The USDA, through its grant program for Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), has awarded $250,000 each to two UArizona initiatives. The Nutritional Sciences degree program at the Yuma campus has been expanded, with the aim of creating a pipeline for more students to get into dietetics. CALS Arizona’s Science, Engineering, and Math Scholars (ASEMS) program has been enhanced to provide additional support to underrepresented students pursuing studies in STEM, agriculture, and the like.
INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the largest and oldest diversity and inclusion publication in higher education, recently announced its 2021 Inspiring Programs in STEM Award, honoring colleges and universities that encourage and assist students from underrepresented groups to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. ASEMS provides services to support students in graduating with a STEM degree, focusing on students who are underrepresented in STEM, such as first-generation college students, students from low-income households, those who transferred from community colleges, and students from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities and students with disabilities. The program is a partnership between two university units: Research, Innovation & Impact and Student Success and Retention Innovation.
The new School of Nutritional Sciences and Wellness at the University of Arizona was approved by the Arizona Board of Regents, highlighting the increase and expansion of research in human health, wellness and optimal performance. The school led by Dr. Scott Going, offers a holistic approach to human wellness education – connecting everything from the field to fork to the microbes in your gut to the cellular machinery and biochemicals inside your body.
Throughout the 20 years of BIO5, this institute has connected various campus departments to solve the challenges of a new period of technology growth, research that tells us more than ever, and support students at UArizona.
The inaugural BIO5 Ignites Science event featured four BIO5 members who exemplify how diversity in backgrounds and thought advances research, innovation and education.
Dr. Brittany Uhlorn, BIO5 Institute
The BIO5 Institute harnesses the powers of diversity and inclusivity to ignite scientific discovery and innovation and prepare students for leading, living, and working in a multifaceted world.
On November 9, the inaugural BIO5 Ignites Science livestream event celebrated the diverse backgrounds and ways of thinking that spur scientific inquiry, discovery and education at UArizona.
“At BIO5, we are not bound by any preconceived definition of who someone is or what can be accomplished,” said Lisa Romero, Executive Director of Public Affairs, Communications and Engagement and event moderator. “This event helps to recognize and honor how what makes us different enables us to achieve and empower.”
The evening featured four panelists and BIO5 members:
The evening kicked off with a discussion about how the diversity of laboratory personnel provides a multitude of perspectives that enhance discovery.
“Having the diversity of mind in our trainees is so important,” Khanna said. “We [professors] are usually so focused on one train of thought, so the more diversity you have in that population of thought, the more exciting your questions can be, and the more they can change.”
Not only is diversity within a lab important, but forming collaborations between researchers of different areas of expertise also helps to move the needle forward.
Initially connected by a student at a scientific conference, now two years later, Khanna and Renquist similarly shared how their unlikely meet led them to team up and develop potential therapeutics that might combat obesity and obesity-related diseases.
While diversity of thought and background is said to be valued, the American Association of University Professors found that while women make up nearly half of full-time faculty members, they are underrepresented in tenure-track positions. Further, underrepresented minorities only make up 13% of full-time faculty across the nation.
And although there are more females enrolled in college than males, they are highly underrepresented in STEM fields, especially engineering and physics.
One audience member asked, “What’s the biggest challenge to nurturing diversity in academia?”
The current system asks students and young professionals to fit in with everyone already at the table, Johnson responded, but this model excludes people from a myriad of backgrounds because they don’t have necessarily think like or have the same resources and opportunities as the existing group.
“Instead of asking them to meet us, we need to be meeting students where they are at,” said Johnson. “We need to bring them to the table by the hand as opposed to expecting them to sit down and fit in.”
The BIO5 Postdoctoral Fellowship is an internal funding mechanism for outstanding UArizona postdoctoral researchers who are engaging in research projects aligned with the mission of the BIO5 Institute. Fellows are awarded valuable financial support and mentorship to help the pursuit of their professional goals.
Dr. Michael D. L. Johnson
As a person of color, Johnson also feels a great responsibility to create opportunities that empower underrepresented students.
