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.

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.

Dan Nocera

Visiting Hannah Professor Dan Nocera is profiled in the January 3, 2012 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Nocera is a chemistry professor at MIT and currently a Visiting Hannah Professor in the MSU Department of Chemistry.

Nocera has developed an artificial leaf made of inexpensive materials. The leaf’s stainless steel chip is coated with silicon so it can harvest sunlight and split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The catalysts produce enough hydrogen from a liter of water to power an average home in the developing world.

Read the PNAS Profile of Daniel G. Nocera.

 PNAS Podcast: Catalysts for energy storage

Daniel Nocera discusses how efficient catalysts can help us store solar energy in the same way plants do.
Daniel Nocera (Running Time: 5:17)

Jim McCusker (left), professor of chemistry, and Dong Guo, post-doctoral research associate

The same principle that causes a figure skater to spin faster and faster as they draw their arms into their bodies has now been used by researchers at Michigan State University to understand how molecules move energy around following the absorption of light.

Conservation of angular momentum is a fundamental property of nature. Astronomers use the principle to detect the presence of satellites around distant planets. In 1927, it was proposed that this principle should apply to chemical reactions, but a clear demonstration of this effect has never been achieved.

Research led by Jim McCusker, professor of chemistry, and published in the recent issue of Science demonstrates for the first time the effect is real and also suggests how scientists might be able to use it control and predict chemical reaction pathways in general.

“The idea has floated around for decades and has been implicitly invoked in a variety of contexts, but no one had ever come up with a chemical system that could explicitly demonstrate whether or not the underlying concept was valid,” says McCusker. “Our result not only validates the idea, but it really allows us to start thinking about chemical reactions from an entirely different perspective.”

The experiment involved the preparation of two closely related molecules that were specifically designed to undergo a chemical reaction known as fluorescence resonance energy transfer, or FRET. Upon absorption of light, the system is predisposed to transfer that energy from one part of the molecule to another. McCusker and his collaborators changed the identity of one of the atoms in the molecule from chromium to cobalt; this altered the properties of the molecule in such a way as to shut down the reaction if the application of the idea of conservation of momentum was correct. The absence of any detectable energy transfer in the cobalt-containing compound confirmed the hypothesis.

“What we have successfully conducted is a ‘proof-of-principle’ experiment,” McCusker noted, “but the formalism that describes the phenomenon should be completely general. One can easily imagine employing these ideas to other chemical processes and we’re actually exploring some of these avenues in my group right now.”

The researchers believe their results could impact a wide variety of fields including molecular electronics, biology, and energy science through the development of new types of chemical reactions.

The paper, Angular Momentum Conservation in Dipolar Energy Transfer, was published in the December 23, 2011 edition of Science.  Dong Guo, a post-doctoral research associate, and Troy Knight, a former graduate student and now a research scientist at The Dow Chemical Company, were involved in the research. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation.

Related Information:

• Science: Angular Momentum Conservation in Dipolar Energy Transfer
• NSF grant helps drive solar energy research
• McCusker Group Homepage

Dean Kirkpatrick’s annual State of the College Address was delivered during the CNS Faculty Advisory Council meeting on November 29, 2011.

Remarks by Dean Kirkpatrick:

Thank you all very much for coming. It’s great to see such a good turnout.

We all know that Michigan State has been through a difficult time the past few years, but the message I hope to leave with you today is one of optimism.

I believe that the University has turned the corner in terms of its budget issues and that science at Michigan State is well positioned to take charge of its own future.

The last couple of years, I have asked you to buy into the idea that it’s a time to be realistic but not pessimistic. From what I’ve seen most people across the college have done this, and I hope I can demonstrate to you today that we are seeing significant positive change.

As always, I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has worked so hard over the past few years to position us to be able to focus on our core missions of excellence in research and education.

This includes the chairs and directors, the associate chairs and directors, the directors of graduate and undergraduate studies, the budget managers, the associate deans and everyone in the College office, the faculty, and staff in all the units.

I especially want to recognize the efforts of everyone who is trying to deal with the new Enterprise Business System.

