Bright young things: UVA’s self-directed synthetic biology stars

Ask some of the newest members of UVA’s International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition team why they plan to spend the summer in a lab on Grounds splicing DNA, and they have a tendency to talk over one another in their eagerness to explain.

“It’s undergraduate research, but we’re not treated like undergraduates,” said 19-year-old Josh Leehan, a second-year biology student.

“That’s one of the appeals for a lot of people,” said Elizabeth Kelly, 20, another second-year bio major. Plenty of undergrads at UVA get the chance to work in labs, she said. “But you’re not doing anything on your own. You’re doing someone else’s work.”

Not so with iGEM, a decade-old contest that challenges college students from different disciplines and from all over the world to solve real problems with synthetic biology—almost entirely on their own. UVA bio professor Keith Kozminski, one of several faculty members who mentor the group, describes the year-long program University undergrads have built around the competition in more sweeping terms.

Read the full article at  http://www.c-ville.com/bright-young-things-uvas-self-directed-synthetic-biology-stars/#.UZKvtejeSHl

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS OF THE 2013-2014 HARRISON UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AWARDS!

Congratulations are in order to our Biology Department undergraduates who have been selected by a Faculty Senate committee as recipients of the 2013-2014 Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards. Kudos to Bridget Bailey, Fallon Bormann, Evan Brown, Arun Dutta, Christine Hou, Kathryn Kingsbury, Juyeon Park, Karina Payerhin, Kelly Sullivan, and Kristen Whalen! Biology majors (or those planning to become biology majors) represent nearly a quarter of the award winners!

In all, 44 undergraduates have received 38 Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards that will enable them to conduct independent research projects this summer. Two other students have had their research underwritten by the Stull family of Dallas and the Finger family of Houston.

The research awards support students who present detailed plans for projects that have been endorsed by a faculty mentor. A Faculty Senate committee selected the winners, who receive up to $3,000. Faculty mentors who oversee the projects receive $1,000.

For more information, read the complete story in today's UVAToday!

http://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-announces-44-undergraduate-research-awards

Science Outreach Events

Here is some information on a few upcoming science outreach events in which Biology faculty are participating!

A science café series which began in February featured Bob Cox as the first guest scientist!  Science Cafes are events to foster conversations between scientists and the public in relaxed settings such as restaurants and coffee shops. The audience for this event is intended to be external to the university and especially people who might not be likely to come to a public lecture on Grounds, so publicity has been focused externally rather than on internally, but anyone is welcome.  The full info can be found at http://sciencestraightup.org.  The specific details for Bob Cox's event can be found at http://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/Science_Straight_Up/upcoming-events/.  

On a related note, Bob Cox and Michelle Prysby (Director of Science Education and Public Outreach) were interviewed on WTJU's Soundboard show on Feb. 11. The interview was about the science café concept, and about Bob's research and more generally about his experiences becoming a scientist. The intention is to have these scientist interviews be a regular monthly feature on WTJU on the Monday before our monthly Science Straight Up event.

Genetically Engineered Test for Whooping Cough Wins U.Va. E-Cup

Congratulations!  Undergrads Joe Muldoon (Biology & Chemistry), Shaun Moshasha (Chemistry & Physics), Rachel Smith, Syed Hassan (Computer Science), Josh Fass (Biomedical Engineering), and Alex Zorychta (Biomedical Engineering) won the 2012 University Entrepreneurship Cup, for developing a rapid diagnostic assay for whooping cough.   Follow the story here! 

Brain May ‘See’ More Than the Eyes, Study Indicates

Vision may be less important to “seeing” than is the brain’s ability to process points of light into complex images, according to a new study of the fruit fly visual system currently published in the online journal Nature Communications.

University of Virginia researchers have found that the very simple eyes of fruit fly larvae, with only 24 total photoreceptors (the human eye contains more than 125 million), provide just enough light or visual input to allow the animal’s relatively large brain to assemble that input into images.

“It blows open how we think about vision,” said Barry Condron, a neurobiologist in U.Va.’s College of Arts & Sciences, who oversaw the study. “This tells us that visual input may not be as important to sight as the brain working behind it. In this case, the brain apparently is able to compensate for the minimal visual input.”

Read more here: http://news.virginia.edu/content/brain-may-see-more-eyes-study-indicates