Ainsley and Evan Cummings take part in the “Make a Neuron” booth at the 2012 Neuroscience Fair.

The Neuroscience Program held its second annual Neuroscience Fair and Brain Bee at MSU on Saturday, February 11, 2012. The two events combined for a day of science and exploration on campus in East Lansing.

Brain Bee at MSU

Thirty-six students from high schools around the state participated in the 2012 Brain Bee at MSU, a competition testing neuroscience knowledge.

The high school students prepared by attending workshops hosted by the MSU Neuroscience Program and studying from Brain Facts – a free publication available through the Society for Neuroscience. Competitors were able to dissect sheep brains, make SpikerBoxes to see and hear nerve impulses, learn about diseases from an MSU Osteopathic Medical School student, and participate in a mock bee. The competition consisted of a multiple choice written exam, followed by two verbal question and answer rounds.

Brain Bee at MSU 2012 Winners (left to right): Kenji Golimlim (second place), Sidharth Chand (first place), Katherine Young (third place).

The 2012 Brain Bee at MSU winner was Sidharth Chand, a junior from Detroit Country Day High School. Chand won an all-expenses-paid trip to Baltimore, where he will represent MSU at the National Brain Bee. He also won a summer research internship in a neuroscience lab at MSU and a copy of Purves’ Neuroscience, a medical school textbook.

“Throughout middle school and high school, I participated in a variety of competitions, including local fairs and Olympiads of various sorts, in order to cultivate my passion for all subjects scientific,” Chand said.

The second place winner was Kenji Golimlim, a junior from Summit Academy North High School. The third place winner was Katherine Young, a sophomore from Detroit Country Day.

Neuroscience Fair

Nearly 400 guests participated in the Neuroscience Fair in the atrium of the Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building. They stopped to touch brains, make neurons, examine the effects of caffeine on neuronal activity, and most importantly, experience the fun and excitement of neuroscience.

Children and adults took part in the numerous booths that were manned by MSU Neuroscience Program student volunteers. They tricked their taste buds by eating a “Miracle Berry” pill, which causes sour items to activate sweet taste receptors, and learned about the importance of head protection by making helmets for eggs.

Participants for the 2012 Brain Bee competition.

Associate Professor Anne Dorrance brought her daughters Sarah, 5, and Megan, 3, to the fair. “Megan had a neuron drawn on her face,” said Dorrance. “We went to the store after the fair, and at the checkout the workers asked what was on her face. I was so proud when she announced loud and clear it was a neuron.”

Brighton resident and MSU alumna Jennifer Cummings attended the Neuroscience Fair for the first time along with her husband and two children. “The kids had a great time at all the demonstrations, and especially loved making their own neurons,” Cummings said. “I’m so glad they offer something like this for the public and recommend it to families with kids of all ages!”

The Neuroscience Fair also included an Art Competition. Middle and high school students had to choose a neuroscience-related news article and use the content to inspire their creations. Alexandria Dziuban from Valley Lutheran High School in Saginaw won the high school division and Madison Tarnowski from Northeast Middle School in Midland won the middle school division.

Mark Your Calendar for the 2013 Brain Bee at MSU and Neuroscience Fair

The 2013 Brain Bee at MSU competition and Neuroscience Fair will be held on Saturday, January 12. For more information on the Brain Bee at MSU and Neuroscience Fair, visit www.brainbeemsu.com or follow Brain Bee at MSU on Facebook and Twitter.

The MSU Neuroscience Program faculty and graduate students take great pride in their outreach efforts. In addition to the annual Brain Bee at MSU and Neuroscience Fair, the program also visits local schools each March during Brain Awareness Week and volunteers for local science fairs, the annual Girl’s Math and Science Conference, and the Prime Time Seniors Program. For more info on the Neuroscience Program, visit www.neuroscience.msu.edu.

Written by Casey L. Henley, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Associate

Thomas Hamann

Tom Hamann, assistant professor of chemistry, has been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship. The two-year fellowships are awarded yearly by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to 118 early-career scientists in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.

His research interests in inorganic materials and electrochemistry of energy conversion and storage revolve around the theme of developing and characterizing nano-structured materials, coupled with detailed investigations of interfacial electron-transfer processes for solar energy conversion applications.

