News
Montoya awarded NSF grant for study of nitrogen in Gulf of Mexico
(November 19, 2009) — Joe Montoya of the School of Biology, in collaboration with Annalisa Bracco (EAS) and Tracy Villareal (University of Texas), have been awarded a $965K grant from the National Science Foundation to study nitrogen fixation, nitrogen supply, and biological production in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Goodisman Featured on Science Nation
(November 12, 2009) — Biology professor Michael Goodisman's research on yellow jackets and other social insects has been profiled by Science Nation, a new science video series commissioned by the NSF Office of Legislative and Public Affairs.
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Julia Kubanek selected as the 2009 Faculty Woman of Distinction
(November 6, 2009) — Associate Professor, Julia Kubanek, was selected among several nominees to receive the 2009 Faculty Woman of Distinction award on October 23.
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Dr. Sara Thomas wins VWR Postdoctoral Award
(October 29, 2009) — Dr. Sara Thomas, a postdoctoral researcher in Meghan Duffy’s lab, has been named the inaugural winner of the VWR Postdoctoral Award for Scientific Excellence in Experimental Biology.
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CBID Team Awarded NSF grant
(October 26, 2009) — A team from Georgia Tech’s Center for Biologically Inspired Design (CBID) has been awarded $768,000 from the National Science Foundation for their efforts to develop an interactive design representation system and computer database of biologically-inspired designs.
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Montoya awarded $381K for study of Amazon influences on the Atlantic
(October 20, 2009) — GT Biology Professor Joe Montoya, in collaboration with a team of other researchers, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to study the influences of the Amazon River on the Atlantic.
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Gibson coauthors Nature review on complex diseases
(October 12, 2009) — Professor Greg Gibson is a coauthor on a review article entitled "Finding the missing heritability of complex diseases" that appeared in the 8 October issue of the journal Nature.
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GT Biology Awarded Funds to Upgrade Priest Landing Marine Facility
(October 8, 2009) — A team of researchers from Georgia Tech and GT Savannah have been awarded funds from the National Science Foundation to upgrade School of Biology’s Marine Facility on Skidaway Island.
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Merrill awarded NIH grant
(September 28, 2009) — Al Merrill, Professor and Smithgall Institute Chair in Molecular Cell Biology, has recently been awarded funding from the National Institutes of Health for the study of autophagy (self-eating), a process used by cells to turn over intracellular components.
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GT Biologist Awarded $1.2 Million to Study Seaweed-coral interactions
(September 28, 2009) — Mary Hay, Professor and Harry and Linda Teasley Chair in Environmental Biology, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to study the role of competition between seaweeds and corals.
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GT Researchers Awarded $4.3 Million
(September 25, 2009) — A team of researchers, including Mark Hay, Julia Kubanek, and Terry Snell from Georgia Tech's School of Biology, have been awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health for the exploration, conservation, and development of marine biodiversity in Fiji.
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Adrian Kimei Arakaki, in memoriam to a valued colleague
(September 18, 2009) — Dr. Adrian Arakaki, who joined the School of Biology in 2006 as a member of Biology Professor Jeffrey Skolnick's research group was a very important researcher in the Center for the Study of Systems Biology.
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New Technique Analyzes Seaweed Chemical Defenses
(September 16, 2009) — A new analytical technique is helping scientists learn how organisms as simple as seaweed can mount complex chemical defenses to protect themselves from microbial threats such as fungus.
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Earn Class Credit while in New Zealand and Australia
(September 15, 2009) — The Pacific program offers students a truly unique learning opportunity. Participants will spend six weeks in New Zealand and another six in Australia. You will take four classes, attend lectures, visit sites of cultural and historical importance and learn about the places and people you come in contact with on the other side of the world.
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Biology Faculty Offer Professional Education Course
(September 14, 2009) — Marc Weissburg and Jeannette Yen will offer a short course in Biologically-inspired Design Oct 15-16. This course will provide students with knowledge of natural principles that have contributed to human technological growth, and why such principles were superior to pre-existing solutions.
