In September, Zach Jones passed away. A graduate student in the Medical Science Training Program, Zach worked in the lab of Mariana Byndloss, who wrote a moving memorial. Read it here.
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Cohen Innovation Fund awards Merrikh, Nakagawa
The Stanley Cohen Innovation Fund annually supports innovative early-phase research projects that are high risk yet potentially high reward. This year, faculty members Houra Merrikh (Biochemistry) and Teru Nakagawa (MPB) were granted one-year awards.
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Conn named ASPET fellow
Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery Director Jeff Conn (Pharmacology) is one of 16 scientists to be welcomed as a 2021 fellow of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
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Kim earns NARSAD Young Investigator Award
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Faculty recognized with awards at fall assembly
- Chancellor’s Award for Research: John Wilson (Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering), Manuel Ascano (Biochemistry), Mark Kelley (Surgery), Douglas Johnson (Medicine) and Justin Balko (Medicine)
- Chancellor’s Award for Research in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Renã A.S. Robinson (Chemistry)
- Thomas Jefferson Award: John McLean (Chemistry)
You can view the video of the event here.
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Chinowsky earns Paper of the Year Award
The Editorial Board of the basic science research journal of the American Society of Cell Biology, Molecular Biology of the Cell, presents the Paper of the Year Award to the first author of the paper judged to be the best of the year from June of the previous year to May. This year’s winner was Colbie Chinowsky (CDB, Matt Tyska lab).
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Sanders’s mentoring recognized
The Department of Biochemistry has recognized Chuck Sanders for his mentoring efforts throughout the years with the presentation of the Richard Armstrong Mentoring Award. Sanders will present a lecture, “A Retrospective on 30 Years of the Sanders Lab: How I Learned to Tell the Difference Between a Reticulated Vase and the Endoplasmic Reticulum,” on October 1 at noon (via Zoom) as part of the department’s Frontiers in Biochemistry lecture series.
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Brown, Engdahl earn RLI awards
Graduate students Rachel Brown (Cancer Biology, Chris Williams lab) and Taylor Engdahl (PMI, James Crowe lab) each earned a Russell G. Hamilton Leadership Institute Dissertation Enhancement Grant from the Graduate School. The awards will cover research expenses related to their dissertations, adding depth or breadth to their work.
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Stricker earns travel award
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Student and postdoc fellowships
The following students and postdocs earned fellowships from funding agencies:
From the NIH: Paige Spencer (CDB, Ken Lau lab), Brett Nabit (Pharmacology, Danny Winder and Jeff Conn labs), Julia Sealock (Human Genetics, Lea Davis lab), Wendy Bindeman (Cancer Biology, Barbara Fingleton lab), Margaret McBride (MPI, Ed Sherwood lab), Graham Johnson (Biomedical Engineering), Dora Obodo (CPB, Jake Hughey lab), Laura Geben (Pharmacology, Rebecca Ihrie lab), Maxwell Roeske (Neuroscience, Stephan Heckers lab), Anna Kasdan (Neuroscience, Reyna Gordon and Stephen Wilson labs), Chase Mackey (Neuroscience, Ramnarayan Ramachandran lab), Gabriella Robertson (CDB, Vivian Gama lab), and Kacie Dunham (Neuroscience, Tiffany Woynaroski and Carissa Cascio labs).
- From the American Heart Association: Kritika Singh (Emily Hodges lab) and Neil Sprenkle (MPI, Heather Pua lab).
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Want to keep up with upcoming defenses? Bookmark this calendar. And let us know if we missed anyone from this list!
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Blavatnik Awards interview Merrikh
Houra Merrikh (Biochemistry) is a 2020 and a 2021 Blavatnik Award National Finalist in the Life Sciences. The Blavatnik Awards interviewed Merrikh and asked her about her research, diversity in science, and more.
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Sutherland scrapbooks and awards donated
Bill Sutherland, son of the late Nobel laureate and Vanderbilt faculty member Earl Sutherland, has donated materials from the life of his father to the school.
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Jenkins first DEI program manager
Basic Sciences has hired Felysha Jenkins to serve as its first diversity, equity, and inclusion program manager.
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#L2TVU: Medical marijuana, CBD, and Delta 8
Did you miss last week’s Lab-to-Table event, featuring Dean Larry Marnett, Professor of Law Robert Mikos, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Sachin Patel, and Director of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative Ziva Cooper? Not to worry, you can view it here.
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Petrie earns promotion
Kim Petrie, assistant dean for biomedical career development and faculty member on the educator track, was recently promoted to associate professor of medical education and administration.
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Reinhart-King appointed BMES president
Professor of Biomedical Engineering Cynthia Reinhart-King has been appointed president of the Biomedical Engineering Society. She will begin her tenure on October 5.
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Fresh-from-the-oven grads
The following Ph.D. students successfully defended their dissertation or completed a master’s degree between March and May:
Molecular Pathology & Immunology: Nathan Klopfenstein, Ph.D.; Kevin Kramer, Ph.D.
Neuroscience: David Consoli, Ph.D.
- Pharmacology: Hussain Jinnah, Ph.D.
Want to keep up with upcoming defenses? Bookmark this calendar. And let us know if we missed anyone from this list!
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Meet the staff who keep Basic Sciences running. Want to give someone a shout out? Email us.
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Patty Mueller
In her role as program manager for the Biochemistry and the Chemical and Physical Biology graduate programs, Mueller serves a diverse group of Ph.D. students and faculty, and her work with the students is extremely rewarding. Mueller is typically the first point of contact for students who have questions or who need information. She works closely with many VU departments across campus to provide the best service to the students, and works to find answers to their questions even when she does not know the answer.
