Research Connections :: University of Rochester

Research told briefly and to the point takes the prize

Early career scientists at the University are honing their ability to communicate their research in short, compelling, and easily understood presentations that could woo a collaborator.

Or reassure a skeptical member of the public.

In recent competitions that limited speakers to three- or five-minute talks, plus a slide or two:

Ahmed Ghazi, a surgeon and assistant professor of urology, equated the number of US deaths from medical and surgical errors to “five Boeing 747s crashing every week for an entire year.” He then described how individualized, life-like 3-D models of a patient’s organs can not only be made inexpensively, but enable surgeons to practice their operations in advance, preparing ahead of time for what might go wrong.

Ian Cero, a postdoctoral fellow in psychiatry, explained the urgent need to provide suicide prevention therapies to the growing number of people “who are balancing on a knife’s edge right now.” And yet, in the vast majority of cases, they “are so distressed that they do not want to be found.” His proposal: Identify suicide clusters from Twitter and other social media, then apply algorithms to insure anonymity. In essence: “Saving lives without ever even knowing who we’re saving.”

Ghazi took first place in the University’s Falling Walls competition and will represent Rochester in a similar competition at the international conference in Berlin next month. Cero won the Steadman Family Postdoctoral Award in Interdisciplinary Research during Meliora Weekend—just as Jillian Ramos, a PhD student in biology, won first place in the University’s Three-Minute Thesis contest last spring for her presentation: “Modify or Die: When Protein Translation Goes Awry.”

All of these competitions are relatively new. They reflect the growing importance for researchers to be able to communicate with:

Researchers in other fields. “When an engineer can talk in a language that a biologist, a humanist, and a psychologist can understand, it helps forge cross-disciplinary connections,” says Melissa Sturge-Apple, dean of graduate studies for Arts, Sciences & Engineering, whose office hosts the Steadman competition. “We can begin to see how the research in one corner of academia may inform that in another corner. It’s synergistic. This is how new discoveries are made and new scientific pursuits are born.”
Members of the public who want to understand the research their tax dollars help fund. “Today, especially in America, there are a lot of people who are skeptical of scientific research. . . At the end of the day, our research is going to matter to them, and they need to understand that,” says Melissa Glasner, a PhD student in the cell biology of disease program, who organized this year’s Three-Minute Thesis competition.

Cero, who has participated in multiple competitions and won at least one other, sees another advantage. “A lot of the work we do is complicated and really difficult. You’re in the nitty-gritty, you’re working through the numbers, you’re checking every statistical assumption, and it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture,” he says. “If you have to distill the work that you’re doing in five minutes and a static slide, I think it helps you think more clearly about your own work.”

Read more here, including transcripts of the winning presentations.

Federal agencies emphasize national security requirements

Over the last several months, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Justice, the U.S. intelligence community, and Congress have begun to take steps to monitor and address concerns regarding potential national security threats related to federally-funded research programs.

Specifically, federal agencies are examining cases in which the following may have occurred:

Failure by researchers to disclose substantial contributions of resources from other organizations, including foreign governments and corporations;
The diversion of intellectual property in grant applications or produced by federally-supported biomedical research to other entities, including other countries;
The sharing of confidential information by peer reviews with others, including in some instances with foreign entities, and otherwise attempting to influence funding decisions.

The NIH, DOD, and NSF are working with federally-funded academic institutions and national higher education associations to identify steps to mitigate breaches of trust and confidentiality that undermine the integrity of U.S. research.

These actions include improving the accuracy and reporting of all sources of research support, financial interests, and relevant affiliations, mitigating the risk to IP security, and methods to further protect the integrity of the peer review system, while continuing the tradition of collaboration with foreign scientists and institutions.

University of Rochester faculty are reminded that applicants and awardees must disclose all forms of other support and financial interests, including support coming from foreign governments or other foreign entities. Specifically, faculty and investigators are required to report personal remuneration received from foreign governments or other foreign entities via the University’s Reporting of Compensated Outside Activities.

The link for annual outside interest reporting for AS&E faculty is https://www.rochester.edu/asei/

In addition, Other Support information required by grant applications must include all financial resources available in direct support of an individual’s research endeavors, including support from foreign entities.

