Category Archives: Rhode Island Stem Cells

ExtramuralBy Julie Leibach

Exposure to microcystin a toxin commonly released during harmful algal blooms can change the guts collection of microorganisms, or microbiome, and the associated abundance of antibiotic resistance genes, according to an NIEHS-funded study in mice.

Harmful algal blooms occur in water where nutrient runoff fuels the growth of toxin-producing organisms, such as microbes called cyanobacteria. Among the variety of toxins released by cyanobacteria, microcystin is the most prevalent. Routes of exposure include drinking or eating contaminated water or food, as well as skin contact.

For their study, the researchers exposed young mice to microcystin for two weeks. Then, they analyzed fecal and blood samples for the types of microbes and antibiotic resistance genes present. They found that exposure to microcystin caused a pronounced change in microbiome makeup and a notable decline in several beneficial gut bacteria compared with unexposed mice. That change correlated with an increase in the number and diversity of genes related to resistance to common antibiotics, such as tetracycline and macrolides. (Research has shown that antibiotic-resistance genes can be transferred from bacteria to host.)

Microcystin exposure also increased immune dysfunction in adult mice. Specifically, the team measured an increase in biological markers associated with immune system deterioration. They reported similar effects in mice designed to elicit human-like immune responses that typical lab mice might not reflect.

According to the authors, their study is the first to characterize the effect of microcystin on the immune system and on antimicrobial resistance. The findings have implications for which treatments are offered to people with other conditions who have also been exposed to the toxin.

Citation:Saha P, Bose D, Stebliankin V, Cickovski T, Seth RK, Porter DE, Brooks BW, Mathee K, Narasimhan G, Colwell R, Scott GI, Chatterjee S. 2022. Prior exposure to microcystin alters host gut resistome and is associated with dysregulated immune homeostasis in translatable mouse models. Sci Rep 12(1):11516.

Researchers funded by NIEHS identified understudied chemicals that frequently occur in the same products as those linked to breast cancer. These findings could inform studies looking at how exposure to chemical mixtures influences disease risk. The team focused on common exposure pathways, including food, pesticides, and personal care products, among others.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death among women worldwide. Only 10% of cases are attributed to genetic predisposition; the remainder stem from other risk factors, such as environmental exposures. However, data are scant regarding the role of chemical mixtures on breast cancer development.

The researchers first turned to a vast federal database that inventories chemicals used globally. For various compounds, they manually assigned key words related to 32 types of exposure pathways that people might encounter daily. Next, the team divided chemicals in the database into three categories: those with known breast cancer associations, those with no known association, and chemicals whose association with breast cancer had not been studied.

In total, the team assessed more than 6,300 understudied chemicals for co-occurrence with cancer-related compounds as well as for similarities between structure and chemical properties. Of those, they identified 50 understudied substances with chemical properties like those of cancer-linked agents that should be prioritized for additional toxicological and human studies.

The results highlight a need to consider chemical co-occurrence in mixtures especially when compounds share certain features when examining how everyday exposures influence breast cancer risk, according to the authors.

Citation:Koval LE, Dionisio KL, Friedman KP, Isaacs KK, Rager JE. 2022. Environmental mixtures and breast cancer: Identifying co-exposure patterns between understudied vs breast cancer-associated chemicals using chemical inventory informatics. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol; doi:10.1038/s41370-022-00451-8 [Online 16 June 2022].

Increased flooding from climate change in the U.S. will likely expose more people to legacy waste from former industrial sites, according to an NIEHS-funded study. Populations that face inequality stemming from racial, economic, and housing status are more likely to live in the areas that could be affected.

The researchers chose six urban centers located near coasts or along rivers that have experienced major industrial development and where legacy contamination has been documented. Those sites included populous areas in Rhode Island, Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Oregon.

By examining state manufacturing directories spanning nearly 60 years, the team identified nearly 15,500 former industrial sites in certain sectors such as coal, petroleum, and rubber that were highly likely to be contaminated with waste considered harmful to humans. The researchers then estimated the future flood risk of those sites, drawing on data from the First Street Foundation, which makes projections based on multiple flood models.

All told, they identified 6,636 sites facing an elevated flood risk by 2050, and thousands to hundreds of thousands of people at risk of local exposure to contaminated floodwaters. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the team also discovered that groups with higher measures of social vulnerability were overall more likely to live in those flood-prone areas.

The findings suggest that urban planning efforts should include strategies for remediation and engagement with residents of historically marginalized communities, the authors noted.

Citation:Marlow T, Elliot JR, Frickel S. 2022. Future flooding increases unequal exposure risks to relic industrial pollution. Environ Res Lett 17(7):074021.

The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 establishes infection by rewiring how cells make and process lipids, or fats, according to researchers funded in part by NIEHS. They also found that preventing cells from making certain fats stopped several coronavirus strains from proliferating.

First, the team explored how SARS-CoV-2 influences fat composition by exposing cells to live virus, as well as by altering cells to express individual virus proteins. Of hundreds of lipids analyzed, most revealed significant changes in structural and chemical properties after cells were exposed to the virus compared with unexposed cells. The researchers observed similar results in cells expressing virus proteins compared with cells without proteins.

Fats called triacylglycerols (TAGs) the most abundant fats in animal cells increased most substantially in response to infection. Further investigation showed a dramatic increase in TAG-related lipid droplets, which store fats, in cells expressing certain viral proteins. The researchers noted that those proteins may play a direct role in stimulating TAG production.

The team also evaluated the ability of fat-targeting compounds, such as weight-loss drugs, to stop infection. Drugs that inhibited pathways involved in TAG synthesis and breakdown successfully blocked viral proliferation. They were also effective against four coronavirus variants of concern, in addition to the original strain.

The array of lipid changes that occurred after infection indicates that SARS-CoV-2 affects fat metabolism in diverse ways, through multiple molecular mechanisms, according to the authors. Understanding cellular pathways that the virus needs for survival is a critical step toward developing targeted treatments.

Citation:Farley SE, Kyle JE, Leier HC, Bramer LM, Weinstein JB, Bates TA, Lee JY, Metz TO, Schultz C, Tafesse FG. 2022. A global lipid map reveals host dependency factors conserved across SARS-CoV-2 variants. Nat Commun 13(1):3487.

(Julie Leibach is a senior science writer at MDB, Inc., a contractor for the NIEHS Division of Extramural Research and Training.)

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Environmental Factor - September 2022: Extramural Papers of the Month - Environmental Factor Newsletter

KINGSTON, R.I. June 7, 2022 The University of Rhode Islands fifth annual Research and Scholarship Photo Contest attracted a stunning collection of photos from university students, staff, and faculty.

The contest provides a unique opportunity for URIs researchers and scholars to convey their ideas and work, as well as their unique perspectives, through the photographs and digital images they capture.

The annual contest is co-sponsored and coordinated byUniversity of Rhode Island Magazine;the URI Division of Research and Economic Development magazine,Momentum: Research & Innovation; and the Rhode Island Sea Grant/URI Coastal Institute magazine,41N: Rhode Islands Ocean andCoastalMagazine. A panel of judges, which includes URI alumni and staff, selects the winning images.

This year, for the first time, all winning photos were submitted by URI studentsboth undergraduate and graduate students, and all our winning entries were from work being done in the same college, the College of the Environment and Life Sciences.

The stunning photos reinforce that time-tested adage: A picture is worth a thousand words.Winning photographers are listed below, with descriptions of their photos.

FIRST PLACEWater Collection of a HoneybeeCasey Johnson, graduate student in plant sciences and entomology, of Warwick.

In the heat of summer, honeybees can often be found collecting water from puddles, gutters, and other unsavory sources, says Johnson, who is a graduate student in Professor Steven Alms lab at the URI Agricultural Experiment Station at East Farm in Kingston. She continues, We noticed that our honeybees were drinking water from sphagnum moss in the pots of pitcher plants, which led us to investigate the water-collecting behavior of honeybees on four local moss species. Here, a water forager honeybee rests on one of our observational moss setups, drinking water that she will bring back to her hive.

SECOND PLACEJam-Packed MicromussaMichael Corso 24, aquaculture and fisheries science major, of Medford, Massachusetts.

This Micromussa lordhowensis coral colony was shot at Love the Reef, a marine animal distributor/coral aquaculture facility in Wilmington, Massachusetts, where I work, says Corso, who aspires to preserve tropical marine species. He continues, In the wild, this species is found in the South Pacific and along Australias Great Barrier Reef. The bioluminescent colors emanate from the corals symbiont algae, zooxanthella. Rising ocean temperatures and acidification can prevent the corals from holding onto the algae they depend upon, resulting in coral bleaching. Land-based sustainable aquaculture efforts may be the last chance coral species like these have at surviving in our future environment.

THIRD PLACEPiping Plover ChickBranden Costa, graduate student in environmental science and management, focused on conservation biology, of Westport, Massachusetts.

Costa observed this juvenile piping plover foraging after a rainstorm on Washburn Island (Massachusetts). These birds, says Costa, who studies migratory bird behavior and population dynamics are vulnerable to many threats before and after hatching, including predation, desiccation, human disturbances, and storm surges. They begin foraging for themselves mere hours after hatching and remain flightless for 2530 days as they develop flight feathers for end-of-season migration. This chick was the last surviving member of its brood. The others were taken by two off-leash domestic dogs. This chick demonstrates the unwavering resilience piping plovers must exhibit to survive.

HONORABLE MENTIONLast NerveMichelle Gregoire, doctoral student in cell and molecular biology, of Goshen, Connecticut.

Nerves relay sensory or motor information in the body and are made up of nerve cells, or neurons, says Gregoire. In Professor Claudia Fallinis lab, where I do my research, we study cellular pathologies in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia (ALS/FTD). We differentiate the neurons we study from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), derived from patient skin or blood cells. Using immunofluorescence and our Leica DMi8 Widefield Fluorescence microscope, we visualized this stunning motor neuron. During the differentiation process, not all the stem cells differentiated into neurons, instead forming a mass of cells, visible here above the lone neuron.

