Congratulations to Dr. Darrel Stafford whose paper titled “Dysfunctional endogenous FIX impairs prophylaxis in a mouse hemophilia B model” was recently published in Blood. In this paper, the authors demonstrated that the endogenous expression of a dysfunctional FIX can deleteriously affect the hemostatic response to prophylactic therapy. Read the article >>
Congratulations To Aaron J. Corcoran (right, former Hedrick lab postdoc) and Tyson L. Hedrick (left) for their paper titled “Compound-V formations in shorebird flocks” that has just been published in the journal eLife. The paper shows how individuals in large flocks of shorebirds position themselves to gain an aerodynamic benefit. Read the paper >> Watch the video >>
Congratulations to three researchers from the Jeff Dangl lab – graduate student Lance Jubic (left), postdoc Oliver Furzer (middle), and former postdoc Farid El Kasmi (right – Farid is now running his own lab at the University of Tuebingen in Germany) for their recently published review of the NLR molecules of the plant immune system in Current Opinion in Plant Biology. The review is titled “Help wanted: helper NLRs and plant immune responses”. READ THE REVIEW >>
Congratulations to Dr. Karin Pfennig for her recent Perspectives article in Science titled “How to survive in a human-dominated world”. Her paper asks the question “Can species adapt fast enough to survive” the rapid environmental changes they are now experiencing? In particular, Dr. Pfennig describes the role of hybridization for adaptation to a human-dominated world. READ MORE >>
Congratulations to the Nimchuk Lab for their Nature Genetics paper titled, “Evolution of buffering in a genetic circuit controlling plant stem cell proliferation,” part of a NSF-funded multi-species genome collaboration!
Kale Hartmann, a PhD student in Jeff Sekelsky’s lab, has accepted a position as a “Curriculum Fellow” in Genetics and Genomics at Harvard Medical School (HMS). The Curriculum Fellows Program consists of PhD-level scientists that work to improve and bring innovation to graduate education at HMS.
Professor Ken Lohmann completed his term as President of the International Sea Turtle Society by presiding over the 2019 International Sea Turtle Symposium in Charleston, South Carolina. The symposium is the premier annual event in global sea turtle biology and conservation and attracted more than 850 participants from 52 countries. The theme of the symposium was Navigating the Future. The symposium featured more than 400 oral and poster presentations and 25 workshops, as well as special sessions on Genetics and Genomics, Navigation and Natal Homing, The Future of Sea Turtle Conservation, and Using Science to Inform Conservation.
Kayla Goforth, a Biology graduate student (Lohmann Lab), was runner-up for the Archie Carr Award at the 2019 International Sea Turtle Symposium in Charleston, South Carolina. The Carr Award is given for the best oral presentation on sea turtle biology. Kayla’s talk, titled “Formation of Foraging Site Attachment in Migratory Sea Turtles”, described experiments revealing that captive loggerhead turtles that are fed in a magnetic field characteristic of a specific coastal location can learn to recognize that field and associate it with food. The results provide insight into how turtles learn the locations of particular foraging sites and can navigate to them across hundreds of miles of open sea.
The lab of Gregory Copenhaver, together with his collaborator Ian Henderson from Cambridge University, has been awarded a joint National Science Foundation
(US), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UK) funding initiative called “BTT EAGER.” The project will transfer and extend genomic technology developed in the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana into crop species with more complex genomes and will support postdoctoral associates in both the Copenhaver and Henderson labs.
Congratulations to these UNC-CH students, enrolled as Biology majors and/or double majors, for their induction into Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society. At the induction ceremony, new members receive certificates and Phi Beta Kappa keys, the organization’s symbol. The new inductees are: Kate E. Aberman, Jamie Christine Antinori, Noah Clark Berens, Joshua Stewart Boone, Phoi Bui, Samantha Nicole Catalano, Michelle Renee Cooley, Nicole Grace DeBruyne, Julia Goncalves, Andrew Brantley Harvey, Jinglin Ji, Royce Thinh Le, Jintong Liu, Kaylene Jiayi Lu, Matthew Addison Moravec, Ashton Brooke O’Hara, Natalie Christine Piehl, Kelly A. Pring, Emily Nicole Reichert, Jared Cliff Richards, Dylan Thomas Schuler, Shreya Ashish Shah, Sania Larab Siddiqui, Claire Thefaine, Matthew Franklin Washko, Elizabeth Deane Wilson, Madison Oihua Woo, and Sarah Yueshan Wu.
This year the Native Plant Conference offers a special tribute to Alan Weakley, who for many years has made significant contributions to the study, understanding, appreciation, and conservation of the Southeast’s distinctive native flora and its habitats.
“What do you say about the contributions of one of the most gifted botanists of our time, someone who knows and continues to refine the taxonomic tapestry of thousands of vascular (and non-vascular) plants of the Southeast, who through his work has helped protect thousands of acres of critically important lands, and who has unhesitatingly shared his deep passion and insights into our remarkable flora with so many? One thing you can call him is one in a million and a godsend to those who share his passion and even perhaps more importantly to those that don’t. It is through his work and the others he inspires that we may hope to ultimately decipher the complexities of our regional flora and conserve it for future generations. We all look forward to Alan continuing this incredibly important work for many years and to see what he does next.”—Latimore Smith of Southern Wild, formerly of The Nature Conservancy in Louisiana