Sasirekha Sivakumar, PhD

New Role : Post-Doctorate in the Rhind lab

Hometown: Bangalore, India

Education: PhD (Drug target validation in breast cancer) from Aurigene Oncology, Bangalore, India in

collaboration with Periyar University, TamilNadu.

Interests: Traveling, cooking, watching travel videos, shopping.

April events

BMB Seminars

Apr 3 – James Ferrell

Apr 10 – Tom Maniatis

Apr 24 – Lindsay Ingerman

RIPS

Apr 12 – Emma Sedivy, Kelch Lab
Apr 26 – Jacqueline Martinez, Thyme Lab

Most Fridays at 12:30, the Outreach Office organizes a “Newbie Lunch” for recent hires (~the last six months). All are welcome, as the goal of the lunch is to help new members of our department meet people and integrate into our community.

Apr 5 – Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair – volunteer to be a judge at this link!

Apr 9-12 – Eid al-Fitr

Apr 15 – Patriot’s Day UNIVERSITY HOLIDAY

Apr 22-30 – Passover

Anti-Racism Reading Club (ARC)

Meeting: April 9 at 4pm.

Book: The Unlikely Thru-Hiker
by Derick Lugo

Summary: A Black comedian's memoir of hiking 2,190 miles on the
Appalachian Trail.

Volunteer for Science Live!

A STEM outreach program aiming to increase science literacy.

Congratulations to Dr. Jacob Landeck of the Kelch Lab for successfully defending his thesis titled "Exploring the Structural Mechanisms of a Bacterial Clamp Loader."

Congratulations to Renata and Maria, the winners of the Lab Olympics / March Madness / Nerd Competition, 2024! Organized by Brian Kelch and his lab members, this event was a smash hit! We had great attendance, and the video highlighting the competition has over 50k views.

This month, meet Dr. Leonard Barasa of the Thompson Lab! His favorite kitchen utensil is a wooden spoon.

April is National Stress Awareness Month! Stress is the new smoking in terms of health risks, so here are some tips for managing stress.

• Work self-care / -maintenance / -hygiene into your daily routine.

• Practice gratitude.

• Identify ways to reduce sources of stress, if possible and reasonable. Ask for help!

• Learn to listen to how your body tells you it is feeling stress (e.g. difficulty concentrating, cold hands, feeling irritable, nervous stomach, etc). When you can recognize that you’re feeling stressed, then you can deal with the situation appropriately before things get out of control.

• Practice reframing (e.g. sitting in traffic is an opportunity for some quiet alone time before you get to work; the person cutting you off in traffic could have a good reason – maybe someone is giving birth in their back seat!). A therapist with expertise in cognitive behavioral therapy can help with this!!!

• Connect with friends and family. Note – if you need to vent to someone, ask them first if they are in a good head space to listen to a rant, and respect their answer.

• Engage in relaxation practices such as meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing, or yoga. There is scientific evidence that these can help reduce stress!

• TALK TO A THERAPIST! We acknowledge that there is a lot of stigma around mental health and therapy, and that this can vary across different cultures. However, we strongly encourage you to talk to a professional if things feel endless or out of control. The EAP provides a number of free therapy sessions to employees – consider starting there.

Additionally, consider taking advantage of resources from the NIH Office of Intramural Training & Education. They have a wonderful series for trainees called “Becoming a Resilient Scientist” (BRS), and they’ve recently launched a new series for faculty called “Raising a Resilient Scientist” (RRS). The BRS lectures can be found on Youtube, while there is currently an RRS series happening this spring!

Stay well, folks! Thanks for reading the wellness portion of this newsletter. Please get in touch with the Outreach Office if you have any requests or recommendations for future wellness topics!

