Bionews 6

"All the news that people bother to send in"

BioSci NEWS Online

Don't miss the rotogravure link at the end of the newsletter

Volume 2, Number 2, October 2001

You are invited to the Graduate Symposium and Free for Fall Jambalaya, details for 16 November follow below

Congratulations to Cheryl Nickerson, who will be awarded a 2001 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Nickerson received a PhD in Microbiology with Eric Achberger in1994. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Roy Curtiss III at Washington University Medical School in St Louis, Missouri, from 1994-1998, and currently is an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Tulane University School of Medicine. See next related notice.

CHANCELLOR'S DISTINGUISHED LECTURER TO VISIT DEPARTMENT

Roy Curtiss, postdoctoral advisor of Cheryl Nickerson (see above), will visit LSU as a Chancellor's Distinguished Lecturer, November 28, 2001, in the Life Sciences Annex, Room A101 at 2:00 PM. The title of his talk will be "Genetic Manipulation of Plants and Microbes: Impact on Global Nutrition and Health"). Details are available from John Battista.

Victor Sprague, parasitologist, former assistant professor in the Department of Zoology for several years in the late 1940s, continued his career at the University of Maryland, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory at Solomons, Maryland, died in August at the age of 92. He was the leading worker on Microsporidia in the United States for several decades.

Number 100,000: The LSU Herbarium introduces its new vascular plant specimen
The Louisiana State University Herbarium of the Department of Biological Sciences prepared and accessioned its 100,000th vascular plant specimen and had a celebration October 8, 2001. Leigh Rhodes, a Chancellor's Aide student, prepared the specimen for the herbarium. The specimen is a collection from Morocco of Withania adpressa, an unusual member of the nightshade family and thus a relative of the tomato, potato, eggplant, and tobacco. The plant was acquired in an ongoing exchange of specimens with the Jardin Botanique National de Belgique in Meise, Belgium. According to the herbarium director, Dr. Lowell Urbatsch, the vascular plant herbarium has added ca. 55,000 collections since his arrival in 1975, more than doubling it's size since its establishment in 1869. In addition to the vascular plants, the herbarium houses the moss, lichen, and fungal collections of LSU, altogether totaling about 200,000 collections. The LSU Herbarium can be found in a new state-of-the-art, climate-controlled facility in the new Life Sciences Annex, second floor. Inquiries regarding collection usage, volunteer opportunities, and tours can be directed to the collections manager, Dr. Diane Ferguson.

Did you know?
Due to its long history (since 1869), the LSU Herbarium includes many old and historically valuable plant specimens in the vascular plant collection. Hundreds of specimens collected by Americus Featherman, the founder of the LSU Herbarium who botanized widely in Louisiana during the period from 1869 to 1872, are invaluable in documenting the plant life of our state just after the U.S. Civil War. Many other nineteenth-century specimens are present -- some at least as old as 1828 from Texas by the famous Belgian botanist Jean Louis Berlandier and, from Louisiana, collections dating back to at least 1843 by William Carpenter from the Felicianas. Also in the herbarium of that era are Texas and Louisiana specimens made by John Riddell (who published the first list of Louisiana plants) and Joseph Joor. Collections in the herbarium from other parts of the United States and Mexico made in the 1840's and 1850's include those by famous botanists Charles Short, Charles Mohr, and Arthur Schott. There are two important but more recent Louisiana collections of historical relevance. The hundreds of specimens collected by E.C. Wurzlow in the Houma area from 1913 to 1918 and the equally numerous specimens of Brother Arsène (Arsène Brouard) of St. Paul's College (Christian Brothers) in Covington collected mostly in St. Tammany Parish in 1919 to 1922 give broader picture of change in Louisiana flora into the early twentieth century.