Many black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) undergraduate students aspired to participate in summer research programs but were unable to do so because of COVID-19. To meet their needs, Johnson co-founded the NSURP “microbial match-making program.”
“These students literally wanted a seat at the table but couldn’t have one because COVID-19 had a disproportionate effect on underserved populations,” Johnson said, “so they needed a hand to bring them there.”
Johnson also highlighted that representation matters - often students of color don’t know what they can be or achieve until they see someone like them in that position.
In order to increase the number of underrepresented groups in STEM, Renquist said we need to decrease barriers and provide more opportunities for development, growth and success.
Innovation requires a symphony of disciplines and support
The panelists also discussed how diversity of thought and expertise fuel scientific innovation and idea commercialization.
Renquist shared how his unique expertise in obesity research and animal agriculture enabled him to launch the startup GenetiRate, a company aimed at selecting fast growing, feed-efficient aquatic organisms to encourage the sustainability and profitability of aquaculture.
He’s now shifting gears in a collaboration with Khanna to develop new drugs for diabetes.
Ledford and Khanna also discussed their experiences with startup companies.
Ledford collaborated with Dr. Josef Vagner, research associate professor of pharmacology and director of the Ligand Discovery Laboratory, and Dr. Monica Kraft, professor of medicine and deputy director of the UArizona Health SciencesAsthma and Airway Disease Research Center, to develop asthma drugs that mimic proteins already present in our lungs. With their startup, RaeSedo LLC, they hope to use these compounds in inhalers to improve the lives of the 25 million Americans that suffer from asthma.
Similarly focused on finding therapeutics to support human health, Khanna described her experience with commercializing ideas from the bench, partly through her role as scientific co-founder of Regulonix, an early-stage biotechnology company developing non-opioid therapeutics that relieve chronic pain.
“There’s a beautiful, collaborative ecosystem here at the university that drives innovation,” said Khanna, “and that’s the heart of BIO5.”
Dr. May Khanna
In 2020 she also launched a new class, Chemistry to Cure, that allows students to harness the fields of medicinal chemistry, entrepreneurship, pharmacology, and biology to design drugs and ultimately launch a company with their innovations.
Diversity and fearlessness bring opportunities
The event concluded with advice for budding scientists.
Khanna, originally from Africa, said she was drawn to a career in the United States because of diversity and breadth of opportunity that awaited her.
Since arriving, she’s taken risks, and the professor touts that opportunities come to those who are fearless and don’t shy away from failure.
“Something I tell anyone who comes into my lab is that the vast majority of the time, you’re going to fail,” Dr. Khanna said. “The students come in thinking an A is a success story, but when you come into a lab, you have to be ready to get Es and Fs all the time, but that is the way you actually start to succeed.
“Don’t be afraid to fail, because the more you fail, the more successful you will actually be.”
…
BIO5 Ignites Science is an ongoing event series in a moderated, interactive table conversation format about how the value in diversity of thought, ideals, expertise, culture, approach, personal experience, disciplines, and background is embedded in the DNA of BIO5, and how we foster an inclusive, open-minded, and supportive environment.
The event series is open to the public and university community, including to faculty, staff, students, lab personnel staff, and other campus partners.
About the University of Arizona BIO5 Institute
The BIO5 Institute at the University of Arizona connects and mobilizes top researchers in agriculture, engineering, medicine, pharmacy, data and computational science, and basic science to find creative solutions to humanity’s most pressing health and environmental challenges. Since 2001, this interdisciplinary approach has been an international model of how to conduct collaborative research, and has resulted in disease prevention strategies, innovative diagnostics and devices, promising new therapies, and improved food sustainability. Learn more at BIO5.ORG.
Researchers at the BIO5 Institute are working to determine causes and identify new prevention and treatment strategies for this highly prevalent disease.
Dr. Brittany Uhlorn, BIO5 Institute
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the U.S. The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 280,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2021.
