|
View online
|
Vanderbilt mourns loss of Exton
John H. Exton, retired professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, emeritus, passed away last month. In his 40-year career at Vanderbilt, Exton made significant contributions to the understanding of the role of several compounds in cellular physiology. He will be remembered for his discoveries, mentorship, and humor.
| |
Stephens passes away
Leah Stephens, long-time lab manager of Ethan Lee (Cell and Developmental Biology), passed away on January 20 after a lengthy illness. According to her obituary, she laughed loudly, argued fiercely, worked hard, loved without reservation, and lived every minute fully. She will be missed.
| |
Roden honored for leadership in precision medicine
Dan Roden (Medicine) received the PMWC 2023 Pioneer Award during this year’s Precision Medicine World Conference.
| |
Calipari recognized with an early-career APA award
Erin Calipari (Pharmacology) received a 2023 American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology for her work in behavioral and cognitive neuroscience.
| |
Estrada to lead VUSM health equity education
Lourdes Estrada (Biochemistry) has been named assistant dean for Health Equity Education at the School of Medicine.
| |
Wang Regeneron Science Talent Search finalist
Jason Wang (high school student, Ian Macara lab), has been named a top 40 finalist in the 82nd Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science and mathematics competition for high school seniors.
| |
Green takes gold home
Hamilton Green (Maria Hadjifrangiskou lab) won the best poster prize at the ASM Conference on Biofilms, sponsored by the FEMS Microbiology Reviews. Read his interview following his win!
| |
Annual awards recognize trainees in cancer biology
The Program in Cancer Biology, the Host-Tumor Interactions Program, and the Cancer Cell Biology Program hosted their 22nd Annual Retreat for Cancer Biology in December. They honored students and postdocs with the following awards:
- Best Post-doctoral Fellow Presentation:
- Katie Young (Cynthia Reinhart-King lab)
- Best Graduate Student Presentation:
- Amanda Hesterberg (Paula Hurley lab)
- Best Graduate Student Poster Presentation:
- Emilie Fisher (Jeff Rathmell lab)
- Matthew Loberg (Vivian Weiss lab)
- Honorable Mention for Best Graduate Student Poster Presentations:
- Brandie Taylor (Justin Balko lab)
- Kara McNamara (Keith Wilson lab)
- Sarah Reed (Ben Ho Park lab)
| |
Trainee fellowships
The following trainees have earned fellowships:
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases:
- Darian Thomas Carroll (Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Maureen Gannon lab)
- National Institutes of Health:
- Seth Reasoner (Microbe-Host Interactions, Maria Hadjifrangiskou lab)
- American Heart Association:
- Loic Fort (Cell and Developmental Biology, Ian Macara lab)
- Emily Hawes (Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Richard O'Brien lab)
| |
Osheroff part of effort leading to new antibiotic
Neil Osheroff (Biochemistry) is part of an international research collaboration resulting in what is on track to be the first new antibiotic treatment for uncomplicated urinary tract infections in more than 20 years.
| |
Basic Sciences leads top VU research stories
The 10 most popular Vanderbilt research news stories of 2022 feature the School of Medicine Basic Sciences twice, including the #1 story.
| |
Kids' book series features Rosenthal
A new immersive writing course designed for fourth and fifth graders features Vanderbilt professors doing research in astronomy, bioarcheology, biomedical informatics, radiation oncology and more. A book featuring Sandra Rosenthal (Chemistry) highlights her career as a quantum dot chemist.
| |
Madhur named associate editor
Meena Madhur (Medicine) was recently named an Associate Editor on the Clinical Science Editorial Board.
| |
Jackson's mentorship featured on NIH blog
Lauren Jackson (Biochemistry) was featured on the NIGMS Biomedical Beat Blog for Mentoring Month. She and her peers were lauded for their training of the next generation of scientists.
| |
Skaar interview, promotion
Vanderbilt's undergraduate STEM newsletter, Vanderbilt Vanguard, interviewed Eric Skaar (Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunlogy) for his insights into developing a career in academic research. Skaar was also recently promoted to University Distinguished Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology and University Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences.
| |
Crowe, Skaar promoted
James Crowe (Pediatrics) has been promoted to University Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Chemistry. Eric Skaar (Pathology, Microbiology and Immunlogy) was promoted to University Distinguished Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology and Biological Sciences.
| |
BRET Winter Showcase featured researchers in a new spotlight
Basic Sciences students, postdocs, staff, and faculty shared their talents at the BRET Winter Showcase at the end of 2022. If you couldn’t make it to the show and art exhibit, you can still learn about everyone involved!
| |
Fresh-from-the-oven grads
The following graduates successfully defended their dissertations this past month:
- Biochemistry: Monica Bomber, Ph.D.; Lee Cantrell, Ph.D.