Hamann joined the MSU faculty in 2008 and is also the recipient of a 2011 US Department of Energy Early Career Research Award.

Hamann is also investigating controlling material composition and architecture at the nanometer length scale, understanding the surface/interface properties and tuning heterogeneous electron-transfer reaction kinetics to allow for rapid advances of the capture, conversion and storage of solar energy.

Sloan Research Fellowships were established in 1955 to provide support and recognition to scientists, often in their first appointments to university faculties, who were endeavoring to set up laboratories and establish their independent research projects with little or no outside support. Selection procedures for the Sloan Research Fellowships are designed to identify those who show the most outstanding promise of making fundamental contributions to new knowledge.

Anthony Kendall, a post doctoral researcher in the hydrogeology lab, presented the findings of the sedimentation study to the Friends of the Jordan Watershed in November. Photo by Michael Steger.

For alumnus Anthony Kendall, what started out as a career leaning toward physics and mechanical engineering has evolved into several years of environmental research spanning everything from water resources in the High Plains to Brook trout in Northern Michigan’s Jordan River.

As an undergraduate honors student at Michigan State, Kendall was majoring in mechanical engineering and astrophysics when he became involved in geology as a Professorial Assistant for David Hyndman. The Kalamazoo native was quickly immersed in the research in the Hydrogeology Lab and was soon hooked.

“I found myself doing a lot of the same things in geology that I was doing in astrophysics and engineering,” says Kendall. “It is all fundamental physical behavior, application and analysis.”

After graduating with a dual major bachelors degree, Kendall stayed in East Lansing where he earned a Ph.D. in Environmental Geosciences in 2009. He is continuing his post-doctoral work in the hydrogeology lab where, in the twelve years Kendall and Hyndman have worked together, Kendall has seen the research grow as the team works on several different grants.

In addition to the High Plains aquifer research started in 2010, the group is also working on grants from NASA, NOAA and the EPA.

Northern Michigan’s Jordan River Watershed

The group recently completed a 5-year study of Northern Michigan’s Jordan River Watershed to determine why the river was choked with sand and how this was affecting the Brook trout and other species. Kendall presented their findings in November during a public presentation to the Friends of the Jordan River Watershed.

The research found three primary factors influenced the sand load in the Jordan River. The findings showed that when the water level of the Great Lakes goes down, more sand flows into the harbor. An unmanaged beaver population in the state forest also plays a role as fallen trees disrupt the sand movement down river. Another factor is persisting long-term effects of logging in the region.

“The region continues to feel the echoes of logging done by past generations,” says Kendall. “The logging disturbed the armored bed in the river, which simply takes a long time to heal.”

Some of the methods used in the Jordan River research are also being applied in a NASA grant involving the hydrogeology lab as well as researchers at the University of Michigan and Michigan Tech. Together, they are examining how watersheds influence coastal wetlands in the Lower Peninsula. The research shows how nitrogen and phosphorus help spread invasive species. The findings will provide a model of how the nutrients move across the landscape.

Building A Model of Water Flow

As part of the 4-year grant, Kendall and postdoctoral researcher Sherry Martin have been leading a group of students across Michigan to sample stream flow, collect samples and install monitors.

“We are sampling more than 80% of the water flowing out of the Lower Peninsula as well as parts of Northern Ohio and Indiana,” says Kendall.

The team of post-docs and students conducted synoptic sampling – collecting data from many sites over a short period of time – on three different occasions last year. They spent nine days in the field during a base flow period in the fall, during the snow melt period in Spring and during the early growing season in the Summer.

Along with MSU collaborators in geography and zoology, they are working to develop a complete model of water flow to help determine policy and decisions to control the nutrient levels.
Kendall finds the work exciting, yet is even more excited by the trajectory of growth seen in the hydrogeology lab and the department.

“The research continues to build and each semester we have more capacity for students. The lab has grown and we are continuing to recruit more people to help with this important research” says Kendall.

More Information:

• The MSU Hydrogeology Lab
• High Plains aquifer research
• Anthony Kendall’s presentation to the Friends of the Jordan Watershed on November 7, 2011 at the East Jordan Library is in a 4-part video series on the Friends of the Jordan Watershed website.

Written by Michael Steger. This story was originally published in the Department of Geological Sciences Alumni Newsletter, February 2012.

