Ph.D. Exit Seminar
Kelly Gravuer Department of Plant Sciences & Graduate Group in Ecology
Mapping Macrobial Concepts to the Microbial Scale Lessons from grassland and agricultural ecosystems
Tuesday
August 23rd
4:00 p.m.
PES 2005
Gravuer Exit Seminar Flyer.pdf
Of possible interest:
Dear Colleagues,
The Department of Biology at Stanford University is conducting a search for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the area of evolution. Details about the position is in the attached job advertisement. We ask you to please distribute the advertisement widely.
We hope that you will bring this information to the attention of qualified individuals. If there are candidates you wish to recommend to us, we would very much like to hear from you. Stanford is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to increasing the diversity of its faculty. It welcomes nominations of, and applications from, women and members of minority groups, as well as others who would bring additional dimensions to the University’s research and teaching missions.
Thank you very much for your assistance in helping us to identify candidates for this faculty position.
From an email:
Dear Colleagues,
CMSI, in collaboration with CA Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), is seeking to fill three postdoc positions in the science of adaptive management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This is an exciting new opportunity to merge innovative research with real world management questions to advance the science of adaptive management in the context of the world’s most extensive MPA networks. Please see the attached announcement for more details.
Just got this email and am sharing it here:
Dear Colleagues,
I received the attached letter from Chancellor Katehi in which she resigns as the Chancellor of UC Davis. The Divisional Senate admires and applauds her energetic advocacy for California public education and UC Davis in particular. She has been an effective leader in promoting the interests of UC Davis in the state, nation and globally.
Chancellor Katehi’s decision to resign as Chancellor today is understandable, given the recent interactions between the Chancellor and President Napolitano, including the investigation initiated by the President. These circumstances have had a negative effect on the Davis campus and make it impossible for Linda Katehi to be effective as a Chancellor.
The Davis Division is looking forward to a continuing relationship with Professor Katehi as a full-time faculty member. Last October she was hailed for her “visionary leadership in engineering research, entrepreneurship, and education, and for national advocacy of higher education as a major driver of the U.S. economy” by the National Academy of Engineering, when she received the Simon Ramo Founders Award. The Davis Division welcomes her anticipated contributions as a teacher, scholar, and member of the academic community.
Sincerely,
André Knoesen
Chair, Academic Senate
Professor: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Postdoctoral position
To develop new variants of luciferase for biomedical imaging project
Description: A position is available in the Louie Lab in Biomedical Engineering (http://www.bme.ucdavis.edu/louie/) for applicants with strong molecular biology and protein engineering experience.
. This is an excellent opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary team with chemists and engineers, in collaboration with international partners. Initial appointment is for
one year with potential for extension upon mutual agreement.
Qualifications: The postdoctoral candidate should have a Ph.D. in biochemistry,molecular biology, cell biology, or related fields. The candidate must have hands-on experience with the following techniques: PCR, DNA cloning, protein expression/purification/characterization, mammalian and bacterial cell culture and handling, transfection ofmammalian cells, and microscopy. The candidate should have deep understanding of enzyme kinetics and protein chemistry. Some experience in protein engineering would also be a plus. The candidate should be self-motivated and be able to work independently with minimal supervision, but also be capable of working collaboratively with other researchers in various disciplines. Position available to start as early as August.
To apply, please send as a single pdf document: cover letter, 1-2 page research summary, and CV to Dr. Angelique Louie (aylouie) Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Davis
About UC Davis: The Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Davis has 32 faculty, and is a vibrant and multidisciplinary community of more than 120 researchers. The Department is internationally renowned for its research in biomedical imaging, enjoys strong institutional support, and is ranked #6 in the nation, and #1 in California, based on research expenditures by the National Science Foundation. UC Davis also has a School of Medicine (including an NCI- designated Comprehensive Cancer Center), a School of Veterinary Medicine, the California National Primate Research Center, and the Institute for Regenerative Cures offering unparalleled opportunities for collaborative and translational research. Davis is located within 1- 2 hours of San Francisco, Napa Valley, Lake Tahoe and the Northern California coast offering access to a wide range of outdoor and cultural activities and an excellent quality of life.