HONORABLE MENTIONRadiotagged Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling, Spring 2021Carolyn Decker, graduate student in natural resources science, of South Deerfield, Massachusetts.

This nine-month-old, rare salt marsh turtle is about the size of a poker chip and has just emerged from the secret sandy burrow where he spent his first winter, says Decker. For my masters thesis, I documented the movements and habitat use of this species. This individual turtle helped us better understand the differing needs of hatchling and adult terrapins. My observations helped us to make wildlife management and conservation recommendations to protect the animals at all ages. This photo shows the tiny radio transmitter that was glued to the terrapins shell so researchers could track his movements.

HONORABLE MENTIONMicroplastic Particle from Narragansett BaySarah Davis, doctoral student in biological and environmental sciences, of New York City

This strangely beautiful image of a 1 millimeter microplastic particle was captured with an Olympus BX63 automated light microscope, says Davis, who works with Professors Coleen Suckling and Andrew Davies on a Rhode Island Sea Grant project investigating microplastic particles in Narragansett Bay. For this project, she says, we trawl a plankton net behind a URI vessel. The net collects material floating on and just below the waters surface; the material collected is processed and analyzed in the lab. By studying the concentration and characteristics of microplastics in our local environment, we can help inform decisions about mitigating pollution at the source.

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Fifth annual University of Rhode Island Research and Scholarship Photo Contest winners announced - University of Rhode Island

Paul Choi 86, J.D. 89, a longtime Harvard alumni leader and a lawyer with expertise on governance, has been elected president of Harvard Universitys Board of Overseers for the 202223 academic year. Leslie Tolbert 73, Ph.D. 78, a neuroscientist and former senior vice president for research at the University of Arizona, will serve as vice chair of the boards executive committee. Both elected as Overseers in 2017, Choi and Tolbert will serve in the boards top leadership roles for the final year of their six-year terms.

Paul Choi and Leslie Tolbert have both served Harvard with uncommon devotion and distinction, especially during their past five years as Overseers, said President Larry Bacow. Paul has deep experience with the governance of complex organizations, including Harvard, and a long record of leadership in alumni affairs. Leslie is a widely admired scientist, educator, and academic leader who has in recent years played a particularly valuable role in our visiting committee process. I look forward to working even more closely with them next year, as the Overseers continue to help guide the University through times of challenge and change.

Choi and Tolbert succeed Helena Buonanno Foulkes 86, M.B.A. 92, a past executive in the consumer health care and retail sectors who is currently running for governor of Rhode Island, and P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale 74, a developmental psychologist and former vice provost for academics at Northwestern University.

Paul Choi is a partner at the international law firm Sidley Austin LLP, where he is a member of his firms executive committee and global co-head of its mergers and acquisitions practice. He has a long record of advising clients on a broad range of governance matters. His professional honors include longstanding recognition in the Chambers publication The Worlds Leading Lawyers for Business, and he was recently recognized as lawyer of the year for his work in corporate governance law in Chicago in the 2021 edition of The Best Lawyers in America.As a member of Harvards Board of Overseers, Choi chairs the boards institutional policy committee and the boards working group on elections. He also serves on the Overseers executive committee and its subcommittee on governance, the governing boards joint committee on alumni affairs and development, and the standing committee on social sciences, of which he is the former vice chair. He also is serving or has served on the visiting committees for Harvard College, the Economics Department, Harvard Law School, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Its a tremendous honor and privilege to be elected as president of the Board of Overseers and to have the opportunity to serve the University and my fellow board members in this new role, said Choi. I look forward to working with President Larry Bacow, the Harvard leadership, and my Overseer colleagues in advancing the academic mission of our extraordinary institution and navigating the many challenges and opportunities which lie ahead. Choi added that hes grateful to have Leslie Tolbert, a distinguished scientist and wonderful colleague, as a partner in leading the board.

Long one of Harvards most engaged alumni leaders, Choi served as president of the Harvard Alumni Association in 2015-16 and as a member of the HAA executive committee from 2011 to 2020. He served as an elected director of the HAA board from 2009 to 2012. A past president of the Harvard Club of Chicago and a reunion leader for his College and Law School classes, Choi also has been an alumni interviewer for three decades. He is a member of the deans leadership council at Harvard Law School, as well as the advisory board for the HLS Program on Corporate Governance.

Choi graduated from Harvard College, magna cum laude, in 1986 and went on to earn a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1989, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review and was awarded the Sears Prize. After graduation, he served as a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

A strong advocate for university-based research and for interdisciplinary studies, Leslie Tolbert is Regents Professor Emerita in Neuroscience at the University of Arizona. Her career at the university has included such leadership roles as senior vice president for research; vice president for research, graduate studies, and economic development; interim dean of the graduate college; and chair of the campus-wide committee on neuroscience. Her own neuroscience research has focused on the impact of sensory input on the development of brain circuitry, the interactions of neurons and glial cells, and the development and plasticity of the olfactory system.

As a Harvard Overseer, Tolbert serves on the executive committee, chairs its subcommittee on visitation, and also chairs the boards committee on natural and applied sciences. In addition, she sits on the committee on Schools, the College, and continuing education, the joint committee on alumni affairs and development, and the joint committee on appointments. Besides her overall leadership on visitation matters, she chairs the visiting committee for the Harvard Library and has served on visiting committees for Harvard Medical School and School of Dental Medicine and for several academic departments: Human and Evolutionary Biology, Psychology, and Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology.

Im honored by the opportunity to serve as vice chair of the Board of Overseers executive committee, said Tolbert. I joined the board to give back to the institution that plays such an important national and international role and shaped so much of my own personal and professional lives. Now, I look forward to working even more closely with Paul Choi and my other Overseer colleagues to help President Bacow, Provost Alan Garber, and other Harvard leaders advance and renew Harvards tradition of excellence and its leadership across so many domains.

Tolbert graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1973. She earned her Ph.D. in anatomy from Harvard in 1978, through the Division of Medical Sciences, and continued as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. After five years on the faculty of the Georgetown University School of Medicine, she moved to the University of Arizona in 1987, became a tenured full professor in 1995, and was named Regents Professor in 2002.

An expert on early brain development and brain plasticity, she was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for her outstanding contribution to knowledge of the intercellular interactions between developing and mature neurons and glial cells and service to academic research and professional societies. She has served on numerous committees, councils, and advisory boards for government agencies, universities, research institutions, and professional associations. An early member of the Society for Neuroscience and past president of its Tucson chapter, she is also past president of the Association of Neuroscience Departments and Programs and of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences.

The Board of Overseers is one of Harvards two governing boards, along with the President and Fellows, also known as the Corporation. Formally established in 1642, the board plays an integral role in the governance of the University. As a central part of its work, the board directs the visitation process, the primary means for periodic external assessment of Harvards Schools and Departments. Through its array of standing committees, and the roughly 50 visiting committees that report to them, the board probes the quality of Harvards programs and assures that the University remains true to its charter as a place of learning. More generally, drawing on its members diverse experience and expertise, the board provides counsel to the Universitys leadership on priorities, plans, and strategic initiatives. The board also has the power of consent to certain actions such as the election of Corporation members, including the president.

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Paul Choi and Leslie Tolbert to lead Board of Overseers - Harvard Gazette

Rhode Island Blood Center (RIBC) and Connecticut Blood Center (CTBC) announced today a blood emergency, as school breaks and increased travel have caused an alarming drop in donations.

According to a press release, the blood supply currently stands at a 2-to-3-day level; platelets along with types O and B- are at just a 1-to-2-day supply. This is well below the ideal inventory of 5-7 days.

Hospitals and patients rely upon a steady flow of volunteer donors to receive life-saving blood donations. According to the latest figures put out by Americas Blood Centers, only 3 percent of the U.S. population donates blood.

This time of year can always be difficult for the blood supply, with school breaks and increased travel making blood donations less of a priority, saidBeau Tompkins, Senior Executive Director of the RI & CT Blood Centers.We highly encourage all who are able to please donate today to help us meet this critical need in our community.

According to the press release, it only takes one hour to donate, and a single donation can save multiple lives. Roughly one in seven hospital admissions requires a blood transfusion. Those in need include cancer patients, accident, burn, or trauma victims, transplant recipients, surgery patients, chronically transfused patients suffering from sickle cell disease or thalassemia, and many more.

To make an appointmentcall 800.283.8385 or visitribc.orgorctblood.org.

RHODE ISLAND BLOOD CENTER(RIBC) was founded in 1979 as a nonprofit community blood center. For over 35 years, RIBC has been the primary supplier of blood and blood products to patients being cared for in hospitals throughout Rhode Island and in neighboring states. Our mission is to help save lives by ensuring a safe and plentiful blood supply to the patients and hospitals we serve. RIBC is also part of the National Marrow Donor Program and collects stem cells for transplant at its Providence location. RIBC provides therapeutic treatments for patients in local hospitals. Our state-of-the-art laboratory performs donor testing for over 400,000 donations per year. RIBC is also involved in various local and national research programs to improve all aspects of the blood supply. RIBC is a division of New York Blood Center, Inc. (a family of operating Divisions known as New York Blood Center Enterprises). For more information, visitribc.org.

CONNECTICUT BLOOD CENTER(CTBC) supplies blood and blood products to patients being cared for in over a dozen Connecticut hospitals. CTBC operates a hospital services blood storage depot from our Connecticut center so we can quickly and reliably get urgent or unexpected orders to local hospitals. CTBC is operated by the Rhode Island Blood Center, a part of theNew York Blood Center Enterprisesfamily with more than five decades of experience saving lives by ensuring a safe and plentiful blood supply to the patients and hospitals we serve. CTBC is also part of the National Marrow Donor Program, registering individuals throughout New England to become lifesaving stem cell donors for patients who need a transplant to survive.