Covance has a strong track record of hiring MSU graduates and they are especially interested in meeting students majoring in:

• biochemistry,
• biomedical laboratory diagnostics,
• chemistry,
• microbiology,
• food science,
• nutritional science, and
• other related science majors.

The presentations are open to all students (not just seniors) who are considering a career or internship with Covance. Pizza, prizes and other treats will be provided.

Presentations for All Science Students

Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012
11:00am
1400 Biomedical & Physical Sciences Building

Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012
10:30am
1310 Anthony Hall

Presentations for BLD Students

Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012
4:00pm
1310 Anthony Hall

Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012
9:00am
1310 Anthony Hall

Visit the website http://careers.covance.com/meetus to vote on which presenter you would most like to hear and sign up for other special perks.

About Covance

Covance is one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive drug development services companies with more than 11,000 employees in 60 countries. Through its nonclinical, clinical and commercialization services, Covance has helped pharmaceutical and biotech companies develop one-third of all prescription medicines in the market today.

Dapeng Zhan

Dapeng Zhan, assistant professor of mathematics, has been named a recipient of the Salem Prize from the the Institute for Advanced Study. The Salem Prize is awarded annually to young researchers for outstanding contributions to the field of analysis.

Zhan received the award, along with Julien Dubedat from Columbia University, in recognition of their outstanding work on the Schramm-Loewner Evolutions (SLE) and specifically for the proof of the reversibility and duality conjectures.

Schramm-Loewner Evolutions, introduced by Oded Schramm in 1999, generate a family of random fractal curves in the plane domains that satisfy conformal invariance. SLE with different parameters have been identified as the scaling limits of a number of critical two-dimensional lattice models such as Ising model, percolation, and Gaussian free field. The reversibility and duality conjectures describe two important properties of the SLE curves.

The Salem Prize is award by the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study – one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. IAS is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 6,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world.

Dana Spence, Associate Professor of Chemistry.

A receptor found on blood platelets whose importance as a potential pharmaceutical target has long been questioned may in fact be fruitful in drug testing, according to new research led by Dana Spence, associate professor of chemistry.

The research has revealed a way to isolate and test the receptor known as P2X1. By creating a new, simple method to study it after blood is drawn, the team has unlocked a potential new drug target for many diseases that impact red blood cells, such as diabetes, hypertension and cystic fibrosis.

Researchers can evaluate the receptor not only in developing new drugs but also re-testing existing medications that could work now by attaching to the receptor.

“Scientists are always looking for new ‘druggable’ receptors in the human body,” Spence said. “This receptor, P2X1, has long been viewed as not important in platelets; our studies show that is not necessarily true. The receptor is very active; you just need to be careful in working with it.”

The research is published in the current issue of Analytical Methods, a journal from the Royal Society of Chemistry in London.

The main job of platelets is to help prevent bleeding via clotting, Spence said. They work by getting sticky in the bloodstream, but the problem with some diseases such as diabetes or sickle-cell anemia is that the platelets get sticky even when they shouldn’t, preventing proper blood flow and blocking vessels.

Platelets are activated when their receptors are “turned on”; currently, researchers have always focused on the P2Y receptor, which is easily studied. On the other hand, the P2X1 receptor was not thought to play a major role in platelet activation, and it proved very troublesome to study since it became desensitized once blood is drawn from the body, Spence said.

Though scientists tried a pair of methods to get around that issue – by using different additives or enzymes – the results did not prove fruitful in studying the receptor.

What Spence and his team found is that by adding a simple molecule called NF449 – originally thought to block the receptor – they were able to activate the P2X1 receptor in platelets after a blood draw.

“We have discovered a way to prepare and handle platelets so that we can study the receptor authentically,” he said. “This research opens up new avenues of study and will allow researchers and pharmaceutical companies to re-appraise this receptor as a druggable target.”

Related Material:

• The research paper can be found at Analytical Methods.
• Researchers Target Cystic Fibrosis
• Spence Research Group

David Kramer (left) is the Hannah Distinguished Professor of Photosynthesis and Bioenergetics and recently discovered how to give the plant enzyme ATP synthase increased function so it works during both the daytime and nighttime. Kramer is pictured here with Rob Last (right), the Barnett Rosenberg Chair of Biochemistry. Photo by Michael Steger.

