Department of Biological Sciences // Department of Biological Sciences

March of Dimes funds Wingert to study congenital kidney defects

2012-02-07T09:00:00-05:00

The March of Dimes has awarded a $150,000 grant to Rebecca Wingert, assistant professor in Department of Biological Sciences for her research on the genetic causes of congenital kidney defects. The grant, the Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Research Award, is a prestigious and highly competitive one intended for young scientists at the beginning of their independent careers.

Although knowledge of kidney development has improved significantly over the past fifty years, science still lacks a complete understanding of the genetic causes of congenital abnormalities of the kidney and urinary tract, referred to as CAKUT. These malformations, which occur in as many as 1 in 500 live births, cause renal failure and premature death in infants and young children. Research is complicated by the broad spectrum of phenotypes and by the complexity of the genetic factors that underlie them. To unravel the knot, it is necessary to identify the genes that direct kidney formation, as well as the derangements in genetic pathways that trigger defects.

Wingert's research focuses on the process by which different cell types are specified during the formation of nephrons, the functional units of the kidneys. Defects in nephron patterning have been linked to malformation of renal tissue, as well as to subtler deficiencies in kidney function that manifest in childhood. Her laboratory works with zebrafish, whose nephron development is similar to that of humans, in order to study the development of a nephron cell type known as the podocyte. By isolating and studying zebrafish with podocyte defects, the lab aims to identify the genes that are essential for podocyte development and to improve our understanding of CAKUT pathogenesis.

Notre Dame researchers report fundamental malaria discovery

2012-01-23T09:00:00-05:00

A team of researchers led by Kasturi Haldar and Souvik Bhattacharjee of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases has made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause deadly disease.

The researchers show how parasites target proteins to the surface of the red blood cell that enables sticking to and blocking blood vessels. Strategies that prevent this host-targeting process will block disease.

The research findings appear in the Jan. 20 edition of the journal Cell, the leading journal in the life sciences. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Malaria is a blood disease that kills nearly 1 million people each year. It is caused by a parasite that infects red cells in the blood. Once inside the cell, the parasite exports proteins beyond its own plasma membrane border into the blood cell. These proteins function as adhesins that help the infected red blood cells stick to the walls of blood vessels in the brain and cause cerebral malaria, a deadly form of the disease that kills over half a million children each year.

In all cells, proteins are made in a specialized cell compartment called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) from where they are delivered to other parts of the cell. Haldar and Bhattacharjee and collaborators Robert Stahelin at the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend (who also is an adjunct faculty member in Notre Dame’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry), and David and Kaye Speicher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wistar Institute discovered that for host-targeted malaria proteins the very first step is binding to the lipid phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate, PIP, in the ER.

This was surprising for two reasons. Previous studies suggested an enzyme called Plasmepsin V that released the proteins into the ER was also the export mechanism. However, Haldar, Bhattacharjee and colleagues discovered that binding to PIP lipid which occurs first is the gate keeper to control export and that export can occur without Plasmepsin V action. Further, in higher eukaryotic cells (such as in humans), the lipid PIP is not usually found within the ER membrane but rather is exposed to the cellular cytoplasm.

Haldar and Bhattacharjee are experts in malaria parasite biology and pathogenesis. Stahelin is an expert in PIP lipid biology, and David and Kaye Speicher are experts in proteomics and a method called mass spectrometry.

Their interdisciplinary collaboration reveals a fundamental, novel cellular function, whose disruption can provide new therapies that are urgently needed for malaria.

Contact: Kasturi Haldar, khaldar@nd.edu

Originally published by Pamela Tamez and William Gilroy at newsinfo.nd.edu on January 20, 2012.

Jones receives Lindeman Award

2012-01-16T10:00:00-05:00

Stuart E. Jones, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences who focuses on aquatic microbial and ecosystem ecology, has received the Raymond L. Lindeman Award from the leading professional organization Advancing the Science of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO). The award, started in 1987, honors an outstanding paper written by a young aquatic scientist. Jones’s paper, “Dormancy contributes to the maintenance of microbial diversity,” was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in 2010.

Dormancy, a response to unfavorable conditions in the environment, forms a reservoir of inactive bacterial cells akin to a plant seed bank. These microbial seed banks maintain microbial diversity and the numerous ecosystem processes mediated by bacteria. His postdoctoral research at Michigan State University’s W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, the basis of the winning paper and another article in Nature Reviews: Microbiology, showed that dormancy may play a more important role in shaping bacterial communities than eukaryotic microbial communities, for example, algae.

“Furthermore, we observed that rare bacterial taxa were disproportionately active relative to common bacterial taxa, suggesting that microbial rank-abundance curves are more dynamic than previously considered,” the article says. “We propose that repeated transitions to and from the seed bank may help maintain the high levels of microbial biodiversity that are observed in nearly all ecosystems.”

Jones is a member of the Ecological Society of America, Global Lakes Ecological Observatory Network, International Society of Microbial Ecology, American Society of Microbiology and ASLO. He will accept the award at an ASLO meeting in Japan in July.

