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Quarterly BMB Newsletter - March 2025
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Hey 2025 has been weird so far, huh? Big feelings can make it hard to keep up with the many demands of academic life. Be gentle with yourself as the world wakes back up from the winter. Follow the rhythms of your body. Now is an important time to engage in community with our fellow scientists!
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PhD Comics by Jorge Cham, PhD
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Roshni Chowhan
New position: HS Intern (Schiffer Lab)
Hometown: Shrewsbury, MA
Background: Junior in HS
Interests: playing softball, going shopping, and spending quality time with friends
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Alicia Martín Ariza
New position: Rhind Lab
Hometown: Madrid, Spain
Background: Biomedicine
Interests: Travel, cars, fashion, and tennis
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Juan Enrique Martínez
New position: Undergrad Intern (Rhind Lab)
Hometown: Madrid, Spain
Background: Studying biomedicine at Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (Madrid)
Interests: classical music (I play violin), history, geography, and architecture
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Jennifer Roeckline-Canfield
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Events of the Next Quarter
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UMass Chan & Department Events
Mar 7 - 12-4pm - Stand up for Science March in Boston, MA
Mar 10-14 - GSBS Spring Break
Mar 11&12 - HS students shadowing scientists in the Massi, Bolon (under Julia Flynn’s supervision), and Rhind labs
Mar at some point – In-person Science Cafe in collaboration with UMPA
Apr 21 - Patriot’s Day HOLIDAY
Apr 21-25 - School Vacation Week
May 26 - Memorial Day HOLIDAY
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BMB Seminars
Check the TVs in the atria for monthly updates!
March
Held for faculty search
April
04/02 - Richard R. Behringer
04/09 - James B. Moseley
04/16 - Lingjun Li
04/23 - Melanie Ohi
04/30 - Karen Mruk
May
05/07 - Raluca Gordon
05/14 - Wenjing Wang
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RIPS
The schedule often changes – check the TVs in the atria for monthly updates!
Mar 21 - Jagroop Kaur (Schiffer)
Mar 28 - Joshua Pajak (Kelch)
Apr 4 - Anju Singh (Thompson)
Apr 11 - Renata Silva (Flores Kim)
Apr 18 - Dinesh Barak (Schiffer)
May 2 - Janneke Icso (Thompson + Kelch)
May 9 - Sabihur Farooqui (Schiffer)
May 16 - Mary Shay Capps (Thyme) // Haik Varderesian (Ryder)
May 23 - Cintía Horta (Redding)
May 30 - Samirul Bashir (Rhind)
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From the UMass Chan OWB & DIO
Check the OWB and DIO intranet pages for more info, as this is not an exhaustive list.
Mar 20, 12pm - Imposter syndrome: what to do when you feel like a fraud
Apr 17 & May 15, 1pm - Outdoor yoga classes
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A STEM outreach program aiming to increase science literacy.
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ScienceLive! is in need of the following types of volunteers:
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Any time - people fluent in a language other than english to translate parental consent forms - most urgent needs are SPANISH, ARABIC, FRENCH, & PORTUGUESE.
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Specific dates between 3/10-4/29 - people to participate in classroom visits.
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Did you do something cool? Email Haley Barlow and it will get included in the next newsletter.
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Dec 9 - The Biophysical, Chemical and Computational Biology (BCCB) admissions pathway was featured by UMass Chan. We got to meet PhD student Hoang Tran and learn about their interest in transposons.
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Jan 8 - Gang Han’s proposal for the Fall/Winter 2024 Pilot Project Program was selected for the UMass Clinical and Translational Science Award! The proposal, titled “Gene-enhanced delivery of Pseudomonas exotoxin for targeted therapy of lethal prostate cancer,” aims to develop new therapeutic approaches for treating cancer.
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Jan 14 - Research from the Munson Lab was featured by UMass Chan. The work (published in Nature Stuctural & Molecular Biology) reveals new ways the exocyst complex regulates vesicle exocytsosis.
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Feb 12 - BMB leadership hosted a town hall meeting to discuss recent federal changes to federal funding and diversity efforts. Department members gathered in-person and online to hear updates from University leadership regarding the present and the future state of science.
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Feb 28 - A collaboration between the Outreach Office and the UMass Chan Postdoc Association (UMPA) was awarded funding by the American Society of Cell Biology (ASCB)! This funding will facilitate the reintroduction of in-person Science Cafes.