A team of researchers led by David Kramer, Hannah Distinguished Professor of Photosynthesis and Bioenergetics, has discovered how to give the plant enzyme ATP synthase increased function so it  works during both the daytime and nighttime.

The discovery, featured in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, shows that plants evolved a new function for this enzyme by changing merely one of its protein building blocks.

The enzyme, ATP synthase, usually works the day shift, serving as a key player in storing energy created through photosynthesis in the chloroplast. When the sun goes down most of these enzymes switch off to prevent energy from leaking out.

The newly changed protein building block, or subunit, allows this enzyme to do another job once the sun goes down and photosynthesis stops, said Kramer.

“By exchanging this one building block, the enzyme gains a new function in the dark, in the roots.” he said. “It’s like a food processor. With one attachment it chops food. Swap it for another, and it kneads bread dough.”

The building block on which the researchers focused is called gamma, a component of ATP synthase. There are two forms of gamma, gamma-1 and gamma-2. When researchers removed gamma-1, photosynthesis was completely stopped. When gamma-2 was removed, the plant could not make normal root hairs (the part of the root that takes up nutrients.) On the other end of the spectrum, plants engineered to produce lots of gamma-2 made very long root hairs.

So, the seemingly small change not only allows the enzyme to pick up an additional shift, but to also work a completely different job – from storing energy during the day to transporting energy in the roots at night.

This particular enzyme also functions as a regulator of photosynthesis, controlling how much energy plants consume. Too much light causes damage while too little results in low energy, which keeps the plants from growing to their full potential.

Kramer’s next phase of research in this realm will investigate regulating the enzyme’s effect on increasing photosynthesis, which could potentially lead to more efficient plants and algae.

Kramer works in the MSU-Department of Energy Plant Research Laboratory. The research was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, Basic Energy Sciences. The research team included scientists from Washington State University, Ludwig Maximilians University (Germany), Albert Ludwigs University (Germany) and the Centre de la Recherche Scientifique (France).

Related Articles:

• David M. Kramer: Understanding and Improving Photosynthesis
• Kramer, Last Named to Endowed Faculty Positions

Justin Meyer (right), MSU graduate student, led a team of researchers, including Devin Dobias, former MSU undergraduate student, that showed how new viruses evolve. Photo by G.L. Kohuth.

In the current issue of Science, MSU evolutionary biologists demonstrate how a new virus evolves, which sheds light on how easy it can be for diseases to gain dangerous mutations.

The research showed for the first time how the virus called “Lambda” evolved to find a new way to attack host cells, an innovation that took four mutations to accomplish. This virus infects bacteria, in particular the common E. coli bacterium. Lambda isn’t dangerous to humans, but this research demonstrated how viruses evolve complex and potentially deadly new traits, said Justin Meyer, an MSU graduate student who holds the Barnett Rosenberg Fellowship in the College of Natural Science. Meyer co-authored the paper with Richard Lenski, Hannah Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and AgBioResearch scientist.

Ribbon diagram of the OmpF protein, Lambda's new pathway into E. coli. Illustration courtesy of MSU.

“We were surprised at first to see Lambda evolve this new function, this ability to attack and enter the cell through a new receptor­ – and it happened so fast,” Meyer said. “But when we re-ran the evolution experiment, we saw the same thing happen over and over.”

This paper follows recent news that scientists in the United States and the Netherlands produced a deadly version of bird flu. Even though bird flu is a mere five mutations away from becoming transmissible between humans, it’s highly unlikely the virus could naturally obtain all of the beneficial mutations all at once. However, it might evolve sequentially, gaining benefits one-by-one, if conditions are favorable at each step, he added.

Through research conducted at BEACON, MSU’s National Science Foundation Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, Meyer and his colleagues’ ability to duplicate the results implied that adaptation by natural selection, or survival of the fittest, had an important role in the virus’ evolution.

When the genomes of the adaptable virus were sequenced, they always had four mutations in common. The viruses that didn’t evolve the new way of entering cells had some of the four mutations but never all four together, said Meyer.

“In other words, natural selection promoted the virus’ evolution because the mutations helped them use both their old and new attacks,” Meyer said. “The finding raises questions of whether the five bird flu mutations may also have multiple functions, and could they evolve naturally?”

