Recent Research Grants Awarded to BCB Faculty (4/21/06)ams
Congratulations to the following BCB faculty recently awarded a research grant:

• Steven Rodermel (GDCB), $110, 000; Regulation of Chloroplast Biogenesis: The Immutans Mutant of Arabidopsis, Department of Energy
• Volker Brendel (GDCB), $60,000; Database of Maize Genome Information, USDA
  • $64,194; Relational Legume Genome Database: The Breeder's Toolbox, USDA,ARS
  • $95,360; Regulation of Inflorescence Architecture in Maize, NSF
• Basil Nikolau (BBMB), $1,000,000; Metabolomics: A Functional Genomics Tool for Deciphering Functions of Arabidopsis Genes in the Context of Metabolic and Regulatory Networks, NSF
• Eve Wurtele (GDCB), $969,634; Arabidopsis Systems Biology Computational Software, NSF
• Srinivas Aluru (Electrical and Computer Engineering), $44,583; CREST: Center of Research Excellence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, NSF
• Patrick Schnable (Agronomy), $284,240; Functional Analyses of Genes Involved in Leaf Initiation, NSF
• Alan Myers (BBMB), $39,215; Catalytic and Binding Domains of Maize Starch Synthases, Exseed Genetics L.L.C
• Madan Bhattacharyya (Agronomy), $25,400; Application of Biotechnology to Control Soybean Death Syndrome, Southern Illinios University

Symposium on Plant Receptor Signaling (4/21/06) ams
The 8th Annual Plant Sciences Institute Symposium will focus on Plant Receptor Signaling. This symposium is part of an ongoing series sponsored by the Plant Sciences Institute at Iowa State University. Foci of these symposia include various topics in plant genetics, molecular biology and biochemistry. Plant Receptor Signaling is timely topic for this year’s Plant Sciences Symposium. Several landmark discoveries in plant receptor biology have been reported in the past year. These include the identification of receptors for the key plant hormones auxin (Dharmasiri, et al., 2005. Nature 435: 436), and GA (Ueguchi-Tanaka et al., 2005. Nature 437: 637). In addition, recent research has elucidated mechanisms of signaling, and fascinating evolutionary innovations such as the usurpation of plant receptor systems by plant pathogens and symbionts. The symposium will bring together prominent researchers working on receptor signaling systems involved in light responses, hormone signaling, development, and responses to extrinsic biotic factors including pathogens. These topics are of interest to both basic and applied researchers because manipulation of various plant signaling systems have been shown to improve such agronomically important traits as biomass production, architecture and responses to biotic stress.

June 22-25, 2006 in the Scheman Building. For more information please go here.

Plant Breeding Lecture Series (4/21/06)ams
The Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding and the Plant Sciences Institute are hosting the 2006 Plant Breeding Lecture Series May 18-19, 2006 at the Memorial Union. The event is free and open to all. This year's theme is "Data Analysis Innovations Contributing to Crop Improvement." In order to anticipate attendance, please register to attend here.

Second Round of MGET Mini Grants Announced (4/13/06 kmw)
The following MGET Fellows have been awarded MGET mini grants in the second round of grant competition:

Tim Alcon, $2335, ISMB 2006 conference, Fortaleza, Brazil
Preeti Bais, $1328, Metabolomics Society Meeting, Boston
Lindsay Carroll, $2435, GPS unit
Oliver Couture, $2500, International Society for Animal Genetics meeting, Porto Seguro, Brazil
Garrett Dancik, $895, International Conference on Complex Systems, Boston
Michael Lawrence, $1500, useR Conference, Vienna, Austria
Myron Peto, $1460, ISMB 2006, Fortaleza, Brazil

Library Seminar Scheduled for April 19 (4/11/06 ams)
"The P&T Beast: Tracking Down Evidence of Your Research Impact" Do you know how widely your most recent article has been read? Is it listed as required reading for an advanced graduate course at a number of prestigious universities? Has it been used as the basis for a thesis? Would you like more ideas on ways to increase the visibility of your research? This seminar will alert faculty and researchers to new strategies and techniques for validating the impact of their research.

Wed. April 19, 2006 3:15 - 4:30 pm in room 192 Parks Library

Final Baker Seminar Scheduled for April 14 (4/10/06 kmw)
Dr. Gary D. Stormo, Department of Genetics, Washington University in St. Louis, will present the final seminar in the Spring 2006 Baker Center Seminar Series on Friday, April 14, at 1:10pm. Dr. Stormo's presentaton on Experimental and computational approaches to protein-DNA interactions and gene regulation will begin at at 1:10pm in the Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium in Howe Hall. All are welcome.

