The College of Sciences is proud to launch Georgia Tech for Georgia’s Tomorrow, a new center focused on research that aims to improve life across the state. 

“From resilient communities and agriculture, to health and sustainable energy resources, Georgia's Tomorrow will focus on improving the lives of Georgians and their communities,” Dean Susan Lozier says.

An expansion of the College’s strategic plan, the initiative will serve as a statewide fulcrum, fostering research in direct service to Georgia cities, counties, and communities.

The center specifically addresses critical health and climate challenges throughout Georgia, and aims to pave the way for increased public-private partnerships. The initiative will also expand access — broadening participation opportunities for Georgia students and communities to engage with research. 

The search for an inaugural faculty director has commenced, and will be followed by a dedicated cluster hire in 2025, funded by the Office of the Provost. Dean Lozier, who also serves as a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has reserved funds from the College of Sciences Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Dean’s Chair to initiate the center. 

People and planet

Selected from a pool of 17 faculty proposals, two dedicated faculty cluster hires will focus on improving the health of Georgians and Georgia’s communities — and the resilience of humans and ecosystems to current and anticipated climate change in the state. Appointments will be sought across the College’s six schools.

“These proposals address themes that are critically important right now for Georgia Tech research growth: sustainability and climate, along with health and well-being,” says Julia Kubanek, Vice President for Interdisciplinary Research at Georgia Tech and a professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “This is an opportunity for Georgia to be a model for the nation on how to solve health disparities.”

“These new cluster hires will strengthen the College’s existing research programs,” Lozier adds. “They will also facilitate large collaborations across campus, and educate the next generation of scientists who will tackle these problems in Georgia and beyond.”

Rising Tide Program

An adjacent effort, the new College of Sciences Rising Tide Program, is selecting promising early-career scientists for a two-year virtual mentorship initiative.

The Rising Tide Program will work in tandem with the Georgia's Tomorrow cluster hire, complementing the strong culture of mentorship in the College, while providing a pathway to support local research at the Institute. 

“Rising Tide aims to help the College recruit scientists with professional or lived experiences in the Southeast — or focused on research with particular relevance to the Southeast,” explains Rising Tide Director Alex Robel, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “One of our key goals is to bring more faculty to Georgia Tech who can contribute to research and teaching that’s particularly relevant to communities in Georgia.”

“The reach of Georgia Tech is global,” Lozier adds. “Our fingerprints are on discoveries and innovations that benefit people and their communities around the world. As researchers at a leading public university in the state of Georgia, we are also cognizant of the responsibility and opportunity to focus our efforts more intently here at home.”

Georgia's Tomorrow: Director search

The College has launched an internal leadership search for the Georgia’s Tomorrow center, with an expected appointment to be announced in February 2025. The inaugural director will have the opportunity to shape the direction of this new initiative by:   

• Formulating a strategic plan for the center in partnership with interested parties across campus
• Promoting synergies between faculty within the college, and elsewhere at Georgia Tech, whose work relates to the health of Georgia’s people, its ecosystems, and communities
• Fostering collaborations with offices at Georgia Tech that focus on community, government, and industry engagement so as to develop meaningful external partnerships that will advance the work of this center  

All faculty who hold a majority appointment within the College of Sciences are eligible and encouraged to apply. Learn more and apply via InfoReady. 

Funding

Initial support for Georgia Tech for Georgia's Tomorrow is generously provided by the College of Sciences Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Dean's Chair fund. Cluster hire funding has been awarded by Provost Steven W. McLaughlin. 

Georgia's Tomorrow will also seek funding from state, national and international organizations, private foundations, and government agencies to expand impact. Philanthropic support will also be sought in the form of professorships, programmatic support for the center, and seed funding.

2025 update:
Georgia Tech for Georgia's Tomorrow initially launched under the working name Science for Georgia's Tomorrow (Sci4GT). 
Professor Joel Kostka will serve as the center's inaugural faculty director. 

Georgia Tech researchers Meltem Alemdar, Heidi Turcotte, and Emily Weigel have received a National Science Foundation grant to develop the Research Experiences for Pre-Service Teachers program. This initiative, supported by funding from NSF’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, aims to enhance STEM training for pre-service teachers through immersive summer research experiences. The project is one of four funded by a new partnership between NSF and the Micron Foundation, aimed at advancing STEM education training for both pre-service and in-service teachers. 