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Blood Emergency declared in Rhode Island and Connecticut - What'sUpNewp

Six students pursuing doctoral degrees atWest Virginia Universityare receiving funding through the Ruby Scholars Graduate Fellows Program. This years fellows are Kelsey Bentley, Julia Ivey, Anuj Kankani, Claire Kelly, Zoe Pagliaro and Matthew Waalkes.

Recipients must be pursuing a graduate degree in one of the following fields: energy and environmental sciences, biological, biotechnical and biomedical sciences, or biometrics, nanotechnology and material science, security, sensing, forensic sciences and related identification technologies. The fellowships financial support allows incoming doctoral-level scholars to commit themselves fully to expanding their study and use their research to benefit the people of WVU, the nation and the world.

We are proud to welcome another extraordinary group of scholars to WVU this year with the support of the Ruby Fellows program, said Maryanne Reed, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. I continue to be impressed by these Fellows and their ability to think across disciplines, their drive to explore the unknown and their desire to create change in their communities and the world. Our Ruby scholars are the next must watch innovators at WVU.

Established in 2011 by the Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust, the Ruby Fellows program includes a $34,000 stipend, a $2,000 travel grant and a waiver of tuition for each fellow to continue their research at WVU.

Kelsey Bentley

Driven by a love for animals, Kelsey Bentley, of Micro, North Carolina, initially entered college with the intention of becoming a veterinarian. She changed course when her undergraduate mentor showed her an alternative career path that focuses on helping animals by educating livestock producers about the science behind their work. She earned her bachelors degree in animal science, with a concentration in veterinary bioscience, at North Carolina State University, and came to WVU for a doctorate in animal and food science.

During her graduate assistantship, Bentley conducted research in partnership with Virginia Tech to understand the genetic basis for enhancing animals health by requiring fewer treatments of antibodies in their feed. Now, Bentley hopes to aid producers in making better decisions to manage their flocks.

Bentleys decision to proceed with her doctorate was two-fold: She ultimately hopes to teach at the collegiate level, and she understands the immense impact of higher education as a first-generation college student.

My parents really pushed me, saved for me and put their everything into making sure that, if I wanted to go to college, I had the opportunity, and that was my driving factor, she said.

For Bentley, the Ruby Fellowship builds upon her parents commitment to her success.

It gives me the ability to focus 110% into my research, and sink my heart and soul into my thesis, Bentley said. The financial freedom this brings means so much to this small-town girl with a big dream.

After completing her doctorate, Bentley hopes to join the faculty at North Carolina State University and pursue a position as an extension agent.

Julia Ivey

A West Virginia native from Oak Hill, Julia Ivey attended Shepherd University, where she earned a bachelors degree in biochemistry. Specifically, Ivey is interested in neuroscience and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain disease resulting from repeated concussions that can only be diagnosed postmortem.

Im interested in research on the brain, Ivey said. Theres so much we still do not know about it, and research allows me to learn more about it and solve problems. I want to make a difference in neurodegenerative diseases.

During her time at Shepherd University, Ivey participated in the West Virginia IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence, a National Institutes of Health-funded summer research program led by WVU and Marshall University. In the laboratory of WVUs Paul Lockman, she conducted research focused on the efficacy of cannabidiol, alone and in combination with radiation, in treating breast cancer that metastasized to the brain.

Ivey was drawn to WVU because the University offers unique opportunities to participate in innovative research. One research study that fascinated her was a Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute project that uses focused ultrasound as a treatment for Alzheimers.

Additionally, being a Ruby scholar allows Ivey to focus on her research.

Im thankful for the scholarship because I can fully commit myself to my studies and research without having to worry about the financial stability, Ivey said. From my education so far, Ive realized you have to put in the work and people dont realize how difficult a STEM field can be, and theres always so much to learn.

Ivey wishes to continue conducting research to contribute to the discovery of new cures or treatment possibilities for neurodegenerative diseases after completing her doctorate in neuroscience.

Anuj Kankani

Anuj Kankani, of Katy, Texas, earned his undergraduate degree in physics at Texas A&M University. At WVU, Kankani plans on pursuing a doctorate in physics with a focus on astrophysics and studying extreme spacetimes, such as black holes and neutron stars.

The problems you work on are researching some of the biggest things in the universe some of the most complicated processes and you learn new tools, which to use and how to use them properly, Kankani said.

For the past two and a half years, Kankani has been a part of two different undergraduate research projects allowing him to combine his physics, computer science and astrophysics knowledge.

At WVU, Kankani will conduct research with Sean McWilliams, whose work with gravitational waves is the type of research Kankani wants to do in graduate school.

Kankani is excited for the opportunity to pursue this graduate program thanks to the Ruby Fellowship.

The fellowship will allow me to focus on learning more about astrophysics and my field, Kankani said. Also, I will be able to gain more skills both research and general, like collaborating with people and contributing to the field with my own research.

Additionally, Kankani hopes to finish his PhD and continue research in a professional setting.

Being a Ruby scholar means an opportunity to make the most out of my time at West Virginia University, he said. I like learning every year. You become better at learning and realize how much there is out there to learn, and how much you dont know.

Claire Kelly

Claire Kelly, a native of Morgantown, attended WVU for her undergraduate degree in immunology and medical microbiology. After her first biology class in high school, Kelly knew she wanted to pursue a doctorate in molecular biology.

Most people with a Ph.D. didnt know they wanted to pursue one, but Ive always been so curious about biology as a whole - specifically of how cells work and interact with each other, Kelly said.

As she progressed through her major, she realized her passion focused more on the immunology side and less on the microbiology side.

Especially with neuroimmunology, its a very niche field so my favorite part working in it is there are a lot of new things to learn, said Kelly. Every time I do an experiment and I get new data, thats a tiny piece of some puzzle that I get to contribute to.

Kellys focus in her graduate research is inflammation in immunological mechanisms in the brain and central nervous system and autoimmune diseases.

During her time at WVU, Kelly said one of the aspects she is most thankful for is the guidance and mentorship shes received from those around her.

I look at the older graduate students, and Im hoping Ill build to the point they are, Kelly said. Ive gotten where I am today from graduate students that helped me along my experience in the labs Ive worked in, and I want to be able to do that for others.

Kelly is pursuing a doctorate in the accelerated program for immunology in microbial pathogenesis and hopes to become principal investigator of her own research lab.

Zoe Pagliaro

Zoe Pagliaro graduated from Skidmore College in New York with a bachelors degree in environmental science. Originally from South Kingstown, Rhode Island, Pagliaro said she was drawn to WVU because of Edward Brzosteks lab focusing on sequestering biocarbon underground to make agricultural lands environmentally sustainable.

Before attending WVU, Pagliaro worked on a project focused on developing a rapid and efficient soil carbon assessment tool that provides accurate data to help farmers and land managers join carbon markets. She was among the first students to analyze soil samples to guide land management decisions on former Vice President Al Gores farm.

Additionally, Pagliaro co-authored a review paper on the biochemistry of the Amazon rainforest over the past 10 years. That data set was used, with Pagliaros participation, at a National Geographic Society convention in Brazil.

Pagliaros field research showed her the joy and impact of science.

Its an amazing feeling to be a small part of the puzzle to fix the bigger issue of climate change, she said.

Pagliaro was shocked when she received the news of becoming a Ruby scholar.

I thought it was a huge honor to receive, and a huge honor to even be nominated, Pagliaro said. It was really a proud moment to see that I can do great things and that this prestigious group believes in me.

Pagliaro aims to continue doing research to solve environmental issues related to climate change as she pursues her doctorate in biology.

I cant give enough thanks to those who made this possible for me, Pagliaro said. Ive felt so lucky to be as educated as I am, and education is empowering. This shows how much I can accomplish and achieve.

Matthew Waalkes

A native of Frederick, Maryland, who moved to Waynesboro, Virginia, in high school, Matthew Waalkes attended the Virginia Military Institute and received an undergraduate degree in biology. He became interested in biology because of his curiosity about the world.

You dont know what the answer is going to be, and your job is to explore this vast unknown, Waalkes said. Thats what particularly interested me in neuroscience no one knows a lot about it.

Waalkes has many years of lab experience, as he initiated an undergraduate research project examining the cross-sectional anatomy of soybean stems and branches that was published. Also, Waalkes conducted a study using zebrafish to assess the developmental and neurodevelopmental impact of potential toxins and pesticides with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to inform safety guidelines for chemicals.

Waalkes is now focused on the interaction between chemicals and the nervous system to treat disorders of the central nervous system. When he found out he was accepted into the Ruby Fellowship program, he was ecstatic.

Being a Ruby Fellow means its a challenge its a recognition and youve come this far, we recognize this, and we want you to meet these standards, Waalkes said. And I accept the challenge and hopefully exceed these standards.

After completing his doctorate in biology, he hopes to continue his research while teaching others as a middle school science teacher.

Learning new things always makes education exciting, and teaching the next generation is something that Ive always enjoyed and wanted to pursue, Waalkes said.

The charitable trust was established by Hazel Ruby McQuain, wife of the late J. W. Ruby. Before passing at 93 in 2002, she was involved in philanthropic giving to support WVU and local organizations for more than 20 years. One of her many gifts includes an $8 million gift toward the construction ofJ.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, named after her husband.

-WVU-

jr/08/03/21

CONTACT: Cassie RiceCommunications SpecialistWVU Foundation304.554.0217; crice@wvuf.org

Call 1.855.WVU.NEWS for the latest West Virginia University news and information from WVUToday.

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.

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WVU names 2021 class of Ruby Fellows | WVU Today | West Virginia University - WVU Today

- Pam Stetkiewicz, Ph.D., Appointed Chief Operating Officer - Kathryn McCabe, Ph.D., Named SVP, Head of Business Development

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arbor Biotechnologies, an early-stage life sciences company discovering and developing the next generation of genetic medicines, announced today the appointments of Pam Stetkiewicz, Ph.D., as Chief Operating Officer, and Kathryn McCabe, Ph.D., as SVP, Head of Business Development. These appointments further expand Arbors leadership team and strengthen its focus on therapeutics.

