Research on three mutations associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy –a disease best known for revealing itself as an unexpected, fatal heart attack during strenuous exercise – found separate mechanisms at work at the molecular level. ...read more
Small animals at the base of the freshwater food chain can rapidly adapt to salt pollution – from sources like winter road deicing, agriculture, and mining – but at a price. ...read more
With support from the Warren Alpert Foundation, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have launched a search for drug candidates to block a biological process associated with Alzheimer’s disease. ...read more
While temperatures in the tropical forests of northeastern Puerto Rico have climbed two degrees Celsius since the mid-1970s, the biomass of arthropods – invertebrate animals such as insects, millipedes, and sowbugs – has declined by as much as 60-fold, according to new findings published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While temperatures in the tropical forests of northeastern Puerto Rico have climbed two degrees Celsius since the mid-1970s, the biomass of arthropods – invertebrate animals such as insects, millipedes, and sowbugs – has declined by as much as 60-fold, according to new findings published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...read more
In an installation at the ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, The World of Plankton allows up to four players to gather around a giant digital touch table to capture and explore zooplankton, phytoplankton, and fish species. ...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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