Sources:

7 Steps to Manage Stress and Build Resilience

NIH Health, stress

From the UMass Chan Office of Well-Being (OWB)

Apr 4, 12pm – Healthy living for your brain and body

Fridays, Apr 5-May 24, 12pm – Coping with anxiety, worry, and stress: practical strategies – A series hosted by Dr. Michael Addis

Apr 11, 8am-3pm – 20/20 Onsite returns to UMass Chan: schedule your mobile vision appointment!

Apr 11, 10am-2pm – OWB Wellness Fair

Apr 11, 10am-2pm – Thee Taco Dude food truck at UMass Chan main campus

Apr 11, 10am-2pm – Free professional headshots

Apr 11, 10am-2pm – Free student haircuts

Apr 11-17 - Black Maternal Health Week at UMass

Apr 18 – Creativity & well-being: finding, nurturing, and developing your creative self – presented by Dr. Michael Addis

Apr 18 – Earth yoga class series: in-person outdoor yoga

Check out the Office of Well-Being Newsletter in your inbox from hr.communications+umassmed.edu@ccsend.com for even more resources!

Sasirekha Sivakumar, PhD

New Role : Post-Doctorate in the Rhind lab

Hometown: Bangalore, India

Education: PhD (Drug target validation in breast cancer) from Aurigene Oncology, Bangalore, India in

collaboration with Periyar University, TamilNadu.

Interests: Traveling, cooking, watching travel videos, shopping.

April events

BMB Seminars

Apr 3 – James Ferrell

Apr 10 – Tom Maniatis

Apr 24 – Lindsay Ingerman

RIPS

Apr 12 – Emma Sedivy, Kelch Lab
Apr 26 – Jacqueline Martinez, Thyme Lab

Most Fridays at 12:30, the Outreach Office organizes a “Newbie Lunch” for recent hires (~the last six months). All are welcome, as the goal of the lunch is to help new members of our department meet people and integrate into our community.

Apr 5 – Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair – volunteer to be a judge at this link!

Apr 9-12 – Eid al-Fitr

Apr 15 – Patriot’s Day UNIVERSITY HOLIDAY

Apr 22-30 – Passover

Anti-Racism Reading Club (ARC)

Meeting: April 9 at 4pm.

Book: The Unlikely Thru-Hiker
by Derick Lugo

Summary: A Black comedian's memoir of hiking 2,190 miles on the
Appalachian Trail.

Volunteer for Science Live!

A STEM outreach program aiming to increase science literacy.

Congratulations to Dr. Jacob Landeck of the Kelch Lab for successfully defending his thesis titled "Exploring the Structural Mechanisms of a Bacterial Clamp Loader."

Congratulations to Renata and Maria, the winners of the Lab Olympics / March Madness / Nerd Competition, 2024! Organized by Brian Kelch and his lab members, this event was a smash hit! We had great attendance, and the video highlighting the competition has over 50k views.

This month, meet Dr. Leonard Barasa of the Thompson Lab! His favorite kitchen utensil is a wooden spoon.

April is National Stress Awareness Month! Stress is the new smoking in terms of health risks, so here are some tips for managing stress.

• Work self-care / -maintenance / -hygiene into your daily routine.

• Practice gratitude.

• Identify ways to reduce sources of stress, if possible and reasonable. Ask for help!

• Learn to listen to how your body tells you it is feeling stress (e.g. difficulty concentrating, cold hands, feeling irritable, nervous stomach, etc). When you can recognize that you’re feeling stressed, then you can deal with the situation appropriately before things get out of control.

• Practice reframing (e.g. sitting in traffic is an opportunity for some quiet alone time before you get to work; the person cutting you off in traffic could have a good reason – maybe someone is giving birth in their back seat!). A therapist with expertise in cognitive behavioral therapy can help with this!!!

• Connect with friends and family. Note – if you need to vent to someone, ask them first if they are in a good head space to listen to a rant, and respect their answer.

• Engage in relaxation practices such as meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, deep breathing, or yoga. There is scientific evidence that these can help reduce stress!