Bringing Pam and Katy on at this time represents a significant milestone for Arbor as we drive our genetic medicines portfolio to the clinic and partner with leading companies to bring engineered cell therapies to patients, said Devyn Smith, Ph.D., CEO, Arbor Biotechnologies. Their scientific expertise, business acumen, and extensive experience in cell therapy and gene editing will help us execute on this strategy to develop therapeutics with our tailored library of CRISPR-based genetic editors and modifiers.

Pam Stetkiewicz is joining Arbor from Flagship Pioneering, where she was Senior Vice President, Global Program Leader at Flagship Pioneering Medicines. Dr. Stetkiewicz brings more than 20 years of extensive life-sciences pharmaceutical experience with recent experience at Editas Medicine as Vice President, Program and Alliance Management. At Editas, she led the team that filed the first IND for an in vivo CRISPR therapeutic (EDIT-101 for LCA10). Prior to Editas, Dr. Stetkiewicz worked at Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research for 13 years, in a variety of roles across science, alliance, project and portfolio management. Her last role at Novartis was as Executive Director, in Strategic Alliances which involved early business development and collaborations with external companies. She received her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. from the University of Rhode Island.

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Im thrilled to be joining Arbor at this exciting time, said Dr. Stetkiewicz. The company has made significant progress in the discovery and development of innovative therapies, particularly in the genetic medicines space, and I am looking forward to helping fulfill the therapeutic promise of Arbors already impressive discoveries.

Kathryn (Katy) McCabe is joining Arbor from Roche where she was Senior Director of Business Development based in Cambridge, MA. Over the last 20 years, she has combined her scientific knowledge, entrepreneurial spirit, and business experience to help transform novel modalities into new medicines at Roche, Lilly, Baxalta and GSK. Dr. McCabe has focused much of her attention on cell and gene therapy and has closed deals for CAR-T, diabetes cell therapy, in vivo gene editing, and gene therapy as well as led large strategic initiatives in these areas. In addition, she has had close interactions with a number of venture funds as the scientific lead for Lillys limited partnerships. Early in her career, Dr. McCabe led a team of senior scientists to develop stem cells for retina and corneal transplantation. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Marianne Bronners lab at Caltech, received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Behavior from the University of Washington, and her B.A from the University of Pennsylvania.

I look forward to finding partners that share our vision of bringing curative therapies to patients, said Dr. McCabe.

About Arbor BiotechnologiesArbor Biotechnologies is an early-stage life sciences company discovering and developing the next generation of genetic medicines. Co-founded by Feng Zhang and David Walt, Arbor uses its proprietary discovery engine to uncover unique CRISPR-based genetic modifiers with differentiated genetic editing and delivery capabilities. Following its strategic partnership with Vertex Pharmaceuticals to accelerate the path to the clinic for Arbors technologies, Arbor recently announced an agreement with Lonza. These partnerships further validate the breadth of applications of Arbors gene editing platform that can be custom tailored to address the underlying pathology of each genetic disease. Arbors pipeline of genetic medicines is focused on bringing curative therapies to all patients with genetic disease.

Media Contact:Kelly Friendlypress@arbor.bio

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Arbor Strengthens Focus on Therapeutics with Key Additions to Leadership Team - Yahoo Finance

Donate Blood Stem Cells or Marrow

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One patient. One donor. That is how life-saving blood stem cell and marrow transplant matchesare made. Every three minutes someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer like leukemia. Thecure isin the hands of ordinarypeople, and it could be you.Through the Rhode Island Blood Center's partnership withBe The Match, the National Marrow Donor Program, you may find you are theone and only match forsomeone who doesn't have one in their family. Make today the day you sign up to save someone's life.

Complete some health questions and forms right here online to sign up. We will send you a cheek swab kit to do the rest.

A simple cheek swab you can easily complete yourself is all it takes. Donors and patients are matched by their HLA (human leukocyte antigen) type, which is different from matching blood types, and the results of the cheek swab tell us your type. Return your swabs right away!

Once you are on the registry, doctors search for a close match for their patients. You may match someone who has been waiting for a transplant now, or end up being someone's match in the future.

Stem cells arecollected right at the Rhode Island Blood Center througha process that is similar to donating blood platelets or red cells. It's called a PeripheralBlood Stem Cell Donation.You would receive five daily shots inyour armto boost thenumber of stem cells in your blood stream. Then you make thedonation, which takes 4 - 6 hours. Donors can experience bone pain from the stem cell boost. Recovery is usually quick, however --just one ortwo days after the donation is made.

Marrow donations are made at a hospital under anesthesia soyou do not feel any pain. Doctors remove a small amountof marrowfrom your pelvicbone with a needle. Recoveryis usually quick, though some donors may have aches and pains for several days to a few weeks. Your marrow naturally replenishes itself in fourto sixweeks.

I understand that:

If I match a patient:

I promise to:

Some conditions that would prevent you from becoming adonor:

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Donate Blood Stem Cells or Marrow | Rhode Island Blood Center

In the 1960s and 70s, the liberal wing of faith institutions was ascendant, with a progressive religious component to key struggles like civil rights, farmworkers rights and peace. But for the past almost 40 years, the right-wing has sucked most of the oxygen out of the faith sector of our society, including the explosion of conservative televangelists and the growth of organizations like the Family Research Council and a Catholic Church that has moved in a more conservative direction.

In 2004, progressive faith organizing began through the National Council of Churches, the umbrella group of mainline Protestant denominations in the U.S. The group doing the organizing, Faithful America, became independent in 2013.

Between The Lines Melinda Tuhus spoke with the Rev. Nathan Empsall, an Episcopal priest and campaigns director with Faithful America, which does online organizing and has involved more than 180,000 people in its campaigns. Here, Rev. Empsall talks about his groups past successes and what progressive people of faith have confronted during the Trump era.

THE REV. NATHAN EMPSALL: We describe ourselves as the largest online community of grassroots Christians putting faith into action for social justice, reclaiming Christianity from the religious right. We do that using online campaigns and online organizing. So MoveOn.org, Credo, Indivisible, are now familiar to folks in a way they werent when we were first founded. There are a lot of great Christian organizations and progressive organizations out there that have a communications approach and a grass-tops approach and highlight faith leaders. Thats so important. But we help give people in the pews a voice to raise their faith and their religion and put that into action. Our members are both lay and ordained, and represent every major denomination in the U.S. Theyre from all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

MELINDA TUHUS: What are some of the issues youve worked on?

THE REV. NATHAN EMPSALL: We were really involved with the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2009. We did a lot of work on climate change at that time. We helped a group of Catholic sisters beat a fracking pipeline in Kentucky; I believe it was in 2013. A lot of our organizing is around LGBTQ rights and full LGBTQ inclusion in the church, in Christianity. Every human being was created in Gods image and has God-given dignity, and the Gospel is all about love and says nothing about sexuality. We stand for that Gospel love and fully support LGBTQ rights and stand against all of the bigotry and discrimination we see coming from the religious right against LGBTQ persons.

Tony Perkins is the leader of the Family Research Council, which the civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, has identified as a hate group. Faithful Americas members in, I believe it was 2013 or 2014, helped persuade MSNBC to stop featuring Tony Perkins as a talking head and pundit representing Christianity on its programs and also curtailed his appearances on CBS and I believe on ABC. These networks would bring Perkins on to represent the Christian point of view not the right-wing point of view, but for the Christian point of view, as if theres only one. And then hed spew all kinds of hatred in Jesus name that in no way represented Jesus. And thanks to sustained long-term pressure from our members, MSNBC stopped bringing him on. That was a very important victory, we thought, certainly at the time.

Weve continued to pressure Catholic bishops and Catholic schools to stop firing teachers for marrying the people they love teachers and other staff members. And weve certainly spoken out about Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr. and their support for Donald Trump.

MELINDA TUHUS: Yay! And what about this year? You said you actually brought on more staff for 2020.

THE REV. NATHAN EMPSALL: 2020 has been a particularly big and successful year for Faithful America. As you might imagine, weve been very busy around the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, there are a lot of religious bad actors out there, spreading false information about COVID-19, and refusing to take important public health actions, even though Jesus was a healer who taught us how to care for the sick, so from the very beginning of the pandemic, Faithful America members were working to a social justice response to the virus and stop the spread of that disinformation.

We continued working on social justice measures around the pandemic, helping pair asylum seekers and refugees who didnt have a place to stay, who would usually live with individual families. But those families had to close their doors due to the pandemic. We helped those refugees and asylum seekers find willing churches that were empty and had space to sponsor them and their requests for asylum.

Jim Bakker, the infamous televangelist from the 1980s, is back on the air now, and he was touting a fake cure for the coronavirus at the start of the virus. Our members sprang into action and helped get his show taken off at least two different networks. That was a really important victory for public health.

Weve continued to take action around the pandemic all year long. Right now, were working to stop disinformation around the vaccines. And Im proud to say since that campaign began, at least one bishop has changed their position and now supports the Pfizer vaccine, after previously incorrectly claiming it was made with stem cells and that no Catholic or Christian should take the vaccine. Well, thats not true; thats not how Pfizer and Moderna made their vaccines, and were helping to correct that misinformation in religious circles.

MELINDA TUHUS: I imagine some issues might be rather divisive. For example, have you done any work around abortion rights?

THE REV. NATHAN EMPSALL: As an organization, Faithful America, has not run campaigns specifically related to abortion access or reproductive rights. We have spoken out against the ex-communication or denial of the sacraments to politicians for taking pro-choice stances. We made a lot of headlines around both Tim Kaine and Joe Biden in their different elections, when bishops threatened to deny them communion, or local priests in Bidens case, in Rhode Island. We said that no one should be denied full participation in the church because of their political positions on those issues. And weve spoken out against folks who harass women outside abortion clinics in Jesus name.

For more information, visit Faithful America atfaithfulamerica.org.

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Faithful America Confronts Religious Bigotry and Christian Teachings that Serve a Hateful Political Agenda - Between The Lines

The first coronavirus vaccine arrived in record time, an essential step toward delivering an end to the pandemic. Now comes another challenging phase of the fight: producing enough shots to immunize the majority of the U.S., and getting them into everyones arms by next summer.