Weigel, a senior academic professional in the College of Sciences, plays a critical role in the new project. As the internship director within the School of Biological Sciences, she has extensive experience placing and evaluating biology undergraduate students in internships. Weigel's work in the grant focuses on providing authentic scientific experiences to pre-service teachers, helping them to effectively teach STEM practices and enhance their teaching capabilities through hands-on learning.

The partnership program will recruit up to 30 pre-service teachers and pair them with researchers and mentors for six-week summer internships at Georgia Tech. The program aims to build a strong STEM foundation for future educators, ensuring they become effective teachers from the start.

The research team has secured support for internship placements in several Georgia Tech labs for the summer 2025 pilot including with Weigel and William Ratcliff, associate professor and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences . 

Read the full story in the College of Lifetime Learning newsroom.

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Summary aided by Microsoft Copilot.

A multi-institutional team of researchers, led by Georgia Tech’s Francesca Storici, has discovered a previously unknown role for RNA. Their insights could lead to improved treatments for diseases like cancer and neurodegenerative disorders while changing our understanding of genetic health and evolution.

RNA molecules are best known as protein production messengers. They carry genetic instructions from DNA to ribosomes — the factories inside cells that turn amino acids into the proteins necessary for many cell functions. But Storici’s team found that RNA can also help cells repair a severe form of DNA damage called a double-strand break, or DSB.

A DSB means both strands of the DNA helix have been severed. Cells have the tools to make some repairs, but a DSB is significant damage — and if not properly fixed can lead to mutations, cell death, or cancer. (Interestingly, cancer treatments, like chemotherapy and radiation, can cause DSBs.) 

Storici, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences, has dedicated her research to studying the molecules and mechanisms underlying damaged DNA repairs. Ten years ago, she and collaborators discovered that RNA could serve as a template for DSB repair.

“Now we’ve learned that RNA can directly promote DSB repair mechanisms,” said Storici, whose lab teamed with mathematics experts in the lab of Nataša Jonoska from the University of South Florida. They’re all part of the Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology based at Georgia Tech. They explain their discovery in the journal Nature Communications.

“These findings open up a new understanding of RNA's potential role in maintaining genome integrity and driving evolutionary changes,” added Storici.

The researchers used variation-distance graphs to visualize millions of DSB repair events, offering a comprehensive snapshot of sequence variations. The graphs highlighted major differences in repair patterns, depending on the DSB position. 

This mathematical approach also uncovered significant differences in repair efficiency, pointing to RNA's potential in modulating DSB repair outcomes.

“These findings underscore the critical role of mathematical visualization in understanding complex biological mechanisms and could pave the way for targeted interventions in genome stability and therapeutic research,” said Jonoska.

Molecular Grunt Work

When a DSB happens in DNA, it’s like a load-bearing beam in a building breaking. A careful, precise repair is needed to ensure the building’s — or the DNA’s — stability. The pieces must be rejoined accurately to prevent further damage or mutation. Repairing a damaged building requires having a reliable foreman on the job site. A DSB requires something very similar.

“A key mechanism we identified is that RNA can help position and hold the broken DNA ends in place, facilitating the repair process,” explained Storici, whose team conducted the research in both human and yeast cells. 

Specifically, they found that RNA molecules and the broken section of DNA can match up like puzzle pieces. When RNA has this kind of complementarity with the DNA break site, it acts as a scaffold, or a guide, beyond its traditional coding function, showing the cellular machinery where to make repairs. Over millennia, cells have evolved complex mechanisms to fix DSB, each of them functioning like different tools from the same toolbox. 

Storici’s team showed that RNA can influence which tools are used, depending on its complementarity to the broken DNA strands. This means that in addition to being the important protein production messenger, RNA acts as both a foreman and laborer when it comes to DNA repair. 

A deeper understanding of RNA’s role in DNA repair could lead to new strategies for strengthening repair mechanisms in healthy cells, potentially reducing the harmful effects of treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. 

“RNA has a much broader function than we knew,” Storici said. “We still have a lot of research to do into these mechanisms, but this work opens up new ways for exploring how RNA could be harnessed in healthcare, potentially leading to new treatments for cancer and other genetic diseases.”

