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With summer chugging along and getting hotter by the day, the research within our walls likewise moves along. Here in Basic Sciences we’re happy to help promote your work, whether that be by tweeting it to our followers, displaying it on our Instagram, or connecting you with colleagues at VU's Communications and Marketing to devise a communications plan for your accomplishments.
And, at least for the summer, we have additional help in the form of two interns: science writing intern Wendy Bindeman and digital content creation intern Stephanie Castillo. Wendy is a Ph.D. candidate in the Cancer Biology program who works in the lab of Barbara Fingleton (Pharmacology), and Stephanie is a Ph.D. candidate in a bespoke science communication program, working under David Weintraub (Astronomy) and Kendra Oliver (Pharmacology).
We're glad to have you, Wendy and Stephanie!
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Lindsley youngest inductee to ACS Hall of Fame
Craig Lindsley (Pharmacology) has been inducted as a 2021 member of the American Chemical Society Division of Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame. The 2021 Hall of Fame inductees will be recognized at the ACS National Meeting in Atlanta in August.
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Ihrie earns Ivy Foundation award
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Lopez, Hinton earn BWF grants
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Komen grants fund Pietenpol, two more VICC researchers
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Most cited in Basic Sciences
Each year we calculate the most highly cited papers by assistant professors, associate professors and professors within Basic Sciences. As citations are calculated for the two years after papers are published, papers published in 2018 were considered for this year. Please join us in celebrating the 2021 winning and runner-up teams of PIs and their groups of talented students, postdocs, and staff!
Most cited papers by assistant professors
Most cited papers by associate professors
Most cited papers by professors
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Merrikh again earns Blavatnik finalist status
Houra Merrikh (Biochemistry) has, for the second year running, been named a finalist of the Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists in the life sciences category.
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Oliver elected to Academy for Excellence
Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Digital Content and Design expert in Basic Sciences Kendra Oliver was recently inducted into the Academy for Excellence in Education. The academy recognizes outstanding faculty educators in the School of Medicine.
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Marshall to participate in ASCB’s ACT program
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Sharman, Le, Cambronero earn Graduate Leadership Anchor Awards
Three Basic Sciences graduate students are among the recipients of the inaugural Graduate Leadership Anchor Awards, presented by the Graduate Student Council. The students, Kavya Sharman (CPB, Richard Caprioli lab), Thao Le (MPB, Julio Ayala lab), and Francis Cambronero (Neuroscience, Angela Jefferson lab), stood out as being exceptional leaders and for leaving a positive impact on their peers.
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Dean’s award recipients announced
- Catherine Shelton, MHI, Mariana Byndloss lab
- Cody Heiser, CPB, Ken Lau lab
- Elaine Chen, MHI, James Crowe lab
- Gabriella Robertson, CDB, Vivian Gama lab
- Ivette Perez, Biochemistry, Tina Iverson lab
- Jennifer Zachry, Pharmacology, Erin Calipari lab
- Kritika Singh, Human Genetics, Lea Davis lab
- Mary Chalkley, CDB, Rebecca Ihrie and Kevin Ess labs
- Melissa Wolf, Cancer Biology, Kim Rathmell lab
- Patrick Melugin, Neuroscience, Cody Siciliano lab
- Wendy Bindeman, Cancer Biology, Barbara Fingleton lab
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Spring Postdoc Awards Ceremony winners
At a ceremony held in May, the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association named the recipients of their 2021 awards, which included Lindsay Seldin (Ian Macara lab) as Postdoc of the Year and Borden Lacy (PMI) as Faculty Mentor of the Year.
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Postdocs Kennedy and Winn earn fellowships
Postdocs Tyler Kennedy (David Miller lab) and Nathan Winn (Alyssa Hasty lab) earned a fellowship from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the American Heart Association, respectively.
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Beasley, Actkins earn awards to attend ECF
Postdoc Heather Beasley (AJ Hinton lab) and Ky’Era Actkins (Physiology, Meharry Medical College, Lea Davis lab), have received awards to attend the Early Career Forum of the Endocrine Society.
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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 May and July:
- Biological Sciences: Alissa Rodriguez, Ph.D.
- Cancer Biology: Shawna McLetchie Brookens, Ph.D.
- Cell & Developmental Biology: Andrea Cuentas-Condori, Ph.D.; Karrie Dudek, Ph.D.
- Human Genetics: Ying Ji, Ph.D.
- Microbe-Host Interactions: Michael Doyle, Ph.D.
- Neuroscience: Elizabeth Moore, Ph.D.; Resh Gupta, 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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Cortez appointed chair of biochemistry
After a six-month stint as interim chair of the Department of Biochemistry, David Cortez has been appointed permanent chair of the department.
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MPB GSA celebrates Juneteenth
The Graduate Student Association of MPB recognized and celebrated Juneteenth 2021 by highlighting Black physiologists. The students created a poster featuring 68 Black physiologists from within and outside of Vanderbilt and a video focusing on what Juneteenth means to a variety of university leadership and MPB members. Read about it, view the poster, and watch the video here. If you have trouble accessing YouTube on campus, you can also view the video here.
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Wente recognized with Trailblazer portrait
Susan Wente (CDB), former provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, will be the next member of the university community to be celebrated through the Vanderbilt Trailblazers portrait series, which recognizes individuals who have broken barriers and made a positive impact at the university and in society at large. Wente became the first female president of Wake Forest University on July 1.
