To view BIO5's E-Newsletter online, or for more information about the BIO5 Institute at The University of Arizona, please visit www.bio5.org 
 

March 4, 2008

Inaugural iPlant conference set for April 7-9 in New York

The inaugural iPlant Collaborative (iPC) conference “Bringing Plant and Computing Scientists Together to Solve Plant Biology’s Grand Challenges” is April 7–9 at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.

In January, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a University of Arizona–led team $50 million dollars to create iPC—a global center and computer cyberinfrastructure within which scientists can answer plant biology’s grand challenge questions that no single research entity in the world currently has the capacity to address. The project unites plant scientists, computer scientists and information scientists from around the world for the first time ever to provide answers to questions of global importance and advance all of these fields. Other institutions working with the UA are Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Arizona State University, University of North Carolina Wilmington and Purdue University.

The inaugural conference will facilitate a scientific community discussion about grand challenges, data and computation tools, and cyberinfrastructure development. The community, via an external board of directors, will choose two to four grand challenges by late 2008 that the iPC will tackle.

“This global center is going to change the way we do science,” says UA plant sciences professor and BIO5 member Richard Jorgensen, PhD, who is the lead investigator and director of the iPC. “We’re bringing many different types of scientists together who rarely had opportunities to talk to one another before. In so doing, we’ll create the kind of multidisciplinary environment that is necessary to crack the toughest problems in modern biology.”

For more information and to register, go to: www.iplantcollaborative.com

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March 19 BIO5-Biodesign symposium features synthetic biology quintet

There is still time to sign up for The Symposium on Synthetic Biology on Wednesday,March 19, 2008 from 9:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The University of Arizona. The symposium—jointly sponsored by the BIO5 Institute at UA and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University — features a quintet of leading researchers and theorists who are helping to shape this nascent field.

Presenters include J. Craig Venter of The J. Craig Venter Institute, Jay Keasling of the University of California at Berkeley, Pamela Silver and Jack Szostak of Harvard University Medical School, and Gerry Epstein of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. They will address both scientific and ethical considerations associated with synthetic biology.

For more information and to register, click here

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April 5 Arizona K-12 Science Teacher Symposium offers workshops, resource fair

Biosphere in a Bottle, Dracula Had Rabies, Cookin’ Up Science, Dive into Arizona Rivers, and Switched at Birth: Are Todd’s parents his Biological Parents? These are a few of the workshops available to K-12 teachers during the BIO5-sponsored second annual Arizona K-12 Science Teacher Symposium on Saturday, April 5 from 8:30 a.m.- 4 p.m. at the BIO5 Institute, 1657 E. Helen Street on The University of Arizona campus in Tucson. All workshops address Arizona science education standards.

In addition to hands-on professional development workshops, this special event offers tours of the new BIO5 building, a lunchtime keynote speaker and an expo that highlights UA’s resources for K-12 science teachers. Those resources include classroom support, materials and curricula; summer science opportunities for students; teacher research opportunities and UA field trip opportunities.

For more information and to register, click here  

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BIO5 researcher identifies cities at risk to bioterrorism

A University of Arizona researcher has created a new system to dramatically show American cities their relative level of vulnerability to bioterrorism.

Walter W. Piegorsch, PhD, an expert on environmental risk, has placed 132 major cities—on a list from Albany, N.Y., to Youngstown, Ohio—on a color-coded map that identifies their level of risk based on factors like critical industries, ports, railroads, population, natural environment and other factors.

Piegorsch is the director of a new UA graduate program in interdisciplinary statistics and a professor of mathematics in the College of Science, as well as a member of the UA’s BIO5 Institute.

The map marks high risk areas as red (for example, Houston or, surprisingly, Boise, Idaho), midrange risk as yellow (San Francisco) and lower risk as green (Tucson and Phoenix). The model employs what risk experts call a benchmark vulnerability metric, which shows risk managers each city’s level of risk for urban terrorism.

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By: Ford Burkhart

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First documented case of pest resistance to biotech cotton

A pest insect known as bollworm is the first to evolve resistance in the field to plants modified to produce an insecticide called Bt. According to a new research report, Bt-resistant populations of bollworm, Helicoverpa zea, were found in more than a dozen crop fields in Mississippi and Arkansas between 2003 and 2006.

“What we’re seeing is evolution in action,” said lead researcher Bruce Tabashnik, PhD, a BIO5 member and one of the report's authors. “This is the first documented case of field-evolved resistance to a Bt crop.”

Bt crops are so named because they have been genetically altered to produce Bt toxins, which kill some insects. The toxins are produced in nature by the widespread bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, hence the abbreviation Bt.

The bollworm resistance to Bt cotton was discovered when a team of University of Arizona entomologists analyzed published data from monitoring studies of six major caterpillar pests of Bt crops in Australia, China, Spain and the U.S.

“Resistance is a decrease in pest susceptibility that can be measured over human experience,” said Tabashnik, professor and head of UA’’s Entomology Department and an expert in insect resistance to insecticides. “When you use an insecticide to control a pest, some populations eventually evolve resistance.”

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By: Mari Jensen, UA College of Science

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April 8 AZBio annual conference will bring bio community together

AZBio's Biozona2008, a day-long conference, for Arizona's bioscience community is Tuesday, April 8, 2008 7:30 am - 6:30 pm at the historic Manning House in Tucson. Attendees include Arizona biocompanies, investors, research institututions and anyone interested in Arizona's bioindustry.