Graduates Galore for December

Deanna Hagge, PhD, student of Diana Williams, Hansen's Disease Center, "An Improved In Vitro Model for the Study of Mycobacterium leprae/Schwann Cell Interactions"
Krista Farris-Lopez, MS, student of Julie Denslow, "Palm Community Development and Impacts on Seedling Establishment in a Moist Tropical Forest, Panama"
Quinesha L. Perry, MS, student working in Eric Achberger's laboratory (R.J. Siebeling--chair), "The Evaluation of PCR-based Techniques for the Detection of Fecal Indicator Organisms in Environmental Water Samples"
Ning Zhang, PhD, student of Meredith Blackwell, "Molecular Phylogeny of Pyrenomyctes and Population Genetics of Dogwood Anthracnose Fungus"
Bjoern Wissel, PhD, student of Charles Ramcharan, "Effects of Water Color on Food Web Structure in Freshwater Lakes"
Mark G. McRae, MS, student of J.M. Fitzsimmons, Museum of Natural Sciences, "Microhabitat Use in an Assemblage of Native and Introduced Stream Fishes in Hawaii"

NEED TO KNOW
Packages. Please try to pick up packages in room 206 Life Sciences as promptly as possible when you are notified. We receive large shipments daily which are delivered by UPS, Federal Express, Airborne, and University Stores. Therefore, packages should be picked up as soon as possible in order to make room for new shipments that arrive. If anyone has a preference as to where you want to be contacted (some do not want to receive calls in their offices), please let Janet Patrick know right away. Her telephone number is 8-1132 and her email address is jpatri3@lsu.edu.

Procurement card purchases

Turn in procurement card receipts to Teresa Wollmer as soon as you receive them. (Do not hold them until you receive email re these purchases from Beverly Joseph in Accounting Services).

Once you receive the email from Beverly, forward it to Teresa immediately at twollme@unix1.sncc.lsu.edu.

Reporting stolen cards. Call Bank of America at 1-888-449-2273 to notify them that your card has been stolen but do NOT ask them to reissue the card. A replacement card must be reissued through the Office of Accounting Services. Please e-mail Beverly Joseph at bjosep1@lsu.edu to notify her that your card has been stolen and that you reported it to the bank. Beverly will initiate a replacement card request with Bank of America. If the Bank reissues your card without being processed through the Office of Accounting Services, your card will have to be canceled and Accounting will have to reformat a new request through the university's processing system.

Department Copiers. Faculty and staff may continue to use the copiers as in the past. The copiers are now located in rooms 101, 107, 202, 206 Life Sciences and room 500 Choppin. The main copier is in room 202. When ALL of the new copiers (replacements) are installed, we will no longer be able to use a five-digit code. Therefore, course number codes will be installed and used for teaching.

Vermar D. Hargrove
Assistant to the Chair

Once again: Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowships in Biological Sciences 2002.
The HHMI will award fellowships which are intended for students who have completed less than one year of graduate study toward an M.S., a Ph.D., or a Sc.D. degree in the biological sciences. The program is open to both U.S. citizens and foreign citizens. Students with U.S. citizenship may take the fellowship abroad. Non-U.S. citizens must study in the United States. The deadline is 31 November. The award includes an annual stipend of $21,000, an annual fellow's allowance of $2,500, and an annual institutional allowance of $13,500. The program announcement, instructions, and sample application materials are available at national-academies.org/fellowships. For more information contact LSU/HHMI Program Coordinator Sheri Wischusen (225-578-0405, swischu@lsu.edu).

Information on other pre doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships can be found at a site for Fellowship Programs Unit Policy and Global Affairs (PGA).

GRADUATE NEWS
The fourth annual BioGrads Symposium is planned for Friday 16 November in the LSB Annex auditorium and lobby of the Life Sciences Annex. The program will be distributed to mail boxes a week before the event. Meeting chair, Brian Hoffpauir announced the following schedule:

Noon -- Poster session I, Annex lobby
1:00- 3:00 -- Contributed oral presentations, A101 (Annex auditorium)
3:00-4:00 -- Poster session II, Annex Lobby
5:00 -- The Free for Fall Jambalaya will follow the symposium outside of the annex . Matt Brown is in charge of the jambalaya event.

Alumni News

For a second month in a row there is a university-wide teaching award to report. Alan Lievens, former student of Lowell Urbatsch, was chosen outstanding professor at Texas Lutheran College in Edinburough.