1/12/12

Former Notre Dame coach and breast cancer survivor to speak for Pink Zone luncheon

2012-01-16T08:00:00-05:00

Sharon Drake Petro, former head coach of Notre Dame women’s basketball and women’s tennis, will be the featured speaker at the Pink Zone luncheon on Feb. 12 (Sunday) at 12:30 p.m. at the Purcell Pavilion at Notre Dame.

The luncheon will precede the annual Notre Dame women’s basketball Pink Zone game at 3:30 p.m. that day and is organized by the College of Science to recognize researchers and physicians in the fight against cancer.

Petro was one of the first female coaches and athletic administrators at Notre Dame. She came to the University in 1977 to serve as the first head coach of varsity women’s basketball and women’s tennis and to teach in the Department of Physical Education. In 1980, her basketball team reached the Sweet 16 in the AIAW national tournament. In 1985, her tennis team placed second at nationals, and she was awarded the NCAA Division II Wilson Intercollegiate Tennis Coach of the Year.

During her tenure at Notre Dame, she chaired the Department of Physical Education and served as an assistant athletic director under Gene Corrigan before leaving to pursue her doctorate in applied sport psychology at the University of Virginia. Recently, she was inducted into the Notre Dame Monogram Club as an honorary member and is currently on the faculty at American University.

In the Fall of 1983, Petro was diagnosed with breast cancer and received treatment locally at Saint Joseph’s Regional Medical Center. Her experience as an athlete and coach gave her the determination and strength to fight cancer. Yet she acknowledges that one does not fight this alone. She gives credit to her doctors who took immediate action and the Notre Dame community who provided tremendous support on this journey.

Petro later founded Head Coaching, a company that helps competitors of all ages—and stages in their skill level—develop a great attitude, stay motivated, build self-confidence, and focus attention for consistent, optimal performance. She draws on decades of experience in athletics to help performers in sport, business, and the performing arts gain the Mental Advantage. Her coaching techniques have been used by amateurs and professionals alike in sport and business arenas. She is the creator of “The WIN Method: A Model for Optimal Performance” and is the author of “The Tennis Drill Book.”

Proceeds from the luncheon will benefit the WBCA Pink Zone initiative, a global, unified effort of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) to raise awareness and support for women with breast cancer.

Tickets are available through the Notre Dame ticket office at 574-631-7356 or at Gate 9 of the Purcell Pavilion, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A single seat at the luncheon is $100; a couple is $150, and a table of 10 is $1,000. A game ticket is included with purchase a seat to the luncheon.

Contact: Marissa Gebhard, 574-631-4465, gebhard.3@nd.edu

Originally published by Marissa Gebhard at newsinfo.nd.edu on January 13, 2012.

Hybrid silkworms spin stronger spider silk

2012-01-09T08:00:00-05:00

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Research was published this week showing that silk produced by transgenically-engineered silkworms in the laboratory of Malcolm Fraser Jr., professor of biological sciences at University of Notre Dame, exhibits the highly sought-after strength and elasticity of spider silk. This stronger silk could possibly be used to make sutures, artificial limbs and parachutes.

The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and highlighted for their breakthrough in the long search for silk with such mechanical properties. The manuscript was published after an in-depth peer review process, and was deemed by the publishers as a newsworthy article of the issue in which it appears, further indicating its relative importance to science and technology.

“It’s something nobody has done before,” Fraser says. The project, which used Fraser’s piggyBac vectors to create transgenic silkworms with both silkworm and spider silk proteins, was a collaboration of his laboratory with Donald Jarvis and Randolph Lewis at the University of Wyoming. Jarvis’ lab made the transgene plasmids, while Fraser’s lab made the transgenic silkworms and Lewis’ lab analyzed the fiber from the silkworms. Results showed that the fibers were tougher than typical silkworm silk and as tough as dragline silk fibers produced by spiders, demonstrating that silkworms can be engineered to produce such improved fibers.

Commercial production of spider silk from spiders is impractical because spiders are too cannibalistic and territorial for farming. Researchers have experimented with producing the stronger material in other organisms, including bacteria, insects, mammals and plants, but those proteins require mechanical spinning – a task the silkworms perform naturally. The stronger fiber could find application in sutures, where some natural silkworm silk is used, as well as wound dressings, artificial ligaments, tendons, tissue scaffolds, microcapsules, cosmetics and textiles.

This work is the culmination of a research effort begun more than 10 years ago with an internal award from Notre Dame to Fraser to develop silkworm transgenics capabilities; a two-year NIH R21 grant awarded to Jarvis, Lewis and Fraser; and several years of supplemental funding from Kraig BioCraft Laboratories. The success of this research would have been impossible without the ability to carry out silkworm transgenesis, mastered by Bong-hee Sohn and Young-soo Kim in the Fraser lab at Notre Dame.

Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc., with Fraser, Lewis and Jarvis on its scientific board, is currently evaluating several business opportunities for this first generation fiber for both textile and non-textile use. The researchers ultimately expect to improve on the first-generation product to make even stronger fibers.

