News
The USC Center for Excellence in Genomic Science (CEGS) administers an NIH-Funded program geared toward increasing the number of minority students performing basic research in the life sciences. The Genomic Research Experience for Undergraduates (GREU) program funds students to work in faculty research labs. We have funds available to pay students to work up to 20 hours per week in your lab through the 2008-09 academic year and summer 2009. (Up to $10,000 per student per year.) More information about the program can be found at: http://cegs.usc.edu/academics/greu/GREU.html. Eligible students must be able to self-identify as either African-American, Hispanic or Latino, Native American, and/or Pacific Islander. If you have a current student who you think is eligible or know of any eligible students, please contact Dr. Steven Finkel at sfinkel@usc.edu. Sergio Sañudo-Wilhelmy and Douglas Capone received a National Science Foundation grant to study the nutrient cycle of three lakes in California and Nevada. See USC College News for details. Sergey Nuzhdin, professor of molecular biology at USC College, has been awarded a $563,000 stimulus grant to purchase an Illumina/Solexa Genome Sequencer. The money also will cover the salaries of technical and bioinformatics employees, likely postdoctoral scientists, to operate the technology. http://uscnews.usc.edu/science_technology/sergey_nuzhdin_awarded_stimulus_grant.html Steven Finkel (Molecular & Computational Biology) has been asked to join the Editorial Board of the Journal of Bacteriology, which is one of the lead journals in microbiology worldwide. The Goodman Lab had a major research article in Nature reporting in the 16 July issue (460:359) resolving a long standing question on the role of RecA in SOS mutagenesis. doi:10.1038/nature08178. (07/09) Jill McNitt-Gray, Director of the IEB Graduate Program in the Department of Biological Sciences, has been elected President of the American Society of Biomechanics. (07/09) The College of Letters, Arts and Sciences departments of biological sciences and mathematics and the Viterbi School of Engineering departments of computer sciences and biomedical engineering jointly offer the cross-departmental minor in computational biology and bioinformatics. This minor provides essential training in using quantitative skills to solve fundamental biological problems as well as problems related to public health, neuroscience, and environment. The cross-departmental minor includes four different tracks according to the background of the students in biology, mathematics, computer science, and engineering. (07/09) Frank Alber (Molecular & Computational Biology) has been selected as one of seventeen 2009 Pew Scholars in the Biological Sciences. He received his doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1998. He conducted his postdoctoral work in computational structural biology at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, and then did further postdoctoral training at the Rockefeller University and the University of California, San Francisco. In 2008, he joined the faculty of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, as an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. Dr. Alber’s research is focused on the three-dimensional structure that occurs when the long strands of DNA are tightly packed to fit into the cell nucleus by nucleosomes, the repeating complexes that wind the DNA. When nucleosomes interact and fold, they form extremely compact structures that regulate expression of genes by allowing or blocking access to the DNA. This dynamic also makes it a difficult region to access in order to characterize it. Dr. Alber has developed a computational model for generating a structural description of this highly ordered DNA by merging multiple datasets from a range of experimental methodologies. His work will bridge the gap between genome sequencing, gene regulation and structural biology, and will provide insights to better understand many human diseases. (07/09) Michael Waterman (Molecular & Computational Biology) has been selected as an International Society for Computational Biology Fellow in their inaugural class of Fellows Class. Michael Waterman (Molecular & Computational Biology) has been named a 2009 fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). This fellowship is an honorific designation conferred on members distinguished for their outstanding contributions to the fields of applied mathematics and computational science. Simon Tavaré, holder of the George and Louise Kawamoto Chair in Biological Sciences and professor of biological sciences, preventive medicine and mathematics, has been named a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He is among 40 of the United Kingdom’s leading doctors and medical researchers recognized for excellence in medical science this year. In addition to his research with USC College's Molecular and Computational Biology program, Simon also holds several appointments at the University of Cambridge including professor of cancer research (bioinformatics) in the Department of Oncology and senior group leader in the new Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute, the latest cancer research initiative in the UK. A member of USC College's faculty since 1989, Simon's contributions to his field are remarkable and far-reaching. He studies the evolutionary genetics of primates with anthropologists, DNA chip and sequencing technology with molecular biologists, and the vagaries of cancer with medical scientists - all while advancing his own field of computational biology. One of the field's pioneers, he has made key contributions in statistical bioinformatics and is perhaps best known for his work on the use of DNA sequence to trace the lineage of a cell, an individual or a species, back through time. Sarah Bottjer (Neurobiology) has been awarded a USC Mellon Mentoring Award in the category of Faculty Mentoring Faculty. Pao-Chen Li (Molecular & Computational Biology) was one of three to receive the university-wide Center for Excellence in Teaching Outstanding TA Award. Tansu Celikel (Neurobiology) and Frank Alber (Molecular & Computational Biology) were selected as Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellows. Sarah Bottjer, Myron Goodman, and Michael Arbib, Professors of Biological Sciences, were elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Sergey Nuzhdin (Molecular and Computational Biology) was awarded a $3.2 Million plant genome research grant from the National Science Foundation. See also: http://college.usc.edu/news/2008/11/nsf.html Michel Baudry (Biological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering) spoke at the July meeting of the Blue Brain Project in Geneva. A collaboration between IBM and Switzerland's Ecoles Polytechniques Federale de Lausanne, the project aims "to create a biologically accurate, functional model of the brain using IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer." Susan Forsburg (MCB) was appointed to the American Cancer Society's Council for Extramural Grants. Work by Doug Capone (MEB) and his fellow researchers on the Amazon River was featured by the National Science Foundation. See also http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111904&org=NSF Work by Katrina Edwards (MEB) and her group was featured in the 29 May issue of Nature (doi:10.1038/nature06899) (including an interview with Katrina for “Abstractions” on p. xi). See also http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/ Your fearless leader, Doug Capone, was inducted as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union at a ceremony at the AGU Spring meeting in Ft. Lauderdale on 29 May. He was also elected to the California Academy of Sciences. A 2008-2009 Zumberge Interdisciplinary Award was made to Steven Finkel and Katrina Edwards, biological sciences along with Steven Goodman, School of Dentistry to develop an Interdisciplinary Program on Microbiology. Wiebke Ziebis of biological sciences received a 2008–09 individual award from USC’s James H. Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund for her project “Animal-Sediment-Microbe Interactions at Pacific Methane Seeps.” Oscar Aparicio of biological sciences, won a USC-Mellon Mentoring Award for mentoring graduate students. Steven Finkel of biological sciences, Albert Herrera of biological sciences, won USC-Mellon Mentoring Awards for mentoring undergraduates. Michael Waterman, University Professor, holder of the USC Associates Chair in Natural Sciences in USC College and professor of biological sciences, computer science and mathematics, received the Presidential Medallion, USC’s highest honor, at the Academic Honors Convocation April 7. In the citation presented to him at the event, Waterman was lauded for “interdisciplinary insights and talent [that] have been instrumental in placing USC in the vanguard of genomics research.”
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