The human genome is littered with selfish genetic elements, which do not seem to benefit their hosts, but instead seek only to propagate themselves.

These “parasites of the genome” can wreak havoc at the cellular level by distorting sex ratios or causing harmful mutations, and can even lead to a species’ extinction. But, as University researchers report, species evolve mechanisms to fight back.

In a new paper published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, Daven Presgraves, a University Dean’s Professor in the Department of Biology and Christina Muirhead, a computational biologist and population geneticist in Presgraves’s lab, present further evidence of an evolutionary arms race within organisms—and the mechanisms at play in this arms race—to combat selfish genetic elements.

“We have found that an evolutionary arms race has led to a proliferation of meiotic drive genes on the X chromosome and suppressor genes elsewhere in the genome,” says Muirhead, the first author on the paper. Learn more.

New research from the Warner School of Education and University of California, San Diego finds that turnover among K-12 school leaders decreases the capacity to share research-based ideas and practices district-wide.

This leadership churn has the greatest negative impact on the brokering of research evidence in lower-performing schools working to improve outcomes for youth. Researchers analyzed how research moved through structures and relationships among educators in three urban school districts across the United States to better understand how and when “connections” around research happen.

The research team set out to identify conditions that facilitate or hinder the diffusion of research among individuals across schools and school systems, says Kara Finnigan, professor in educational leadership at the Warner School and co-principal investigator on the project.

“Since organizational learning is a process of using data, such as research evidence, to promote the school districts’ improvement and equity, our results are important to policy and practice because they point to how the significant turnover among leaders and disruption of the leadership structure . . .  decreases the capacity around research evidence and organizational learning,” says Finnigan. “This, in turn, has the potential to have a ripple effect, impacting outcomes for youth, particularly in low-performing schools and school systems that are already in turmoil.” Learn more.

A study published in JAMA Pediatrics co-authored by researchers at the Medical Center and New York University finds evidence that mothers with two types of immunity from COVID—disease-acquired (those who have contracted COVID and recovered) and MRNA vaccination-acquired–produced breast milk with active SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.

The study, titled “Comparison of human milk antibody induction, persistence, and neutralizing capacity in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection versus mRNA vaccination,” was funded by The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) with in-kind support from Medela LLC.

Samples were collected from 77 mothers–47 in the infected group, 30 in the vaccine group–to determine the level of antibodies in breast milk over time. Mothers who had disease-acquired immunity produced high levels of Immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies against the virus in breast milk, while vaccine-acquired immunity produced robust Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies.

Both types of antibodies provided neutralization against SARS-CoV-2, the first time such evidence has been discovered for both IgA and IgG antibodies, according to study co-author Bridget Young, assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

“It’s one thing to measure antibody concentrations, but it’s another to say that antibodies are functional and can neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” says Young. “One of the exciting findings in this work is that breast milk from both mothers with COVID-19 infection, and from mothers receiving mRNA vaccination contained these active antibodies that were able to neutralize the virus.”

Learn more.

Rochester scientists are part of a consortium of institutions recently awarded $31 million to build a molecular atlas of human senescent cells.  These cells, which are not very well understood, are believed to contribute to a number of age-related diseases, including chronic lung disease, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and cancer.

Most cells throughout the body have the capacity to divide, multiply, and replace old cells.  However, in response to certain stresses, some cells, called senescent cells, lose the ability to proliferate. These cells accumulate as we age and are believed to contribute to diseases later in life.

The Rochester arm of the study will be led by principal investigator Irfan Rahman with the Department of Environmental Medicine, Gloria Pryhuber with the Department of Pediatrics, Vera Gorbunova with the Department of Biology and co-director of the Rochester Aging Research Center, and Dongmei Li with the Department of Public Health Sciences and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

The project is part of a larger initiative called the Cellular Senescence Network (SenNet) program established by the National Institutes of Health to build a cellular atlas to understand how and why senescent cells develop and to set the course for new therapies for age-related diseases.  Rochester is part of the TriState SenNet Tissue Mapping Center, which is led by the University of Pittsburgh and includes Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University.

The TriState SenNet Tissue Mapping Center will contribute to this effort by studying senescence in heart and lung cells. The researchers will collect and map gene expression and protein composition, as well as metabolites in senescent cells.

These maps will ultimately be combined with maps from different organs created by other teams in the SenNet consortium.  This open-source repository will enable researchers to make new discoveries about senescent cells and how they contribute to human health and diseases. Learn more.

Brian Keane, assistant professor of psychiatry and neuroscience, will give a virtual presentation on “Brain Network Mechanisms of Visual Shape Completion: What Are They and What Can They Tell Us About Schizo-Bipolar Illnesses?” from noon to 1 p.m. EST today.

The presentation is part of a series of monthly symposiums hosted by the Center for Integrated Research Computing (CIRC). Here’s the Zoom link. (Passcode 59043).

The NSF Research for Undergrads (REU) on Computational Methods for Understanding Music, Media, and Minds is seeking project proposals from faculty for an in-person Summer 2022 session. Each year, the REU program hosts 10 domestic undergraduates (selected from about 150 applicants) from all over the country to work on research projects over a 10-week period from late May to the end of July.

Projects should have a strong computational component and be related to music, media, and minds.

Interested faculty can submit a proposal via Google form by December 1. Acceptance of proposals will be communicated by December 15.

Questions? Contact PI’s Ajay Anand and Zhiyao Duan.

Vera Gorbunova, professor of biology and medicine and a member of the University of Rochester Aging Institute, will give the inaugural lecture of the Medical Center’s newly established Dean’s Lectureship Series. Gorbunova’s lecture, titled “Mechanisms of Longevity: Lessons from Long-Lived Mammals,” will start at 4 p.m., December 6 in the Class of ’62 Auditorium.

The lectures will provide University faculty, learners, and staff the chance to hear from both international and faculty experts on a broad range of timely and interesting topics.

The series is endowed by the George D. and Freida B. Abraham Foundation.  Add to Outlook calendar.

The University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR-CTSI) is offering a UNYTE Translational Research Network Pipeline-to-Pilot grant opportunity of up to $10,000.

The main goal of this program is to stimulate early phase research partnerships between University of Rochester faculty and faculty at UNYTE member institutions, facilitating their ability to compete as a collaborative team for future funding for translational biomedical research. Apply by Monday, January 10, 2022. Learn more.

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the next issue of Research Connections will appear December 3.