If successful, the plan could help end a pandemic thats killed almost 300,000 Americans in the 47 weeks since the first case was recorded. FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. picked up the first shipment of the Pfizer Inc.BioNTech SE vaccines from a Kalamazoo, Michigan, factory on yesterday morning.

Army Gen. Gustave Perna, who serves as the chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, said on Saturday the first doses of the Pfizers and BioNTechs vaccine will be delivered today. The initial delivery will be completed in all 50 states by Wednesday, he said.

Its an enormous and historic undertaking thats already been been marked by confusion and uncertainty. As late as Friday, some states were saying they werent sure how many doses theyll get. There have also been questions about whether the U.S. has ordered enough shots to meet its ambitious distribution schedule moving into 2021.

Were not taking a victory lap, Perna said on Saturday. We know that the road ahead of us will be tough. We know that situations will occur, but we will figure it out together, collectively, a whole-of-America approach to solve the problems.

Perna, donning battle fatigues and speaking without any preamble from political appointees, compared the moment to D-Day, the Allied invasion of France that marked the turning point in Europe in World War II. D-Day was the beginning of the end. Thats where we are today.

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

Gustave Perna

The Pfizer shot, and a similar vaccine from Moderna that is only a week away from a decision on emergency authorization, will be in short supply initially. Just 2.9 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be delivered in the first shipment, a fraction of whats needed to vaccinate health-care workers and nursing home residents, who are atop the priority list. Read more from Robert Langreth, John Tozzi and Angelica LaVito.

Another 2.9 million doses are being held back to make sure the second vaccine dose, to be given 21 days later, will be available for people who get the first round. Additionally, 500,000 are being held as an emergency reserve. The government is holding up the second dose just until we have ultimate confidence, and weve built up stocks to ensure that we can get the American people a second dose, Perna said, adding that he expects both doses could start to be sent out together in mid-January or February.

Complicating the distribution logistics is that the Pfizer vaccine must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures of minus-94 degrees Fahrenheit until a few days before use. Pfizer developed special dry-ice containers to make it easier to store for facilities that dont have the needed equipment. Make no mistake, Perna said, distribution has begun, with 40 million doses available by the end of the month if Modernas shot is authorized alongside Pfizers. Robert Langreth, John Tozzi, and Angelica LaVito have more.

Most of U.S. to Be Vaccinated by June, Slaoui Says: As many as eight in 10 people in the U.S. could be vaccinated by next summer, according to Slaoui, who heads Operation Warp Speed. After the FDA authorized emergency use of the the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, the Moderna vaccine likely will be approved by Friday, Slaoui told Fox News. We need to have immunized about 75% to 80% of the U.S. population before herd immunity can really be established, said Slaoui, adding that he hopes to achieve that level between May and June. Read more.

Sanofi Vaccine Setbacks Temper Optimism: Vaccine makers, including two of the biggest in the world, suffered setbacks in the push to get more shots across the finish line, tempering a run of optimistic news. Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline delayed late trials of their Covid-19 vaccine candidates after they failed to produce a strong enough response in older people, pushing its potential availability closer to 2022. In another blow, trials of a candidate being developed by CSL and the University of Queensland also saw some problems. Tim Loh and Suzi Ring report.

Island-Hopping Drones to Help Bridge Vaccine Divide: In the debate over whether the rich will receive Covid-19 inoculations before the poor, or city dwellers before rural communities, few places illustrate the difficulty of vaccine equity in a global economy better than in Miami. Home of Americas wealthiest zip code, Miami is also the main air-cargo bridge between the developed world and Haiti, Nicaragua and other impoverished nations across the Caribbean and Latin America. That puts Miami International Airport at a key crossroads in the effort to distribute shots quickly to the masses in the U.S. and its poorer neighbors to the south. Read more from Brendan Murray.

New Yorks Surge Deep but Less Deadly: Once the epicenter of the pandemic, New York sits on the brink of breaking its case record from spring. The impact of this latest surge, though, is almost unrecognizable from those nightmarish early days. For now, the state is staving off the repercussions of the current spike in cases, with ample hospital capacity and one of the lowest death rates in the U.S. Read more from Nic Querolo and Keshia Clukey.

More Headlines:

Full $908 Billion Pandemic Bill Coming Today: A bipartisan group of lawmakers will unveil a $908 billion coronavirus pandemic relief bill today, though theres no guarantee Congress will pass it, one of the key negotiators said. We were on a call all day yesterday, well get on a call again this afternoon to finish things up, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Fox News yesterday. Well have a bill produced for the American people tomorrow, $908 billion.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers engaged in the negotiations have said they completed detailed proposals on small business help, vaccine-distribution funds and other key areas. The sticking point is how to shield employers from virus-related lawsuits, a top demand of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). A competing, $916 billion relief proposal is also circulating from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Manchin, one of eight negotiators from both parties involved in the bills drafting, expressed confidence that Congress will pass a relief bill before the holiday break. The plan is alive and well and theres no way, no way that were going to leave Washington without taking care of the emergency needs of our people, he said. Whether that is enough to clear fiscal stimulus in both houses is an open question. Read more from Tony Czuczka.

Surprise Medical Billing Fix Emerges in House: House and Senate committee leaders have struck a deal on a bipartisan fix for surprise medical bills, likely paving a way for its passage soon. Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) has signed onto legislation that would ban balance billing, where a doctor or hospital charges a patient fees their insurer wont cover, for most out-of-network care. It also seeks to hold patients harmless when they get emergency care from an out-of-network provider. Read more from Alex Ruoff.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was quick to put her support behind the deal. On Friday she said the House would push for this critical legislation to end surprise billing to be passed as part of the end-of-year package.

Amazons Halo Raising Privacy Concerns: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is urging Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to address privacy concerns around Amazons Halo health tracking bracelet. Halo enters the consumer market at a time where there are very few federal regulations in place to require privacy and security protections for consumers personal health data collected by these wearable fitness devices, Klobuchar said in a letter to Azar on Friday. Read more from Andrea Vittorio.

Wyden Criticizes IRS Pre-Obamacare Plan Tax Rule: Employers and health insurers will more easily be able to continue offering employer health plans that were in existence before Obamacare took effect under a final rule released by the IRS. These health plans were allowed to continue after the laws effective date in March 2010 even though they dont offer the same benefits as newer plans that must conform to the Affordable Care Act. They stem from President Barack Obamas statement about his signature health-care law, If you like your current plan, you can keep it.

The agency released the rules (T.D. 9928; RIN: 1545-BP67) on Friday. Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said the rules potentially mean millions of Americans could face higher out-of-pocket costs for their health care. Read more from Fawn Johnson and Sara Hansard.

Hearings on the Hill:

Ex-Rep. Kennedy Bids to be Bidens Drug Czar: Patrick Kennedy, a former Rhode Island congressman and once the face of his familys Democratic dynasty, is seeking to head President-elect Joe Bidens drug-control office. Kennedy, who had his own public struggle with addiction and mental health, is collecting endorsements from key players around Biden in a bid to head the White Houses Office of National Drug Control Policy, often called the drug czar. The office coordinates drug policies ranging from law enforcement to treatment programs. Read more from Alex Ruoff.

Covid-19 Vaccines Triumph Raises Hope for Cancer Fight: The first vaccines against Covid-19 arent just a landmark in the fight against the coronavirus. Theyre also the stepping stone for an unconventional technology that could one day defeat other ailments that have eluded doctors, from cancer to heart disease. The shots from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech employ genetic material known as messenger RNA to effectively transform the bodys own cells into vaccine factories. Such mechanism had never been used outside of clinical experiments, and just how well it worked against the coronavirus astounded even its most enthusiastic backers.

Now, with one vaccine having gained U.S. clearance and the other close behind, the pandemic validation could wrench open a whole new field of medicine. Were now entering the age of mRNA therapeutics, former Harvard University stem-cell biologist Derrick Rossi, who co-founded Moderna in 2010, said. Read more from Naomi Kresge and Robert Langreth.

More Headlines:

With assistance from Alex Ruoff

To contact the reporter on this story: Brandon Lee in Washington at blee@bgov.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Zachary Sherwood at zsherwood@bgov.com; Giuseppe Macri at gmacri@bgov.com; Michaela Ross at mross@bgov.com

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HEALTH CARE BRIEFING: Covid-19 Vaccinations to Begin Across US - Bloomberg Government

In the midst of a pandemic that has brought so much worry and loss, its natural to want to helpto do some small part to solve a problem, to counter pain, or to, importantly, remind others that there is beauty and wonder in the world. Scientists have long been doing just that. Many are chasing answers to the myriad challenges that people face every day, and revealing the rewards in the pursuit of knowledge itself. Its in that spirit that we present this years SN 10: Scientists to Watch.

For the sixth consecutive year, Science News is featuring 10 early- and mid-career scientists who are pushing the boundaries of scientific inquiry. Some of the researchers are asking questions with huge societal importance: How do we prevent teen suicide? What are the ingredients in wildfire smoke that are damaging to health? Is there a better way to monitor earthquakes to save lives? What about finding new ways to diagnose and treat diseases?

Others are trying to grasp how weird and wonderful the natural world isfrom exploring how many supermassive black holes are out there in space to understanding the minuscule genetic details that drive evolution. For instance, SaraH Zanders, one of this years SN10, is unveiling the drama that unfolds when life divvies up its genetic material.

A couple of the scientists on this years list have also taken steps to support people from groups that are underrepresented in the sciences. These researchers see how science benefits when people from diverse backgrounds contribute to the pursuit of answers.

Headlines and summaries of the latest Science News articles, delivered to your inbox

All of this years honorees are age 40 and under, and all were nominated by Nobel laureates, recently elected members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences or previous SN 10 scientists. The world feels very different than it did at the start of 2020, when we first put out our call for SN 10 nominations, but the passion these scientists have for their work endures. The curiosity, creativity and drive of this crew offers hope that we can overcome some of our biggest challenges.