Keynote speakers include: Richard L. Love, chairman of the board, ImaRx Therapeutics, Inc. and founder, ILEX Oncology & Triton Biosciences; and Peter B. Corr, MD, sr. vice president (retired), Science & Technology, Pfizer, Inc.

Sessions will include:
Business: Regulatory Affairs, Patent Reform, and Company Financing
Science: Bioengineering, Biomarkers, and Biotherapeutics
Arizona Bioindustry Company Showcase

For more information and to register, go to:
https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=186407

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UA researchers help unlock the genetic secrets of corn

Relying on a genetic “physical map” developed by University of Arizona plant scientists, researchers from Washington University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Iowa State University, and the UA have completed a working draft of the maize (corn) genome. By unlocking the genetic secrets of this crop vital to U.S. agriculture, the researchers have gained information that could ultimately help society deal with drought, global warming, population pressures, and increasing energy needs.

“The impact is going to be tremendous,” says Rod Wing, PhD, co-principal investigator on the project and leader of the group that developed the physical map. Wing, a BIO5 member and director of the Arizona Genomics Institute in the UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, says that the data contained in the draft genome could be used, for instance, to develop new strains of maize that need less water or can better respond to climate change, as well as to develop strains with higher yields to help feed the planet's growing population. “It will also have an impact on the biofuel industry,” Wing says.

The genetic blueprint was announced Feb. 28, 2008 by the project's leader, Richard K. Wilson, PhD, director of Washington University's Genome Sequencing Center, at the 50th Annual Maize Genetics Conference in Washington, D.C.

The $29.5 million project was initiated in 2005 and is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Energy. “Corn is one of the most economically important crops for our nation,” says NSF director Arden L. Bement, Jr. “Completing this draft sequence of the corn genome constitutes a significant scientific advance and will foster growth of the agricultural community and the economy as a whole.”

The process of unlocking the corn genome began at the UA, where Wing's team, together with UA computer scientist Cari Soderlund, PhD, led the development of the genome's physical map by, essentially, taking some 18,000 pieces of genetic material and assembling them in the proper order. Wing’s team also included scientists from the University of Missouri and Rutgers University.

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Renowned rheumatologist Salvatore Albani new director of Arizona Arthritis Center

Salvatore Albani, MD, PhD, an internationally renowned pediatric rheumatologist and immunologist, has joined the UA College of Medicine as The Charles A.L. and Suzanne M. Stephens Chair of Rheumatology, director of the Arizona Arthritis Center, and professor of medicine and pediatrics. Some of his lab space is located in BIO5's new Thomas W. Keating Bioresearch Building.

“As an immunologist and rheumatologist, Dr. Albani is the perfect person to serve as the Stephens chair,” said Keith Joiner, MD, MPH, UA vice provost for medical affairs and dean of the College of Medicine, recalling the late Dr. Stephens pioneering rheumatology research in Tucson. Dr. Albani's research focuses on a relatively new field in arthritis research known as immune modulation, which acts like a vaccine to re-educate the body to tolerate the amino acid chains that cause the faulty immune responses that lead to painful inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

“I want to help put this center on the world map, even more than it is now. When I was 20, I needed to make a choice between continuing with a rowing team that was Olympic bound or entering medical school. Now, this is my Olympics,” said Dr. Albani.

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By: Katie Maass, College of Medicine

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BIO5 kudos

Laurence Hurley, PhD, Howard Schaeffer Chair in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the UA College of Pharmacy and associate director of the BIO5 Institute, will be recognized by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy with the Paul R. Dawson Biotechnology Award in July. The award is presented annually by the pharmacy education organization to an individual for contributions to contemporary teaching and scholarship in biotechnology. Dr. Hurley is recognized worldwide as an accomplished and innovative medicinal chemist and leader in molecular cancer therapeutics and biotechnology. Of the three major awards that AACP bestows annually, Dr. Hurley has been tapped to receive two: the Dawson and the Volwiler Research Achievement Award, which he received in 1989.

Grace Hsieh, a UA senior, has been named to the second team in USA Today’s 2008 All-USA College Academic Team program. There were hundreds of nominees from universities across the country, and the judges selected only 20 students each for the first, second and third teams. The students receive a $2,500 cash award in recognition of their outstanding intellectual achievement and leadership. In 2006, Hsieh established, with BIO5 support, the UA’s chapter of InnoWorks, an innovative science and engineering program that aims to remedy the national shortfall of students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and keep the United States at the forefront of science and engineering innovation. The program is designed by volunteer college undergraduates for middle-school students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

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New BIO5 faculty members

BIO5 welcomes the following new faculty members:

Amanda F. Baker, PharmD, PhD, Research Assistant Professor
Arizona Cancer Center, College of Medicine

Carol C. Gregorio, PhD, Professor
Department of Cell Biology & Anatomy, College of Medicine

Charles M. Higgins, PhD, Associate Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering

Joseph C. Watkins, PhD, Associate Professor
Department of Mathematics, College of Science

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Three Join BIO5 administrative team

Maura Grogan has been named director of administration, Kathleen Landis is the new special assistant for BIO5 Director Vicki Chandler, PhD, and Deb Wilmer has joined the administrative staff as a secretary.

Grogan manages and directs strategic and business planning, education outreach, research training and career development, and marketing and communications in support of BIO5. In this capacity, she works closely with the institute director and its executive management team.

Landis interfaces at all levels with internal and external constituencies and acts as liaison for the director to the campus community, members of the biotechnology industry, representatives of city, state, and federal government, and, with the BIO5’s business and science advisory board members. Landis is the key point of contact for the director. 

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