For more information on policies and reporting requirements, faculty should contact their research administrator in ORPA.

Single gene could be key to treating acute myeloid leukemia

A Wilmot Cancer Institute study uncovers how a single gene could be at fault in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), one of the deadliest cancers. The breakthrough gives researchers renewed hope that a gene-targeted therapy could improve AML survival rates, which have not budged in recent years.

The gene, known as EVI1, rewires the entire panoply of blood-forming cells and tissues by binding to certain DNA molecules and wreaking havoc. Knowing where EVI1 locks into the genome helps scientists understand the mechanisms that drive the disease at its core.

Now, researchers can envision a new approach to treating AML, focused on blocking EVI1’s ability to bind to other genes, according to the study, published in Nature Communications.

“It’s not so pie-in-the-sky anymore to think we can interrupt the process within the genome that leads to leukemia,” said senior author Archibald Perkins, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine. Co-senior author is Yi “Stanley” Zhang, research associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine.

Read more here.

Introducing a new faculty member

Patrick Murphy joins the Department of Biomedical Genetics as an assistant professor after training with Bradley Cairns at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, where he studied the epigenetics of fertilization and early embryonic development.

Murphy is a geneticist who studies the mechanisms by which gene expression patterns drive cells to change from one state to another. His work focuses on chemical additions to DNA molecules, called epigenetic marks, which regulate how genes become silent or active. He recently discovered that a specialized protein complex called a “Placeholder Nucleosome,” is passed from fathers to offspring through sperm. He also determined that the locations of “Placeholder Nucleosomes” across the genome allows for embryonic genes to “turn on” and for stem cells to emerge in embryos.Â Murphy works with many types of vertebrate organisms to test his various hypotheses, but mostly with the zebrafish model system.

Currently, he is wrapping up a study investigating the effects of cigarette smoke in mice. His preliminary data suggests that smoking causes an immune response in fathers, and the effects of this response can be passed on to offspring. Murphy’s prior work has appeared in several peer-review journals including Cell, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Cell Stem Cell, and Science. At the University of Rochester, he plans to continue investigating how epigenetic marks allow stem cells to differentiate into all cell types of an organism. He also plans to test whether the same epigenetic mechanisms that drive stem cell transitions contribute to the disease state transitions that occur during carcinogenesis.

In Utah, Murphy was a postdoctoral fellow for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a trainee under the Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institutional Research Training Grant in Developmental Biology. In addition to joining the Department of Biomedical Genetics, he will also become a member of the Center for Biomedical Informatics, and an associate member of the Wilmot Cancer Institute. Murphy, a Western New York native, received his PhD from Cornell University in 2013.

New European Union regulations could affect researchers here

The European Union recently implemented new data privacy regulations, called the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), that may affect your research.Â Please read the Q&A document, “What You Should Know About GDPR”Â to see how this affects you and your studies. If you believe that GDPR may impact your research, please provide the information requested on page five to Research-GDPR@rochester.edu.

In addition, if you receive any requests based on GDPR by funding sponsors or other organizations, please contact either Kathleen Tranelli, privacy officer, or Mark Wright, seniorÂ counsel,Â before responding. Your assistance will enable the University to develop situation-specific guidance and a compliance strategy for the research community.

CLIC forum fosters team science

One of the goals of the Clinical & Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program is to encourage team science andÂ tackle system-wide scientific and operational problems in translational science that a single group cannot overcome in isolation. This involves collaboration and teamwork, which the Center for Leading Innovation & Collaboration (CLIC) Forum aims to foster.

The CLIC Forum is a place to ask questions, discuss best practices, bounce ideas off each other, and share opportunities. Contact CLIC with any questions.

'Running an All-Undergraduate, Lean, Competitive Research Lab'

Jeffrey Miller ’66, a professor of microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine, will present “Training Future Researchers: Running an All-Undergraduate, Lean, and Competitive Research Lab” at noon Monday, October 29, in the Hawkins-Carlson Room, Rush Rhees Library.

Lunch will be provided to those who register in advance to ase.events@rochester.edu or to Rachel Lawrick, 275-6166, by October 24.

