All Biology Faculty, Staff, & Grads
are invited to the annual

BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT LUNCHEON

TUESDAY, AUG 21

NOON
Lundgren Room
112 Lyman Hall

We welcome 10 new graduate students this fall:

• Xi Chen, Wuhan University
• Sudipta Dutta, University of Calcutta
• Jessica Ellis, Western Washington Univ
• Xinzhu Gu, China Pharmaceutical
• Nicole Jacobs, SUNY Buffalo
• Madhura Kadaba, Bangalore University
• Rebecca Ruppel, University of Arizona, Tucson
• Fangjie Tang, Fudan University
• Ai Tian, Fudan University
• Wei Xiao, Nanjing University

Link to : Introduction of New Grads

GRAD STUDENTHIGHLIGHTS

Ph.D. Defense
Peibing Qin (Ritchie/Mayer) successfully defended his dissertation, "Effects of light, Nutrient and Dreissena (D. Polymorpha and D. Bugensis) on Benthic Ecosystem in Lakes " on July 13, 2007. Peibing completed his practical training with Abbott Laboratories in Chicago, Il, this spring. He continues at Abbott as a biostatistician.

Andy Campbell (Chan) will defend his doctoral dissertation "Mitochondrial Cholesterol Distribution and Function" on Monday, August 20th at 1 pm.

CLASSES BEGIN MONDAY, AUG. 27
link to academic calendar

REGISTRATION REMINDER

ALL GRAD STUDENTS:

You MUST register EACH semester through your graduation term.

If you are defending in Fall 2007, register for GRD 998 Degree in Progress.

If you have met course requirements for your program, register for GRD 998 Degree in Progress.

You must also file a Full-time Status form if you do not hold a graduate teaching or research appointment.

PUBLICATIONS
Zhong, L. and J.M. Belote (2007) The testis-specific proteasome subunit Prosa6T of Drosophila melanogaster is required for individualization and nuclear maturation during spermatogenesis. Development, in press.

Suen, G., Arshinoff, B.I., Taylor, R.G. & R.D. Welch. 2007. Practical Applications of Bacterial Functional Genomics. Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering Reviews 24: 213-242.

Viswanathan, P., Murphy, K., Julien, B., Garza, A.G. & L. Kroos. 2007. Regulation of dev, an operon that includes genes essential for Myxococcus xanthus development and CRISPR-associated genes and repeats. J. of Bacteriology 189(10): 3738-3750.

Althoff, D.M., M.A. Gitzendanner, and K.A. Segraves. 2007. The utility of AFLPs in phylogenetics: a comparison of homology within and between genomes. Systematic Biology 56:477-484.
 
Althoff, D.M. 2007.  Linking ecological and evolutionary change in multitrophic interactions: assessing the evolutionary consequences of herbivore-induced changes in plant traits. In eds., T. Ohgushi, T. Craig and P. Price, Ecological communities: plant mediation in Indirect Interaction webs. Cambridge University Press.
 
Pellmyr, O., K.A. Segraves, D.M. Althoff, M. Balcázar-Lara, and J. Leebens-Mack. 2007. The phylogeny of Yucca. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 43:493-501.


AWARDS & PRESENTATIONS
Craig Albertson presented at both the Evolutionary & Ecological Functional Genomics Gordon Conference and the International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology in July. Our work on cichlid jaw evolution was also featured in the June 26th issue of the NY Times.

Marvin Druger was awarded First Prize in the Inherit the Wind Essay Contest, sponsored by OSTAR Enterprises. He received an autographed copy of thev ITW Commemorative Collection signed by Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennchy. Inherit the Wind is now on stage at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway. The play concerns the famous Scopes trial where Clarence Darrow defended the teaching of evolution and was opposed by William Jennings Bryan.

Nikhilesh Dhar (Raina), "Identification and characterization of genes involved n
defense signaling in Arabidopsis", awarded first prize for best poster at the 1st Annual AGEP Academic Excellence Symposium; July 15, 2007, Syracuse, NY.

Garret Suen (Welch), "Predicting niche-specific prokaryotic assemblages using protein
domains", awarded first prize for best presentation in the Life Sciences at
the 1st Annual AGEP Academic Excellence Symposium; July 15, 2007, Syracuse,
NY.

Nikhilesh along with labmates Julie Sullivan and Pallavi Gupta presented posters and Aditya Dutta gave an oral presentation at the 2007 NEASPB (Northeast American Society of Plant Biologists Meeting (June 2007, SUNY-ESF).

Biology presenters at the 34th International Conference on the Biology of the Myxobacteria. July 13 - 18, 2007, Granada, Spain:

Anthony Garza: "A transcriptional cascade of enhance binding proteins control M.
xanthus fruiting body development".

Krista Giglio: "Identification and characterization of target developmental genes for the Nla6 and Nla28 enhancer binding proteins".

Garret Suen: "A high-throughput genetic disruption system for Myxococcus xanthus". II

Roy Welch: "xanthusBase Development and the Evolution of an Annotation Repository".

Kari Segraves presented a talk entitled "Florives limit cost of mutualism in the yucca-yucca moth association" at the Ecological Society of America meeting in San Jose, CA Aug 5-10, 2007

David Althoff presented a talk entitled "To specialize or not to specialize: host use and genetic differentiation in the insect community associated with yuccas" at the Ecological Society of America meeting in San Jose, CA Aug 5-10, 2007.

Ying Chen, Grant Gephardt and Melissa Pepling attended two meetings in San Antonio, TX (July 2007) At the Ovarian Workshop, Melissa presented a poster: Steroid Hormone Signaling Regulates Neonatal Oocyte Development through Multiple Pathways.
At the Society for the Study of Reproduction Annual meeting, Ying presented a poster: Estradiol Inhibits Cyst Breakdown Through Estrogen Receptors in Neonatal Mouse Ovary Organ Culture. Grant presented a poster: Strain Differences in Neonatal Oocyte Development and Sensitivity to Estradiol.

Pepling lab technician, Emily Sundman, is leaving to attend vet school at Cornell and a new tech, Nicole Patterson has been hired.