015 - NatSci News Rewind September 2020 Transcript You're listening to NatSci News Rewind a podcast that looks back at the monthly news headlines in the world of NatSci. Let's take a look back at the news for the month of September 2020. Mind the gap: A framework for addressing decision-implementation disparities in conservation management The need to conserve biodiversity on our planet has never been clearer, with more than one million plant and animal species threatened with extinction, according to the 2019 UN’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services report. How we reverse these species declines remains unclear. In a paper recently published in the journal Biological Conservation, MSU scientists Alex Wright and Elise Zipkin take a hard look at what falls through the gap between scientifically informed conservation decisions and their outcomes – and how to move forward. NSF grant supports research to track microorganisms in Michigan's subsurface superhighways When it comes to groundwater research, scientists have barely scratched the surface, but MSU geomicrobiologist Matt Schrenk and members of his lab travel the world to investigate how subterranean microbes move across and impact the planet. His highly novel and interdisciplinary proposal, “Groundwater Microbial Communities as Sentinels of Environmental Change” was recently selected by the NSF’s 2026 Idea Machine as one of 25 projects funded to explore bold and potentially transformative new ideas. MSU's Joseph Krajcik receives prestigious McGraw Prize in Education Joseph Krajcik, a Lappan-Phillips Professor of Science Education and director of the CREATE for STEM Institute at MSU, has received a 2020 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education for his global impact on science teaching. Krajcik's McGraw Prize recognizes achievement in pre-K-12 education. Two NatSci faculty members named MSU Foundation Professors Two MSU College of Natural Science (NatSci) professors, Piotr Piecuch and Guowei Wei were recently named 2020 MSU Foundation Professors, a designation given to outstanding faculty who demonstrate excellence in research. Piecuch and Wei join 47 of their MSU colleagues who have previously been named MSU Foundation Professors. Of these professorships, 25 are held by NatSci faculty members. "Sticky roots" and the fate of soil carbon in natural ecosystems MSU plant biologist Carolyn Malmstrom is part of a team of scientists that is using a 3-year, $1 million Department of Energy Office (DOE) of Science Environmental Systems Science Program award to study "sticky roots" and the fate of soil carbon in natural ecosystems. The project is one of nine funded by the DOE to study the complex chemical, physical and biological processes in watersheds, salt marshes, wetlands, and other terrestrial environments to improve representation of these processes in earth system models. Accelerating society's quantum leap: MSU-Q contributes to innovative quantum technology curriculum Members from MSU’s Center for Quantum Computing, Science and Engineering, or MSU-Q, will join forces with four leading universities in the Midwest to develop QuSTEAM (Quantum Information Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), a national model for innovative undergraduate curriculum in the emerging field of quantum technologies. The multi-institution cohort was chosen to participate in the NSF's newest and most unique structure, the Convergence Accelerator, or C-Accel. Beronda Montgomery named MSU Office of Research & Innovation interim assistant vice president MSU plant biology researcher and MSU Foundation Professor, Beronda Montgomery, will bring her talents to the Office of Research & Innovation as interim assistant vice president. She joined the team in a half-time capacity effective Sept. 15, 2020. MSU alum and former instructor celebrates 100 years September 18, 2020, marks 100 well-lived years for Michigan State University alum and former mathematics/statistics instructor Elaine VanAken Cowen. Happy birthday, Elaine, and all the best to you as you celebrate this special milestone! Astronomy graduate student receives prestigious Price award MSU astronomy graduate student Carl Fields is the recipient of a 2020 Dr. Pliny A. and Margaret H. Price Prize from the Ohio State University Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics (CCAPP). The Price Prize recognizes research excellence and exceptional promise in areas related to CCAPP initiatives. New research connects the hormones we're born with to lifetime risk for immunological diseases Differences in biological sex can dictate lifelong disease patterns, according to a new study by MSU researchers, including neuroscientist Cynthia Jordan, that links connections between specific hormones present before and after birth with immune response and lifelong immunological disease development. The study, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, answers questions about why females are at increased risk for common diseases that involve or target the immune system like asthma, allergies, migraines and irritable bowel syndrome, opening the door for new therapies and preventatives. Microbiology senior awarded ASIP research grant Michigan State University microbiology senior Katie Powell received a Summer Research Opportunity Program in Pathology grant from the American Society for Investigative Pathology. Powell will use the $4,000 grant to support her research in creating genetic mice models with pancreatic cancer that allow her and the Lorenzo Sempere Lab to investigate the role of microRNA-21 pm as a tumor suppressive. Synchronizing drought tolerance on, and underneath, the farm As the climate changes, scientists undertaking long-term research at MSU’s W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) are beginning to realize that peopl e are not the only ones on a farm who need to adapt—their microbial counterparts are doing the same below ground, too. MSU KBS researcher Sarah Evans is part of a team of scientists using the concept of adaptation to bridge social science and ecological research with support from a five-year, $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems. For the record: MSU part of NSF-funded project to digitize, study important plant specimens Alan Prather, MSU plant biologist and director of the MSU Herbarium, along with colleagues from 25 institutions across the United States, are teaming up on a $3.6 million National Science Foundation grant to digitize and study bryophyte and lichen, two important types of plants that are hosts to what are known as cryptobiotic communities—hidden microorganisms that play a critical role in stabilizing soil, preventing erosion, absorbing rainfall, and providing nutrients for the growing plants around them. Illuminating the opaque pathways of depression Depression is a dark horse. The disease often goes unnoticed, but affects work performance, social interaction and the ability to take pleasure in everyday life. Antidepressants only help around 50 percent of those who struggle with depression and anxiety, and even when they are effective, scientists have yet to understand how they work in the brain. But groundbreaking research in the lab of MSU scientist A.J. Robison, is directing new rays of light onto the molecular, cellular and circuit-level mechanisms underlying depression-like diseases. Freeze frame: Study uses novel sequencing method to pinpoint toxic changes in liver cells Imagine being able to look at individual frozen liver cells and determine if a chemical, drug, or supplement was toxic by changes in the cells’ ribonucleic acid, or RNA, levels. In a recent paper in the journal Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology, that’s exactly what researchers at MSU have shown may be feasible.The study shows, for the first time, that frozen liver samples can be used for single-cell RNA sequencing to examine changes in liver cell types following exposure to dioxin. And that will wrap up the rewind for the month of September 2020. 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 @msu_natsci, on Facebook @MSUCNS, and on Instagram @msunatsci. Thanks for tuning in and be sure to check us out next month.