Abstracts

Undergraduate education gets $1 million boost

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has awarded Claudia Neuhauser a $1 million professorship to create innovative educational programs for undergraduates at the College of Biological Sciences.

Claudia Neuhauser is professor and head of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior.

Neuhauser will use the funds to increase the quantitative proficiency of undergraduates by integrating mathematical approaches and statistics into freshman biology laboratory courses, developing a statistics course for biology students, and training faculty to integrate quantitative approaches and statistics into their courses.

“This will fill an important need created by tremendous changes in biology, particularly at the molecular level where massive amounts of data are now available to ask questions we could only dream about 20 years ago,” Neuhauser says.

Neuhauser, professor and head of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, is one of 20 science educators nationwide awarded the four-year, $1 million professorships. The grants enable leading researchers to work with undergraduates and develop innovative, laboratorybased
models for teaching science. Neuhauser is a mathematician who works at the interface of ecology and evolution. Her research addresses effects of spatial structure on community dynamics.

CBS faculty share in collaborative research grants

The Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics has awarded $15 million in state-funded research support to nine research teams and five infrastructure support teams from the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic. The $15 million was the second installment of a state commitment to the Partnership.

Applications for the projects in medical research were requested last fall. Each had to be a project that could not be completed by either organization on its own, and coprincipal
investigators were to be named from each institution. Final selection for the two-year grants was made with input from an outside panel of national experts.

Approximately $9 million will fund research projects in pancreatic cancer, tuberculosis, and brain tumors, as well as cardiovascular, neuromuscular, and autoimmune diseases. Other projects will focus on transplant rejection, drug addiction, and cancer drug development. The remaining $6 million will support equipment, software, and other infrastructure needs to enhance molecular research, genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics.

David Largaespada (Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development) is co-investigator of a project to better understand malignant glial cell tumors in the brain, with the goal of developing new methods to find cancer genes and design new therapies.

Gary Nelsestuen and Carrie Wilmot (Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics) will participate in teams providing infrastructure support—Nelsestuen in proteomics and bioinformatics; Wilmot in using x-ray crystallography to solve macromolecular structures
important to human health and disease.

The Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics is a unique collaborative venture among the Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota, and State of Minnesota. The partnership seeks to position Minnesota as a world leader in biotechnology and medical genomics applications that will result in important new medical discoveries, thereby improving health care for patients and supporting the development of new
business and jobs in Minnesota.

Grants and Awards

Friedrich Srienc (Biotechnology Institute) received a three-year, $700,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health for “Design and Construction of Efficient Reaction Networks.” Arkady Khodursky (Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics) is co-principal investigator.

This work involves redesigning a metabolism reaction network to operate more efficiently— that is, cells containing these modifications will grow to much higher densities from a given amount of sugars. This study will provide better quantitative understanding as to how the metabolism operates and develop the tools to enhance the efficient production of any metabolite such as ethanol, lactic acid, or protein.

Robin Wright (CBS associate dean) received a grant from the National Science
Foundation, Division of Molecular and Cellular Biology, of $459,000 over three years for her research titled “Cold adaptation in yeast: the role of ER-associated degradation and sterol metabolism.” Her co-principal investigator is Martin Bard from Indiana University- Purdue University, Indiana. The research will lay the foundation for exploration of the genetics, molecular and cellular biology, and physiology of cold adaptation in yeast. The project also provides training opportunities for students. At least one graduate student and six undergraduate students will be involved.

Pete Snustad (Plant Biology) has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was honored for genetic dissection of bacteriophage T4-induced nuclear disruption and host DNA degradation and for molecular analysis of the tubulin gene families of Arabidopsis thaliana. Snustad, who has been a CBS faculty member for 37 years, is co-author with Mike Simmons of “Principles of Genetics,” a textbook used by universities worldwide. An induction ceremony was held during the AAAS annual meeting, which was held in St. Louis, Missouri, in February.

Jennifer King (Soil, Water, and Climate and EEB) and Sarah Hobbie (Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior) received a $570,000, four-year grant from the National Science Foundation to study photodegradation of plant litter in grassland ecosystems.

In Print

Laura Ranum (Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development) and colleagues have discovered the gene responsible for a type of ataxia, an incurable neuromuscular disease. This is the first neurodegenerative disease shown to be caused by mutations in a protein called spectrin II that plays an important role in maintaining the health of nerve cells.

Understanding the effects of abnormalities in this protein, which provides internal structure to cells, will clarify how nerve cells die and may provide insight into other diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

The finding also has historical implications—the gene was identified in an 11-generation family descended from the grandparents of President Abraham Lincoln, with the president
having had a 25 percent risk of inheriting the mutation. The research was published in the February print issue of Nature Genetics, and posted online January 22, 2006.

Helene Muller-Landau (Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior) is coauthor of a paper published in the January 27, 2006 issue of Science showing that nature encourages biodiversity by favoring the growth of rare trees. Muller-Landau contributed quantitative skills for analyzing and interpreting the data. The landmark study, conducted in seven tropical forests worldwide, supports previous research by David Tilman, Regents Professor of Ecology, into the causes and value of biodiversity.

Rare trees may have an advantage because they are less vulnerable to animals, fungi, and microorganisms that prey on common trees and because they don’t have the same resource needs as common trees. The new study raises questions about whether other ecosystems, from temperate forests to coral reefs, also select for biodiversity.

Michael Sadowsky (Biotechnology Institute) was featured in an article called “Disease Detectives” in the the March 20, 2006 issue of Time magazine. The segment about Sadowsky, called “Keeping Beaches Safe,” describes how he uses marker DNA and a robotic system to identify the sources of E. coli bacteria that may pose a health hazard at public beaches. “With cities and states across the country spending billions on new water-quality systems, the impact of Sadowsky's work could be huge,” according to Time.

Jim Cotner (Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior) is coauthor of an article titled “Effect of
Microbes on Contaminant Transfer in the Lake Superior Food Web” published in the November 9, 2005 issue of Environmental Science and Technology. The study shows that bacteria, which are a primary food source for other organisms in Lake Superior, absorb large amounts of PCBs, which are subsequently passed up the food chain. Lead author is Matthew Hudson, environmental biologist with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. Deb Swackhamer (Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health ) was also a coauthor.