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Latest Issue of Opportunities to explore - March 11-15, 2019

Monday, March 11, 2019

The new issue of opportunities to explore is out now! This issue is packed with events, resources, funding opportunities and courses!

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NYS Lawmakers vote to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21 - Rahman Lab interviewed

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Lawmakers in the New York state Assembly have voted to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21.

The legislation, which passed the Democrat-led chamber on Wednesday, prohibits the sale of tobacco, as well as electronic cigarettes, to anyone under 21.

"I always thought that we were going to be the generation to stop smoking and then all of these new products came out and we are at step one," said Monica Jackson, a research assistant at the University of Rochester.

She said she doesn't smoke, but some of her friends do.

"I think just educating people and putting it in their heads this is not good for us," she added.

Jackson is part of a team of researchers at the university, including Dr. Irfan Rahman. Dr. Rahman has been helping conduct a study on the impacts of smoking and vaping for more than 10 years. Some of his work has also been published.

"This is really bad for high schoolers and middle schoolers when their lungs are developing, and if they vape it's interfering with lung development," he explained.

When asked about raising the age to buy tobacco and e-cigarettes, Dr. Rahman said it won't do much.

"The problem will never be solved by increasing the age. Overall it will not address the issue of toxicity and diseases," he said.

Throughout the years, Dr. Rahman says he's studied the evolution of different products to consume tobacco and nicotine.

When it comes to research on Juul products, he said, "we found metals such as copper, we published a paper, we found lung injuries, inflammation and stress in the lungs."

The elevated smoking age is already the law in seven states, and several cities around the country, including New York City.

Some people think passing such a law is going too far.

"The idea for them to choose when they finish high school when they become adults it's more applicable, so i think 19 would be more of an applicable age," said James McGuinness a Rochester resident.

Brandon Barr is the manager of Exscape Smoke Shop and Vapor Lounge. He said the age of 21 at least is giving you more life experience, and more of a chance to educate yourself about the thing you want to do.

He said if the law is passed, it likely won't impact his business directly.

"I think convenience stores and things like that probably will because they have more of a high customer volume," he added.

Barr said the topic of education should be at the center of this debate. He said he works to educate all of his customers about what they are buying.

"Some of these very high level nicotine juices if you were to put them in certain kinds of vapes it can put so much nicotine into you - you could get sick," he said.

The measure is backed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, and has broad support in the Democrat-controlled state Senate, where it has yet to be scheduled for a vote.

Cuomo released a statement after the Assembly passed the bill.

"The lifelong health effects and human misery caused by tobacco use cannot be understated and New York needs to do everything in its power to keep tobacco products out of the hands of our young people. That's why I made raising the age of tobacco sales to 21 one of the first proposals of my Justice Agenda and I applaud the Assembly and particularly Assembly Member Rosenthal for taking action on this very important issue today. I urge the Senate to follow suit and help make this a stronger and healthier New York for all."

Julie Hart of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network called the measure "common sense" and said it will reduce the number of young people who become addicted.

Latest Issue of Opportunities To Explore - March 4-8, 2019

Monday, March 4, 2019

The new issue of opportunities to explore is out now! This issue is packed with events, resources, funding opportunities and courses!

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Grant Marks Two Decades of NIH Support for Muscular Dystrophy Research

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Deposits of toxic RNA (red) are seen here inside muscle cell nuclei (blue) from an individual with myotonic dystrophy

The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) has received $8 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support pioneering research on muscular dystrophy. The grant, which is a renewal of URMC’s Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center, will fund ongoing work to investigate the genetic mechanisms and progression of this complex multi-system disease, research that has led scientists to the threshold of potential new therapies for myotonic dystrophy.

“The mission of the URMC Wellstone Center is to promote research that leads to effective treatments for muscular dystrophy,” said Charles Thornton, M.D., a professor in the URMC Department of Neurology and director of the URMC Wellstone Center. “This new funding will enable us to continue a research program that has been forged from a true partnership between bench scientists, clinical researchers, and patients and their families.”

URMC is home to one of six NIH-designated Wellstone Centers in the nation. URMC was selected in the first cycle of funding when the program was launched 16 years ago and is the only Wellstone Center that has been continuously funded since the program’s inception. With the current award, URMC has received a total of $29.8 million in NIH funding to study the disease since 2003.

The URMC Wellstone Center focuses on myotonic dystrophy, a disease that can be lethal in infants and adults and is characterized by progressive disability. Researchers at URMC have been studying myotonic dystrophy for more than 30 years and their work has transformed our understanding of the biological mechanisms of the disease. The new funding will support a long-standing collaboration between researchers at the University of Rochester and RNA scientists at the University of Florida.