Fraser is the Rev. Julius A. Nieuwland, C.S.C., Professor of Biological Sciences at Notre Dame and is a member of the Eck Institute for Global Health. Fraser holds seven patents and is widely known for his work in molecular virology and transgenic engineering.

Contact: Malcolm Fraser, 574-631-6209, mfraser@nd.edu

Originally published by Marissa Gebhard at newsinfo.nd.edu on January 06, 2012.

Five Notre Dame faculty members named AAAS fellows

2011-12-21T12:00:00-05:00

Five University of Notre Dame faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in honor of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

AAAS, founded in 1848 as a nonprofit association, is the world’s largest scientific society and publisher of the prestigious journal Science.

The new Notre Dame AAAS fellows are: Mark Alber, Vincent J. Duncan Family Professor of Applied Mathematics, concurrent professor of physics and computer science and engineering, director, Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Biocomplexity and adjunct professor of medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine; Panos Antsaklis, H. Clifford and Evelyn A. Brossey Professor of Electrical Engineering; Margaret Dobrowolska, Rev. John Cardinal O’Hara, C.S.C., Professor of Physics; Jacek Furdyna, professor of physics, Aurora and Thomas Marquez Professor of Information Theory and Computer Technology and professor of physics; and Gary Lamberti, professor and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences.

Alber, a member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1990, was cited for “distinguished contributions to the mathematical and computational modeling of dynamic biological processes, in particular, blood clot formation and swarming of bacteria.” His research interests include mathematical and computational biology, multi-scale modeling and scientific computing. In particular, he developed combined simulation and laboratory approaches for studying how members of any dense bacterial swarm spread efficiently while being able to perceive and interfere minimally with the motion of others, resulting in better understanding of the spread of infection.

Antsaklis, who joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1980, was cited for “distinguished contributions to the field of systems and control, particularly for feedback control of multivariable systems, intelligent, hybrid and discrete event systems.” His research addresses problems of control and automation, including the analysis of behavior and design of control strategies for complex autonomous intelligent systems. He has conducted extensive research in hybrid and discrete event dynamical systems with contributions that have helped shape the research directions in the field. Most recently, he has focused on the control of cyber-physical systems, which are crucial to the functioning of technologies that are used in applications from automatic pilots in airplanes, to stability controls in automobiles, to energy, manufacturing, healthcare and biomedical applications.

Dobrowolska, a member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1988, was cited for “seminal experimental studies of semiconductor materials and tireless contributions to undergraduate education and outreach to local communities on energy conservation.” She specializes in magnetospectroscopy of semiconductor heterostructures — systems composed of ultrathin layers of different semiconductor compounds, with thickness in the range of a few atomic monolayers. Most recently, her interest has focused on structures in which some layers are magnetic, which also affords the possibility of investigating the effect of reduced dimensionality on magnetic properties of such structures.

A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1987, Furdyna was cited for “transformative discoveries in preparation and characterization of many semiconductor systems, including magnetic semiconductors, semiconductor quantum wells, superlattices, and self-assembled quantum dots.” He specializes in the design and development of new semiconductor materials, including magnetic semiconductors aimed at performing new and extremely fast functions in computers. The new functionality of these materials is based on the use of electron spin (in addition to its charge) in the design of electronic circuits, which is expected to lay the groundwork for non-volatile magnetic memories for the next generation of computing systems.

Lamberti, who joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1989, was cited for “distinguished contributions to the field of aquatic science, particularly for advancing our knowledge of food web interactions and stream ecology.” His primary research interests are in stream and watershed ecology and include identifying and remediating human impacts on aquatic ecosystems; the ecology of native and introduced Pacific salmon; and the control of invasive aquatic organisms. He conducts research in Alaska and around the Great Lakes, where he investigates methods to restore degraded streams, rivers and wetlands that provide important ecosystem services and support unique biodiversity.

The tradition of AAAS fellows began in 1874 and this year the association is honoring 539 individuals as fellows. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of fellow if nominated by the steering group of the Association’s 24 sections, by three fellows, or by the Association’s chief executive officer. Each steering group then reviews the nominations of individuals within its respective section and forwards a final list to the AAAS Council.

The AAAS Council votes on the final aggregate list. The Council is the policy making body of the Association, chaired by the president, and consisting of the members of the board of directors, the retiring section chairs, delegates from each electorate and each regional division, and two delegates from the National Academies of Science.

The five new Notre Dame fellows will be presented with an official certificate and gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pins on Feb. 18 during the 2012 AAAS annual meeting in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

Originally published by William G. Gilroy at newsinfo.nd.edu on December 20, 2011.

Schulz lab brings a new insight into blood cell development

2011-12-05T09:00:00-05:00

Researchers from the laboratory of Robert Schulz, the Notre Dame Chair of Biological Sciences, have discovered that common genetic factors control the fate of stem cells in the development of the reproductive system and the blood cells of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), a model genetic organism. Their work is published in the September 15 issue of the journal Development.