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Evolutionary Dentistry
(September 3, 2009) — Darwin had his finches, Morgan had his fruit flies, and scientists today have cichlid fishes to trace the biological origins of jaws and teeth. As reported in the journal PLoS Biology, researchers supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) report they have deduced a network of dental genes in cichlids that likely was present to build the first tooth some half a billion years ago. The researchers say their finding lays out a core evolutionary list of molecules needed to make a tooth. Todd Streelman, PhD, a scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and senior author on the study, said the discovery should provide useful information for researchers attempting to coax diseased teeth back to health with biology rather than the traditional hand-held drill.
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Social Behavior Symposium to be held at Tech
(September 2, 2009) — A symposium entitled "Microbes to Metazoans: Regulation, Dynamics, and Evolution of Social Behavior" will be held on Georgia Tech's campus from December 2-4, 2009.
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GT research challenges human-chimp interbreeding
(August 31, 2009) — Nature - A genetic analysis has called into question the controversial claim that early humans and chimpanzees interbred before splitting into separate species.
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Systems Biology Reveals Diversity in Key Environmental Cleanup Microbe
(August 31, 2009) — Researchers analyzed the gene sequences, proteins expressed and physiology of 10 strains of bioremediation microbes called Shewanella. Results showed surprising diversity not seen using traditional microbiology approaches.
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Investigating the Complexity of Chromosome Breaks
(August 13, 2009) — Research Horizons - Everyone has fragile sites on their chromosomes that are particularly prone to breaking, making them hot spots for rearrangements that can lead to hereditary diseases and cancer.
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Understanding the Role of Sphingolipids in Cancer Development
(August 13, 2009) — Research Horizons - For almost 30 years, Georgia Tech professor Alfred Merrill has been studying lipids - the fats, oils, cholesterols and certain vitamins that our bodies need to grow and survive. Today, his expertise lies in a subgroup of lipids called sphingolipids, which influence cell structure, signaling and interaction.
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Investigating DNA Repair Mechanisms
(August 13, 2009) — Research Horizon, July 09 - Exposure to environmental carcinogens such as tobacco smoke and ultraviolet radiation can result in various types of DNA damage and subsequently lead to the development of cancer if the damage is not repaired.
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Examining How Ovarian Cancer Develops
(August 13, 2009) — Research Horizons, July 09 - Unlike many cancer biology researchers who investigate general processes underlying many cancers, John McDonald focuses his investigations broadly on one type of cancer - ovarian.
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Investigating the Role of Epigenetics in Cancer
(August 13, 2009) — Research Horizons, July 09 - While many biologists investigate cancer genetics - mutations in DNA sequences that cause the disease - a growing group of biologists is examining the role of cancer epigenetics, which are changes that contribute to malignancy without causing changes in DNA sequences.
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New Center Focuses on Personalized Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis
(August 7, 2009) — The Integrative Cancer Research Center (ICRC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology is joining forces with the Center for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Development (CCRTD) at Clark Atlanta University (CAU) to establish a Collaborative Cancer Genomics Center (CCGC). The partnership will integrate expertise at both universities that will focus on understanding the underlying causes of prostate, ovarian, pancreatic and lung cancers.
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Partnership To Explore Customized Cancer Care
(August 6, 2009) — AJC.com - A new partnership between Clark Atlanta University and Georgia Tech will explore ways to use DNA sequencing to analyze the genetic makeup of cancer patients and develop customized care.
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Biology Grad Student Awarded Microbiology Fellowship
(July 22, 2009) — PhD student Shandra Justicia has been selected to receive the prestigious American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Robert D. Watkins Graduate Fellowship. ASM's Robert D. Watkins Graduate Fellowship program is highly competitive, and is designed to increase the number of doctoral degrees awarded to members of underrepresented groups. The Robert D. Watkins Graduate Fellowship provides students with a stipend for three years, as well as travel to and accommodations at the annual ASM General Meetings and a visit to the ASM Kadner Institute one time during the three-year tenure of the fellowship.
