is both investigator and clinician. Physician-scientists are aware of the potential applications of the science. At the same time, clues from studying disease can open new avenues for research. The two realms are stronger together than alone, which was the impetus for establishing the Medical Scientist Training Program.

We had the worlds greatest faculty people who were terrific scientists themselves and worked well with students.

In the case of MSTP, WashU was not the first to offer the combined degree program. But we were able to take the lead very quickly because few medical schools had the level of basic science expertise in their clinical departments that we did.

When I arrived at WashU, the six basic science departments recruited their own graduate students with varying degrees of success and did their own teaching. I was confident that we would be more effective together and that undergraduates would benefit greatly from taking courses led by basic science faculty from the med school. Within one year of its creation, DBBS greatly enhanced the quality of the undergraduate and graduate programs in the life sciences. The division also gave grad students the chance to complete their first year before choosing a discipline. To my astonishment, this structure became known as the WashU model, and it remains the standard for biomedical education today.

I come from a very humble background. My parents were immigrants from the small Greek island of Lesbos who only completed sixth grade. I learned everything along the way, beginning with English as a second language so I could go to elementary school.

At WashU, I gained the confidence to implement new ideas and lead an organization. I was able to continue building the strong biochemistry department and to start several programs that were new and different. Although I didnt know it then, what I learned and accomplished at WashU prepared me for leadership

The rest is here:
Lasting leadership - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis - Washington University in St. Louis

Biochemistry

Meet this year’s Baylor Faculty-in-Residence – Baylor University

A distinguishing part of the Baylor experience is the caring community on campus. One way we do that? Faculty-in-Residence!

These Baylor professors (many of them also BU alumni) dont just work on campus; they live on campus, too, in designated apartment-style homes inside most residence halls, along with their families. The goal: Fostering students social, cultural, educational and spiritual growth by encouraging community involvement and student interaction. That can mean everything from hosting fun events and socials, to group Bible study classes, to meeting one-on-one with students (even at odd hours).

Meet this years Faculty-in-Residence (FIR):

Alexander/Memorial Halls: Dr. Jason Whitt (BA 96, PhD 08). Whitt is a senior lecturer in the Honors Program whose research interests are in theology of disability, the intersection of faith and medicine, ecclesiology, and political theology. (Family: wife Maggie, MSED 06, and two children)

Allen/Dawson Halls: Dr. Beth Allison Barr (BA 96). The graduate program director in the Department of History, Barr teaches undergraduate courses on subjects such as medieval history and European womens history. (Family: husband Jeb, BA 97, and two children)

Brooks Flats Apartments: Dr. Lee Grumbles. Grumbles is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Cooperate Innovation. After 17 years as a VP of commercial banking, Grumbles brings extensive experience working with entrepreneurial ventures. (Family: wife Lauren, and two children)

Brooks Residential College: Dr. Rishi Sriram (BA 01, MSED 03). A FIR since 2013, Sriram spent eight years in higher education administration, helping launch and develop Baylors living-learning programs, before becoming a professor in the School of Education. (Family:wife Amanda, BS 02, and three school-aged children)

Earle Hall: Dr. Karenna Malavanti (BS 10, MA 12, PhD 14). A senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Malavantis primary research interest is in applied cognition and human memory. (Family: husband Matthew, and daughter Mila)

Kokernot Hall: Dr. Maricel Demesa. Demesa is a senior lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry with more than 25 years of teaching experience in various fields of chemistry at the university level. (Family: husband Fernadel, and a grown daughter)

Martin Hall: Dr. Clay Butler (BA 88). A FIR since 2015, Butler serves as a senior lecturer in the English department, teaching linguistics courses such as Language in Society, Cross-Cultural Linguistics, and Modern English Grammar. (Family: wife Susan, BA 89, and four grown children)

North Russell Hall: Dr. Joe Coker. Coker is a senior lecturer in the Religion Department, regularly teaching the core religion courses. He is interested in researching the way that religion both shapes the culture around it and is also shaped by the surrounding culture. (Family: wife Amy, and four children, including two current BU students)

North Village, Heritage House: Steven Pounders. Pounders is a professor in the Department of Theatre Arts. Along with teaching at Baylor, he has continued to work as a professional actor and director with theater productions in Texas, New York and other regions. (Family: wife Hope)