Previous work had identified a gene in Drosophila necessary for the development of stem cells into mature gametes in Drosophila, which was called bag-of-marbles, or bam (named for the appearance of an overabundance of germline stem cells, present in flies with a mutation in bam). Schulz and his colleagues have now shown that bam is also crucial for maintaining the population of stem-like cells in Drosophila blood development, or hematopoiesis. In addition, they demonstrate that the fruit fly genes microRNA-7 and yan interact with bam to maintain the multipotent character of these stem-like precursor cells.

These findings not only add to the understanding of how flies build critical physiological systems; this work may also have significant implications beyond fly biology. Through recent sequencing of both the Drosophila and human genomes, we now know that many genes in the fruit fly have equivalents in humans. Thus, mutations in the human versions of these genes can lead to devastating diseases of the blood, such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. Experimenting with, and understanding how factors control hematopoiesis in the fruit fly could lead to significant advances in the study of human blood cell development.

“This is an exciting development in the field of Drosophila hematopoiesis,” says Schulz. “We have shown that factors that control stem cell maintenance and differentiation within the germline can also be implicated in the maintenance and differentiation of blood cell precursors. This information opens up a new way of thinking about blood cell homeostasis."

Read the full article titled, "Germ line differentiation factor Bag of Marbles is a regulator of hematopoietic progenitor maintenance during Drosophila hematopoiesis.”

Written by Jessica Stoller-Conrad, Graduate Student, Department of Biological Sciences

10/17/2011

Two Notre Dame scholars to participate in Vatican conference on adult stem cell research

2011-11-09T10:00:00-05:00

Two Notre Dame faculty members have traveled to Rome to join some 350 international participants at a Vatican conference on adult stem cell research which begins today (Nov. 9).

Historian and philosopher Philip Sloan, professor emeritus in Notre Dame’s Program of Liberal Studies, and biologist David Hyde, the Rev. Howard J. Kenna, C.S.C., Memorial Director of Notre Dame’s Center for Zebrafish Research, will be among the scientists, religious leaders, policymakers, academics and medical patients attending the two-day conference, “Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture.”

Sloan will give a conference lecture, entitled “Should the Hippocratic Oath be Extended to the Life Sciences?” and appealing for a formal pledge by life scientists to use their technological power over all stages of human life in ways that ensure human dignity. A recent historical precedent for such a pledge is one made by a group of physicists in the wake of the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bomb.

Hyde’s research on the zebrafish eye includes the role of adult stem cells in regeneration of retinal neurons. The zebrafish retina is a useful model because it serves as an easily accessible portion of the central nervous system, and Hyde’s research has direct relevance for understanding the mechanisms of neuronal cell death in a variety of human retinal diseases and in the development of new stem cell therapies.

Both men are active in Notre Dame’s Initiative on Adult Stem Cell Research & Ethics, which sponsored a similar conference at Notre Dame in July.

Contacts: Philip Sloan, 574-631-5221, Sloan.1@nd.edu; and David Hyde 574- 631-8054

Originally published by Michael O. Garvey at newsinfo.nd.edu on November 09, 2011.

BioPathways Newsletter

2011-11-02T10:00:00-04:00

Welcome to the first electronic edition of BioPathways, the newsletter of the Department of Biological Sciences! This newsletter follows on the heels of the printed magazine Pathways that has been published periodically by the Department. BioPathways is designed to inform our supporters of new initiatives and recent successes in the Department. With this new electronic platform, we hope to share with you news, updates, and information in a much more timely fashion than before, with a focus on short articles that describe the exciting activities and accomplishments of our faculty, staff, and students. Please click here for a .pdf copy of the entire newsletter.

The threat of invasive species

2011-10-31T15:10:00-04:00

Professor David Lodge speaks to CBS about invasive species, including the Asian silver carp. Click here to view video.

Notre Dame cancer researcher named V Scholar

2011-10-27T08:00:00-04:00

Zachary Schafer, the Coleman Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology in the Department of Biological Sciences and a member of the Harper Cancer Research Institute at the University of Notre Dame, has been named a 2011 V Scholar by one of the nation’s leading cancer research fundraising organizations, the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Seventeen physician/scientists will share the $3.4 million in funding given through the V Scholar program to bring science closer to finding a cure for cancer.

Through a very competitive process, Schafer was chosen from nominees at National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers and prominent universities involved in critical cancer research. He was nominated for this award by the Harper Cancer Research Institute and will use this award to study the regulation of tumor cell survival by carcinoma-associated fibroblasts.

As a V Scholar, Schafer has been awarded a two-year, $200,000 grant, and will have the freedom to decide how to best use the funds to further his research.

“Each year, the V Scholars are selected from a group of young cancer scientists that includes the most outstanding candidate from each of the National Cancer Institute designated cancer centers,” said Robert C. Bast Jr., vice president for translational research at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board. “This year the V Scholars are even more exceptional than in the past.”

