Naturally occurring chemicals found in de-icing road salts can alter the sex ratios in nearby frog populations, a phenomenon that could reduce the size and viability of species populations, according to a new study by scientists at Yale and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. ...read more
Members of the Rensselaer student hackathon organization, dubbed “HackRPI,” view hacking as use of technology to create something that’s never been used before. Over 500 students will participate in a 24-hour “hackathon” this weekend.    ...read more
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute hosted John O. Brennan, director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), for a conversation on “Technological Change and National Security” with Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson on Friday, November 4. ...read more
With support from the National Science Foundation, The Jefferson Project at Lake George is poised to complete the most powerful aquatic monitoring sensor network in existence.  ...read more
To infect its victims, influenza A heads for the lungs, where it latches onto sialic acid on the surface of cells. So researchers created the perfect decoy: A carefully constructed spherical nanoparticle coated in sialic acid lures the influenza A virus to its doom. ...read more

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Announcements

Diana Bogorodskaya, a graduate student in Biological Sciences pursuing her PhD research in the Ligon lab, has been accepted to the NSF BIO 2017: I-Corps Bio-Entrepreneurship Workshop at California State University in San Diego.  This highly competitive workshop gives participants the opportunity to work with industry professionals to learn about biotechnology commercialization and explore entrepreneurial opportunities that build on basic research.
Dr. Jennifer Hurley recently gave a plenary talk at a mini symposium entitled “Interdisciplinary Views of Chronobiology” in Santiago at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile November 28, 2016. Five experts in the field of chronobiology including Dr. Hurley were invited to present their varied perspectives on Chronobiological research and how the field is advancing. The inaugural symposium is the first in a series and was organized to expose and encourage graduate students in Chile to think about research from an international and interdisciplinary standpoint. Dr.
“A recent ASBMB Today article discussed the results of a collaboration between the labs of George Makhatadze of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Nadia Roan of the University of California, San Francisco. The paper, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, discussed the ability of a small molecule gallic acid to reduce HIV infectivity associated with protein aggregates found in semen.
Dr. Jennifer Hurley, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, has just received an award through an U01 cooperative agreement funded by the Department of Defense and the NIH National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering titled, “Multiscale Modeling of Circadian Rhythms”.  The total award is $3,932,000 with Dr. Hurley’s funding at $580,000.  The lead PI is Dr. William Cannon of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with Drs.
Matt Schuler, post-doctoral research associate in the Rick Relyea Lab, recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences a study about how lizards might respond to a changing climate in different types of landscapes.

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