• TALK TO A THERAPIST! We acknowledge that there is a lot of stigma around mental health and therapy, and that this can vary across different cultures. However, we strongly encourage you to talk to a professional if things feel endless or out of control. The EAP provides a number of free therapy sessions to employees – consider starting there.

Additionally, consider taking advantage of resources from the NIH Office of Intramural Training & Education. They have a wonderful series for trainees called “Becoming a Resilient Scientist” (BRS), and they’ve recently launched a new series for faculty called “Raising a Resilient Scientist” (RRS). The BRS lectures can be found on Youtube, while there is currently an RRS series happening this spring!

Stay well, folks! Thanks for reading the wellness portion of this newsletter. Please get in touch with the Outreach Office if you have any requests or recommendations for future wellness topics!

Sources:

7 Steps to Manage Stress and Build Resilience

NIH Health, stress

From the UMass Chan Office of Well-Being (OWB)

Apr 4, 12pm – Healthy living for your brain and body

Fridays, Apr 5-May 24, 12pm – Coping with anxiety, worry, and stress: practical strategies – A series hosted by Dr. Michael Addis

Apr 11, 8am-3pm – 20/20 Onsite returns to UMass Chan: schedule your mobile vision appointment!

Apr 11, 10am-2pm – OWB Wellness Fair

Apr 11, 10am-2pm – Thee Taco Dude food truck at UMass Chan main campus

Apr 11, 10am-2pm – Free professional headshots

Apr 11, 10am-2pm – Free student haircuts

Apr 11-17 - Black Maternal Health Week at UMass

Apr 18 – Creativity & well-being: finding, nurturing, and developing your creative self – presented by Dr. Michael Addis

Apr 18 – Earth yoga class series: in-person outdoor yoga

Check out the Office of Well-Being Newsletter in your inbox from hr.communications+umassmed.edu@ccsend.com for even more resources!

Watch out for more Science & Art in the BMB! We're on the lookout for additional art submissions for our next round of Science Illuminated. Send your #sciart to Dr. Leonora Martinez-Nunez.

Stay tuned for more details about the upcoming BMB unwind & paint hours 🎨!!!

Shupei Yu

New Role: Postdoc in the Han Lab

Hometown: Lanzhou, China

Education: PhD at NJIT

Interests: Playing basketball & watching movies.

Carolina Lorenzo Rubio

New Role: Research Intern in the Rhind Lab

Hometown: Madrid, Spain

Education: Finishing up her BSc in Biomedicine

Interests: Spending time with friends and family, traveling, getting to know new cultures and places, music, and sports.

Sara Luengo Pareja

New Role: Research Intern in the Rhind Lab.

Hometown: Madrid, Spain

Education: Pursuing a BSc in Biomedicine

Interests: Travelling to new places, trying out new foods and cool restaurants, shopping, painting and reading novels.

March events

BMB Seminars

Mar 6 – Alexandre Bisson, Brandeis University

Mar 13 – Xindan Wang, Indiana University

Mar 20 – Tatiana Kutateladze, University of Colorado School of Medicine

RIPS

Mar 1 – Mythili Subbanna, Pryciak Lab

Mar 8 – Sakshi Rajora, Thompson Lab

Mar 22 – Josh Pajak, Kelch Lab

Most Fridays at 12:30, the Outreach Office organizes a “Newbie Lunch” for recent hires (~the last six months). All are welcome, as the goal of the lunch is to help new members of our department meet people and integrate into our community.

Mar 11 – Beginning of Ramadan

Mar 17 – St. Patrick’s Day

Mar 25 – Holi

Mar 31 – Easter

Anti-Racism Reading Club (ARC)

Meeting: Mar 12 at 4pm.

Book: The Book of Ramallah: A City in Short Fiction edited by Maya Abu al-Hayat

Summary: Ten short stories (average length: 9 pages) by Palestinian authors, set in Ramallah, a city in Palestine's West Bank.

Volunteer for Science Live!

A STEM outreach program aiming to increase science literacy.