Schafer’s laboratory studies how cancer cells can survive outside their natural environments and how changes in cellular metabolism can promote survival or induce cell death. He focuses on how cancer cells disable anoikis, a cell death program that serves as a barrier to metastasis by killing cells that have left their normal home.

His preliminary work has demonstrated that carcinoma-associated fibroblasts, noncancerous cells present in the tumor microenvironment, are actively involved in blocking anoikis. Schafer’s laboratory will seek to identify and characterize the precise mechanisms that are involved in the prevention of anoikis by carcinoma-associated fibroblasts. He seeks to understand the basic biology underlying this process, so that novel therapeutics can be designed to target these mechanisms, inhibiting cancer metastasis.

“I am humbled and honored to be recognized and supported by an organization I have so much respect for,” Schafer said. “I vividly remember watching Jim Valvano give the speech announcing the creation of the V Foundation shortly before he died, and I remain inspired by his call to action for cancer research. I am tremendously grateful to the Department of Biological Sciences for the opportunity to build my research program amongst a multitude of passionate and talented colleagues and for the outstanding mentorship I have received from senior faculty that made this award possible.”

The V Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to saving lives by helping to find a cure for cancer, was founded in 1993 by ESPN and Jim Valvano, a former NCAA championship winning basketball coach and cancer patient.

As a cancer patient, Valvano recognized the need to invest in young physician/scientists to help establish their careers, as someone had invested in him early in his career. The Foundation developed the V Scholar program to help early-career cancer investigators develop into promising future research talents, so that the scientific process from laboratory research to the patient bedside could be shortened.

Schafer earned his undergraduate degree in biology at Notre Dame in 2001 and his doctorate at Duke University in 2006. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School until he joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2009.

Contact: Zachary Schafer, 574-631-0875, zschafe1@nd.edu

Originally published by Marissa Gebhard at newsinfo.nd.edu on October 26, 2011.

Notre Dame group wins first place international systems biology competition

2011-10-18T15:00:00-04:00

Most winners of the DREAM Challenge, an international competition in systems biology, are teams of Ph.D.-level scholars—computer scientists from major universities as far-flung as Singapore, Switzerland, Italy, and Sweden. This year, the winning team is from Notre Dame. They are the Fighting Irish Systems Team, or FIrST, led by biology graduate student and 2009 Eck fellow Geoffrey Siwo. The team includes biology graduate student Richard Pinapati, computer science graduate student Andrew Rider, and laboratory technician Asako Tan who, with Siwo, are all affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Center for Network Science and Applications (iCeNSA).

The DREAM (Dialogue on Reverse Engineering Assessment Methods) Challenge issued four challenges. The one answered by Siwo's group presented the teams with a gene sequence and asked them to predict how much protein a yeast cell would produce when the sequence was introduced into it.

FIrST's success is unprecedented, not only because of the team's youth, but also because of its specialization in biology rather than mathematics or computer science. Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Michael Ferdig, whose malaria research lab is home to Siwo, Pinapati, and Tan, says that the biologists' win “cuts to an important point: the modern era of bioscience is about massive datasets that can be made by new technologies, and the need for computational innovation is huge – but the computation is only as strong as the biology understanding that is built into the algorithms.” The members of FIrST are examples of “a new breed of biologists, comfortable moving across classical bio and computational innovation. This never happened even a few years ago.”

Though the field is in its early days, a method of consistently extrapolating cell phenotypes from gene sequences carries broad implications for medicine, engineering, and research. Eventually, using sequences designed via computer, human cells could be instructed to deliver a certain amount of a given protein; biofuels could be produced on demand; proteins could be easily synthesized for lab use.

It is collaboration -- both between teammates and between competitors -- that Siwo finds inspiring about his work on the DREAM challenge. “When you bring several humans together,” he says, “focus them on a well-defined challenge, and let them work independently in small teams, something special happens. Collective intelligence: a group intelligence that emerges from collaboration and competition.” Each team's solution is slightly different, and each one, even the best, is incomplete. The true answer is the sum of all answers. “This,” says Siwo, “is what I think is the greatest lesson beneath the surface and what makes DREAM an important step in the search for a convergence between theory and experiment.”

Undergraduate students publish their clinical research in major scientific journal

2011-10-14T16:00:00-04:00

A novel course offering in the University of Notre Dame’s College of Science has enabled a group of undergraduate students to have their research on a rare disease published in a leading scientific journal.

Sixty-four students registered for a class titled “Developing Health Networks in Rare and Neglected Diseases” published their research in the journal PLoS One. Published by the non-profit organization Public Library of Science (PLoS), the journal is an international peer-reviewed, open access online publication.

The students’ research is outlined in a paper titled “Defining Natural History: Assessment of the Ability of College Students to Aid in Characterizing Clinical Progression of Niemann-Pick Disease, Type C.” The research is a collaboration between the students, physician-scientist Forbes D. Porter and nurse practitioner Nicole Yanjanin of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institutes of Health and the Notre Dame Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases (CRND). The research also is linked to Notre Dame’s Clinical Translational Seminar Series, which allows expert clinicians and researchers as well as other major stakeholders to interact directly with students and the Notre Dame community.

