Two members of the Leung lab have received travel awards to attend the 10th International Zebrafish Genetics and Development
Two members of the Leung lab have received travel awards to attend the 10th International Zebrafish Genetics and Development, the largest meeting for the zebrafish community, to present their recent research and contribution to the field. Sylvia Bonilla, a graduate student in Biological Sciences, will present her work on "The Roles of DeltaC and DeltaD in Zebrafish Retinal Development". Monica, a technician and an incoming student to the PULSe graduate program at Purdue, will present "ZeBase: An open-source relational database for zebrafish laboratories". This project is the product of a collaboration with Eric Hassenplug and Rodney McPhail from the departmental IT group, and has recently been published in the community journal Zebrafish. The meeting will take place at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin from June 20-24, 2012.
Congratulations Award Winners
We are pleased to announce that Nicholas Fico (Friedman lab), Yunhao Tan (Luo lab) and Yingpei He (Suter lab) have received travel awards from the Yeunkyung Woo Achieve Excellence Travel Scholarship Fund. This fund was created in 2002 by the Biological Sciences Department in memory of Yeunkyung Woo, a talented, energetic and well-loved PhD student. Twice per year the Department issues a call for applications from graduate students who plan to travel to major meetings to present their results, and winners are chosen competitively. Since 2003 the fund has provided travel awards in Yeunkyung's name to 31 graduate students from 24 different laboratories within the department.
Make a gift to The Yeunkyung Woo Achieve Excellence Travel Scholarship Fund.
Distinguished Science Alumni
Purdue Alumnus Dr. Dennis Dean (PhD '79) was awarded the Distinguished Science Alumni award from Dean Jeff Roberts in April 2012. Dr. Dean is the founding director of the Fralin Life Science Institute and holds the titles of University Distinguished Professor and the Stroobants Professor of Biotechnology at Virginia Tech. He was formerly an NIH Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin and was a Staff Scientist at the Kettering Research Laboratory before moving to Virginia Tech. His research interests include the chemical mechanism for biological nitrogen fixation and the biological formation of metal-sulfur cofactors. We are proud of Dr. Dean's accomplishments and to honor him with this prestigious award. Congratulations!
Sharma awarded Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) Prize for Science and Technology
Dr. Amit Prakash Sharma B.S. '90 Purdue Biological Sciences was recently awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) Prize for Science and Technology for 2011 in India. Only 463 scientists have been bestowed this prestigious prize. As an Undergrad, he did research for Professor Janet Smith. Dr. Sharma is currently working at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in New Delhi, India. His mother, Dr. Manju Sharma is receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Purdue in May 2012 for her international contributions in biotechnology. Dr. Sharma is internationally recognized for numerous publications and awards and currently, is the Founder, President and Executive Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Research in Gandhinagar. The Department of Biological Sciences and the College of Science at Purdue is thrilled to honor both of these amazing biologists for their work and contributions to science!
Nancy Emery receives Teaching for Tomorrow Fellowship Award
Congratulations on being selected as a recipient for the Teaching for Tomorrow Award! Nancy will be one of ten "junior" faculty matched with two highly accomplished and experienced faculty who will, over the next year, address important topics and experiences related to teaching and student learning.
This voluntary program matches each of the senior faculty members with no more than four assistant professors from across academic units. Structured programs address such matters as adjusting teaching modes to class size, student readiness and learning styles, subject matter, cultural diversity, course objectives, overall goals of the course, and experiential and student-centered learning. The senior faculty work one-on-one with the assistant professors to develop and review teaching techniques. Faculty members visit each other's classes and discuss the pedagogy used.
ZeBase, a database for zebrafish inventory for the fish research community
The Biology IT group and Leung Lab has developed ZeBase and has recently released that to the public after testing for more than two years in house. The program was conceived during the establishment of the departmental zebrafish facility a few years ago. It was surprising to us that the database solution in the public domain was limited and a few contemporary commercial databases were expensive; thus we aimed to develop an open-source database that all research labs can use with minimal capital investment. The resulting product is ZeBase, which is written with open-source programs and runs on a Linux server. All users can easily assess anywhere on the network with any browsers to maintain essential information pertaining to the fish lines. Automatic statistic analysis can be programmed to run at desired time intervals, and in turn help keep track of the quality of the fish system. Team members Monica Hensley and Eric Hassenplug have been presenting the project in different occasions including Midwest Regional Zebrafish Conference in 2011 and 10th International Conference on Zebrafish Development and Genetics in 2012, and have received many great inputs and supports from the fish community. A developer site has also been set up on Google code to facilitate future developments with the public (http://code.google.com/p/zebase/). A report has also been recently published in the Zebrafish, a journal that is dedicated to the research in the community.