Though it often takes time, out of crisis comes action. Also out of crisis comes a renewed appreciation for small pleasures that give life meaning. These researchers find joy in the search for scientific answers. Heres how Zanders describes what motivates her work: Its just I like to solve puzzles. ElizabethQuill

Affiliation: Dartmouth CollegeHometown: Dhaka, BangladeshFavorite black hole: Cygnus X-1

Tonima Tasnim Ananna is bringing the heaviest black holes out of hiding. She has drawn the most complete picture yet of black holes across the universe where they are, how they grow and how they affect their environments. And she did it with the help of artificial intelligence.

As far as astronomers can tell, nearly every galaxy stows a black hole at its center, weighing millions or billions of times the mass of the sun. Though these supermassive black holes can heat surrounding material until it glows brighter than all the galaxys stars combined, the light can be concealed by gas and dust also drawn in by the black holes pull. High-energy X-rays cut through that dusty veil. So for her Ph.D., completed in 2019, Ananna gathered surveys from four X-ray telescopes, more datasets than any previous study had used. Her goal was to create a model of how black holes grow and change across cosmic history. It was supposed to be a short paper, Ananna says. But models that explained one or a few of the datasets didnt work for the full sample. It stumped us for some time.

To break the gridlock, she developed a neural network, a type of artificial intelligence, to find a description of the black hole population that explained what all the observatories saw. She just went off and taught herself machine learning, says astrophysicist Meg Urry of Yale University, Anannas Ph.D. adviser. She doesnt say, Oh, I cant do this. She just figures out a way to learn it and do it. One early result of the model suggests that there are many more active black holes out there than previously realized.

Black holes could be gobbling down gas as fast as theoretically possible.

Galaxies live and die by their black holes. When a black hole puts out energy into the galaxy, it can cause stars to form, Ananna says. Or it could blow gas away, shutting down star formation and stunting the galaxys growth (SN: 3/31/20). So understanding black holes is key to understanding how cosmic structures everything from galaxy clusters down to planets and perhaps even life came to be. Anannas model is built on data describing black holes at different cosmic distances. Because looking far in space is like looking back in time, the model shows how black holes grow and change over time. It could also help figure out how efficiently black holes eat. Early hints suggest black holes could be gobbling down gas as fast as theoretically possible, which may help explain how some got so big so fast (SN: 3/16/18).

When Ananna was a 5-year-old in Dhaka, Bangladesh, her mother told her about the Pathfinder spacecraft landing on Mars. Her mother was a homemaker, she says, but was curious about science and encouraged Anannas curiosity, too. Thats when I realized there were other worlds, she says. Thats when I wanted to study astronomy. There were not a lot of opportunities to study space in Bangladesh, so she came to the United States for undergrad, attending Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She chose an all-womens school not known for a lot of drinking to reassure her parents that she was not going abroad to party. Although Ananna intended to keep her head down and study, she was surprised by the social opportunities she found. The women at Bryn Mawr were fiercely feminist, articulate, opinionated and independent, she says. It really helped me grow a lot. Traveling for internships at NASA and CERN, the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva, and a year at the University of Cambridge, boosted her confidence. (She did end up going to some parties no alcohol for me, though.)

Now, Ananna is giving back. She cofounded Wi-STEM (pronounced wisdom), a mentorship network for girls and young women who are interested in science. She and four other Bangladeshi scientists who studied in the United States mentor a group of 20 female high school and college students in Bangladesh, helping them find paths to pursue science. LisaGrossman

Affiliation: Texas Tech UniversityHometown: Rome, ItalyFavorite telescope: Very Large Array, New Mexico

On September 3, 2017, Alessandra Corsi finally saw what she had been waiting for since mid-August: a small dot in her telescope images that was the radio afterglow of a neutron star collision. That stellar clash, discovered by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory team, or LIGO, which included Corsi, was the first direct sighting of a neutron star collision (SN: 10/16/17). The event, dubbed GW170817, was also the first of any kind seen in both gravitational waves and light waves.

Telescopes around the world spotted all kinds of light from the crash site, but one particular kind, the radio waves, took their sweet time showing up. Corsi had been waiting since August17, when the gravitational waves were spotted. Longest two weeks of my life, Corsi says. The radio waves were key to understanding a superfast particle jet launched by the colliding stars.

Early on, the jet appeared to have been smothered by a plume of debris from the collision (SN: 12/20/17). But follow-up radio observations made by Corsis team and others confirmed that the jet had punched through the wreckage (SN: 2/22/19). This jet was the first of its kind to be seen from the side, allowing Corsi and colleagues to probe its structure. The jet almost certainly would have gone unnoticed if the gravitational waves hadnt clued astronomers in.

Corsi is a pioneer in the new field of multimessenger astronomy, which pairs observations of light waves with spacetime ripples, or gravitational waves. The pairing is like having eyes and ears on the cosmos, Corsi says. You cannot learn all that you could with only one of the two. In the case of GW170817, gravitational waves revealed how the neutron stars danced around each other as they spiraled toward collision, and light waves unveiled the type of material left in the aftermath (SN: 10/23/19). Using this multimessenger approach could also give astronomers a more complete picture of other cataclysms, such as smashups between neutron stars and black holes, and the explosive deaths of massive stars. Such spectacular events reveal some of the most fundamental physics in our universe, Corsi says.

If gravitational wave signals were converted into sound, they would create their own kind of music.

Most researchers specialize in either gravitational waves or light, but Corsi is very well-versed in both messengers, says Wen-fai Fong, an astrophysicist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. That makes her extremely versatile in terms of the types of multimessenger science she can study.

Corsi has now built a computational tool to scan LIGO data for gravitational waves stirred up by whatever is left behind in a neutron star merger. The tool is based on a paper she published in 2009 years before LIGO scored its first gravitational wave detection (SN: 2/11/16). The paper describes the gravitational wave pattern that would signal the presence of one possible remnant: a rapidly spinning, elongated neutron star. Alternatively, a neutron star smashup could leave behind a black hole. Knowing which tells us a lot about how matter behaves at densities way higher than we could ever explore in a lab, Corsi says.

Corsi taught herself to play the piano in high school, and now enjoys playing both classical music and tunes from favorite childhood movies, like Beauty and the Beast. The audio frequencies of piano notes are similar to the frequencies of spacetime tremors picked up by LIGO. If gravitational wave signals were converted into sound, they would create their own kind of music. Thats the thing I like to think of when Im playing, she says. MariaTemming

Affiliation: Colorado State UniversityHometown: Richmond, R.I.Favorite outdoor activities: Cross-country skiing and gardening

Emily Fischer has always cared about air pollution. Its innate. Its a calling, she says. Exposure to air pollution raises your risk for many common ailments, such as cardiovascular disease, asthma, diabetes and obesity. But unlike some other risk factors for these diseases, you cant choose not to breathe, right? You have to have clean air for everyone. In her youth, she organized rallies to clean up the cigarette smokefilled air of her Rhode Island high school. That interest led Fischer to study atmospheric chemistry and motivates her current work as a self-described air pollution detective. Air pollution may conjure images of thick black plumes billowing from smokestacks, but Fischer says most air pollution is invisible and poorly understood. She combines analytical chemistry with high-flying techniques to understand where air pollution comes from and how it changes as it moves through the air.

Wildfire smoke like that filling the skies in the American West this season is a major, but still mysterious, source of air pollution. Thousands of different solids, liquids and gases swirl together to form wildfire smoke, and its chemical composition changes as it blows through the atmosphere. This dynamic mixture, which is also affected by whats burning on the ground, is tricky to measure, since each of its many components requires highly specialized equipment and expertise to assess. The equipment also has to be airborne, typically lofted into the air via planes or balloons. There has been beautiful work on wildfire smoke, Fischer says, but in most studies, we just have not had all the measurements needed to really interpret things.

You cant choose not to breathe, right? You have to have clean air for everyone.

To get a fuller view, she dreamed big: Why not try to measure everything, and measure it systematically? She pulled together a diverse team of 10 lead researchers, and scores more graduate students and postdocs, to pull off the most comprehensive analysis of wildfire smoke ever attempted, a project dubbed WE-CAN. During the summer of 2018, Fischer led over a dozen six-hour flights over the West, chasing wildfire smoke plumes and systematically measuring the air in and around smoke plumes with nearly 30 different instruments crammed into the cargo hold of a C-130 plane.

[WE-CAN] is a big collaboration, says Ronald Cohen, an atmospheric chemist at the University of California, Berkeley. He says success stemmed in large part from the team that came together.

Making an environment for successful collaboration is really satisfying to me, Fischer says.

While team members are still analyzing the data, the project is already revealing some of the smokes secrets. For example, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide two chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems are abundant in wildfire smoke. Recent wildfires show how important it is to understand the role of climate change in fires, Fischer says, and who is most vulnerable in our society, and how we can best prepare and protect those communities.

Fisher is also planning to adapt some of what shes learned from WE-CAN to track ammonia emissions from farms and feed lots, which are another major source of air pollution.

Fischer is deeply committed to bringing more undergraduate women, especially women of color, into the geosciences. And shes using science to figure out how. She brought a team of social scientists and geoscientists together to study how different interventions can help. She and colleagues found that for every female role model a student has, her probability of continuing on in her geosciences major roughly doubles. Having someone to look up to who looks like them is key to building a sense of belonging and identity as a scientist, Fischer says. To help build that network, Fischer started PROGRESS, a workshop and mentorship program that aims to support undergraduate women in the geosciences. Started at Colorado State University in 2014, the program has since expanded, reaching over 300 women at institutions across the United States.

