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With exactly one month until the start of the semester, the Life Science Institutes have shown no signs of a summer lull. A number of our faculty have been seen in the news (listed below), with exciting developments in their research, new grants, or commercialization. Additionally, give our strength in imaging, please take a look at the upcoming NIH workshop (Aug 23-24) on AI in Medical Imaging. Registration for the workshop is open.
Finally, an exciting new piece of equipment has arrived on campus. The MoFlo Astrios High Throughput
Cell Sorter contains four state of the art lasers that can detect up to 14
fluorescent parameters in a single sample and simultaneously sort 4 individual
cell populations. Its high speed sorting rate allows researchers to acquire
large numbers of viable cells from rare populations, providing a platform to
tackle complex biological questions in ways that were not previously possible.
The MoFlo is housed in the Flow
Cytometry Core Facility in the Bindley Bioscience Center.
Contact Jill Hutchcroft (hutchcroft@purdue.edu)
Enjoy the remainder of your summer!
Funding Opportunities in the Life Sciences can be found here. |
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Thanks to all the groups who submitted proposals to
PIDD’s programmatic area RFA. We
received over 20 applications and the Institute is working with both
internal and external reviewers to identify the most meritorious projects.
As part of our continuing effort to improve drug discovery
capabilities on campus, a lead-lined hood has been installed in the Bioscience
Imaging Facility located in the basement of Hansen (B032). This new hood along with dose calibration
equipment will allow for the safe synthesis and quantitation of radioactive
compounds for use in animal imaging experiments in conjunction with the
MILabs SPECT/PET/CT instrument. For
more information, please contact facility director Andy Schaber
(schaber@purdue.edu)
Save the Date for our 5th Annual Drug Discovery Symposium will be held on Friday, September 28th, 2018 in Stewart Center 218. External speakers include:
- Philip Cole - Professor of Medicine and Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Senior Investigator Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School
- Shaomeng Wang- Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor in
Medicine, Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry, Co-Director, Molecular Therapeutics Program Director, Cancer Drug Discovery Program at University of Michigan
- Min Li - Senior Vice President Global Head Neuroscience Therapeutic Unit GlaxoSmithKline
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Dear PI4D members and friends, we are excited
to let you know that we have finally made the move to the Hall for Discovery
and Learning Research. The official
headquarters of PI4D is now located on the fourth floor in DLR 425 (207 S.
Martin Jischke Drive, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-1971). We are also delighted
to welcome the eventual arrival of Rob Stahelin (MCMP), Doug LaCount (MCMP), Mohamed
Seleem (CPB) and Graham Cooks (Chem), along with their research groups. I am also excited to welcome Rainer Fischer
from the Indiana Bioscience Research Institute to locate his Purdue operations
in the DLR. Rainer was recently appointed
as the Purdue University President’s Fellow in the Life Sciences and we are
thrilled to work with him in joint initiatives. I can’t wait to
see our labs filled with investigators excited to push the limits and make
great discoveries through their pursuit of bringing translatable biomedical
solutions for diseases that plague humanity.
Sincerely,
Richard Kuhn
Recent News:
Dr.
Dennis Minchella awarded 2018 American Society of Parasitologists’
Distinguished Service Award
 In recognition of his
contributions to the field of Parasitology, Dr. Dennis Minchella was the latest
recipient of the Distinguished Service Award given by the American Society of
Parasitologists. Dr. Minchella marks the eleventh recipient of the award in
society history, joining the company of an author of the textbook ‘Foundations
of Parasitology’ and a Nobel Prize winner the discovery of the anthelminthic drug
ivermectin, among others. Congratulations to Dr. Minchella for this
well-deserved award!
Announcements:
- The Disease Diagnostic Inventors challenge that was held on June
28th & 29th was attended by 55 people from across
Indiana and from various organizations.