Yohei Postdoctoral position slk.pdf
REGISTER TODAY!: www.surveymonkey.com/r/JBWQJWW
SUBMIT ABSTRACT: Dr. Valentina Medici at vmedici
UCD 2nd ANNUAL LIVER RESEARCH DAY
Metabolic Pathways to Fatty Liver
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
8:00 AM – 3:45 PM
GBSF Building, Auditorium
451 Health Sciences Drive
Davis Campus
8:00-8:30 AM Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30-8:40 AM Welcome
Christopher Bowlus, MD, Professor and Chief, Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology/Hepatology, UC Davis
Session I
9:00-9:20 AM “Sugar Consumption and Chronic Stress”
Kevin D. Laugero, PhD, Associate Adjunct Professor, Nutrition and USDA WHNRC, UC Davis
9:25-9:45 AM “FXR, Sleeve Gastrectomy and Fatty Liver”
Karen K. Ryan, PhD, Assistant Professor, Physiology and Membrane Biology, UC Davis
9:50-10:10 AM “Lipidomics, Nutrition and Fatty Liver”
Angela M. Zivkovic, PhD, Assistant Professor, Nutrition, UC Davis
10:15-10:35 AM “Methionine Metabolism in ASH and NASH”
Kusum Kharbanda, PhD, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology/Hepatology, University of Nebraska
10:40-10:55 AMCoffee Break
Session II
10:55-11:15 AM “Non-invasive Assessment of NAFLD”
Souvik Sarkar, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology/Hepatology, UC Davis
11:20-11:30 AM “Copper and Lipid Metabolism”
Valentia Medici, MD, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology/Hepatology, UC Davis
11:30-11:50 PM “Fructose as a Risk Factor for NAFLD”
Manal F. Abdelmalek, MD, Associate Professor, Gastroenterology, Duke University
11:55-12:55 PM Lunch (provided for the first 50 registrants) AND
Poster Judging (Poster Facilitators: Drs. Christopher Bowlus, Charles Halsted and James Tabibian)
Session III
1:00-1:30 PM “Advanced Glycation End Products in NASH Pathogenesis”
Natalie J. Torok, MD, MSc, Professor, Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology/Hepatology, UC Davis
1:35-1:55 PM “Mitochondria, Lipid Metabolism, Shcs and Fatty Liver”
Gino Cortopassi, PhD, Professor, Molecular Biosciences, UC Davis
2:00-2:20 PM “Fatty Liver and Risk of HCC in Different Populations”
Eric W. Chak, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology/Hepatology, UC Davis
2:25-2:45 PM Coffee Break
Session IV
2:45-3:05 PM “Emerging Therapies and Clinical Research in NAFLD”
Manal F. Abdelmalek, MD, Associate Professor, Medicine, Gastroenterology, Duke University
3:10-3:30 PM “Studies of Human Stem Cell-derived Hepatocyte-like Cells”
Jan A. Nolta, PhD, Professor, Internal Medicine and Director, Stem Cell Program, UC Davis
3:35-3:45 PM Poster Award Announcements and Closing Remarks
LiverDay_Agenda10-05-16.pdf
LiverDay_CallforAbstracts.pdf
From the inter tubes:
Dear Colleagues,
Davis Postdoc Entrepreneurship and Career group (DPEC) – Knowledge Exchange and Bioinformatics Core will co-host a seminar, “Careers in High-throughput Sequencing”, by Tony Dodge (MSc) and Drew Kebbel (MSc) of Illumina.
Careers in High-throughput Sequencing
Join us for a conversation with Illumina to learn about the future of High-throughput Sequencing in careers in research, emerging markets and entrepreneurship. Tony and Drew will discuss:
This talk is intended for anyone who is interested in high-throughput sequencing and entrepreneurship; all backgrounds are welcome!
Speakers: Tony Dodge (MSc), Executive Business Specialist at Illumina and Drew Kebbel (MSc), Sequencing Sales Specialist at Illumina
Date: Thursday, August 11, 2016 12:30 pm –2 pm (Networking and refreshments to follow)
Location: Auditorium 1005, Genome and Biomedical Sciences Facility (GBSF), UC Davis campus.
If you have any questions, contact us at dpec .
Illumina_Careers in Sequencing_July2016.pdf
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| USC/C-DEBI seeks a full-time Diversity Specialist [ advertisement PDF ] |
The USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI) is seeking a full-time Diversity Specialist to join its team!
C-DEBI is a multi-institutional research and education center funded by the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center (NSF-STC) program, headquartered at USC. Focused on the science of exploring microbial life beneath the seafloor, the Center also prioritizes the integration of deep sea research with education and diversity efforts to strengthen the STEM pipeline for future generations. The Diversity Specialist will help to create, coordinate, and lead our diversity efforts to serve our students, postdocs, faculty, and other participants at USC and across the nation. The Diversity Specialist will assist the C-DEBI Education, Outreach, and Diversity Managing Director who supervises the development and management of these programs.
The ideal candidate for the position of C-DEBI Diversity Specialist has:
Job responsibilities include:
Apply at http://jobs.usc.edu/postings/70927 (Requisition ID 1006784).
We will begin reviewing applications August 19.