Library Seminar Scheduled for April 12 (4/11/06 ams)
"I Didn't Know Google Could Do That!" Learn useful tips and tricks about using Google! Explore lesser-known tools, features, and services in Google, and highlight what's new.

Wed. April 12, 2006 3:15 - 4:30 pm in room 192 Parks Library

Baker Center Seminar April 12 (4/6/06 kmw)
Dr. Yiannis Kaznessis, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, will present Multi-scale models for gene network engineering at noon on Wednesday, April 12, in 1652 Gilman. The ISU computational biology community is invited to attend.

Baby Lemmer is Here! (4/3/06 kmw)
Congratulations to Darrin Lemmer (MGET, BCB major, BBMB Department; major profs Culver/Dobbs) and wife Rian on the birth of son Halen Michael on Saturday, April 1. Halen, who weighed in at 6 pounds 7 ounces and is 18 1/4" long, will join big sister Katie in keeping things interesting at the Lemmer house. (Darrin also passed his final last Monday, so he had a full and productive week! Whew!)

All our best wishes to you and your family at this exciting time, Darrin!

Justin Schonfeld's Thesis Seminar will be Presented April 10 (3/31/06 kmw)
Justin Schonfeld (IGERT, BCB major, Math Department; major professors Ashlock and Voytas) will present his PhD thesis seminar, titled A modular data analysis pipeline for the discovery of novel RNA motifs, at 2pm Monday, April 10, in 390 Carver Hall. All are welcome.

Wiesia Mentzen to Present Thesis Seminar April 4 (3/31/06 kmw)
Wiesia Mentzen (BCB major, GDCB Department; major professors Wurtele and Gu) will present her PhD thesis seminar, From pathway to regulon in Arabidopsis, at 10am Tuesday, April 4, in 240 Bessey Hall. Everyone is invited to attend.

Geometric Morphometrics Workshop (3/30/06 ts)
Dean Adams is hosting a Geometric Morphometrics Workshop at Iowa State from May 29 to June 2, 2006, co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and various organizations at Iowa State*. This is a 1-week workshop which provides a comprehensive introduction to both the theory and methods for the analysis of biological shape. Emphasis is on understanding the theoretical background of the field, as well as the practical mechanics of both landmark and outline methods for statistical shape analysis. The main objective of the workshop is to provide students with sufficient knowledge of these approaches that they will be able to effectively and correctly apply them to their own research programs.  Further details on the workshop may be found at:  http://www.public.iastate.edu/~dcadams/GMWorkshop/

There are a few participant slots available for those at Iowa State wishing to attend. If you are interested, please contact Dean at dcadams@iastate.edu. Your application should include:

• Contact Information (name, current position, professional affiliation, address, phone, fax, email)
• Curriculum Vitae
• Brief Statement of Research Interests (1 page)
• A brief summary of why participating in this workshop will benefit your research (250 words)

To receive full consideration, submit your application by May 1, 2006.

April Birthdays (3/28/06 kmw)
We have LOTS of great reasons to celebrate this month. Happy Birthday to all of our BCB, IGERT and MGET celebrants!

Sid Baccam, IGERT alumnus
Drena Dobbs, former BCB chair
Aspen Garry, IGERT alumna
Ling Guo, BCB
Ericka Havecker, IGERT alumna
Vasant Honavar, former BCB chair
Matthew Studham, BCB
Michael Terribilini, BCB and MGET

Interviewing for an Academic Job? (3/23/06 kmw)
This notice just in from the Center for Excellence:

The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching is happy to present a follow-up Academic Job Interview session to the CELT Graduate Student Focus: Academic Job Search seminar presented February 9, 2006.

The follow-up workshop, "Academic Job Interview," will be held Thursday, April 6, from 5-6:30 p.m. in room 1115 Pearson Hall. The academic job interview is a unique form of interviewing, and Dr. Kienzler will discuss how to prepare for interviews, typical interview events, kinds of interviews, interview behaviors, and common interview questions. A pizza dinner will be available.

Seating is limited. To register for this event, graduate students should contact CELT at celt@iastate.edu or 4-5357.

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