The undergraduate students were expertly trained to assess medical records and became clinical experts in one disease: Niemann Pick Type C disease (NPC). NPC, which affects 1 in 120,000 people, is a fatal, neurodegenerative genetic disorder. Patients present with a broad range of symptoms and the age of onset is variable. Due to these confounding factors, diagnosis can be difficult and delayed by several years.

Disease diagnosis takes quite some time, which means that the families of those with diseases have numerous medical records. These records can be valuable sources of information to define natural history. By defining the natural history, defining a disease becomes possible. The natural history of a disease is also necessary to determine whether experimental therapies are working.

The Notre Dame class became a vehicle to determine whether students can be trained to accurately assess and define rare disease natural histories from patient records. Students first received HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) certification and learned the rules governing patient privacy and security. They then learned the clinical disease, its symptoms, how to recognize them and emerging therapies.

Using de-identified records from NPC patients, the students converted clinical notes into digital information: a disease severity scale developed by Porter and Yanjanin and colleagues at NIH. The students correctly quantified major and minor symptoms from the previously assessed medical records. Seven clinical records, randomly selected from a total of 37 previously assessed by Porter and Yanjanin, were also correctly assessed by the students. Student assessment of two new records donated by NPC families directly to the study also revealed that the disease was more severe at later stages.

The results of the study were presented at the National Niemann-Pick Disease Foundation, a major patient services organization. The foundation gave approval for NPC families to contact the CRND and contribute their medical records and further build natural histories. Notre Dame students also will provide families with a two-page medical summary of the patients’ records, which will help new doctors quickly assess the patient history in a standard office visit.

NPC families who are interested in the program can contact Kasturi Halder, director of the CRND at khaldar@nd.edu. An example of a medical summary is available from the Center’s Marisa Truong, mtruong@nd.edu.

Haldar believes that the Notre Dame course’s unique approach can be a model for premedical information. She and CRND faculty and students enrolled in the course met recently with Eva Louise Koehler, former First Lady of the Federal Republic of Germany and patroness of the German Alliance for Rare Diseases (ACHSE) and her husband Horst Koehler, former president of Germany and also a leading advocate for rare diseases, to discuss disseminating the model to other institutions in the European Union and the United States.

More information is available on the Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases website.

Contact: Kasturi Halder,khaldar@nd.edu

Originally published by William G. Gilroy at newsinfo.nd.edu on October 12, 2011.

In memoriam: Robert W. Galvin, former Notre Dame fellow and trustee

2011-10-14T10:50:00-04:00

Robert W. Galvin, former fellow and trustee of the University of Notre Dame, died Tuesday (Oct. 11) in Chicago. He was 89 years old.

Galvin, the former chief executive and chairman of Motorola Inc., was graduated from Notre Dame in 1944, going to work for Motorola, a company which had been founded by his father, Paul. He succeeded his father in 1959 and remained chairman until his retirement in 1990, overseeing Motorola’s subsequent expansion from a national to a global company and an increase in annual sales from $290 million to $10.8 billion.

Galvin was elected to Notre Dame’s board of trustees in 1960, serving as a member of that body for 27 years. He also served as one of Notre Dame’s 12 fellows, the highest governing body of the University, from 1967 to 1982. Among his family’s numerous benefactions to Notre Dame is the Galvin Life Sciences Building, the center for the University’s research and teaching in biological sciences.

A visitation will be held Monday (Oct. 17) from 4 to 8 p.m. at Donnellan Family Funeral Home in Skokie, Ill., and there will be a funeral Mass Tuesday (Oct.18) at 5 p.m. at Saints Faith, Hope & Charity Church in Winnetka, Ill.

Originally published by Michael O. Garvey at newsinfo.nd.edu on October 13, 2011.

In memoriam: Harvey A. Bender, professor of biological sciences

2011-10-05T09:00:00-04:00

Harvey A. Bender, professor of biological sciences and director of the Human Genetics Program at the University of Notre Dame, died Saturday (Oct. 1). He was 78 years old.

A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1960, Bender studied at Case Western Reserve University, majoring in chemistry and English before doing graduate studies in developmental genetics at Northwestern University where he received both his master’s and doctoral degrees.

Bender, whose award-winning research and teaching concerned human developmental genetics and the epidemiology of human genetic disease, was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a founding fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics. He also served as the founding director of the Regional Genetics Center at Memorial Hospital in South Bend.

Bender was preceded in death by his wife, Eileen, and is survived by his three children, Leslie C. (Chris Wunder) Bender of Baltimore, Md.; Samuel D. (Ellen) Bender of New York, N.Y.; and Philip M. (Linda Rotunno) Bender of Washington, D.C.; companion, Rosalind Tucker of Granger; and eight grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday (Oct. 6) at Temple Beth-El, 305 W. Madison St., South Bend.