I will admit, though, to being less sanguine that many of the problems that are most vexing to us will be fixed quickly. All I can say is that we will continue to work hard on to advocate for changing it to meet the needs of the people who actually have to do the work.

Let’s take a look at some data about our educational and research programs.

First is enrollment. If your classes seem fuller, it’s true. Enrollment of majors in the college has flattened in the last couple of years, but the undergraduate enrollment is up campus wide.

This year’s freshmen class is about 350 students larger than last year, with many of these students in engineering. For us, this has had its most significant effects in Chemistry and Mathematics. The College office will continue to advocate for increased funding where it is needed as these students work their way through the system. It’s unclear to us how many of these students will end up as CNS majors and whether the University plans to keep the incoming class at this size in the future. We expect to know more next spring.

Next let’s take a quick look at the budget. This year the total recurring budget for the College increased by 2.5% principally due to salary increases and university support for programs. As always, we allocated the 1% annual reduction uniformly on to all units except those with budgets that are effectively all salary.  The 0.5% recurring reduction was taken at the College level and not passed onto the departments.  Since the only money the college really has is the faculty salary turnover, in the end this will reduce the size of the faculty by about 4 people. The non-recurring budget is up 6.3% principally due to increases in off-campus and on-line instruction and in IDC generation.

College faculty have received many new research grants this year, and we can’t recognize every one of them here. There are a few I do want to highlight, though. Shannon Manning, Claire Vieille, Carolyn Malmstrom and Catherine Lindell received USDA NIFA grants. Elena Litchman and Rob Last received major NSF grants. And people in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics are very involved in the malaria grant led by Terrie Taylor.

We also received some significant equipment and training grants from NSF and NIH. The complex materials group received an equipment grant for a femtosecond electron beam source. Walt Esselman and Dave DeWitt received a grant for flow cytometry and cell sorting.

Training grants are very important to our mission of graduate education, and I do want to recognize Gemma Reguera and her group on the NSF-IGERT grant as well as Titus Brown on the grant for his next-generation sequencing workshop. Finally, this coming year has the GLBRC up for renewal this year, and we all wish them well. CNS has committed three faculty lines in support of this renewal.

The quality of the young faculty we are hiring is clearly demonstrated by the number of early career awards they are receiving. I want to recognize our new CAREER award winners this year: Tom Hamann, Pengpeng Zhang, Ignacio Uriarte-Tuero, Dapeng Zhan and Eva Farre. And I especially want to recognize Elena Litchman from KBS and Zoology for being selected as one of the 94 nationwide Presidential CAREER Award Winners.

This is also a great opportunity to recognize the winners of other national major awards. Sheng Yang He has received a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator award. He is the first HHMI investigator at Michigan State and is in the first group of HHMI investigators in the plant sciences. Matt Hedden, Ignacio Uriarte-Tuero, and Dapeng Zhan, all from the Department of Mathematics, were awarded Sloan Foundation Fellowships. Diane Ebert-May from Plant Biology was named the Carnegie Foundation Michigan Professor of the Year.

We have several new AAAS Fellows, and I want to congratulate all of them. 4 faculty were named fellows in 2010, and 9 more will be officially named fellows in late December.  (Nine Scientists Named AAAS Fellows).

1. Chip Brock: Physics and Astronomy
2. Paul Mantica: Chemistry
3. James Peska: Food Science and Human Nutrition and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.

Finally, I want to recognize the new holders of endowed positions in the College. Dave Kramer is the holder of the Hannah Professorship in Photosynthesis and Bioenergetics. Rob Last is the Barnett Rosenberg Chair of Biochemsitry.

We have many more faculty who deserve endowed positions, and the Advancement office is working hard to generate funding for them. I hope to have several more to announce next year.

One thing a University must do to maintain and build its leadership position is continue to develop new programs even in the face of budget constraints. This year we have instituted a number of new initiatives and changes that will serve us well. We have started the Institute for Mathematics and Science Education jointly with the College of Education and hired Joe Krajcik as the director. This Institute was funded by the Provost’s office, and the College is firmly committed to making Michigan State a leader in math and science education.  We have a societal responsibility to do this at both the K-12 and university levels, we have a very strong partner the College of Education, and there is a lot of external funding to support it.