Mark your calendar

Oct. 19: Center for Integrated Research Computing (CIRC) symposium. Amanda Larracuente from the Department of Biology will discuss regions of the genome that are dense in repeats and how next-generation sequencing technology and integrated approaches can be used to address challenges to genome assembly algorithms from these repetitive elements. Xavi Vidal-Berastain from the Simon Business School will illustrate the use of machine learning for understanding consumer shopping behaviors. 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wegmans 1400. Lunch will be served.

Oct. 26: Deadline to apply for the 2018 World Universities Network (WUN) Research Development Fund. If you are interested in leading a proposal effort, contact the University’s WUN coordinator, Ruth Levenkron.

Oct. 29: “Training Future Researchers: Running an All-Undergraduate, Lean, and Competitive Research Lab,” presented by Jeffrey Miller ’66, a professor of microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine. Noon, Hawkins-Carlson Room, Rush Rhees Library. Lunch provided to those who register in advance to ase.events@rochester.edu or to Rachel Lawrick, 275-6166, by October 24.

Oct. 29: “The Future is Today: Transforming the Care of Childhood Onset Chronic Health Conditions.” UR Complex Care Center’s Second Annual Conference, co-sponsored by UR CTSI’s UNYTE Translational Research Network. 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Class of ’62 Auditorium. Click here to register.

Nov. 1: “Shijing: The Matter of Painting,” presented by Lihong Liu, assistant professor of art history. Jesse L. Rosenberger Work-in-Progress Seminar. Noon to 2 p.m., Humanities Center Conference Room D, Rush Rhees Library. Lunch provided. RSVP by selecting “I’m Interested” here.

Nov. 3: 4^th Annual Immune Imaging Symposium, a forum to share the newest developments in understanding immune function through visualizing immunity “in action.” featuring a distinguished group of international speakers, an interactive poster session, and opportunities for oral presentations from students and postdoctoral fellows. Saunder’s Research Building. Registration is free but closes on October 22. Hosted by the Program for Advanced Immune Bioimaging.

Nov. 5: Deadline for collaborative biomedical research teams to apply to the Center for Leading Innovation & Collaboration for funding to write a Synergy Paper. Questions can be directed to synergy_papers@clic-ctsa.org. Click here for the RFA.

Nov. 5: Annual Medical Student Research Poster session, noon to 1 p.m. Flaum Atrium, Medical Center. Medical students present their summer and year-out research projects. Contact omecached@urmc.rochester.edu with questions.

Nov. 6: Inaugural Biomedical Ultrasound Symposium Day. Lectures by Frederick W. Kremkau, professor of radiologic sciences and director of the Program for Medical Ultrasound at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and Theresa Tuthill ’84, ’87 (MS), ’91 (PhD), senior director of clinical and translational imaging at Pfizer Inc. Also includes graduate student presentations, a poster session, lunch, and networking. 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., Feldman Ballroom in Douglass Commons. RSVP to carlalboff@rochester.edu. Include your name, affiliation, any dietary restrictions, and whether you will be presenting a poster. Hosted by the Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound (RCBU).

Nov. 12: Initial abstracts due for the School of Medicine and Dentistry’s Scientific Advisory Committee’s (SAC) Incubator Program. See details and application instructions. Contact Anne Reed for more information.

Nov. 13: Wilmot Cancer Institute annual scientific symposium. Keynote speaker is Judith Campisi, professor of biogerontology at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Oral presentations and poster session. 9 a.m. 3 p.m., Class of ’62 Auditorium and Flaum Atrium. Questions about submitting a poster or about the symposium in general can be emailed to Chelsea Costanzo or call 585-273-1447. The deadline for poster registration submission is 4 p.m., Wednesday, October 31.

Dec. 5: Phelps Colloquium series: Ajay Kuriyan, assistant professor of ophthalmology, “The Bionic Eye, Computer Vision, and Drug Discovery: The Gamut of Retina Research.” Kara Bren, professor of chemistry, “Making Fuel and Fertilizer from Sun, Air, and Water.” 4 p.m. Feldman Ballroom Douglass Commons. Register here. Questions? Contact Adele Coelho or call 273-2571.