Fun fact: Mueller trains and competes with her dog, Dash, in various dog sports
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Have a job opening you’d like to promote? Send us a link or a description and contact info, and we’ll post it below.
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| ABOUT THIS ISSUE'S BANNER
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This image, generated by postdoc Goker Arpag of Marija Žanić’s lab, is a temporally color-coded representation of the movement of microtubule polymers on a surface coated with kinesin-1 motors. For this “gliding assay,” the kinesins — motor proteins that walk along microtubules — are attached to the surface of a coverslip via their cargo-binding domain, and microtubules are added to the flow-cell on top of the kinesins. As the immobilized kinesins bind and walk along microtubules, microtubules ‘glide’ over the coverslip. Addition of proteins that serve as barriers to kinesin-based transport disrupts microtubule gliding, resulting in the microtubules circling around a pivot point. In vitro reconstitution assays like this one allow researchers to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying kinesin-based transport in cells.
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School of Medicine Research Staff Awards
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Speak at TEDx Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt will be hosting its own TEDx event on April 10, 2022, but if you’d like to speak, get a move on! Applications are due by October 15. More info here.
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If your paper has been accepted...
We're really excited to promote your papers—by sharing on social media, writing a press release or story, making a video about your research, or other promotion as capacity allows—let us know if you have a new or upcoming paper that you think is worthy of publicity!
If your primary appointment is in Basic Sciences please fill out this form and tell us a little about your paper and its impact.
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Wellness Rooms available now!
The much-awaited Basic Sciences Wellness Rooms are now available! Use this form to learn more and to reserve one of the two rooms: 715C PRB and 6132 MRBIII (the latter in joint venture with the Vanderbilt Brain Institute). Reach out to our office of Facilities, Infrastructure and Risk Management if you have any questions.
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Where did the papers go?
Basically Speaking used to list recently published papers from Basic Sciences faculty members, but now it’s all gone—where did it go? The Reading List. This new weekly email includes all the recently published papers we know about. Let us know about your upcoming and new papers and we’ll include in the Reading List. If you’re not getting the Reading List yet, you can subscribe here.
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Karpay Award open for applications
The Karpay Award Committee is soliciting applications for the 2022 Karpay Award, presented by the Center for Structural Biology. Applications will be accepted until 3 p.m. on October 15. The winner will be notified by November 12, and the award itself will be presented on January 18, 2022. Submit applications or questions to Karen Davis.
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Want to keep friends and family in the loop?
Basic Sciences has a new newsletter that is just short enough that your friends and family will enjoy getting it in their inboxes each month. Let them know they can sign up for Vital here!
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Let us tweet your paper
Tweeting your recent research can help spread its reach, expand your network, and perhaps help you find new collaborators — so let us tweet it for you. Give us some quick info on your paper here and we’ll do the rest. Make sure to bookmark the link to keep it handy for the next time you publish a paper!
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We want YOU on our Instagram!
Basic Sciences is more than just our research—we’re a community of individuals driven to excel in biomedical research. Let us feature you on our Instagram! We want to see you in lab, outside of lab, with friends (physically distant and masked, though!), in the wilderness—wherever you are, we want to see you. Tag or DM us on social media (@vubasicsciences).
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First in-person retreat for the Center for EV Research
The Vanderbilt Center for Extracellular Vesicle Research will host its first-ever in-person retreat, which is scheduled for October 1, 2021 from 8:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The keynote speaker will be Richard Cerione of Cornell University. Abstracts are due by September 10.
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Levi Watkins Jr. lecture
The annual Levi Watkins Jr., M.D., lecture will be held on October 5 at 12:00 p.m., featuring keynote speaker George C. Hill, professor of medical education and administration and professor of PMI, emeritus. The Levi Watkins Jr. faculty and student awards will be presented at that time. Nominations for these awards are due by September 7.
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Annual VICC scientific retreat
The 22nd annual Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center scientific retreat will occur on October 6, 2021, and will focus on genitourinary cancers. Register here.
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BSA Colloquium
The Biochemistry Student Association holds biweekly student presentations, RCR events, or trainings. The next event will be a presentation called “Impact of Power and Privilege” on October 8 at 12:00 p.m. You can view the schedule here.
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Lab-to-Table: Songs and Sobriety
The next Basic Sciences Lab-to-Table Conversation will be between four-time Grammy winner Jason Isbell and Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research Director Danny Winder (MPB) and member Erin Calipari (Pharmacology), and will take place on October 12 at 12 p.m. via Zoom. You can register for this talk here, and subscribe to get email reminders of upcoming events here.
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Conversations on Diversity and Inclusion
The Cell and Developmental Biology CoDI subcommittee is hosting a series of conversations that are open to the entire Vanderbilt and medical center communities. Attend one, two, all - whatever works for you. The next sessions will take place on October 19, November 16, and December 14 at 4:00 p.m. Register for each meeting here. Questions? Email us.
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NCBI Workshop Day
Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt University Medical Center will be hosting an NCBI Workshop Day covering "NCBI Resources for Human Genomics Research" and “NCBI Resources for Human Pathogen Research” on November 5 and 6, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Register here. You can contact Meredith O’Brien with questions.
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Cancer Biology retreat
The Cancer Biology Student Association will hold its annual retreat on December 2. Save the date!
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Biochemistry holiday party
The Department of Biochemistry will hold its annual holiday party from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on December 7 at the Student Life Center. RSVP required.
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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.
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Catch Up on Basic Sciences!
We regularly update our website with some of the latest VU Basic Sciences news stories.
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Faculty and Facility Profiles
Check out our faculty interviews and our facility highlights here.
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