Photos courtesy of Colleen Locke. UMass Chan Office of Communications

Dr. Leonora Martínez-Núñez collaborated with ScienceLIVE! to orchestrate a Scientific Art & Outreach event at the Shrewsbury Library. Young students got to observe and create art about fungi, plants and other living things. The event had a great turnout!

This month, “meet” Karen Welch! Karen has been an integral part of our department since 1986, but do you know everything about her? Well, we don’t either, but learn more about her in this month’s feature!

The scientific workforce has been aging for quite some time. 1 Making sure we all stay healthy as we age is critically important for our quality of life and our quality of research. Therefore, allow us to present some tips for healthy aging that any of us can adopt at any time in our lives. We are all aging, all the time, so check out the health tips below and consider incorporating some of them into your lifestyle.

• Visit your doctor for regular (annual) checkups and stay up to date on your vaccines (reminder: vaccine requirements and recommendations shift as we age).

• Move that body ~ studies have shown that getting 8,000 steps per day reduces the likelihood of death from ANY CAUSE by 51%. 2 and that muscle mass is a better predictor of longevity (or lack thereof) than weight or BMI. 3

• Shift your diet to align with a Mediterranean Diet, the DASH Diet, or the MIND Diet to reduce your risk of disease and improve cognitive function.

• SLEEP!!! In addition to the benefits sleep has on our mental health and general wellness, our glymphatic system washes toxins (like beta-amyloids) out of our brains while we sleep. 4

• Quit smoking and limit drinking.

• Tend to your social garden – supportive relationships and community are critical to our mental health.

• Learn new things! This helps maintain cognitive function. Luckily, working in science provides endless opportunities to learn new things!

Stay well, folks! Thanks for reading the wellness portion of this newsletter. Please get in touch with the Outreach Office if you have any requests or recommendations for future wellness topics!

From the UMass Chan Office of Well-Being (OWB)

Mar 7, 12pm – Alzheimer’s Disease: Introduction and Warning Signs

Mar 21, 12pm – Mental Health help-seeking 101: Types of help and what to expect

Mar 28, 12pm – Understanding Alzheimer’s and Dementia

Check out the Office of Well-Being Newsletter in your inbox from hr.communications+umassmed.edu@ccsend.com for even more resources!

Watch out for more Science & Art in the BMB! We're on the lookout for additional art submissions for our next round of Science Illuminated. Send your #sciart to Dr. Leonora Martinez-Nunez.

Stay tuned for more details about the upcoming BMB unwind & paint hours 🎨!!!

Shupei Yu

New Role: Postdoc in the Han Lab

Hometown: Lanzhou, China

Education: PhD at NJIT

Interests: Playing basketball & watching movies.

Carolina Lorenzo Rubio

New Role: Research Intern in the Rhind Lab

Hometown: Madrid, Spain

Education: Finishing up her BSc in Biomedicine

Interests: Spending time with friends and family, traveling, getting to know new cultures and places, music, and sports.

Sara Luengo Pareja

New Role: Research Intern in the Rhind Lab.

Hometown: Madrid, Spain

Education: Pursuing a BSc in Biomedicine

Interests: Travelling to new places, trying out new foods and cool restaurants, shopping, painting and reading novels.

March events

BMB Seminars

Mar 6 – Alexandre Bisson, Brandeis University

Mar 13 – Xindan Wang, Indiana University

Mar 20 – Tatiana Kutateladze, University of Colorado School of Medicine

RIPS

Mar 1 – Mythili Subbanna, Pryciak Lab

Mar 8 – Sakshi Rajora, Thompson Lab

Mar 22 – Josh Pajak, Kelch Lab

Most Fridays at 12:30, the Outreach Office organizes a “Newbie Lunch” for recent hires (~the last six months). All are welcome, as the goal of the lunch is to help new members of our department meet people and integrate into our community.