In parallel, we have eliminated the Division of Science and Mathematics Education and formed the Program in Mathematics’ Education to house the Math Ed. Ph.D. program. The undergraduate courses for the College of Education elementary education majors and CNS secondary education majors and the master’s degree in science education have been moved to the Center for Integrative Studies.

We have also initiated the BioMolecular Science Gateway graduate recruiting program. This program integrates recruiting of graduate students across a number of biology departments, and I am confident that it will increase the number and quality of the students we bring in in these areas. I appreciate the contributions of associate dean Rich Schwartz and everyone else involved in bringing this program to fruition.

We are expanding the Neuroscience Program with some faculty hires in both CNS and the College of Social Science, and we hope to have a new undergraduate major available for next fall.

Finally, we have instituted this fall new undergraduate programs in Advanced Mathematics and Actuarial Science.

There is very significant news concerning private fund raising. To remain competitive, Michigan State needs to greatly expand its endowment. During the last campaign that ended in 2007, MSU raised about $1.4B and CNS about $90M.

Our focus will be on endowed faculty positions, endowed graduate fellowships, endowed discretionary funds, endowed undergraduate research scholarships, and funds to renovate our teaching laboratories. Most of the departments are now engaged in defining major, overarching themes and specific goals and objectives. The College Advancement office will be working closely with the departments to refine these objectives and to integrate them into a coherent College-wide program.

We recently announced $7M gift to the Department of Geological Sciences to support endowed faculty positions and graduate fellowships.

Finally, let me conclude where I started. Your departments and programs, the College, Michigan State, and American higher education are under stress and are undergoing significant changes. In many cases, these will be disruptive, and the expectations for us individually and collectively will only increase. We still have great strengths, though, and our greatest strength is people – the faculty, advisors, staff, and graduate assistants who make this place work.

Let me again thank everyone who has worked so hard to keep us moving forward. I look forward to continuing to work with all of you.

Election as a Fellow of AAAS is an honor bestowed upon members by their peers. Fellows are recognized for meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications. Nearly 540 AAAS members were selected as AAAS Fellows for 2012.

The 2012 class of AAAS Fellows are:

• Christoph Adami, professor of microbiology
• R. Sekhar Chivukula, associate dean of the College of Natural Science and professor of physics
• Jeffrey Conner, professor of plant biology at Kellogg Biological Station
• Megan Donahue, professor of astronomy
• Sheng Yang He, professor of plant biology
• Gregg Howe, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology
• Piotr Piecuch, University Distinguished Professor of chemistry
• Thomas D. Sharkey, chairperson and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology
• Elizabeth H. Simmons, dean of Lyman Briggs College and professor of physics

About the MSU 2012 AAAS Fellows

A recent $7 million gift to the Department of Geological Sciences will establish new professorships and fellowships to enhance teaching and research. Pictured here are MSU students conducting a geologic mapping exercise along the shores of Lake Superior near Marquette, Mich., in September 2011. Photo by Brian Hampton.

A $7 million gift will help expand Michigan State University’s Department of Geological Sciences, fostering better understanding of Earth’s systems and resources.

The gift, from an MSU graduate who wishes to remain anonymous, will help build a program focused on excellence and leadership in Earth science. The gift will mainly go toward new professorships and graduate research fellowships as the department gathers momentum.

“Endowed professorships and endowed graduate fellowships are critical building blocks for excellence in every academic area,” MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said. “Comprehending the forces that shape our world, specifically water and energy resources, requires research leaders who also can carry that knowledge into the classroom. This gift enables us to attract rising stars in geological sciences who can make an immediate impact on our research and education.”

The search for three early career faculty members for the new endowed professorships will likely begin in 2012. A portion of the gift leverages a scholarship matching fund provided by a previous anonymous donor to MSU and will endow graduate fellowship support for attracting the best and brightest graduate students.

“Graduate fellowships are a cornerstone of strong research programs and this funding allows us to recruit the most capable,” said R. James Kirkpatrick, dean of the College of Natural Science. “The fellowships will provide funding for students to earn their degree while undertaking advanced research alongside leading faculty. Together, these professorships and fellows will significantly enhance MSU’s Department of Geological Sciences.”