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Brian Kelch - NIH R35 (MIRA) - “Structural mechanisms of multimeric ATPases”
Daniel Bolon - NIH R21 - “Comprehensive analysis of epistasis in drug resistance potential of Mpro from SARS-CoV-2”
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A reminder that the Advancement Office sends out a weekly email FULL of private, philanthropic funding opportunities (e.g. foundations, non-profits, associations). Email developmentfundingdigest@umassmed.edu if you want to receive the Private Funding Opportunities Digest, and check out still open opportunities from past announcements here. The Office of Advancement’s Director of Foundation Relations Dave Reynolds is available as a resource, too.
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Blog Posts & Social Media
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We migrated from X to BlueSky - follow us there!
Follow the BMB department on Instagram, BlueSky, TikTok, our blog, and LinkedIn!
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The Outreach Office is in the process of updating all lab websites. If yours isn’t done, this is your reminder to PLEASE respond to emails from Haley and Kathy!!! Lab members, if you have ideas of stunning data to show or want to practice your skills writing for a lay audience, you can help your PI out!
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CHECK OUT THE STUNNING NEW CHAIR WEBSITES!
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wow would you look at that….
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I bet funders outside the federal government would love such a visually engaging and clearly organized website…
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Meet this quarter’s department feature, Dr. Suresh Kannan!! Dr. Kannan is an Academic Administrator III in our department . Learn more about Dr. Kannan’s life and the unique perspectives they bring to the department at the link below!
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Check out the BMB-associated authors and congratulate them!
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Cryo-electron tomography of eel sperm flagella reveals a molecular “minimum system” for motile cilia (Mol Biol Cell) Gang Fu
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Direct delivery of Cas-embedded cytosine base editors as ribonucleoprotein complexes for efficient and accurate editing of clinically relevant targets (Nucleic Acids Res) Jeong Min Lee, Diego Suchenski Loustaunau, Nese Kurt Yilmaz, Scot A Wolfe, Celia A Schiffer
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Protein citrullination in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases (J Exp Neurol) Issa O Yusuf, Webb Camille, Paul R Thompson, Zuoshang Xu
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Controlled inflammation drives neutrophil-mediated precision drug delivery in heterogeneous tumors (Adv Sci (Weinh)) Gang Han, Yang Zhao
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In situ slow-release hydrogen sulfide therapeutics for advanced disease treatments (Small) Gang Han
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In vivo prime editing by lipid nanoparticle co-delivery of chemically modified pegRNA and prime editor mRNA (GEN Biotechnol) Adam K Hedger, Erik J Sontheimer, Jonathan K Watts
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TRIM28-dependent developmental heterogeneity determines cancer susceptibility through distinct epigenetic states (Nat Cancer) Chih-Hsiang Yang
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Structural analysis of inhibitor binding to enterovirus-D68 3C protease (Viruses) Vincent N Azzolino, Ala M Shaqra, Akbar Ali, Nese Kurt Yilmaz, Celia A Schiffer
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A quantitative intracellular peptide-binding assay reveals recognition determinants and context dependence of short linear motifs (J Biol Chem) Mythili S Subbanna, Matthew J Winters, Peter M Pryciak
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Capsid transfer of the retrotransposon Copia controls structural synaptic plasticity in Drosophila (PLoS Biol) Yumeng Liu, Brian A Kelch
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A robust fluorogenic substrate for chikungunya virus protease (nsP2) activity (Protein Sci) Shruti Choudhary, Paul Thompson
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***content warning - if you currently or historically struggle with disordered eating and/or mental health related to food, consider skipping this quarter’s column***
Nutrition is an important component of overall wellness.
There are so many claims out there about what we should and should not be eating. It can be difficult to sort through so much information, and even more challenging to distinguish fact from fiction. The truth is, while there are some universal(ish) guidelines for nourishing our bodies, our individual needs can vary greatly. As scientists, we understand how our bodies use different nutrients - let’s let this inspire us to take care of our bodies to the best of our abilities!
Resources to explore:
Mental health and physical health are inextricably linked, and we learn more about the interplay between the two every day. Take care of your body to take care of your mind! (and also you might as well take good care of this flesh prison that you must live in for the rest of your life)
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NUMBERS TO KNOW
EAP: 1-800-322-5327 or eap@umassmed.edu
Emergency numbers
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
MA Behavioral Health Help Line (can also text this number!): 833-773-2445
SAMHSA National Helpline (in English and Spanish!): 1-800-662-4357
Worcester Community HealthLink: 1-866-549-2142
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Job Openings - Share with your Network!
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Miss a previous newsletter? They’re all on the BMB website!
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