Approximately 40,000 Americans have myotonic dystrophy, which is one of the most common forms of muscular dystrophy. People with the disease have muscle weakness and prolonged muscle tensing (myotonia), which makes it difficult to relax muscles after use. Eventually many patients have difficulty walking, swallowing, and breathing.

New Issue of Opportunities to Explore - February 25-March 1, 2019

Monday, February 25, 2019

The new issue of opportunities to explore is out now! This issue is packed with events, resources, funding opportunities and courses!

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Xi Lin Wins Award

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Xi Lin, MS, 2019 ORS/RJOS Young Female Investigator Travel Grant awarded by the Orthopaedic Research Society, Women's Leadership Forum, and the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society.

Xi is a Student of Lianping Xing, PhD, Pathology. Her research interest is OA pathogenesis: how macrophages contribute to localized inflammation through their effect on the lymphatic system.

New Issue of Opportunities to Explore - February 18-22, 2019

Monday, February 18, 2019

The new issue of opportunities to explore is out now! This issue is packed with events, resources, funding opportunities and courses!

Read The February 18-22, 2019 Issue

Mason Doolittle Awarded ASBMR Travel Grant

Friday, February 15, 2019

Madison Doolittle, M.S., Current Ph.D. Trainee in the Cell Biology of Disease program at the School of Medicine and Dentistry was awarded an ASBMR Travel Grant to attend the Herbert Fleisch Workshop in Brussels Belgium March 2019. Madison is a student of Cheryl Ackert-Bicknell, PhD, CMSR., his research focus is on Identification and Characterization of Novel Genetic Determinants of Osteoporosis and Bone Mineral Density (BMD)

Matt Ingalls wins Prestigious Poster Prize at Gordon Conference

Friday, February 15, 2019

Matt Ingalls With Poster

GDSC student Matt Ingalls won an award for his poster presentation at the 2019 Gordon Research Conference for Salivary Glands and Exocrine Biology in Galveston, Texas (February 2^nd – 8^th). The GRC brought together leading researchers in the field of salivary gland biology from around the world. Matt’s poster, titled “Lineage Tracing Following Radiation Treatment Unveils Intrinsic Regeneration Potential in Adult Salivary Glands”, highlights differences in radiation response between the submandibular and parotid  salivary glands. Utilizing lineage tracing models his work demonstrates the intrinsic regeneration potential of the adult salivary gland. The NIH-supported research was conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Catherine Ovitt and was co-authored by E. Maruyama and P. Weng. -- Congratulations Matt!

Kristen Bush Marshall Successfully Defends Her Thesis

Monday, February 11, 2019

Kristen Bush Marshall successfully defended and submitted her thesis for the PhD in Translational Biomedical Science, with a focus in Infection and Immunity: From Molecules to Populations

Dr. Bush Marshall's research focus was The use of electronic health records (EHR), predictive analytics, and network science to understand infection mobility and improve patient outcomes. Her research was conducted in the labs of Dr. Martin Zand & Dr. Gourab Ghoshal

She will be starting a postdoctoral position with her mentor, Dr. Martin Zand on 2/16, and will be heading down to the CDC for the EIS Fellowship starting in the summer

New Issue of Opportunities to Explore - February 11-15, 2019

Monday, February 11, 2019

The new issue of opportunities to explore is out now! This issue is packed with events, resources, funding opportunities and courses!

Read The February 11-15, 2019 Issue

PREP Scholar Seble Negatu Receives Award

Monday, February 11, 2019

Seble Negatu – PREP Scholar in the laboratory of Dr. Deborah Fowell

Seble Negatu was one of 9 recipients of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI)-sponsored immunology presentation awards at the ABRCMS meeting in November 2018 in Indianapolis, IN. https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/5759/presentation/882

At the meeting, AAI members and meeting chairs, Robert Binder and Cherie Butts, also presented Seble with a 2019 AAI Young Scholars Travel Award, to attend the 2019 AAI Annual Meeting this May in San Diego.

New Issue of Opportunities to Explore - February 4-8, 2019

Monday, February 4, 2019

The new issue of opportunities to explore is out now! This issue is packed with events, resources, funding opportunities and courses!

Read The February 4-8, 2019 Issue

GDSC student Adrian Molina-Vargas co-founds ADSE chapter to tackle underrepresentation in STEM

Friday, February 1, 2019

February 1, 2019

In the front row from the left, Keon Garrett, Ellen Matson, Raven Osborn, and Antonio Tinoco Valencia; and in the back row from the left, Marian Ackun-Farmmer, Heta Gandhi, Adrian Molina Vargas, Shukree Abdul-Rashed, and Liz Daniele are among the founding members of the new Rochester chapter of the Alliance for Diversity in Science and Engineering. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

Raven Osborn thought long and hard about continuing a PhD at the University of Rochester. Other minority students she knew at the Medical Center had also felt the isolation, the constant “being on edge” and “code-switching”—shifting the way they express themselves—that comes with being an underrepresented minority in a STEM field.