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Osheroff appointed to AAMC leadership post
Neil Osheroff (Biochemistry) will serve a three-year term on the Administrative Board of the Council of Faculty and Academic Societies, a council of the Association of American Medical Colleges, beginning in November.
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Weaver launches Center for EV Research
Alissa Weaver (CDB), who established the Program for Extracellular Vesicle Research, has formalized the program into a center within Basic Sciences. It focuses on a diverse array of extracellular vesicle research, ranging from basic function of extracellular vesicles to applications in disease, including cancer, biomarkers, therapeutics, and regenerative medicine.
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ASPIRE to Innovate welcomes first postdoc
The new ASPIRE to Innovate Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, designed to bring biomedical Ph.D. scientists to the entrepreneurial and technology transfer realm, has welcomed its first postdoctoral fellow: Karrie Dudek, a graduate of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology.
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Calipari appointed to MNPS study section
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Students lobby state legislators
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Hinton appointed mitochondrial dysfunction topic editor
The journal Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences has appointed Antentor Hinton (MPB) as a topic editor on a peer-reviewed article collection around mitochondrial dysfunction.
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Panel tackles questions on the origin of life
On June 17, Basic Sciences brought together Ian Macara (a biologist; CDB), Ellen Armour (a Christian theologist; Religion, Gender and Sexuality), Lenn Goodman (a philosopher; Philosophy), and Steven Taylor (an astrophysicist; Physics & Astronomy) in a Lab-to-Table conversation to explore their views and academic perspectives on the origins of life.
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A selection of recently published papers from primary and secondary Basic Sciences labs.
Just out!
Highlighted across campus
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Biochemistry now has swag!
The Department of Biochemistry now has its own swag store, featuring artwork by graduate Claire Strothman and a cameo by a Breann Brown lab donut (top right and top left, respectively, in this sticker pack)!
The department would like to thank Biochemistry Student Association rep Katherine Clowes for making this happen.
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Wellness Rooms available soon!
Basic Sciences is committed to meeting the needs of its nursing mothers as they return to work. As such, two new, fully equipped Wellness Rooms, located in 715C PRB and 6136 MRBIII, will open soon.
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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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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
Liaison: Biochemistry Student Association; postdoc liaison between Biochemistry grad students and postdocs. Email Jen Smith.
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Ancora rare genetic diseases funding
Each therapeutic discovery project supported by this funding opportunity must focus on a clear therapeutic hypothesis enabled by genetic and biological understanding of disease pathophysiology with cellular and in vivo models available. To create a profile with Ancora Innovations and learn more about the Letter of Intent application, please click here. Interested faculty should email Margaret Read to learn more about next steps and formal submission.
Funding for COVID-19 research
Many new COVID-19-related funding opportunities are now available from both federal agencies and from private foundations. For an excellent and constantly updated list, visit the VU OVPR website. If you stumble upon new grant programs that you think may be of broad interest, please forward this info to Chuck Sanders and we will make sure they are appropriately posted.
NIH to provide childcare support
Thanks to ongoing efforts to support family-friendly work environments for the NIH-supported workforce, the NIH will begin providing childcare support to recipients of NRSA fellowships, on or after April 8, 2021. More info here.
NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program
This grant supports individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose highly innovative research projects that reflect substantially different scientific directions from those already being pursued in the investigator’s research program or elsewhere. Application due September 10, 2021.
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New internal funding mechanisms
Vanderbilt University has established the Seeding Success Grant to support work with external sponsorship potential and facilitate faculty scholarship and endeavors through course buyouts; and the Rapid Advancement Micro-Grant Program Awards for smaller-scale funding opportunities that require a rapid-response. You can learn more by visiting each award’s page or viewing this town hall.
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| Staff Feature: Becky Sanders
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Meet the staff who keep Basic Sciences running. Want to give someone a shout out? Email us.
Becky Sanders is an administrative staff member in the Dean’s Office. She works closely with Associate Dean for Faculty Alyssa Hasty and the administrative assistants to the department chairs to maintain records in the Faculty Information System (associated with faculty appointments, reappointment, promotions). In addition to other miscellaneous office duties, she is responsible for all deposits for the School of Medicine Basic Sciences. Sanders is very thankful to work with the outstanding and extraordinary group of people that make up the Basic Sciences!
Fun fact: Sanders worked for the journal Biochemistry as an office administrator before joining the Basic Sciences team.
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This monthly newsletter recognizes the achievements and latest discoveries of students, postdocs, faculty, and staff associated with the departments, centers, and cores of Basic Sciences or who carry out basic biomedical research.
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About this Issue's Banner
The MPB Graduate Student Association recognized and celebrated Juneteenth 2021 by highlighting Black physiologists. You can read about the poster they created here.
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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 & Facility Profiles
Check out our faculty interviews and our facility highlights here.
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Send Us Your News
Got an announcement or an upcoming event you'd like us to post? Let us know!
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Ege Kavalali, professor and acting chair of pharmacology, discusses his research into the mechanisms of neurotransmission and synaptic signaling in the central nervous system.
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Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences
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Phone: (615) 322-0907 | basicsciences@vanderbilt.edu
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