The University of Southern California is an Equal Opportunity Employer that Values Diversity.
Well, this is disappointing if not disturbing
A new paper is out that has some interesting findings but the paper itself, and the press release form the authors (at University of Chicago) really goes overboard in misstating the findings.
Here is the paper in Scientific Reports. I purposefully am not putting the title of the paper here in the post yet, because amazingly, even the title is misleading.
But here is what a summary of what they showed, based on their results section, which seems interesting and sound
We are fully cognizant of the fact that the findings reported herein are purely correlative and do not elucidate precise mechanism(s).
These findings suggest the gut microbiota community diversity can regulate host innate immunity mechanisms that impact Aβ amyloidosis.
No. These findings are consistent with that. They are also consistent with, for example, the antibiotics affecting microbes in the brain which in turn could affect inflammatory markers. Or microbes on the skin. Or in the blood. Or elsewhere. I don’t see any evidence here for a causative connection between the gut microbes (which are certainly affected by these antibiotics) and the plaque.
Yet even worse is that this misrepresentation of a causative connection makes it into the title of the article
Antibiotic-induced perturbations in gut microbial diversity influences neuro-inflammation and amyloidosis in a murine model of Alzheimer’s disease
No no no no no no no no. No evidence that the perturbations in the gut microbes are directly influencing anything in the brain. It is a good model. But they need to be more careful with their wording.
And sadly, this gets even worse in the press release about the paper: Antibiotics weaken Alzheimer’s disease progression through changes in the gut microbiome | EurekAlert! Science News
What? This “through changes in the gut microbiome” is just completely misrepresenting what was shown in the paper.
Here are some misleading parts of the PR
The study, published July 21, 2016, in Scientific Reports, also showed significant changes in the gut microbiome after antibiotic treatment, suggesting the composition and diversity of bacteria in the gut play an important role in regulating immune system activity that impacts progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
Nope. Nope. and Nope.
Thankfully there are a few caveats in the PR too but that does not balance misleading statements. The worst is saved for the end
“There’s probably not going to be a cure for Alzheimer’s disease for several generations, because we know there are changes occurring in the brain and central nervous system 15 to 20 years before clinical onset,” he said. “We have to find ways to intervene when a patient starts showing clinical signs, and if we learn how changes in gut bacteria affect onset or progression, or how the molecules they produce interact with the nervous system, we could use that to create a new kind of personalized medicine.”
Basically, saying there will be a cure for Alzheimer’s. And then saying if we learn HOW (not if) gut microbes affect onset or progression, then we can better cure or treat this disease. This is just too bold and misleading for my taste. Nice paper. Interesting work and implications. But it is misleading to say they have shown any causative connection between gut microbes and Alzheimer’s in this paper and also very misleading to start to talk about how they will use this to lead to treatments or cures.
Oh, and did I mention this was in mice not humans? So how do they get from a correlative study in mice to how gut microbes affect progression of Alzheimer’s in humans? Really this is not OK, even to hint at.
And of course, which such misleading material in their own paper and in their PR it is not surprising that some of the reporting on this is going awry.
See the Daily Express for example
Minor correction made
@phylogenomics “Yet then through other papers of the paper” –> pages of the paper?— Upbeat Junior Prof (@upbeatprof) July 23, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
UPDATE 1
And scarily, one of the authors of the paper, Rudy Tanzi is using the paper to promote his book and his claim that Alzheimer’s can be prevented through manipulation of the microbiome
UPDATE 2 — July 24 – 8:50 AM
I have written to the author of the PRs at U. Chicago to ask for a correction to be made
UPDATE 3 — July 24, 9 AM
So many people posting links to the misleading articles where all that comes through (e.g., on Twitter) is the headline including the misleading information about the gut. Am responding to many of them but not all.
Fortunately, Argonne National Lab responded quickly
UPDATE 4 — July 24 11:30 AM
I also will contact the author of this article on ScienceNews: Antibiotics might fight Alzheimer’s plaques because it also has some misleading statements about the gut microbiome connection
Image caption:
PLAQUE FIGHTER A long dose of antibiotics reduced Alzheimer’s-related plaques (shown here in a human brain) in the brains of mice, results that suggest gut bacteria can influence the disease.
1st sentence does better
A long course of antibiotics reduced the levels of a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of mice, possibly by changing the species of bacteria in the gut.
But then it reverts
This microbial shift in the gut appeared to affect the brain.
And continues with more
Sisodia and colleagues don’t know how bacteria signal from the gut to the brain to affect A-beta, although their study raises one possibility.
And then this
If a similar relationship between gut bacteria and Alzheimer’s does exist in people,
UPDATE 5 — July 24 11:45 AM
Sent an email to the author.