UNDERGRADUATE NEWS
Frank Anderson, Tri-Beta Secretary, reports that Tri-Beta has had its first meeting of the academic year 4 September in which the basics of our club were explained that Tri-Beta is an Biological Honors Society where we get our members involved in the biology. We explained that in order to get our members involved, we set up a point system where each member has a certain amount of points to earn to retain/gain their member status - 10 points a year for existing members, 5 points a year for prospective members. The members gain a certain amount of points through completing some biologically related activity. Members gain: 1 point to listen to biologically related seminars (hosted by LSU), 1 point per 5 hours of biologically or medically related (and accredited) volunteer work or research, and 1 point to come to club meetings which usually involves guest speakers explaining about their research in biology. As usual, our club offers prospective and existing members free food and drink at the meetings. We also explained the membership fees will be sent out around January. As of right now, there is no set speaker schedule because we are still looking for people who interested to speaking at our club. So anyone who would want to speak and get people interested in their research is welcome to speak. Also, people looking for volunteers or research assistants can contact TriBeta through Frank Anderson, Secretary to publicizing for their program and its needs.

Michelle Salomon - President
Byron Herpich - Vice President
Frank Anderson - Secretary
Michelle Duffourc - Treasurer
Barbara Brown - Historian
Dr. William Stickle - Faculty Advisor

Sites of interest to undergraduates

$$$$$$$$$

Multidisciplinary study of longevity and healthy aging in the Louisiana population. S. Michal Jazwinski LSUHSC overall PI, Mark Batzer LSU PI. Louisiana Health Excellence Fund (1/02-12/06), $4,095,100 total award ($450,000 for Batzer Lab). This grant involves multiple investigators from LSU Baton Rouge, Pennington Biomedical Research Center and LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.
Congratulations to David Donze, who came with NIH money. Just before arriving at LSU, he was awarded a startup grant from an NIH post-doctoral program designed to "facilitate the successful transition to an extra mural environment as an independent researcher." The project is: Analysis of Chromosomal Insulator/Boundary Elements. Career Transition Award, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development National Institutes of Health, July 2001-June 2003 ($250,000).

Coming Soon!
Mark your Calendars! Don't Miss It!!
Department of Biological Sciences Annual Holiday Party
Wednesday, December 19, 2001
3:00pm - 5:00pm
The French House

Also - our Second Annual Lab Door Decorating Contest
Get your creative juices flowing.

Decorations will be judged by the office staff on the Monday before the Holiday Party Prizes will be given!!!

MEETINGS AND TRAVEL

M. A. Batzer presented a paper ,"Alu insertion polymorphisms for the study of human genomic diversity" at the 12th International Symposium on Human Identification, October 2001, in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Kevin Carman presented an invited seminar at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on 15 October.
Kevin Carman also served on a grant review panel for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in early October in Austin. Word has come to us that Carman was spotted in a great blue grass spot!

Write On Biologist

Noor, M. A. F., A. L. Cunningham*, and J. C. Larkin. 2001. Consequences of recombination rate variation on QTL mapping studies: Simulations based on the Drosophila melanogaster genome. Genetics, 159: 581-588. (October issue) [A commentary was also published online that is slated for the November, 2001, issue of Trends in Genetics. The commentary can be viewed at: http://news.bmn.com/commentary/back?uid=6700 ]
Noor, M. A. F., K. L. Grams*, L. A. Bertucci*, and J. Reiland. 2001. Chromosomal inversions and the reproductive isolation of species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 98:12084-12088 (October 9 issue).
Melton, T., S. Clifford, M. Kayser, I. Nasidze, M. Batzer, and M. Stoneking. 2001. Diversity and heterogeneity in mitochondrial DNA of North American populations. Journal of Forensic Sciences 46: 46-52.
Justice, C. M., Z. Den, S. V. Nguyen, M. Stoneking, P. L. Deininger, M. A. Batzer. and B. J. B. Keats. 2001. Phylogenetic analysis of the Friedreich ataxia GAA trinucleotide repeat. Journal of Molecular Evolution 52: 232-238.

*Denotes undergraduate

Rotogravure Link -- whet you appetite for Jambalya for Fall with photos from last year's jambalaya!

Are you interested in news of other biologists at LSU? Try the Museum of Natural Sciences, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, School of Veterinary Medicine, School of the Coast and Environment, College of Agriculture, and LUMCON.

31 October 2001
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