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DNA MODIFICATIONS SPECIFY CASTES IN HONEYBEES
(July 17, 2009) — Social insects, such as ants, bees, wasps, and termites, form cooperative societies and display the most advanced levels of social behavior. Insect societies dominate terrestrial ecosystems because they consist of distinct queen and worker castes. Queens and workers engage in different types of behaviors, which allow the society to function harmoniously and efficiently.
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GA Tech scientist receives NSF grant to spy on bacterial conversations
(July 15, 2009) — Brian Hammer, assistant professor in the School of Biology at Georgia Tech received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study a cell-to-cell communication system that allows bacteria to "talk" to each other. Bacteria use this process, called quorum sensing, to synchronize their behavior and act like multicellular organisms. The Hammer lab is studying the role of quorum sensing in the environmental lifestyle of the aquatic microbe, Vibrio cholerae, which causes the fatal disease cholera. The grant also includes resources for a K-12 outreach program with undergraduate participation that was developed by Dr. Hammer to introduce concepts about bacteria and marine ecology to local elementary school students and teachers.
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Tech camps serve as outreach for high school students
(July 2, 2009) — The Whistle, Jun 15 - While many Tech students are attending to their coursework during the summer, the Institute has opened its campus to elementary and high school students for several academic camps.
From classes about engineering, robotics, biotechnology, architecture or the investing nuances of Wall Street, high school students from across the state can participate in programs overseen by Tech faculty and staff. (full story )
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Venture Capital in the Life Sciences
(July 2, 2009) — GeomeWeb.com, Jun '09 - Last year's June issue of Genome Technology included a feature story that delved into the world of venture capital in the life sciences. Even a year ago, the marketplace for new life science startup companies was becoming a bit tighter than it had been in the past, though investments were still being made. / / That year the magazine also spoke with SUNY Buffalo's Jeffrey Skolnick, who was ahead of the curve and replacing his 4,000-processor cluster with a 1.32 teraflop IBM blade system. The blades, he said, allowed for a smaller footprint. Skolnick has since moved to GEORGIA TECH, where he heads up the Center for the Study of Systems Biology. One of the facilities at the center is a RAZOR cluster, a 1,000-node IBM cluster that can perform 8.5 trillion calculations per second. As of January 2007, the cluster contained 1,154 blades. (Full Story)
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GSU receives $900K grant to recruit, train science teachers
(July 2, 2009) — Fin Channel.com, May 6 Georgia State University was recently awarded a nearly $900,000 grant from the NSF to increase the number of science teachers in metro Atlanta schools. The grant, titled "Impacting Metro-Atlanta Science Teaching," or I-MAST, will be used to recruit, prepare and suppor t 36 high quality science educators over the next five years... "The partnership between GSU and Georgia Tech is a great way to bring bright young scientists into the classroom," said Jennifer Leavey, director of Undergraduate Academic Services in the Georgia Tech School of Biology. "Tech is a nationally-ranked leader in undergraduate science education, but has no route for certifying K-12 teachers. GSU has an excellent College of Education and is only a few blocks away."
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Cancer: The Cost of Being Smarter Than Chimps?
(June 10, 2009) — A study suggests that humans cognitively superior brains means more instances of cancer compared to chimpanzees.
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Julia Kubanek Awarded CoS Faculty Mentor Award
(April 20, 2009) — The College of Sciences Faculty Mentor Awards are sponsored by the College and the COS ADVANCE Professor in order recognize the time and effort that faculty members spend in mentoring and to appreciate the mentors' services to the community. This year Professor Julia Kubanek, School of Biology and School of Chemistry & Biochemistry, was awarded CoS Faculty Mentor Award.
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