- Neuroscience: Alexis Jameson, Ph.D.
| |
Vanderbilt postdoc social
Join the Vanderbilt Postdoctorial Associations's social gathering on February 17 at 6:00-8:00 p.m. in the Alumni Hall Graduate Student Lounge. Vote for your favorite (of five) Nashville pizzas!
| |
Brain Blast 2023 set to take off
Brain Blast 2023 takes place on Saturday, March 25, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Downtown Nashville Public Library. You can sign up to host a booth or sign up as an individual volunteer.
| |
VI4 Symposium
The Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation Annual Symposium is taking place on April 13. It will bring together hundreds of researchers with interests in clinical and basic science, aspects of infectious disease, immunology, inflammation, and microbiology.
| |
First Annual VIRAL Symposium
The First Annual VIRAL Research Symposium - Life Sciences Edition will be held on April 28, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Student Life Center Ballroom. John Kuriyan, dean of the School of Medicine Basic Sciences, will present the keynote talk. Register by February 20 if you would like to submit an abstract to be considered for a talk or a poster; otherwise, registration is open until April 1.
| |
|
Get your professional headshot for freeThe Vanderbilt Career Center has opened a free, self-service photo booth to all VU faculty, students, postdocs, and staff. Just step inside, pose, and share.
| |
Personalized mental health care offeredVanderbilt is now providing expanded mental health services to faculty, staff, and postdocs through a service called Lyra.
| |
New wellness programVanderbilt offers a new wellness program, administered by Virgin Pulse, to help individuals take steps toward their wellness goals. This resource has replaced the Go for the Gold program.
| |
Winter CDS newsletter is outThe Creative Data Solutions shared resource provides bioinformatics and research informatics services to Vanderbilt investigators. Check out their winter newsletter.
| |
Gifts to elected officials reminder
The Office of Federal Relations has provided a reminder on the Congressional Rules regarding gifts to covered federal elected officials (including athletic tickets, travel to campus, and meals) and our obligations with respect to reporting lobbying activities made on behalf of the university or using university resources.
| |
Respond to a 1-min survey for Eskind
The Eskind Biomedical Library would like to hear from you if you have participated in any scholarly activity that is internally or externally disseminated (journal articles, literature reviews, grant funding applications, etc.).
| |
BII program
The National Science Foundation is looking for submissions for their Biology Integration Institutes grant program. Full proposals are due by 5:00 p.m. (submitter's local time) on February 21, 2023, or February 18, 2025.
| |
2023 NIH S10 grant program
The 2023 version of the NIH S10 grant program has issued its yearly request for applications. There are two types of S10 grants that you can apply for. If you would like to apply for an S10 grant, please see the Basic Sciences webpage dedicated to the S10 programs. Note that the pre-application deadline is March 1.
| |
HHMI competition
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced an open competition to appoint 25 new investigators who will receive roughly $8 million over a seven-year term, renewable pending favorable scientific review. Apply by March 21.
| |
Data Management and Sharing (DMS) Plan
NIH research grant proposals now require a Data Management and Sharing (DMS) plan. For VU-specific policies and other advice about completing your DMS plan, please see our webinar recording and the annotated slide deck at on the Basic Sciences website.
| |
Funding for early-career NIH grantees experiencing "critical life events"
NIH offers administrative supplements to help investigators transitioning from K to R awards or from their first R01 to their first renewal/second award maintain productivity while dealing with “critical life events” during the grant project period. Take a look if you have or are applying for a K award or an R01 or R01-equivalent award.
| |
Have a job opening you’d like to promote? Send us a link or a description and contact info, and we’ll post it here for three issues. Renew postings anytime!
| |
Help reduce the use of Styrofoam in labs
The Center for Structural Biology Green Team is looking to reduce the amount of Styrofoam used by companies to ship products. They want to catalog which companies use Styrofoam and which ones are using more eco-friendly containers. Please help them out by submitting their short Packaging Survey by February 6.
| |
About this issue’s banner
Anna Cassidy, a Ph.D. student in the lab of Maria Žanić (Cell and Developmental Biology), generated a video while looking at microtubule networks in mitotic cells. This image was taken from the video and shows alpha-tubulin in green.
| |
Catch up on Basic Sciences news!
We regularly update our website with some of the latest VU Basic Sciences news stories.
| |
Faculty and facility profiles
Check out our faculty interviews and our facility highlights here.
| |
About the newsletter
This newsletter recognizes the achievements and latest discoveries of students, postdocs, faculty, and staff associated with Basic Sciences departments, centers, and cores or who carry out basic biomedical research at Vanderbilt.
| |
Help friends and family keep up with Basic Sciences!
Basic Sciences has a number of new communication avenues that you or your loved ones can use to keep up with what's going on here. If they're not already getting the Reading List, Vital, and Lab-to-Table Conversations announcements, send them to our subscription center!
| |
Keep up with biomedical science seminars
| |
Send us your news
Got an announcement or an upcoming event? Did we miss out on celebrating you or your lab's successes? Let us know!
| |
|
#CelebrateImmigrants: Vivian Gama
If you're not on social media, you may have missed our #CelebrateImmigrants series, which we launched in June 2021. So, we're reprising them here! The first installment featured Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Vivian Gama, who is originally from Colombia and works on mitochondria and how they influence cell transitions.
| |
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences
MRB III U-B1200
465 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37240
Phone: (615) 322-0907 | basicsciences@vanderbilt.edu
| |
|
|
|
|
Vanderbilt University is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action.
Vanderbilt®, Vanderbilt University®, V Oak Leaf Design®, Star V Design® and Anchor Down® are trademarks of The Vanderbilt University. ©2021 Vanderbilt University. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