The family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made: In Memory of Harvey A. Bender; University of Notre Dame; 1100 Grace Hall; Notre Dame, IN 46556. Condolences may be sent to the Benders; 1100 North Lake Shore Drive; Apartment 28B, Chicago, IL 60611-5212.

Originally published by Michael O. Garvey at newsinfo.nd.edu on October 04, 2011.

Two biology faculty receive NIH director’s New Innovator Award

2011-09-21T13:00:00-04:00

Shaun Lee and Rebecca Wingert, assistant professors in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, have been selected as recipients of the highly competitive National Institutes of Health (NIH) director’s New Innovator Award. Each award covers $1.5 million in research expenditures over five years.

The award, which encourages creative ideas in science, stimulates highly innovative research and supports promising new investigators. Lee and Wingert are part of a small group of only 49 exceptionally creative, early stage investigators who propose bold new approaches that have the potential to produce a major impact on a broad area of biomedical or behavioral research.

“I am delighted to have two such awards in one year,” says Gregory Crawford, dean of the College of Science. “We’re so proud of the leadership of our young faculty. Rebecca and Shaun are great examples of innovative research. The award testifies to the strength of their basic research in areas so closely aligned to our mission.”

Lee, a member of the Eck Institute for Global Health, is recognized for his innovative work in the design and use of bacteriocins. Lee’s research has led to the discovery of a new class of bacteriocins that are produced by a diverse array of organisms, including several important human bacterial pathogens such as Group A Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Listeria and Clostridium botulinun. Bacteriocins are ribosomally synthesized toxins that function as antibiotics. Research on these bacteriocins holds valuable promise for new classes of antibiotics, and as targets for vaccine research.

“What we’ve discovered is that many microorganisms, from Cyanobacteria to Archaea, share a common way of making peptide compounds that are highly active,” Lee says, adding that Notre Dame’s Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases also has supported the work. “Many of these compounds, called bacteriocins, seem to have a wide variety of activities – from cytotoxins to antibiotics and anti-infectives. The more knowledge we gain about how the microorganisms engineer these compounds, the greater the hope that we can use this knowledge to design and develop the next generation of antibiotics and anti-infective agents.” Lee came to Notre Dame in 2009 as part of the Strategic Research Investment in genomics, disease ecology and global health.

Wingert is recognized for her highly innovative work on the identification of kidney regeneration mechanisms. Wingert’s research focuses on how the human kidney regenerates nephron cells, a potential solution to devastating kidney diseases that destroy the nephron, the organ’s basic functional unit. Her laboratory is studying nephron cell regeneration in zebrafish, whose kidneys are similar to human kidneys. Understanding of the molecular workings of the process could help design treatments for kidney disease in humans.

“The New Innovator Award provides tremendous funding support over the next five years—I feel blessed with having this amazing opportunity to forge ahead with our work on kidney regeneration, and confident that we will make critical strides forward as a result,” said Wingert.

“I am delighted to be pursuing this line of research at the University of Notre Dame. Notre Dame provided me with a unique niche in which to assemble the scaffolding for this new research program: it was through the generous support from the College of Science and Department of Biological Sciences that I was able to create a cutting-edge laboratory, buoyed by the excellent staff of the Center for Zebrafish Research that provides top-rate research support,” Wingert says. "I am inspired everyday by the excitement and passion of the undergraduate and graduate students who have made my lab a special place for the pursuit of knowledge.”

“The NIH Director’s Award programs reinvigorate the biomedical work force by providing unique opportunities to conduct research that is neither incremental nor conventional,” said James M. Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives at the NIH. “The awards are intended to catalyze giant leaps forward for any area of biomedical research, allowing investigators to go in entirely new directions.”

Support from the NIH allows Lee and Wingert to pursue highly innovative research that has the potential for unusually high impact to propel these fields forward and speed the translation of research into improved health for the American public. The NIH expects to make competing awards of approximately $117.5 million to the New Innovators in Fiscal Year 2011. Since the program’s inception in 2007, the NIH Director’s Award Program has funded a total of 216 New Innovator Awards, including these 49 new awards.

Contact: Shaun Lee, 574-631-7197, lee.310@nd.edu; and Rebecca Wingert, 574-631-0907, rwingert@nd.edu

Originally published by Marissa Gebhard at newsinfo.nd.edu on September 21, 2011.

Jessica Choi named ASM Undergraduate Research Fellow

2011-09-09T08:00:00-04:00

Jessica Choi, senior, has been selected by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) as a 2011 recipient of the ASM Undergraduate Research Fellowship. This fellowship is aimed at highly competitive students who wish to pursue graduate careers (Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D.) in microbiology. Fellows have the opportunity to conduct full-time summer research at their institution with an ASM mentor and present their research results at the 112th ASM General Meeting in San Francisco, CA if their abstracts are accepted.

Stuart Jones, assistant professor of biology, has mentored Choi since she began researching last fall. She studies substrate availability and predator influences on aquatic methaneoxidizing bacterial abundance, and their activity, and diversity.