As Storici and other researchers continue probing RNA’s effects in DNA repair, their revelations could have a lasting impact on human health and evolution. That means better gene therapies, new cancer treatments and anti-aging strategies — and also the ability to influence how organisms adapt and evolve. 

CITATION: Youngkyu Jeon, Yilin Lu, Margherita Maria Ferrari, Tejasvi Channagiri, Penghao Xu, Chance Meers, Yiqi Zhang, Sathya Balachander, Vivian S. Park, Stefania Marsili, Zachary F. Pursell, Nataša Jonoska, Francesca Storici. “RNA-mediated double-strand break repair by end-joining mechanisms.” Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51457-9

FUNDING: NIH grants GM115927, ES028271; NSF grant MCB-1615335; Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar grant 55108574; Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology NSF DMS-1764406; Simons Foundation grant 59459; NSF grants CCF-2107267 and DMS-2054321.

Three College of Sciences students with aspirations of making a difference in medicine were selected as recipients of the prestigious Stamps President’s Scholarship. Though this scholarship is typically given to 40 exceptional incoming first-year students, a select few second- and third-year students are chosen to receive the honor for exemplifying the program’s pillars of scholarship, leadership, progress, and service.

The new Scholars include School of Biological Sciences/School of Modern Languages student Sonali Kaluri, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry student Seth Kinoshita, and School of Biological Sciences student Medina McCowin.

As part of the program, the selected students will receive a full-ride scholarship, special mentoring, and travel opportunities.

About the Scholars

Sonali Kaluri is a third-year student double majoring in biology and applied languages and intercultural studies (with a concentration in Spanish). Deeply passionate about women's health, she has researched clinical considerations of treating liver disease in pregnant women and the impact of a virtual lactation program on maternal and infant health outcomes at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In her spare time, she volunteers at the Winship Cancer Institute and the March of Dimes and is a member of the Yellow Jacket Fencing Club.

“I hope to attend medical school and pursue a career in academic medicine after graduation from Georgia Tech,” says Kaluri. “My research experience has made me acutely aware of the gaps in medical knowledge regarding the different ways disease processes affect women, and I hope to become an advocate for change through research and clinical practice!”

Seth Kinoshita is a third-year biochemistry major with a minor in health and medical sciences. As an undergraduate research assistant with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, he focuses on a novel drug delivery structure that can be surgically inserted to decrease recovery time and minimize invasiveness for tendon injuries. His work has been published in several academic journals. He serves as an undergraduate research ambassador and a pre-health mentor — and spends his free time with Sympathetic Vibrations, Georgia Tech's male a cappella group. Kinoshita also works as the medical coordinator for Aurora Day Camp, a camp for children with cancer and their siblings.

"After graduation, I want to pursue an M.D./Ph.D. in regenerative orthopedic medicine to bridge my tendon repair research with direct implementation into patients,” says Kinoshita. “I aim to develop innovative treatments that can restore mobility in the extremities and improve the quality of life for patients with musculoskeletal disorders."

Medina McCowin is a third-year biology major researching cancer treatment methods in the Sulchek BioMEMS and Biomechanics Lab. She also worked for Lachance Laboratories as an undergraduate researcher, investigating cancer genetics. Active on campus, she is the biology representative for the Georgia Tech Undergraduate House of Representatives and president of the Georgia Tech Public Health Student Association. McCowin has also held several leadership roles with the Georgia Tech American Medical Student Association.

“In the future, I hope to pursue an M.D./Ph.D. and become a pediatric oncologist and cancer treatment researcher, focusing on improving pediatric cancer treatments,” says McCowin. “Working in the healthcare field and experiencing personal loss has taught me that empathy and compassion are the most important factors in becoming a doctor. As a doctor, I want to contribute to the advancements of pediatric medicine, but also be dedicated to improving the emotional and mental well-being of my patients and their families.”

To better understand why some cancer patients struggle to fight off infections, Georgia Tech researchers have created tiny lab-grown models of human immune systems.

These miniature models — known as human immune organoids — mimic the real-life environment where immune cells learn to recognize and attack harmful invaders and respond to vaccines. Not only are these organoids powerful new tools for studying and observing immune function in cancer, their use is likely to accelerate vaccine development, better predict disease treatment response for patients, and even speed up clinical trials. 

