039 - NatSci News Rewind September 2022 Transcript

You're listening to NatSci News Rewind a podcast that counts down the monthly news headlines in the world of NatSci. Let's take a look back at the news for September 2022.

Number 5:
Kicking off our top 5 this month - New 'living' wood could be an environmental superhero
MSU and Purdue University researchers are teaming up to create a new building material. It’ll be stronger than steel and have the power to heal itself while pulling greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. The U.S. DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, has awarded the research team, which includes MSU College of Natural Science microbiologist Gemma Reguera, nearly $1 million to develop “living” wood, a first-of-its-kind concept using the natural activity of microbes implanted in wood.

Number 4: 
Our number 4 story - Marcos Dantus receives prestigious American Chemical Society Ahmed Zewail Award 
Michigan State University chemist Marcos Dantus is the 2023 recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Ahmed Zewail Award in Ultrafast Science and Technology. This prestigious award recognizes outstanding and creative contributions to fundamental discoveries or inventions in ultrafast science and technology in the areas of physics, chemistry, biology or related fields.

Number 3:
Coming in at Number 3 - What's nature doing with all that nitrogen?
Nitrogen, like it’s neighbors carbon and oxygen in the periodic table, is an element we can’t live without. Although science has developed much of the nitrogen cycle’s big picture, MSU chemist Timothy Warren and his team are drilling down into its fundamental chemical details to create a more intimate understanding of the nitrogen cycle that could lead to holistic solutions for ensuring a healthy balance of nitrogen, wherever it’s needed. The team recently released two peer-reviewed reports on that front in the journals Nature Chemistry and the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Number 2: 
At Number 2 - MSU researcher awarded $2.5 million NIH grant to study mammary gland development
When thinking about why breast cancer develops, it is critical to understand how normal development works. Recently, the National Institutes of Health awarded MSU physiology professor Eran Andrechek a five-year, $2.5 million grant to fund his research project of defining the role of the repressor E2F5 gene in mammary gland development.  In addition to a providing better understanding of the developmental biology, Andrechek hopes the findings will lead to further research on breast cancer.

Number 1:  
And our top news story for September- Angela K. Wilson receives top award from national honor society for women in chemistry
Angela K. Wilson, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at MSU, is recipient of the 2022 National Honorary Member Award from Iota Sigma Pi, a national honor society for women in chemistry. The award is the organization’s highest honor, bestowed triennially on an outstanding woman chemist. Wilson, a professor in the Department of Chemistry in the MSU College of Natural Science, is also NatSci associate dean for strategic initiatives and current president of the American Chemical Society.

And that will wrap up the rewind for the month of September 2022. To read more about these stories, head on over to our website at natsci.msu.edu/news. You can also stay up to date by following us on social. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @msunatsci. Thanks for tuning in and be sure to check us out next month.