Reference
Hensley MR, Hassenplug E, McPhail R, Leung YF. ZeBase: An open-source relational database for zebrafish laboratories. Zebrafish. 2012;9(1):44-9.
Course aims to better engage first-year biology students
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| Stephanie Gardner |
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Twenty-one Purdue University undergraduates are experiencing a new way of learning biology as part of an effort to better engage students, improve critical thinking skills and improve retention rates in biological sciences.
Through a grant from the National Science Foundation, self-selecting, first-year biology majors have taken part in an inquiry-based instruction introductory course over the past two years that integrates lab research with traditional coursework.
"One of the things we want to do is get the students early and get them exposed to the process of science,"
said Stephanie Gardner, a continuing lecturer in biological sciences. "That includes learning how to design experiments, how to carry them out, how to deal with the data they acquire and how to communicate their data. We're hoping this model will get students excited about science and teach them what it is and how we come to learn things instead of just telling them. This is what we know.'"
Gardner is co-author of the essay "Adapting to Osmotic Stress and the Process of Science," along with Brittany Gasper, Dennis Minchella, Gabriela Weaver and Laszlo Csonka. The essay details the project and will be published in Friday's (March 30) issue of the journal Science. Thirty-two students have previously completed the course over the past two years.
Retaining first-year science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) majors is a problem at universities across the nation, Gardner said. Only 40 percent of freshmen STEM students nationally finish the major, according to a 2012 President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report. Purdue News article
Research points to possible new route to fight dengue virus
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| This graphic depicts structures in the dengue virus that are critical for the infection process. Researchers have learned details about how the virus alters lipids in membranes surrounding structures called organelles, suggesting a potential new approach to control the aggressive mosquito-borne pathogen. (Purdue Department of Biological Sciences/Rushika Perera) |
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Researchers have identified enzymes and biochemical compounds called lipids that are targeted and modified by the dengue virus during infection, suggesting a potential new approach to control the aggressive mosquito-borne pathogen.
Findings also suggest that medications used to treat high cholesterol and other lipid-related conditions might also inhibit dengue's replication and could represent a potential new therapy. The researchers have identified how infected mosquito cells undergo changes to certain lipids in membranes and in biochemical sensors that alert cells of invading viruses.
"The virus reorganizes the internal architecture of the cell to support its own needs,"
said Purdue University research scientist Rushika Perera. "Many details are unknown. This is our first attempt to understand how the virus alters lipids as part of the infection process. Part of what we looked at in this work was how the virus changes the cell, and the next step will be to figure out why."
The researchers uncovered new details of how the virus alters lipids in membranes surrounding structures inside cells called organelles, including the mitochondria, which provide energy critical for a cell to function, and the endoplasmic reticulum, where proteins and lipids are synthesized.
"Findings also show that important host enzymes are used by the virus and may be targets for future antiviral drugs,"
said Richard J. Kuhn, a professor and head of Purdue's Department of Biological Sciences and director of the Bindley Bioscience Center. "It turns out, the pills you take to control your cholesterol might have some capability to control dengue." Purdue News article
Department of Biological Sciences Strategic plan 2010-2014
The Department of Biological Sciences aims to become a destination for world-class scholars and a flagship for the life sciences on this campus and across our state. We envision increasing opportunities for our departmental mission to impact society: the grand challenges of human health, energy supply and conservation of our environment can be tackled with solutions rooted in biological research.
Our previous strategic plan focused on hiring priorities to position the Department for outstanding research. This hiring plan has been successful, changing the demographics of Biological Sciences with an infusion of young and energetic talent. We aim to capitalize on this success with a new strategic plan that is congruous with the goals of the University’s New Synergies plan, and the College’s Insight, Innovation, Impact plan. It is at the Department level that “the rubber hits the road” in creating synergistic research teams, superb learning environments, and successful engagement initiatives on campus. To this end, our strategic plan is constructed as a roadmap – we describe our goals, strategies and metrics, with suggested routes and the first steps that we have taken or will take to advance toward our goals.
All departmental constituencies – faculty, staff, undergraduate, graduate and post-docs – contributed to defining our goals and strategies. An analysis of metrics will be shared annually with our Alumni Advisory Committee, the College of Science and with the faculty. A newly constituted executive team will determine mid-course corrections as needed. (View: Department of Biological Sciences Strategic Plan 2010-2014)