PhD student Shandra Justicia has been selected to receive the prestigious American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Robert D. Watkins Graduate Fellowship. ASM's Robert D. Watkins Graduate Fellowship program is highly competitive, and is designed to increase the number of doctoral degrees awarded to members of underrepresented groups. The Robert D. Watkins Graduate Fellowship provides students with a stipend for three years, as well as travel to and accommodations at the annual ASM General Meetings and a visit to the ASM Kadner Institute one time during the three-year tenure of the fellowship.

Shandra Justicia received a dual degree in Industrial Biotechnology and Chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. Justicia entered the School of Biology's graduate program in Fall 2007, and is in the laboratory of Dr. Frank Löffler. Her research focuses on microorganisms that can be used in bioremediation, with a particular focus on microbes that can detoxify chlorinated methanes. These compounds have been widely used as solvents and reagents, and are widespread groundwater contaminants, posing risks to human and ecosystem health.

Social insects, such as ants, bees, wasps, and termites, form cooperative societies and display the most advanced levels of social behavior. Insect societies dominate terrestrial ecosystems because they consist of distinct queen and worker castes. Queens and workers engage in different types of behaviors, which allow the society to function harmoniously and efficiently.

Navin Elango, Brendan Hunt, Michael Goodisman, and Soojin Yi of the School of Biology have made progress into understanding the genetic basis of the caste system in the social honeybee Apis mellifera. In work published in the July 7th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Elango et al. discovered that honeybee genes affecting caste development show specific modifications, called 'DNA methylation'. This indicates that caste formation may be controlled by simple molecular mechanisms. This research provides insights into the molecular basis underlying social behavior and helps explain how genomes evolve.

Social insects, such as ants, bees, wasps, and termites, form cooperative societies and display the most advanced levels of social behavior. Insect societies dominate terrestrial ecosystems because they consist of distinct queen and worker castes. Queens and workers engage in different types of behaviors, which allow the society to function harmoniously and efficiently.

Navin Elango, Brendan Hunt, Michael Goodisman, and Soojin Yi of the School of Biology have made progress into understanding the genetic basis of the caste system in the social honeybee Apis mellifera. In work published in the July 7th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Elango et al. discovered that honeybee genes affecting caste development show specific modifications, called 'DNA methylation'. This indicates that caste formation may be controlled by simple molecular mechanisms. This research provides insights into the molecular basis underlying social behavior and helps explain how genomes evolve.

Brian Hammer, assistant professor in the School of Biology at Georgia Tech received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study a cell-to-cell communication system that allows bacteria to "talk" to each other. Bacteria use this process, called quorum sensing, to synchronize their behavior and act like multicellular organisms. The Hammer lab is studying the role of quorum sensing in the environmental lifestyle of the aquatic microbe, Vibrio cholerae, which causes the fatal disease cholera. The grant also includes resources for a K-12 outreach program with undergraduate participation that was developed by Dr. Hammer to introduce concepts about bacteria and marine ecology to local elementary school students and teachers.

The School of Biology is hosting its 1st Annual Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics Symposium in the Klaus Building at Georgia Institute of Technology on July 24th, 2009. The event is organized by Inga Schmidt-Krey (School of Biology) and Raquel Lieberman (School of Chemistry and Biochemistry) to bring together biophysicists from five different schools in both the College of Science and the College of Engineering: Applied Physiology, Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Physics, and Biomedical Engineering.

The symposium will be held in the Klaus Building 1116 E & W from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. For a complete schedule click HERE.

The symposium is kindly supported by JEOL, Bio-Rad, and Eurofins.

Brian Hammer, assistant professor in the School of Biology at Georgia Tech received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study a cell-to-cell communication system that allows bacteria to "talk" to each other. Bacteria use this process, called quorum sensing, to synchronize their behavior and act like multicellular organisms. The Hammer lab is studying the role of quorum sensing in the environmental lifestyle of the aquatic microbe, Vibrio cholerae, which causes the fatal disease cholera. The grant also includes resources for a K-12 outreach program with undergraduate participation that was developed by Dr. Hammer to introduce concepts about bacteria and marine ecology to local elementary school students and teachers.

The School of Biology is hosting its 1st Annual Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics Symposium in the Klaus Building at Georgia Institute of Technology on July 24th, 2009. The event is organized by Inga Schmidt-Krey (School of Biology) and Raquel Lieberman (School of Chemistry and Biochemistry) to bring together biophysicists from five different schools in both the College of Science and the College of Engineering: Applied Physiology, Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Physics, and Biomedical Engineering.

The symposium will be held in the Klaus Building 1116 E & W from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM. For a complete schedule click HERE.

The symposium is kindly supported by JEOL, Bio-Rad, and Eurofins.

Fin Channel.com, May 6 - Georgia State University was recently awarded a nearly $900,000 grant from the NSF to increase the number of science teachers in metro Atlanta schools. The grant, titled "Impacting Metro-Atlanta Science Teaching," or I-MAST, will be used to recruit, prepare and support 36 high quality science educators over the next five years... "The partnership between GSU and Georgia Tech is a great way to bring bright young scientists into the classroom," said Jennifer Leavey, director of Undergraduate Academic Services in the Georgia Tech School of Biology. "Tech is a nationally-ranked leader in undergraduate science education, but has no route for certifying K-12 teachers. GSU has an excellent College of Education and is only a few blocks away." (full story)

The Scientist , Jun 8 - You've unpacked your next-generation sequencing system and popped in some DNA or RNA. Five days later, you've sequenced 50 million tiny strings of nucleotides. Then what? Tolerating Mismatches USER: Nicholas Bergman, assistant professor of biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Project: Mapping the transcriptome of anthrax-causing bacteria (Bacillus anthracis) and measuring gene expression levels Bergman's group uses Applied Biosystems' SOLiD gene sequencer, because it produces more data than do other new platforms... "It would take [an inaccuracy] and say this read is unmappable," Bergman says. The group needed a new algorithm that would tolerate these errors and move through vast amounts of data. (Full Story)

The Whistle, Jun 15 - While many Tech students are attending to their coursework during the summer, the Institute has opened its campus to elementary and high school students for several academic camps.

From classes about engineering, robotics, biotechnology, architecture or the investing nuances of Wall Street, high school students from across the state can participate in programs overseen by Tech faculty and staff. (full story )