On June 28th a variety of clinicians, life scientists,
engineers, and analytical chemists presented oral and poster presentations with
great energy and enthusiasm to connect and meet other complementary
investigators. The event was a great
success and we are poised to continue catalyzing events that lead to
significant research connections. On
June 29th, competing teams pitched their diagnostics ideas to a
panel of judges that included: Graham Cooks (PU-Chem), Rainer Fischer (CEO/CSO
Indiana Biosciences Research Institute), Richard Kuhn (PU-Biol), Sanjeev
Narayanan (PU- Head of CPB), Anantha Shekhar (IUSM/Indiana CTSI), Val Watts
(PU-MCMP), Chris Welch (Founder, Welch Innovations, Inc.) and Jeff Zaleski
(IU-Bloomington). While the judges were making the final decisions, a phenomenal keynote
presentation by Dr. Richard DiMarchi was given entitled, “Peptide-Based
Therapeutics, From Hormones to Poly-Pharmacy”. Judges selected 3 teams to be awarded $30,000 and one team that
was formed through interactions made at the event on June 28th to be
awarded $10,000. The winners are:
- SIERRA Club Team – Zane Baird (IBRI); Christina Ferreira
(Purdue); Michael Pugia (IBRI); Zehui Cao (IBRI) and Gerald Denys (IU).
Precision diagnostics for difficult to treat urinary tract
infections through the development of a mass spectrometry-based technique to
identify molecular signatures of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
- IU CPR Team – Jack Schneider (IUSM); Christopher Emery (IUSM);
Luna Lu (Purdue); Aline Elquist (Purdue); Thomas Davis (IUPUI); Michelle
Zimmerman (IUPUI).
Developing a rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing device
based on piezoelectric sensors for clinical laboratory pathology applications.
- Supersoakers Team – Robert Bacallao (IUSM); AMI Labs (Purdue);
Center for Algorithms and Machine Learning (IU-Bloomington)
Diagnosing and treating acute kidney injury through the
development of controlled infusion technology to restore renal function.
- Winning Team –Jackeline Franco (Purdue); Valentina Pirro
(Purdue); Pamela Thomas (Notre Dame); Harm HogenEsch (Purdue); Paulo Gomes
(Purdue).
Design and development of a specialized sampling kit for molecular
diagnosis of atopic dermatitis for veterinary and human clinical applications.
Sponsors of the event were: Purdue Institute of Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Disease; Chemistry, College of Science, Purdue University; Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute; College of Engineering, Purdue University; College of Pharmacy, Purdue University; College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University; Indiana Biosciences Research Institute; Indiana University – Bloomington; School of
Medicine, Indiana University; and University of Notre Dame.
Thank you to, Dr. DiMarchi, all who attended, the teams that were formed and those who sponsored the event. The group consensus was there should be several mixers and another competition. Special thanks to Melanie Lindsay, Becky Fulk, and Cindy Roberts for all their hard work in organizing this event.
Upcoming Events:
- July 26, 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. LYNN G167 Dr. Shahram Solaymani-Mohammadi,
MSPH, PhD - Vaccine Branch, Molecular Immunogenetics and Vaccine Research Section, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
- August 14, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. MRRT 237 Coffee with Cedric
- October 26, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. MRGN 121 Graduate Student
Career Fair- A Leap from Lab
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Greetings to the PIIN community!
Dr. Pedro Irazoqui (BME, ECE) has stepped down from PIIN’s
leadership team to assume the role of interim head for the School of Electrical
and Computer Engineering. Pedro has been
instrumental in guiding us since PIIN’s inauguration in the Fall of 2015 and we
are deeply grateful for his service to the Purdue neuroscience community. His
passion and expertise have ensured that PIIN lives up to its motto of being a
place “where science meets engineering”.
PIIN’s
administrative staff have been busy preparing the space within the newly
renovated 3rd floor of DLR in Discovery Park for occupation in the
late summer and fall. We will soon be
welcoming the lab of Dr. Aaron Bowman
who joins Purdue as the new head of the School of Health Sciences. His research
on neurotoxicology and neurodegeneration uses animal models and human induced
pluripotent stem cells. The expertise
and proximity of Dr. Bowman to the new Neuroscience Cell Engineering Core
will enhance its utility. To
create an interdisciplinary working group with overlapping research
interests, DLR will also house the labs of Dr.
Chris Rochet (MCMP), Dr. Jason
Cannon (Health Sciences) and Dr.
Yang Yang (MCMP). Additional research space is being reserved for new faculty hires.
I have
just returned from the Auditory System Gordon Research Conference at Bryant
University in Rhode Island, where I was reminded of how these smaller venues
offer ample time for scientific exchanges that are both broad and deep. Our own efforts in this regard take the form
of our NeuroNetworking Summer Seminar
Series. I wish to encourage you to
join us for the final installments this summer from 4-5:30 pm on July 25th in the
Drug Discovery Lobby Conference Room and on August 1st in Lyles-Porter Hall, Room 1160. Presentations by Dr. Claudio
Aguilar (BIOL), Nicole
Schartz (PSYCH), Dr.