Additional authors of the paper include Devin Dobias, former MSU undergraduate (now a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis), Ryan Quick, MSU undergraduate, Jeff Barrick, a former Lenski lab researcher now on the faculty at the University of Texas, and Joshua Weitz on the faculty at Georgia Tech.

Funding for the research was provided in part by the National Science Foundation and MSU AgBioResearch.

Watch the video form LiveScience.com and the National Science Foundation:

Faculty and students from the MSU Neuroscience Program organize the annual Brain Bee and Neuroscience Fair. Pictured are organizers of the 2011 Brain Bee at MSU.

The MSU Neuroscience Program is hosting the Brain Bee competition on Saturday, February 11, 2012, for high school students in mid-Michigan.

The annual Brain Bee at MSU is a live question and answer competition that challenges high school students on their knowledge of neuroscience facts, including emotions, sensations, aging, addiction, and more. This event is free and open to all high school students and coordinated with a Neuroscience Fair open to the public, offering many fun hands-on activities for all ages.

“In the two years we have held the Brain Bee at MSU the program has grown from 15 participants to more than 80 registrants this year,” says Cindy Jordan, professor of neuroscience and event organizer. “This experience showcases the research and career opportunities available for students in neuroscience as their energy will help find cures for Autism, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and other brain disorders.”

Students prepare for the competition by studying Brain Facts published by the Society for Neuroscience and Science of the Brain published by the British Neuroscience Association and the European Dana Alliance for the Brain. MSU also organizes hands-on experiences for students including opportunities to work with real brains, record from living neurons and an all-day Brain Bee Boot Camp in which students are taken on a whirlwind tour of the brain, discussing the fundamentals of neuroscience and its application in everyday life.

The student who wins the MSU competition receives an all-expenses-paid trip for two to the National Brain Bee in Baltimore, Maryland. They also earn a paid summer fellowship where they will work in the research laboratory of an MSU neuroscientist.

The Brain Bee is part of a national and international competition aligned with the Brain Awareness Week program coordinated by the Society for Neuroscience.

The MSU event is being organized by Jordan, Jessica Port, a neuroscience graduate student, and Casey Henley, a postdoctoral fellow.

A Neuroscience Fair will be held in conjunction with the Brain Bee at MSU Competition from 10:00am to 5:00pm on February 11, 2012. Teachers, students, and parents can experience neuroscience activities, including hearing and seeing real neurons fire, learning how our senses can be tricked, and touching a real human brain.

Information and registration materials for the Brain Bee at MSU can be found at: www.brainbeemsu.com.

For more information, contact Cynthia Jordan jordancy@msu.edu.

2012 highlights:

2012 Photo Album

Lansing State Journal, February 12, 2012:

Kids explore brain’s mysteries at MSU

The State News, February 12, 2012:

Neuroscience fair adds fun to education

Lisa Lapidus, associate professor of physics and astronomy, and Basir Ahmad, postdoctoral researcher, have identified a new treatment path for Parkinson's disease. Photo by G.L. Kohuth.

A team of researchers led by Postdoctoral Researcher Basir Ahmad has demonstrated that slow-wriggling alpha-synuclein proteins are the cause of aggregation, or clumping together, which is the first step of Parkinson’s. The results are published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Lisa Lapidus, associate professor of physics and astronomy and co-author of the paper, has dedicated her lab to researching protein folding. Using lasers to investigate the protein alpha-synuclein, the scientists correlated the speed at which the protein rearranges with its tendency to clump. A slower speed places the protein in a “dangerous regime,” a pace that allows it to develop sticky patches, aggregate and cause cellular damage, Lapidus said.

“There are many, many steps that take place in aggregation, but we’ve identified the first step,” she said. “Finding a method to fight the disease at its first stage, rather than somewhere further down the road, can hopefully increase the success rate in which the disease is treated.”

The identification of this critical first step already has the researchers pursuing new ways to attack the disease. Lapidus is currently testing a number of naturally occurring compounds, such as curcumin, ECGC and resveratrol, which could push the rearranging protein out of the danger zone.

“We are now looking for molecules that can alter the protein when it first begins to ‘misfold,’ which could eventually lead to the development of a drug that could prevent aggregation before it happens,” she said.

Yujie Chen, MSU graduate student, was one of the co-authors of the paper.