For her own mentees, Fischer tries to instill a willingness to take risks and go after big, bold questions. The easy things are done, she says. Pushing forward our understanding of pressing questions means chasing research projects that might lead nowhere, she says, or might crack open a new field of research. Its OK to be wrong, and its OK to take risks. Thats what science needs right now. JonathanLambert

Affiliation: University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignHometown: Mumbai, IndiaFavorite element:Gold

Prashant Jain explores how light interacts with matter such as how plants use sunlight to photosynthesize and applies that knowledge to new problems. He recently took lessons from nature to convert carbon dioxide into other useful molecules. In a paper last year in Nature Communications, Jain and Sungju Yu, also at Illinois at the time, reported using gold nanoparticles as a catalyst to drive chemical reactions between carbon dioxide and water.

When light hit the nanoparticles, it set off a series of reactions that converted carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels such as methane and propane. In essence, the process not only sucked carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas out of the air, but it also made that carbon into fuel. No wonder the oil giant Shell is funding Jains work. The whole process isnt very efficient, so Jain is working to improve how much carbon dioxide gets used and how much fuel gets produced. But along the way he hopes to learn more about how nature uses energy to make matter and to inspire his lab to create more sustainable and renewable energy technologies.

I am myself still a student.

In another example of using chemistry to push toward future technologies, Jain and colleagues shined light on gold and platinum nanoparticles and triggered reactions that liberated hydrogen from ammonia molecules. Hydrogen is important in many industries fuel cells for zero-carbon vehicles use it, for example but it can be dangerous to transport because its flammable. Jains discovery could allow workers to transport ammonia instead, which is safer, and then free the hydrogen from the ammonia once it has arrived wheres it needed. The work was reported online in July in Angewandte Chemie.

Jain has a remarkable ability and optimism to see unsuccessful laboratory experiments as successful steps toward understanding the natural world, says Karthish Manthiram, a chemical engineer at MIT. As a first-year graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, Manthiram remembers being frustrated that his experiments werent turning out as expected. But Jain, a postdoctoral fellow in the same lab, stepped in to helpand recast the problematic results. Hes always viewed what others see as failure as moments of clarity that build up to moments when things make more sense, Manthiram says. For me that was an important lesson in how to be a scientist.

Growing up in a family that worked mostly in business and finance, Jain fell in love with science as a preteen inspired in part by watching the movie Jurassic Park and its fictional depiction of what might be possible through understanding the molecular world. Soon he spotted a physics textbook for sale from a street vendor and bought it. I tried to read the book, nothing much made sense, he says. I wanted to be the one to figure out all these mysteries of nature. He chose to major in chemical engineering in college (inspired in part by a magazine published by the chemical company DuPont), and then switched to physical chemistry when he moved to the United States to get a Ph.D.

Promoted this year to full professor, Jain has never stopped pushing to acquire new knowledge; when he finished teaching this last spring semester, he enrolled in an online MIT course on quantum information science. I am myself still a student, he says. AlexandraWitze

Affiliation: Indiana UniversityHometown: Houston, TexasFavorite fieldwork: Observing rituals

Between 2000 and 2015, at a high school of about 2,000 students in the town of Poplar Grove (a pseudonym), 16 former and current students died by suicide; three other similar-aged individuals in the community, mostly at private schools, also took their own lives. A clinician who had grown up in the town reached out to Anna Mueller for help breaking the cruel cycle. Before that e-mail in fall 2013, Mueller was using big data to understand why teen and young adult suicide rates in the United States were spiking. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that suicides among 10- to 24-year-olds jumped 56 percent between 2007 and 2017.

Scholars theorized that suicidal people attracted other suicidal people. But Muellers work undercut that idea. In 2015 in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, for instance, she reported that merely having a suicidal friend did not increase a teens suicide risk. A teens risk only went up with awareness that a teenage friend had made a suicide attempt. Knowledge of the attempt matters to transformingrisk, Mueller says. She carried an understanding of that contagion effect to Poplar Grove, where she worked with sociologist Seth Abrutyn of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, the half of the duo who is more focused on the theoretical.

Anna Muellers long-term goal is to create a sort of litmus test that identifies schools that could be at risk of a suicide cluster.

The team conducted 110 interviews and focus group meetings, lasting from 45 minutes to four hours, with Poplar Grove residents, plus some individuals outside the community for comparison. The teams research revealed that teens felt an intense pressure to achieve in their affluent, mostly white town, where everybody seemed to know everyone else. While teens and young adults in a first wave of suicides might have had mental health problems, peers and community members often attributed those deaths to the towns pressure cooker environment. That narrative, however incomplete, was especially strong when the youth who killed themselves were classic overachievers. Tragically, over time, that script became embedded in the local culture, making even youth who werent previously suicidal see suicide as a viable option (SN: 4/3/19), Mueller says.

Mueller and Abrutyn were among the first researchers to start chipping away at the underlying reasons for why suicide rates have been rising in high schoolers, particularly overachieving girls without obvious underlying mental health problems, says Bernice Pescosolido, a sociologist at Indiana University in Bloomington who helped bring Mueller into the schools sociology department. What Anna and Seth have really been able to show is how imitation works and what the contagion effect looks like on the ground.

Muellers long-term goal is to create a sort of litmus test that identifies schools that could be at risk of a suicide cluster. That way, school and community leaders can intervene before the first suicide and its resulting firestorm. Since fall 2018, she has been researching suicide trends in school districts in Colorado that are more diverse than Poplar Grove. When it comes to school culture, her early work shows, theres often a trade-off between academic or athletic excellence and a supportive environment.

In anticipation of her work in Poplar Grove, Mueller knew she needed a more boots-on-the-ground approach than her big data training allowed. So she trained in qualitative methods, including how to design a study; interview techniques, such as how to write questions to elicit desired conversations; and the detailed data analysis required for this research tactic.

Mueller also sees the value in observing interactions, a common sociological approach. This spring, with the pandemic in full swing, she spent a lot of time on her home computer watching socially distant graduation ceremonies in her Colorado schools. She found that a schools culture showed in the details, such as whether valedictorians addressed hot-button issues, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, in their speeches. Of all of my moments in the field, rituals are the ones that tug at my own heartstrings because Im watching kids graduate and thats just inherently beautiful, but it also is a very powerful data moment, she says. SujataGupta

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Affiliation: MITHometown: Adelaide, AustraliaFavorite subatomic particle: The gluon

When Phiala Shanahan was a graduate student, she was shocked to learn that experiments disagreed on the size of the proton (SN: 9/10/19). Protons and neutrons are the key building blocks of 99 percent of the visible matter in the universe, she says. And we know, in some sense, surprisingly little about their internal structure.

If theres something I dont understand, Im extremely stubborn when it comes to figuring out the answer.

That ignorance inspires her studies. She aims to calculate the characteristics of protons and neutrons based on fundamental physics. That includes not just their size, but also their mass and the nature of their components how, for example, the quarks and gluons that make them up are sprinkled around inside. Such calculations can help scientists put the standard model, the theory that governs elementary particles and their interactions, to the test.

Shanahan is known for her prowess calculating the influence of gluons, particles that carry the strong force, which binds the proton together. For example, when gluons contributions are included, the proton is squeezed to a pressure greater than estimated to exist within incredibly dense neutron stars, she and a coauthor reported in Physical Review Letters in 2019. Its a very remarkable calculation, says physicist Volker Burkert of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Va. Thats very fundamental, and its the first time it has been done. Because they have no electric charge, gluons tend to elude experimental measurements, and that has left the particles neglected in theoretical calculations as well. Shanahans gluon results should be testable at a new particle collider, the Electron-Ion Collider, planned to be built at Brookhaven National Lab in Upton, N.Y. (SN: 4/18/17).

Persistence. I hate not knowing something, she says. So if theres something I dont understand, Im extremely stubborn when it comes to figuring out the answer.

A technique called lattice QCD is the foundation for Shanahans work. Its named for quantum chromodynamics, the piece of the standard model that describes the behavior of quarks and gluons. QCD should allow scientists to predict the properties of protons and neutrons from the bottom up, but the theory is incredibly complex, making full calculations impossible to perform even on the best available supercomputers. Lattice QCD is a shortcut. It breaks up space and time into a grid on which particles reside, simplifying calculations. Shanahan is leading efforts to use machine learning to rev up lattice QCD calculations putting her persistence to good use. We dont have to rely on computers getting better. We can have smarter algorithms for exploiting those computers, she says. She hopes to speed up calculations enough that she can go beyond protons and neutrons, working her way up to the properties of atomic nuclei. EmilyConover

Affiliation: CaltechHometown: Kolomna, RussiaFavorite protein: He cant pick just one

Mikhail Shapiro believes that in the future, were going to have smart biological devices that are roaming our bodies, diagnosing and treating disease something akin to the submarine in the 1966 classic sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage. As the shrunken sub entered and repaired the body of a sick scientist, commanders on the outside helped control it. Similarly, were going to want to talk to the cells that we are going to send into the body to treat cancer, or inflammation, or neurological diseases, Shapiro says.

Shapiro and his colleagues are working on building, watching and controlling such cellular submarines in the real world. Such a deep view inside the body might offer clues to basic science questions, such as how communities of gut bacteria grow, how immune cells migrate through the body or how brains are built cell by cell.

Despite his futuristic visions, Shapiro is often drawn to the past. I like science history a lot, he says. Right now, hes in the middle of rereading the Pulitzer Prizewinning The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Just before that, he read a biography of Marie Curie.

There is not a protein that I learn about that I dont think about ways to misuse it, Shapiro says. But hes especially fond of the proteins that build the outer shell of gas vesicles in certain kinds of bacteria. These microscopic air bags have so many uses that were totally unanticipated, Shapiro says.

In addition to letting bacteria sink or float, these bubbles provide a communication system, Shapiro and colleagues have found. Over the last several years, they have coaxed both bacterial cells and human cells to make gas vesicles and have placed such cells within mice. Because the air-filled pockets reflect sound, the engineered cells can be tracked from outside a mouses body. Using patterns of sound waves, the researchers can also drive bacterial cells around in lab dishes.

There is not a protein that I learn about that I dont think about ways to misuse it.