Another portion of the gift completes funding for the Thomas Vogel Endowed Chair in Solid Earth. The chair was established in 2006 in honor of the retirement of longtime geology professor Thomas Vogel. Endowed chairs are the highest honor awarded to faculty.

The gift was directed specifically to the Department of Geological Science in the College of Natural Science. The college is the academic home to 4,900 undergraduate student majors and nearly 1,000 graduate students in physical, mathematical and biological sciences.

More information:

• Dept. of Geological Sciences
• BLOG: MSU Geology in the Field 
• Endowments in the College of Natural Science 
• Ways to Make a Gift to MSU

Written by Michael Steger and Suzette Hittner.

Alexander Shingleton, assistant professor of zoology, led an MSU team of researchers studying why some body parts are more sensitive to environmental changes than others, work that could someday lead to better ways of treating certain diseases. Fruit flies use the same genes to control this process as humans do. Photos by G.L. Kohuth.

Research led by assistant zoology professor Alexander Shingleton has shed new light on why some body parts are more sensitive to environmental change than others, work that could someday lead to better ways of treating a variety of diseases, including Type 2 diabetes.

Shingleton is studying the genetics of fruit flies and zeroing in on why some of the insects’ body parts will grow to full size even when suffering from malnutrition, while others will not. He uses fruit flies because they use the same genes to control this process as humans.

“The developmental mechanisms by which these changes in body proportion are regulated are really unknown,” Shingleton said.

Shingleton said that in humans, a person’s brain will grow to near full size despite malnutrition or other environmental, or nongenetic, problems.

If scientists can figure out why some organs or body parts are either overly sensitive or insensitive to environmental factors, then it’s possible that therapies could be developed to deal with any number of maladies.

“If we know how we can control sensitivity to environmental issues such as malnutrition, we can, in principle, manipulate genes that are regulating that sensitivity,” Shingleton said. “Genes can be activated so they can actually restore sensitivity.”

Type 2 diabetes is a good example of the body’s insensitivity to nongenetic issues. The most common form of diabetes, Type 2, occurs when the body becomes insensitive to insulin, which is released in response to blood sugar levels. The body needs insulin to be able to use glucose for energy.

“In diabetes, that response is suppressed,” Shingleton said. “We get desensitization. We know people become insulin resistant, but we’re not quite sure why.”

What Shingleton and colleagues discovered is that even when malnourished, the genitals of a male fruit fly continue to grow to normal size. The research is detailed in the recent issue of the Proceedings of the Library of Science Genetics.

“The same developmental mechanism that a fly uses to make its genitals insensitive to changes in nutrition may be the same that we as humans use to modulate the responsiveness of individual body parts to changes in nutrition,” he said. “Our job is to try to understand why some body parts are responsive to changes in nutrition and others aren’t.”

Using the fruit fly for this type of research “gives us enormous information about how we as humans work and how we respond to our environment,” Shingleton said. “This provides information on biomedical issues that arise from things like malnutrition or insulin resistance.”

Shingleton’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation and MSU’s Bio/computational and Evolution in Action Consortium, or BEACON.

Other Related News and Links:

• Five Faculty Earn NSF Career Awards
• Evolution Lab Engages Students; PURL Gives Mentored Experience in Life-science Research

The U.S. Professors of the Year awards program celebrates outstanding instructors across the country. Sponsored by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, it is the only national program to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring.

Ebert-May implements scientific teaching in her classroom – teaching driven by her research on how students learn biology and develop high-level cognitive skills in learner-centered courses. She teaches biology courses in the Biological Sciences Program, Department of Plant Biology and Integrative Studies Program. She also teaches graduate students and post-docs about college teaching and course development.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education launched the awards program in 1981. All undergraduate teachers in the United States, of any academic rank at any type of undergraduate institution, are eligible for the award. Entries are judged by top U.S. educators and other active participants in education.

Related Links:

• The Ebert-May Lab
• U.S. Professors of the Year