“Can I do this for another five and half years?” she wondered.

Antonio Tinoco, a DREAMer who was born in Mexico and raised in Los Angeles, is a fourth year PhD student in the department of chemistry on the River Campus. He can remember only one or two occasions when a visiting faculty member of underrepresented minority background was invited to give a seminar in his department.

“My goal is to go into academia to be a professor, do research, and teach. But there are so few examples to follow,” he says. “I don’t even know of anyone who, as a DACA recipient or DREAMer, is a professor in chemistry. So, I could easily tell myself nobody has done it; it’s impossible; maybe I should look for something else.”

Instead, Tinoco, Osborn, and five other graduate students have banded together to form the University of Rochester chapter of the Alliance for Diversity in Science and Engineering (ADSE). The mission of the national ADSE, which was founded in 2014, is to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in academia, industry, and government through graduate student organizations that reach out to students and scientists of all ages and backgrounds.

Other ADSE chapters are at the University of California campuses at Berkeley and Davis, the University of Central Florida, the University of Colorado, Columbia University, Drexel University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University Maryland, New York University, Northeastern University, and Texas A&M.

Tinoco, the president and founding member of the new chapter, says its immediate goals are twofold:

• Establish a diversity lecture series to bring underrepresented faculty from other universities to Rochester. “It would be an opportunity for underrepresented minority students here to say ‘Wow, there’s someone out there like me who is making it, so maybe there’s hope for me.’” Underrepresented minority postdoctoral fellows would also be invited, especially ones who might be interested in eventually teaching here, Tinoco says.
• Provide a space where underrepresented graduate students in STEM fields from across the University can meet, network, and hold workshops and panels to openly discuss the issues they face. “If we can openly discuss these things, we won’t feel as isolated,” Tinoco says.

The chapter has been certified by the University and will receive funding through the University’s David T. Kearns Center for Leadership and Diversity. ADSE’s goals fall well within the Kearns Center’s mission to expand the educational pipeline through the doctoral degree for low-income, first-generation college, and underrepresented minority students, says Liz Daniele, the center’s assistant director for graduate diversity.

Inviting underrepresented faculty from other campuses to give a science-based talk, but also give a diversity-themed talk about their academic journey “is a great model,” she says.  “And that’s why Kearns is happy to support several semesters of lectures.”

“I think this is exactly the type of thing that the University needs right now,” says Ellen Matson, assistant professor of chemistry, who will be the chapter’s faculty advisor. She, too, is excited about the proposed diversity lecture series—as a way to inspire and motivate students to finish their programs and pursue STEM careers, and also “showcase our research programs and facilities to diverse early-career scientists and post-doctoral research fellows interested in pursuing independent academic research careers.”

“Overall, I think that the University of Rochester community, particularly at the graduate level, will really benefit from having a chapter of the Alliance for Diversity in Engineering and Science on campus,” Matson says.

Osborn, who is serving as the chapter’s treasurer, does not regret her decision to stay at Rochester to pursue a PhD in translational biomedical science. “I’ve been very lucky to work with faculty members like Tim Dye, Steve Dewhurst, and Juilee Thakar,” she says.

Osborn received a medical center community outreach award as a leader in the Rochester Young Scientists Club’s program, which encourages pupils at inner-city elementary schools to start thinking like scientists. She is excited to be serving on the search committee for a new vice president for equity and inclusion at the University.

She is hopeful that ADSE will bring together underrepresented graduate students, now separated by Elmwood Avenue “divide” between the River Campus and the Medical Center  and the separate “silos” of their STEM disciplines.

And she agrees with Matson that the University will benefit from having a chapter of ADSE.

“This is an amazing institution, and we have so many resources here. If we can make this a place where people who have different backgrounds feel comfortable, where their different perspectives are welcomed, it can only better the institution as a whole.”

Former Biochemistry Student Jerry Madukwe, Ph.D. travels to West Africa to Speak With Students

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Jerry Madukwe, Ph.D., who received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry (2018), and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, recently completed a 2-week science-outreach trip to West Africa. Jerry was invited by the West Africa Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens at the University of Ghana, and the Department of Life sciences at the University of Ilorin in central Nigeria to talk about the work he did as a PhD student and about graduate school in the United States. Jerry, who hails from Nigeria, and got his BS from Lee University in Tennessee, also used the opportunity to visit his former elementary school where he talked to fifth grade pupils about science (see photos), and to demonstrate DNA extraction from bananas. The kids were very excited by his visit, and Jerry found the experience very fulfilling.

