This holiday season, I am again grateful for the tremendous success of our students and faculty on many fronts over the past year.
Per the strategic vision that we unveiled two years ago, we have made great strides to be “a community of researchers with molecular, cellular, and computational minds.”
I am continued to be proud of the new initiatives aimed at building our broader community especially by engaging our alumni and friends.
As I have been since joining CCB three years ago, I hope you will be impressed with the compelling stories of our community members highlighted in this newsletter. I thank all of you for your contribution, advocacy, and stewardship in building our community.
I wish you all happy holidays!
Woo Lee
Chair and Professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB)
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| Dr. Woo Lee
CCB Department Chair
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Five things to know about revisions to the school’s biology, chemical biology and chemistry degree requirements.
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Through the Stevens Accelerated Master’s Program, students complete their bachelor’s and master’s degrees in five years while gaining practical skills and valuable networks to succeed after graduation.
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Jenna Booth ’23 was awarded third place, as Stevens undergrads presented their early-career research findings at the Independent Colleges and Universities of New Jersey Undergraduate Research Symposium.
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Being active in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology is helping Austin Ruth ’23 M.S. ’24 turn his fascination with chemical biology into a promising future.
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Stevens undergraduates are thriving in third year of a unique OB-GYN internship with Jersey City Medical Center.
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The Pinnacle Scholar from Kazakhstan uses AI and other methods to search for promising new medicines — while also running several nonprofits and staying active on campus
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The Research & Development Council of New Jersey chose three Stevens students to lead development of projects that advance the work of New Jersey’s research community.
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Stevens hosted 10 undergraduate students and four high school teachers for an immersive summer research experience: Research Experiences For Undergraduate Students (REU)/Research Experiences For High School Teachers (RET) Site: Interdisciplinary Research Experience in Sustainable Energy and Bioengineering.
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New assistant professor studies tiny particles to make strides toward improving our understanding of chronic diseases.
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Associate Professor Abhishek Sharma and Professor Yong Zhang recently had their work featured in distinguished scientific journals, furthering their pioneering studies' impact.
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Whether it’s microscopic organisms that could change lives or big philosophical questions that could shape the future, the goal is always greater understanding.
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Chemistry & Chemical Biology professor Sunil Paliwal uses industry experience to create student research opportunities.
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Dr. Sheo Singh won the annual “Norman R Farnsworth Research Achievement Award” by the American Society of Pharmacognosy. The Award Committee cited “Dr. Singh’s prolific publication record during his career in the pharmaceutical industry and his long-standing commitment to discovery and development of natural products as drugs.”
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Professor Woo Lee received a new 5-year NIH subgrant, “Identifying and Characterizing Functional Noncoding Mutations in Multiple Myeloma,” $216,995, for collaboration with Dr. Benjamin Tycko at Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation.
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| Assistant Professor Marcin Iwanicki won a $50,000 research grant for “Nutritional Supplement Taurine Suppresses Ovarian Cancer Growth,” from the Kaleidoscope of Hope Ovarian Cancer Research Funds.
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Teaching Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies Patricia Muisener co-led the 2023 REU/RET Site this summer, focusing on bioengineering and sustainable energy. The program, sponsored via a three-year $374,971 National Science Foundation grant, provided undergraduates and high school teachers interdisciplinary research experience and mentoring, with a goal of inspiring students to pursue STEM careers.
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First-place winner Melissa Pathil
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The culmination of innovative CCB Research Spine is a year-long individual or group-based senior capstone research project that leads up to CCB Research Day, which was celebrated on the day of the Stevens Innovation Expo, April 28, 2023.
CCB Research Day was designed to bring together a community of researchers with molecular, cellular, and computational minds to inspire students to become lifelong learners and innovators. The day also provides an annual venue to showcase the research accomplishments of all CCB senior students to the Stevens community, CCB external advisory board members (EAB) and invited guests.
This year’s projects for the poster presentations involved research in the areas of cancer biology, organic synthesis and computational chemistry, RNA-seq data analysis, sustainable polymers and drug discovery, to name a few.
A panel of four distinguished judges – Dr. Adam Weinglass, Merck; Ms. Christina Puntiel, Bristol-Myers-Squib; Dr. William Windsor, Stevens & Merck; and Dr. Stefano Fiore, Sanofi-Genzyme – evaluated all the poster presentations and selected the top three poster winners, who were selected for the CCB senior research awards:
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🏆 1st Place – Melissa Pathil
Title: Synthetic and Computational Studies of Novel PROTACs and Organoborons Research Advisor: Dr. Abhishek Sharma
🏆 2nd Place – Anjali Chandrasekhar
Title: Hereditary Factors of Ovarian Cancer Tumorigenesis
Research Advisor: Dr. Marcin Iwanicki
🏆 3rd Place – Anastasia Ivanov, Aileen McGovern*, & Nick Wheeler*
Title: SPICE – Sustainable Polymers in a Circular Economy
Research Advisor: Dr. Patricia Muisener
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This notable event included a luncheon for the senior students and their family members, CCB faculty, and EAB members.
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Mary Newell, CCB Office Manager, received the Stevens Employee Excellence Award for Student Centricity. She was recognized for her everyday commitment and dedication in creating a very welcoming office for our students, known officially as the CCB Center for Student Success, but also known as Ajay Café. Because of her proactivity and strong student advocacy, our students enjoy coming to Ajay Café.
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Themed "Celebrating the Stewardship for Student Success," the event highlighted the accomplishments of four students, as well as Birendra “Ben” Pramanik M.S. ’73 Ph.D. ’77 and Lance Bruck, major contributors to graduate-level and undergraduate research and education respectively.
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This past year has been one of tremendous success for our CCB students and faculty. We are incredibly proud of the advancements made within our labs and beyond, none of which would be possible without the support of our alumni and friends.
Your contributions to our CCB Special Initiatives Fund provide our students with diverse research and internship experiences, through which we can nurture their curiosity, foster their problem-solving skills, and empower them to become the next generation of transformative scientists who can make a positive impact on the world.
Through this holiday season, we seek to raise $25,000 to help support 8 summer interns at the Jersey City Medical Center, 10 senior research projects, and 5 Masters research projects. Your generous support will help shape the future of our students and the communities they serve.
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Thank you for supporting our future!
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