In another nod to Fantastic Voyage, scientists can weaponize these cellular submarines. Weve essentially turned cells into suicide agents triggered by ultrasound, Shapiro says. This explosion could release chemicals into the surroundings and destroy nearby cells. This sort of targeted detonation could be damaging to tumors, for instance. Complete warfare is possible, he says.

By seeing the potential in these esoteric gas vesicles, Shapiro was ahead of his time and hugely innovative, says Jason Lewis, a molecular imaging scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. I think weve only scratched the surface of what his work will do in terms of a greater impact.

Frustration, Shapiro says, is what made him switch to engineering after studying neuroscience as an undergraduate at Brown University in Providence, R.I. He realized that existing tools for studying processes inside the brain fell short. And I didnt see enough people making better tools.

But he didnt stop at developing new neuroscience technologies. Oddly enough, once I got into the engineering part of things, I got so fascinated with weird proteins, and magnetic fields, and sound waves, and all the more physics-y side of things. Thats become as much, if not more, of my passion as the original neuroscience. In his Twitter bio, Shapiro describes his expertise as succinctly as possible: Bio-Acousto-Magneto-Neuro-Chemical Engineer at Caltech. LauraSanders

Affiliation: Stanford UniversityHometown: Nanjing, ChinaFavorite organism: Planarian

Planarians are the most charismatic of all flatworms, Bo Wang says. They have this childish cuteness that people just love. But the adorable facade isnt what drew Wang to study the deceptively simple worms, which resemble little arrows with eyes. It was planarians superpower: regeneration. Slice a planarian into pieces and, within a week or two, each chunk will grow into a new flatworm head and all. Studying the cells that drive this process could offer lessons for turning on regeneration in human tissues, to treat various diseases, regrow limbs and grow organs for next-generation transplants.

Wang uses statistical physics to figure out how planarians regenerate entire organs cell by cell. Newly formed brain cells, for instance, must physically position themselves to avoid turning into amorphous aggregates, Wang says. His interest in how things fit together began in graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There, Wang trained as a physicist and worked on self-assembling materials. Wang now works to uncover the physical rules that living cells follow. Im fascinated by how molecules arrange themselves seemingly randomly, but there are still statistical rules that those molecules will follow, he says.

Bo Wang works to uncover the physical rules that living cells follow.

His physics-based approach is raising new questions and unveiling biological processes that would be hard for biologists to come by using traditional methods alone, says regeneration biologist Alejandro Snchez Alvarado of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Mo. Wang is a new breed of flatworm biologist, Snchez Alvarado says. He is occupying a very unique niche in the community of developmental biology.

Wang and colleagues recently found that nerve cells, or neurons, in regenerating planarian brains form a predictable pattern dictated by the types of cells in their midst. Planarians brains are akin to cities made up of neighborhoods of neurons. Within each neighborhood, no two neurons that do the same job will live next to each other; those cells repulse each other but stay close enough to communicate, the researchers reported in the May Nature Physics. Because of this behavior, increasing the types of neurons in a neighborhood limits the ways cells can pack together. The team dubbed this packing process chromatic jamming, after a famous mathematical puzzle called the four-color problem (SN: 3/6/09).

The finding is surprising and challenges what we think we understand about organogenesis and about organization of cells within an organ, says Snchez Alvarado. Chromatic jamming appears to be key to how the planarian brain comes together, guiding single cells into neighborhoods that are a driving force in organ development, he says. If similar physical rules apply to human cells, that could help scientists sketch blueprints for engineering and growing artificial organs. CassieMartin

Affiliation: Stowers Institute for Medical ResearchHometown: Glenwood, IowaFavorite organism: Fission yeast

An invitation to work in the lab of her genetics professor Robert Malone at the University of Iowa in Iowa City set SaraH Zanders on the path to becoming a scientist. It was a turning point in my life, Zanders says. Before that, she didnt really know how she would put her biology degree to use, or what it meant to be a scientist. In Malones lab, she fell in love with meiosis, the process by which organisms divvy up genetic information to pass on to future generations. The first step is julienning the genome and swapping pieces of chromosomes. That just seems like such a bad idea to basically shred your [DNA] in the process of getting it from one generation to the next, she says. She started studying the proteins involved in making the cuts. It was like I was born to do that. I never would have known without that push.

A different kind of push led Zanders to spell her first name with a capital H: An elementary school teacher kept leaving the letter off. Zanders has capitalized it for emphasis ever since. If I write it without the big H, it doesnt look like my name anymore, she says. It feels like somebody else.

Meiosis is full of conflict. For her postdoctoral work, Zanders focused on a particular type of dustup caused by some selfish genesgenes that propagate themselves even if it hurts the host. As the monk Gregor Mendel laid out in his study of pea plants, a particular version of a gene typically has a 50-50 chance of being passed on to the next generation. But the selfish genes Zanders was studying, a type called meiotic drivers because they propel themselves during meiosis, manage to get themselves inherited far more often. These kinds of systems do a complete end run around Mendels laws, says Daniel Barbash, an evolutionary geneticist at Cornell University.

In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, also called fission yeast, Zanders discovered, a family of selfish genes makes moves that would be right at home in a Game of Thrones story line. Zanders and colleagues were the first to work out the molecular tricks that thesegenes use to skirt Mendels laws, reporting the findings in eLife in 2017. The genes, known as wtf genes, produce both a poison and an antidote. All of the spores the yeasts gametes get the poison, but only those that inherit certain gene versions also get an antidote. Spores that dont get the antidote die, ensuring that only offspring with specific wtf gene versions survive to pass their genes on to the next generation. For the fission yeast, such predatory tactics can have big consequences, even driving two nearly identical strains toward becoming different species. Some selfish genes have made themselves essential for proper development (SN: 7/3/18). In humans and other animals, genetic conflicts may lead to infertility.

For the fission yeast, such predatory tactics can have big consequences, even driving two nearly identical strains toward becoming different species.

This extremely important family of meiotic cheaters has been just sitting in plain sight waiting for somebody who had the right kind of lens and the care to discover them, says Harmit Malik, an evolutionary geneticist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and Zanders postdoctoral mentor. Zanders helped build a case that the skewed inheritance in these yeast was a real effect, not just fluctuations in the data. Before she began her work, virtually nothing was known about meiotic drivers in yeast. Now the wtf genes are among the best known meiotic drivers studied in any lab organism. Some selfish genes in worms also use the poison-antidote trick to beat the competition (SN: 5/11/17). Meiotic drivers in fruit flies, mice and maybe humans win genetic conflicts by other means (SN: 10/31/17; SN: 2/24/16).

Zanders is now on the lookout for other genetic fights in yeast. Understanding such conflicts more generally may help answer big questions in evolution, as well as shedding light on human infertility. As for what motivates her, Its just I like to solve puzzles, Zanders laughs. I wish it was a deep desire to help people, but its definitely not that. TinaHesmanSaey

Affiliation: CaltechHometown: Jinzhai County, ChinaFavorite hobby: Carpentry

As the Rose Parade wound through Pasadena, Calif., on January 1, 2020, Zhongwen Zhan listened to the underground echoes of the marching bands and dancers. With a sensitive technology known as distributed acoustic sensing, or DAS, Zhan tracked the parades progress. He even identified the most ground-shaking band. (It was the Southern University and A&M Colleges Human Jukebox.)

The study was a small but elegant proof of concept, revealing how DAS is capable of mapping out and distinguishing among small seismic sources that span just a few meters: zigzagging motorcycles, the heavy press of floats on the road, the steady pace of a marching band. But Zhan seeks to use the technology for bigger-picture scientific questions, including developing early warning systems for earthquakes, studying the forces that control the slow slide of glaciers and exploring seismic signals on other worlds.

Zhan has a crystal-clear vision of DAS scientific possibilities, says Nate Lindsey, a geophysicist at Stanford University who is also part of the small community of researchers exploring the uses of DAS. When you get such a cool new tool, you like to just apply it to everything, he adds. But Zhans expertise is very deep, and it goes into many different areas. He knows whats important.

So far, Zhan and other researchers have used the technology to study aftershocks following the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes in Southern California (SN: 7/12/19), to demonstrate that interactions between ocean waves produce tiny quakes beneath the North Sea, and to examine the structure of glaciers.

DAS piggybacks off the millions of fiber-optic cables that run beneath the ground, ferrying data for internet service, phones and televisions (SN: 6/14/18). Not all of the glass cables are in use all of the time, and these strands of dark fiber can be temporarily repurposed as seismic sensors. When pulses of light are fired into the fibers ends, defects in the glass reflect the light back to its source. As vibrations within the Earth shift and stretch the fibers, a pulses travel time also shifts.

Whole networks of seismic sensors could be deployed in places currently difficult or impossible to monitorat the ocean bottom, atop Antarctic glaciers, on other planets.

Over the last few years, scientists have begun testing the effectiveness of these dark fibers as inexpensive, dense seismic arrays which researchers call DAS to help monitor earthquakes and create fine-scale images of the subsurface. In these settings, Zhan notes, DAS is proving to be a very useful supplement to existing seismograph networks. But the potential is far greater. Whole networks of sensors could be deployed in places currently difficult or impossible to monitor at the bottom of the ocean, atop Antarctic glaciers, on other planets. Seismology is a very observation-based field, so a seismic network is a fundamental tool, he says.

Ive been interested in science since I was young, but wasnt sure what kind of science I wanted to do, Zhan says. In China, students usually have to decide on a field before they go to college, he adds, but I was fortunate. At age 15, Zhan was admitted to a special class for younger kids within the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei. The program allowed him to try out different research fields. A nature lover, Zhan gravitated toward the earth sciences. Environmental science, chemistry, atmospheric science I tried all of them.

Then, in late 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake ruptured the seafloor under the Indian Ocean, spawning deadly tsunamis (SN: 1/5/05). After hearing from a researcher studying the quake, Zhan knew he wanted to study seismology. I was amazed by how seismologists can study very remote things by monitoring vibrations in the Earth, Zhan says. The data are just wiggles, complicated wiggles, but so much info can be extracted. And when we do it fast, it can provide a lot of benefit to society. CarolynGramling

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