North Village, Texana House: Dr. Lesley McAllister. McAllister teaches piano and serves as director of piano pedagogy in the School of Music. She advocates to help musicians of every age reach peak performance using yoga, sport psychology research, and mind/body relaxation techniques. (Family: husband Dr. Scott McAllister, also a professor in the School of Music, and two school-aged children)

North Village, University House: Brent Philips. Philips has taught trombone in the School of Music since 2004. He is currently principal trombone in the Waco Symphony and Abilene Philharmonic, continues to perform regularly with the Houston Symphony, and serves as guest principal with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. (Family: wife Meredith (BA 94), and two sons, including one current BU student)

Penland Hall: Dr. Kelli McMahan (BSED 93). A FIR since 2016, McMahan is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation and one of the creators of Baylors Outdoor Adventure Line Camp and Outdoor Adventure Living-Learning Center.

South Russell Hall: Dr. Mona Choucair (BA 86, PhD 00). A FIR since 2014, Choucair is a senior lecturer in both the English department and School of Education, teaching such subjects as American literature and advanced grammar.

Teal Residential College: Brian Thomas. A FIR since 2016, Thomas is a senior lecturer in engineering and faculty sponsor of the Engineers with a Mission student organization. (Family: wife Martha (BSED 81, MSED 88) and two sons)

University Parks: Dr. Bob Kane. A FIR since 2015, Kane is an associate chemistry professor and director of Baylors Institute of Biomedical Studies, researching applications of synthetic chemistry in areas such as vaccine development. (Family: wife Deb and five children)

Sic em, Faculty-in-Residence!

Read this article:
Meet this year's Baylor Faculty-in-Residence - Baylor University

Biochemistry

$1 million is music to the ears of Wake Forest’s Chamber Choir | Wake Forest News – Wake Forest News

During the pandemic, practicing in-person as a group and traveling to perform were on hold. Junior communication major Elsa Maurizi joined the choir her first year at Wake Forest and participated in the May Southeastern tour.

We were all familiar with one another as singers, but not really as friends until we went on tour. We bonded through the music, through the jokes and bus rides and conversations and just all the different personalities being put together for a week, Maurizi said. Going on tour was a big step for us, and I now feel very connected to the music and the people and the beauty of what we are trying to accomplish as a group.

Students accepted to the Chamber Choir enroll in a semester-long, one-credit course that meets four days a week. From the moment they step foot in the class, they are listening, creating synergy, and engaging with new ideas and perspectives. If these sound like skills necessary for classrooms and careers, that is because they are.

A big thing we learn in our communication classes is how to understand the ways people express themselves. We learn to listen, said Maurizi. In choir, we have to listen closely to the voices around us in order to blend and lean into dissonance and harmony. The choir is very group-oriented, but each minor detail is created by individuals,

Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music Chris Gilliam describes choir as engaging with words and language, poetry, and concepts and ideas that must be processed by the brain and expressed in music. It is a whole body experience where singers step outside their comfort zones.

Kgosi (pronounced Kho-see) Hughes began singing at the age of 10 when he joined the Drakensberg Boys Choir School in South Africa. As a biochemistry and molecular biology major and music minor, he plans to pursue a career in medicine after graduation in 2023. Like Maurizi, he joined the Chamber Choir during his first year at Wake Forest.

Music has undoubtedly shaped who I am as a person and offers a break away from the intense academic workload that comes with being a pre-med student, said Hughes. I have been able to learn many new techniques and life perspectives from other students. Singing with the choir has also helped me confront criticism by learning how to process constructive feedback.

Gilliam describes the choir singers work as more than reading the note and singing it in key.

In studying the music and its place in time, students learn empathy and sensitivity to other cultures, and how to work together. They learn how to communicate transparently, honestly and without pretext skills that will serve them a lifetime.

Thane McDonald Wake Forest Choir Tour Fund The gift from Frank and Kathy Bragg initiates the Thane McDonald choir tour fund. The fund grows as alumni and friends come together to make it possible for choir singers to travel together without concern for cost. More information on how to support the endowment is available here.

Original post:
$1 million is music to the ears of Wake Forest's Chamber Choir | Wake Forest News - Wake Forest News