“Our synthetic hydrogels create a breakthrough environment for human immune organoids, allowing us to model antibody production from scratch, more precisely, and for a longer duration,” said Ankur Singh, Carl Ring Family Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory. 

“For the first time, we can recreate and sustain complex immunological processes in a synthetic gel, using blood, and effectively track B cell responses,” he added. “This is a gamechanger for understanding and treating immune vulnerabilities in patients with lymphoma who have undergone cancer treatment — and hopefully other disorders too.”

Led by Singh, the team created lab-grown immune systems that mimic human tonsils and lymph node tissue to study immune responses more accurately. Their research findings, published in the journal Nature Materials, mark a shift toward in vitro models that more closely represent human immunology. The team also included investigators from Emory University, Children’s Hospital of Atlanta, and Vanderbilt University.

Designing a Tiny Immune System Model

The researchers were inspired to address a critical issue in biomedical science: the poor success rate of translating preclinical findings from animal models into effective clinical outcomes, especially in the context of immunity, infection, and vaccine responses. 

“While animal models are valuable for many types of research, they often fail to accurately mirror realistic human immune biology, disease mechanisms, and treatment responses,” said Monica (Zhe) Zhong, a Bioengineering Ph.D. student and the paper’s first author. “To address this, we designed a new model that faithfully replicates the unique complexity of human immune biology across molecular, cellular, tissue, and system levels.”

The team used synthetic hydrogels to recreate a microenvironment where B cells from human blood and tonsils can mature and produce antibodies. When immune cells from healthy donors or lymphoma patients are cultured in these gel-like environments, the organoids support longer cell function, allowing processes like antibody formation and adaptation to occur — similar to the human body. Utilizing the organoids for individual patients helps predict how that individual will respond to infection.

The models also enable researchers to control and test immune responses under various conditions. The team discovered that not all tissue sources are the same, and tonsil cells struggled with longevity issues. They used a specialized setup to study how healthy immune cells react to signals that help them fight infections, which failed to trigger the same response in cells from lymphoma survivors who seemingly have recovered from immunotherapy treatment.

Using organoids embedded in a novel immune organ-on-chip technology, the team observed that immune cells from lymphoma survivors treated with certain immunotherapies do not organize themselves into specific “zones,” the way they normally would in a strong immune response. This lack of organization may help explain some immune challenges cancer survivors face, as evidenced by recent clinical findings. 

A Game-Changing Technology

This research is primarily of interest to infectious disease researchers, cancer researchers, immunologists, and healthcare professionals  dedicated to improving patient outcomes. By studying these miniature immune systems, they can identify why current treatments may not be effective and explore new strategies to enhance immune defenses. 

"Lymphoma patients treated with CD20-targeted therapies often face increased susceptibility to infections that can persist years after completing therapy.Understanding these long-term impacts on antibody responses could be key to improving both safety and quality of life for lymphoma survivors,” said Dr. Jean Koff, associate professor in the department of Hematology and Oncology at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute and a co-author on the paper. 

“This technology provides deeper biological insights and an innovative way to monitor for recovery of immunological defects over time. It could help clinicians better identify patients who would benefit from specific interventions that reduce infection risk,” Koff added.

Another critical and promising aspect of the research is its scalability: An individual researcher can make hundreds of organoids in a single sitting. The model’s capability to target different populations — both healthy and immunosuppressed patients — vastly increases its usability for vaccine and therapeutic testing. 

According to Singh, who directs the  Center for Immunoengineering at Georgia Tech, the team is already pushing the research into new dimensions, including developing cellular therapies and an aged immune system model to address aging-related questions. 

“At the end of the day, this work most immediately affects cancer patients and survivors, who often struggle with weakened immune responses and may not respond well to standard treatments like vaccines,” Singh explained. “This breakthrough could lead to new ways of boosting immune defenses, ultimately helping vulnerable patients stay healthier and recover more fully.” 

The work was initially funded by the Wellcome Leap HOPE program. This support has led to a boost in recent funding, including a recent $7.5M grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Citation: Zhong, Z., Quiñones-Pérez, M., Dai, Z. et al. Human immune organoids to decode B cell response in healthy donors and patients with lymphoma. Nat. Mater. (2024).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-02037-1

Funding: Wellcome Leap HOPE Program, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Cancer Institute, and Georgia Tech Foundation