July 2019 July 23—Naomi Lewandowski from the Basil Lab has recently been awarded a NOAA/Seagrant Knauss Fellowship in Marine Policy. Lewandowski will take up this one-year fellowship in Washington, D.C., in spring 2020, advising government officials on issues at the interface of marine science and policy. Congratulations, Naomi! July 21—In Memorium: The Department of Biology regrets to announce that Professor Emeritus for Microbiology Norman Eaton passed away on July 21 at his home in Sacramento, California. June 2019 June—New paper from the Forlano Lab—”Forebrain dopamine system regulates inner ear auditory sensitivity to socially-relevant acoustic signals” (Current Biology 29: 2190–2198). May 2019 May 16—The Department of Biology recently announced its list of student awardees for the spring 2019 semester. The department awarded close to $30,000 in awards to our students on the basis of outstanding academic performance, departmental service, and financial need. Congratulations to all! Undergraduate Awardees—Israel Iosevich, Naila Mirza, Akmal Salimov, Nachama Stern, and Natchanon Vutrapongvatana Graduate Awardees—Glennon Bythrow, Brandon Ely, Jingbo Kan, Katherine Rivera Gomez, and Junaid Syed May 16—Congratulations to Aneesa Valentine and Joseph Arguelles, co-recipients of this year’s Eshel Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Research, awarded in honor of Professor Dan Eshel and his commitment to undergraduate research at the highest levels. This year’s Eshel Awards will be awarded in a formal ceremony, where both students will present the results of their research, in 113 Ingersoll Hall Extension on May 16 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. All are welcome. The lecture will be followed by a reception. May 3—Biology students take third place honors at Brooklyn College’s Science Day: Emily Movsumova, Jingbo Kan, Nicolas Biais, “Unknown Streptococcus strain specific to killing and inhibiting growth of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria elongate.” May 3—Jimiane Ashe and TR Muth complete a set of training videos as part of the Research Experiences in Microbiomes Network. Check them out here! May—New paper from the Polle Lab—”Phytoene accumulation in the novel microalga Chlorococcum sp. using the pigment synthesis inhibitor fluridone” (Marine Drugs 17: 187). May—New paper from the Lipke Lab—”Fluidic force microscopy demonstrates that homophilic adhesion by Candida albicans Als proteins is mediated by amyloid bonds between cells” (NanoLetters in press). March 2019 March—New paper from the Lipke Lab—”Serum Amyloid P component binds fungal surface amyloid and decreases human macrophage phagocytosis and secretion of inflammatory cytokines” (mBio 10(2): e00218-19). March—New paper from the Singh Lab—”Inhibition of ricin A-chain (RTA) catalytic activity by a viral genome-linked protein (VPg)” (BBA—Proteins and Proteomics 1867: 645–653). February 2019 February 28—Gavin Lecture in Cell and Molecular Biology (Tanger Auditorium, 12:30–1:30 p.m). Erich Jarvis, Professor in the Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language at The Rockefeller University, will discuss his research in the 2019 Gavin Lecture, “Molecular convergence in brain regions for song-learning in birds and spoken-language in humans.” The lecture will be followed by a reception in 230 Ingersoll Hall Extension. February—New paper from the Singh Lab—“A combined computational strategy of sequence and structural analysis predicts the existence of a functional eicosanoid pathway in Drosophila melanogaster” (PLoS ONE 14(2): e0211897).