Kari Ekenstedt (VET) and MeeJung Ko (MCMP) will
showcase some of the breadth in neuroscience right here at home.
Donna M.
Fekete,
John
& Donna Krenicki Director of Integrative Neuroscience
Recent News:
 - We wish to officially welcome Dr. Sebastien Helie to PIIN's leadership team. Dr. Helie is an Associate Professor of
Psychological Sciences and an Associate Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences (by courtesy) at Purdue University. He serves as the Associate Director of the Purdue Life Science MRI Facility, and as Co-director of the Center for Research on Brain, Behavior, and NeuroRehabilition (CEREBBRAL). His research interests include computational cognitive neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, categorization, automaticity, rule learning, sequence learning, skill acquisition, intuition in decision-making, and creative problem
solving. He is a senior member of the International Neural Networks Society (INNS) and was awarded the 2012 INNS Young Investigator Award. Dr. Helie serves on the editorial boards of Neural Networks, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Cognitive Systems Research, and The Quantitative Methods in Psychology. His research is currently funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
- Travel Grant Winners: The winners of this cycle of PIIN-sponsored travel grants
represent 5 different colleges at Purdue, and thus showcase the breadth of our
membership. We are particularly pleased to support those selected for oral
presentations at major conferences, and those who are presenting at the Society
for Neuroscience Annual Meeting.
Congratulations!
Aswathy Chandran (MCMP), Chandnee Chandrasekaran (MCMP), Brandon Coventry (BME), Seth Herr (BMS), Season Johnson (PSY SCI), Henry Legett (BIO SCI), Nicole Schartz (PSY SCI), Hannah Serlin (PSY SCI), Zhiyu Yang (BIO SCI)
Announcements:
- The Michael J. Fox Foundation is accepting pre-proposals for its Core Funding Programs (Target Advancement, Therapeutic Development and Outcome Measures). Pre-proposals are due in late September, 2018.
- Indiana CTSI is accepting proposals for the 2019 Spinal Cord and Brain
Injury Fund Research Grant Program.
- Call to all research Scientists: ALZgerm.org is accepting submissions for its 2021 Alzheimer's Germ Quest Challenge Award
- In an effort to improve graduate education in
interdisciplinary neuroscience and compete for NIH institutional training
grants in the future, Peri Paschou (BIOL) is organizing a new team-taught graduate
course: BIOL69500, Neurological and Neuropsychiatric Disorders Seminar.
Please check your email in-box for further details about this 2-credit
course. It will meet Tues-Thurs
01:30 pm-02:20 pm (Lilly G458) in the Fall 2018.
Upcoming Events:
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July 9, 2018
marked the 40th Anniversary of the PCCR’s designation as a National Cancer Institute Basic Laboratory Cancer Center – one of only 7 in
the United States! To commemorate this occasion, we are kicking off a year-long
campaign: Research That Delivers. We’ve created a special website that profiles
our researchers and advocates.
Reminder:
Please add the ‘Cc-participants@lists.purdue.edu’ email address to your spam filter whitelist.
If you have any questions on how to do this, please contact John Fry, johnfry@purdue.edu or 496-3993.
Recent News:
Upcoming Events:
- Please join us Thursday, August
23rd from 11:30 am – 1:30 pm for the “Hammer Down Cancer Luncheon”,
taking place at McGraw’s Steak Chop & Fish House. Tickets are available for
purchase here.
Link to Calendars for Seminar, Internal
and External Funding Opportunities and Events
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We are pleased to announce that Regenstrief Center research scientist and PI Md. Muniril-Haque
received NIH funding for mobile-based care for children with
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The
technology, called mCARE, is an evidence-based and data-driven remote
behavioral monitoring platform for the care practitioners of children with
ASD. mCARE will be tested with caregivers
of 300 children with ASD in Bangladesh for one year. The children will be
selected from four reputed ASD care institutions in Bangladesh.
Venture capitalist Milad Alucozai, founding partner at Good AI Capital, will hold the position of
visiting scholar at the Regenstrief Center for the 2018-2019 academic
year. Good AI Capital is a San
Francisco-based venture fund that focuses on early stage investments in AI
companies. Milad, a Purdue alum, will
help grow capabilities for the Center in AI and data science in
healthcare. His appointment will also
help to develop and enhance the Center’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Finally, a special thanks to Jenna Moretti for updating the RCHE website.
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