Mar 11 – Beginning of Ramadan

Mar 17 – St. Patrick’s Day

Mar 25 – Holi

Mar 31 – Easter

Anti-Racism Reading Club (ARC)

Meeting: Mar 12 at 4pm.

Book: The Book of Ramallah: A City in Short Fiction edited by Maya Abu al-Hayat

Summary: Ten short stories (average length: 9 pages) by Palestinian authors, set in Ramallah, a city in Palestine's West Bank.

Volunteer for Science Live!

A STEM outreach program aiming to increase science literacy.

Photos courtesy of Colleen Locke. UMass Chan Office of Communications

Dr. Leonora Martínez-Núñez collaborated with ScienceLIVE! to orchestrate a Scientific Art & Outreach event at the Shrewsbury Library. Young students got to observe and create art about fungi, plants and other living things. The event had a great turnout!

This month, “meet” Karen Welch! Karen has been an integral part of our department since 1986, but do you know everything about her? Well, we don’t either, but learn more about her in this month’s feature!

The scientific workforce has been aging for quite some time. 1 Making sure we all stay healthy as we age is critically important for our quality of life and our quality of research. Therefore, allow us to present some tips for healthy aging that any of us can adopt at any time in our lives. We are all aging, all the time, so check out the health tips below and consider incorporating some of them into your lifestyle.

• Visit your doctor for regular (annual) checkups and stay up to date on your vaccines (reminder: vaccine requirements and recommendations shift as we age).

• Move that body ~ studies have shown that getting 8,000 steps per day reduces the likelihood of death from ANY CAUSE by 51%. 2 and that muscle mass is a better predictor of longevity (or lack thereof) than weight or BMI. 3

• Shift your diet to align with a Mediterranean Diet, the DASH Diet, or the MIND Diet to reduce your risk of disease and improve cognitive function.

• SLEEP!!! In addition to the benefits sleep has on our mental health and general wellness, our glymphatic system washes toxins (like beta-amyloids) out of our brains while we sleep. 4

• Quit smoking and limit drinking.

• Tend to your social garden – supportive relationships and community are critical to our mental health.

• Learn new things! This helps maintain cognitive function. Luckily, working in science provides endless opportunities to learn new things!

Stay well, folks! Thanks for reading the wellness portion of this newsletter. Please get in touch with the Outreach Office if you have any requests or recommendations for future wellness topics!

From the UMass Chan Office of Well-Being (OWB)

Mar 7, 12pm – Alzheimer’s Disease: Introduction and Warning Signs

Mar 21, 12pm – Mental Health help-seeking 101: Types of help and what to expect

Mar 28, 12pm – Understanding Alzheimer’s and Dementia

Check out the Office of Well-Being Newsletter in your inbox from hr.communications+umassmed.edu@ccsend.com for even more resources!

Mr. Sandman

Artist: Dominique Ramsey

Yerin Kim

New position: High School Intern in the Thyme Lab

Education: Mass. Academy of Math & Science

Hometown: Shrewsbury, MA

Interests: “I love food, whether it be trying a new restaurant, experimenting with a new recipe, or sharing treats with others. I also love to travel and visit new places.”

Grace Sarsfield

New position: High School Intern in the Ryder Lab

Education: Worcester Technical High School

Interests: music, art, and sports.

Desiree Coughlin

New position: High School Intern in the Ryder Lab

Education: Worcester Technical High School

Hometown: Worcester, MA

Interests: Cooking

February events

Most Fridays at 12:30, the Outreach Office organizes a “Newbie Lunch” for recent hires (~the last six months). All are welcome, as the goal of the lunch is to help new members of our department meet people and integrate into our community.