Choi was one of the thirty-nine awardees chosen from sixty-eight applicants. Each fellow receives up to a $4,000 stipend, a two-year ASM student membership, and funding for travel expenses to the ASM Presentation Institute and 112th ASM General Meeting.

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), headquartered in Washington, DC, is the oldest and largest single biological membership organization, with over 40,000 members worldwide.

Please visit http://www.asm.org/students for more information on this fellowship.

8/29/2011

McDowell and Collins present translational research at NIH tropical disease workshop

2011-09-07T10:00:00-04:00

Department of Biological Sciences faculty Mary Ann McDowell and Frank Collins recently represented Notre Dame at a National Institutes of Health workshop, “Neglected Tropical Diseases [NTDs]: Defining Opportunities to Accelerate Translational Research.” McDowell and Collins presented at the session “Surveillance, Diagnostics and Genomics: Applications to development of interventions”; Collins gave the overview, while McDowell discussed vector research and genomics.

The workshop centered on translational research, a multidisciplinary approach to biological study in which researchers, rather than categorizing their projects either as the study of a field's fundamental principles or the application of principles already discovered, instead incorporate fundamental

advances directly into clinical trials and other practical work. In light of this, the attendees discussed the state of the science in NTD research, the gaps and opportunities in the field at present, and potential new roles and collaborations for public- and private-sector entities.

Both McDowell and Collins are members of the Eck Institute for Global Health. McDowell's laboratory studies the immunobiology of infectious diseases, while Collins' performs malaria vector research and genome-level studies of arthropod vectors of human pathogens.

Notre Dame alumni and former faculty in attendance at the workshop included Adriana Costero, NIAID Vector Biology program officer; Captain Philip Coyne, Jr., of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the United States Public Health Service; Tim Geary, director of the McGill Institute of Parasitology; Thomas Quinn, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health; and Marcelo Ramalho-Ortigao of Kansas State University.

9/6/2011

Wingert lab produces two methods papers on tools for kidney development and regenration studies

2011-09-01T10:00:00-04:00

Wingert lab produces two methods papers on tools for kidney development and regenration studies. Click below to view videos on the step by step protocols and the full pdf papers.

Laser Ablation of the Zebrafish Pronephros to Study Renal Epithelial Regeneration

Dissection of the Adult Zebrafish Kidney

UNICEF official to present Craig lecture

2011-09-01T10:00:00-04:00

William A. Hawley, malaria project officer for UNICEF/Indonesia, will present the George B. Craig Jr. Memorial Lecture at 4 p.m. Sept. 14 (Wednesday) in Room 283 of the Galvin Life Science Center at the University of Notre Dame.

Hawley’s lecture is titled “Malaria, Mosquitoes, and Public Health in the Land of Wallace and Sukarno.”

Craig, a Notre Dame faculty member, was an internationally recognized expert on the biology and control of mosquitoes.

After working on malaria for 14 years in Africa, including six years of residence in Kenya, Hawley has been working on malaria control and public health in Indonesia, the world’s largest and most biologically diverse tropical nation, for the past six and a half years. He has published regularly on mosquito ecology, genetics and behavior, and malaria epidemiology and control over the past several decades.

Hawley’s professional career began as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching biology and mathematics in a Malaysian high school. This ignited a desire to make a living as a biologist and to spend at least part of his life working in the outdoors.

After leaving Malaysia, he was trained in field ecology by William Bradshaw at the University of Oregon and received postdoctoral training in mosquito biology in Craig’s Notre Dame laboratory.

Craig, who died in 1995, spent his entire academic career at Notre Dame, joining the faculty in 1957 as an assistant professor and director of the Vector Biology Laboratory. He established a world-renowned research program in mosquito biology and genetics at the University, serving as advisor to 40 graduate students and 39 postdoctoral fellows, with whom he published more than 500 scientific papers. He also was a passionate teacher and mentor to countless undergraduate students.

From the mid-1950s until 1975, Craig studied the genetics of Aedes aegypti, demonstrating the genetic basis of traits central to the understanding of disease transmission and mosquito control. Under his direction, Notre Dame-affiliated scientists carried out some 80 percent of all genetic research on Aedes aegypti.

By the late 1960s, Craig and his associates began work in the reproductive physiology of mosquitoes, leading to discoveries that sexual receptivity in female mosquitoes is hormonally based and that the quantity of blood ingested by mosquitoes is determined by the neural system.

After the arrival in the United States of the Asian Tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), Craig feared it as a more effective transmitter of disease than native species and expanded his research to include this new menace to public health.

Craig was the first Notre Dame faculty member elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.

Craig’s former students occupy prominent positions in universities and laboratories throughout the country.

The George B. Craig Memorial Lecture is supported by an endowment established by contributions in his memory, the Department of Biological Sciences and the Eck Institute for Global Health. The work of Craig and other prominent tropical disease researchers in the Department of Biological Sciences laid the foundation for what is now the Eck Institute.

Contact: Katherine Taylor, 574-631-1029, ktaylo12@nd.edu.

Originally published by William G. Gilroy at newsinfo.nd.edu on August 31, 2011.