March 2015 News
Kristi Neufeld (associate professor) organized a conference for the KU Cancer Center Cancer Biology Program of which she serves as co-leader. The meeting, held on February 13 at the Arterra Event gallery in Lawrence, included talks from Stowers Institute, KU Medical Center and KU-Lawrence program members, a keynote lecture by Surinder K. Batra, PhD, Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, and PechaKucha-style talks by program members, including Molecular Biosciences faculty Mizuki Azuma and Yoshi Azuma.
Liang Xu (associate professor) is the recipient of a donation from the Kilonsky Foundation through KU Endowment to support research into cancer therapeutic development.
Susan Egan (professor and chair) and Dave Benson (chemistry) are the recipients of a three year Beckman Scholars Program Grant, which has the goal of stimulating, encouraging and supporting research activities by exceptionally talented, full-time undergraduate students pursuing research activities in chemistry, biochemistry, biology and the medical sciences. The KU program has 15 mentors from Molecular Biosciences and Chemistry, and will support two undergrad students per year. The students will receive a stipend totaling $22,000 to support their research (for two academic years and two summers), travel funds to present their research at a conference in their field, and the lab of their mentor will receive $5,000 for supplies to support their research.
Jim Orr (professor) is the recipient of the Joan S. Hunt Distinguished Mentoring Award from the Kansas IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (K-INBRE). This award was established in 2012 to recognize upper-level faculty for their mentoring success. The award was highlighted in a KU Today story entitled “Molecular Biosciences professor wins mentoring award.”
Kelly Harrison (graduate student, W. Picking lab) was one of eight graduate students from the University of Kansas to present at the 12th annual Capitol Research Summit in Topeka. The Summit is an opportunity for selected graduate students to share their research with Kansas State senators, representatives, education officials, and the general public. Kelly is pictured explaining her research to Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little.
Erin Suderman (graduate student, Ward lab), was one of 20 undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students honored with a cash prize for their scientific research presentations at the 2015 Kansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence Symposium on January 17-18 in Topeka. Her poster presentation was entitled, “Genetic control of tissue specific growth in the larval trachea of drosophila”.
Dan Vu (undergraduate, Timmons Lab) received a KU Undergraduate Research Award for Spring 2015. The award will be used in support of experiments designed to uncover functions and localization patterns of ABC transporters in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Preston Dennett (undergraduate, Timmons Lab) was selected as a K-INBRE Undergraduate Scholar for Spring and Summer of 2015. His award will support the development of novel genetics tools that will be used to uncover the precise role of a non-coding RNA in meiotic chromosome disjunction in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Adam Reeves (undergraduate, Macdonald Lab) was selected as a K-INBRE Undergraduate Scholar for Spring and Summer of 2015. His award will support work on the effects of transposable elements on aging-related neurodegeneration in Drosophila melanogaster.