Study suggests how high blood pressure might contribute to Alzheimer’s

Monday, January 28, 2019

The brain’s system for removing waste is driven primarily by the pulsations of adjoining arteries, University of Rochester neuroscientists and mechanical engineers report in a new study. They also show that changes in the pulsations caused by high blood pressure slow the removal of waste, reducing its efficiency.

This might explain the association between high blood pressure and Alzheimer’ disease, the researchers say. Alzheimer’s, the most common cause of dementia among older adults, is characterized by abnormal clumps and tangled bundles of fibers in the brain.

The study, reported in Nature Communications, builds upon groundbreaking discoveries about the brain’s waste removal system by Maiken Nedergaard, co-director of the University’s Center for Translational Neuromedicine. Nedergaard and her colleagues were the first to describe how cerebrospinal fluid is pumped into brain tissue and flushes away waste. Subsequent research by her team has shown that this glymphatic waste removal system is more active while we sleep and can be damaged by stroke and trauma.

This latest research shows “in much greater depth and much greater precision than before” how the glymphatic system functions in the perivascular spaces that surround arteries in the outer brain membrane, says Douglas Kelley, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and an expert in fluid dynamics. His lab is collaborating with Nedergaard’s team as part of a $3.2 million National Institute on Aging grant.

For this study, Humberto Mestre, a PhD student in Nedergaard’s lab, injected minute particles in the cerebrospinal fluid of mice, and then used two-photon microscopy to create videos showing the particles as they moved through the perivascular spaces.

New Issue of Opportunities to Explore - January 28-February 1, 2019

Friday, January 25, 2019

The new issue of opportunities to explore is out now! This issue is packed with events, resources, funding opportunities and courses!

Read The January 28-February 1, 2019 Issue

Dr. Kuan Hong Wang comes to the University of Rochester

Monday, January 21, 2019

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Wang to the University of Rochester Medical Center, the Department of Neuroscience and the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience from the NIH.

Dr. Wang comes to us as the former chief of the Unit on Neural Circuits and Adaptive Behaviors at the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Wang received his B.A. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College and his Ph.D. from the University of California at San Francisco, where he studied the molecular regulators of sensory axon growth and branching during development with Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Dr. Wang obtained postdoctoral training with Susumu Tonegawa at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he examined the ways in which cortical neurons respond to an animal’s experience by directly visualizing the molecular activity of a given set of neurons over several days in the live animal. With this approach, he revealed a physiological function of neural activity regulated gene Arc in sharpening stimulus-specific responses in visual cortex.

New Issue of Opportunities to Explore - January 14-18, 2018

Monday, January 14, 2019

The new issue of opportunities to explore is out now! This issue is packed with events, resources, funding opportunities and courses!

Read The January 14-18, 2018 Issue

TBS Student Explores Drug Repurposing to Treat Infectious Disease

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Infectious diseases still pose a big health risk in resource-limited areas of the world. A fourth-year student in the UR CTSI's Translational Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, Marhiah Montoya, is exploring the possibility of repurposing pre-existing estrogen receptor drugs, like tamoxifen, to fight these infections. Read Montoya's mini-review in mBio.

TBS Student Dissertation Defense

Monday, January 7, 2019

UR CTSI Translational Biomedical Science graduate student, Kristen Bush Marshall, will defend her dissertation, titled, “Inpatient mobility to predict hospital-onset Clostridium difficile: a network approach,” on Friday, January 18.  She will discuss her use of electronic health records and network analysis of hospital-onset clostridium difficile, a life-threatening infection triggered by taking antibiotics. Martin Zand, M.D., Ph.D., has been her advisor and mentor for the past three years.
 
Bush Marshall is committed to becoming an epidemiologist, with a clear focus on infection prevention and understanding the fundamental mechanisms of disease transmission in communities and healthcare facilities.
 
Date: Friday, January 18
Time: 12:00 pm
Location: Helen Wood Hall Auditorium 1W-304

UR-RCMI Scholarly Exchange Request for Applications

Monday, January 7, 2019

Faculty, staff, and students at the University of Rochester can apply now for funding to support research collaboration activities with their counterparts from any institution in the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) program.
 
The UR-RCMI Scholarly Exchange Program awards up to five projects a maximum of $3,000 each to help colleagues from different cultures, disciplines, and academic appointments build partnerships and produce abstracts, publications, or grant applications together and to foster the next generation of researchers from underrepresented populations.

Learn more and access the application from the UR CTSI Stories blog.
If you have questions, please contact Ivelisse Rivera, M.D., UR-RCMI Exchange Coordinator.
Applications are due Friday, January 25.
 

New Issue of Opportunities to Explore - January 7-11, 2018

Friday, January 4, 2019

The new issue of opportunities to explore is out now! This issue is packed with events, resources, funding opportunities and courses!

Read The Latest Issue