All of February – Black History Month

Feb 2nd – Wear Red Day (raising awareness about heart disease)

Feb 10th – Lunar New Year

Feb 14th – Valentine’s Day

Feb 16th - Join the BMB Outreach Committee Meeting

Feb 19th – President’s Day (HOLIDAY)

Feb 29th – Leap Day

BMB Seminars

Feb 7 – Sarah Hengel, Tufts University

Feb 21 – Sebastian E. Brauchi, Universidad Austral de Chile

Feb 28 – Elizabeth Kellogg, Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

RIPS

Feb 2 – Hannah Brown, Ryder Lab

Feb 9 – Sauradip Chaudhuri, Thompson Lab

Feb 16 – Monserrat Olea-Flores, Imbalzano Lab

From UMass Chan

GSBS Workshops on Presentation Skills

Feb 1, 1-2-m – Communicating your research to a general audience

Feb 7, 10:30-11:30am – Creating engaging slides (Facilitated by Dr. Haley Barlow)

Feb 13, 10-11am – Tips and tricks for public speaking

Anti-Racism Reading Club (ARC)

Meeting: February 13 at 4pm.

Book: Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith

Summary: A combination of history, biography and personal reflections on the contributions of Black women to music.

Dr. Mary Munson was an invited speaker for a local AWIS chapter event held at WPI. She spoke alongside Dr. Catherine Whittington (WPI) about her passion for DEI work in science and about her career path. It was a great night of networking amongst women scientists!

AWIS = Association for Women in Science.

This month, Haley interviewed Chris Jahns in the Flores-Kim Lab. His favorite kitchen utensil? Tongs!

To celebrate both Heart Health Month, here are some lifestyle choices to promote heart health! And here’s a bonus Black History Month fact: “In 2019, African Americans were 30 percent more likely to die from heart disease than non-Hispanic whites1.” Many factors impact these statistics, but a major set of factors for us to be conscious of as members of the scientific and medical communities are the structural and systemic barriers to health care for many Black Americans. As a result of race, socioeconomic status, or even zipcode, Black Americans and other minoritized groups are denied the standard of care needed both before and after incidents of heart disease2. Even if you aren’t a practicing nurse, technician, or medical doctor, there are things we can do as scientists to help dismantle systemic barriers to science and medicine (check out this article, and google things for yourself!).

Heart healthy lifestyle choices:

1. Be aware of your family’s medical history and discuss it with your doctor next time you see them FOR YOUR ANNUAL APPOINTMENT (please see your doctor once a year for a healthy check-up).

2. Shift towards healthier eating choices. Making small changes is often a more successful strategy than completely flipping your life upside-down, so consider making a food goal for the next month, such as…

• eating more fruits;

• eating more vegetables;

• switching your dairy choices to low-fat options;

• eating more whole grains (e.g., by swapping what type of bread you buy at the grocery store);

• buying leaner cuts of meat;

• avoiding foods high in salt content;

• avoiding foods with added sugar;

• or avoiding foods with lots of saturated fats.

3. Move your body! Movement and exercise do not have to be punishments. Move your body in a way that feels good to you!

4. Reduce and ideally quit smoking and vaping ANY substance. Smoking or vaping any substance damages your cardiovascular system.

5. Take your medications (e.g. blood pressure medications) as prescribed by your doctor. If you’re confused, ask questions!

6. Reduce your alcohol intake and strive to drink water instead of high-sugar beverages like juice or soda.

7. Regularly monitor your blood pressure – there are tons of places to get it checked for free, and you can even purchase little at-home blood pressure monitors if needed.

8. Don’t take all your medical advice from this newsletter – talk to your doctor and do your own research!

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/infographic/hearthealth.htm

From the UMass Chan Office of Well-Being (OWB)

Feb 6, 12pm – Your Wellness Network drop-in demo session

Feb 7, 12pm – Heart health mindfulness session

Feb 27, 12pm – Heart health mindfulness session

Feb 12-18 – 7 day walking challenge through Your Wellness Network

Feb 14 & Feb 21, 11am-1pm – Blood pressure screenings (Sherman Center)

Feb 15, 12pm – Social connectedness and well-being (Dr. Michael Addis)

Check out the Office of Well-Being Newsletter in your inbox from hr.communications+umassmed.edu@ccsend.com for even more resources!