Routine screening and self-exams are highly encouraged to prevent and detect breast cancer, but traditional mammography techniques have limited spatial resolution and sometimes miss early tumors. Dr. Russell Witte, member of the BIO5 Institute and professor of medical imaging, optical sciences and biomedical engineering, is pioneering a new detection method that may improve survival and patient care.
Witte’s hybrid imaging methods integrate light, ultrasound, and microwaves for advanced imaging with high contrast. His novel, noninvasive techniques including thermoacoustic imaging quantify tissue changes at a high resolution, improving patient care by enhancing diagnostic accuracy and treatment-decision making.
Only 5-10% of breast cancers are caused by genetic factors. Instead, the majority are either spontaneous or linked to hormonal, lifestyle and/or environmental factors.
Dr. Zhao Chen, department chair of epidemiology and biostatistics, studies the relationship between breast density and cancer risk. Her work has elucidated significant associations between body composition, dietary intake and mammographic density.
Like Chen, Dr. Donato Romagnolo, professor of nutritional sciences, studies the diet’s role in breast cancer etiology and prevention, with particular emphasis on how bioactive food components alter our genes. His work has uncovered a protective role for linoleic acid, a compound found in plant oils: this substance represses the activation of a pro-inflammatory enzyme that is linked to the onset of breast cancer.
He and Dr. Ornella Selmin, a research associate professor of nutritional sciences, also reported the benefits of the Mediterranean diet on breast cancer prevention. Their work has shown that the compound resveratrol – commonly found in grapes, blueberries, raspberries and peanuts – antagonizes a receptor that turns off the expression of a key DNA repair enzyme.
Director of the Zuckerman Family Center for Prevention and Health PromotionDr. Cynthia Thomson similarly studies the role of food in cancer. She’s found vegetable consumption to be associated with reduced breast cancer recurrence in some patients, and that consumption of cruciferous vegetables may reduce one’s risk for initial disease.
Breast cancers have a high propensity to metastasize, or spread to, the surrounding lymph nodes of the armpit. They often travel further throughout the body, residing in the bone, brain, liver and lungs.
Dr. Janet Funk, a professor of medicine, nutritional sciences and physiological sciences, employs a bench to bedside approach to study bone metastases. Work from her lab has helped to develop more clinically relevant research models for breast cancer bone metastasis. She’s also identified a protective role for dietary polyphenols – compounds found in certain plant-based foods like cloves, cocoa powder and berries – in blocking the progression of a primary tumor to a distant site.
Dr. Joyce Schroeder, department head of molecular and cellular biology, studies the molecular basis for breast cancer progression and metastasis. Her work focuses on the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a protein that spans the outer layer of a cell that controls cellular division and survival. By assessing alterations in EGFR’s normal actions, movement throughout the cell and regulation, she uncovers its carcinogenic role.
Breast cancer is usually treated with a combination of surgery, radiation and medication therapies. Treatments can be personalized based on the specific type of breast cancer, as determined by hormone levels, cell receptor expression and immune system activity.
Schroeder’s work also addresses how EGFR and related molecules affect the development and function of the normal mammary gland. By understanding how these proteins normally work, Schroeder, also a professor of cancer biology and genetics, and her team develop peptide-based therapies to block their tumor-promoting functions and interactions.
About the University of Arizona BIO5 Institute
The BIO5 Institute at the University of Arizona connects and mobilizes top researchers in agriculture, engineering, medicine, pharmacy, data and computational science, and basic science to find creative solutions to humanity’s most pressing health and environmental challenges. Since 2001, this interdisciplinary approach has been an international model of how to conduct collaborative research, and has resulted in disease prevention strategies, innovative diagnostics and devices, promising new therapies, and improved food sustainability. Learn more at BIO5.ORG.
With more living longer, the aging population presents both unique challenges and opportunities to health care.
Brittany Uhlorn, BIO5 Institute
Nearly one quarter of the global disease burden is attributed to the elderly - a group expected to more than double by 2050.
Researchers at the University of Arizona’s BIO5 Institute are exceptionally poised to understand the processes of healthy aging, determine the causes of age-related diseases, develop life-changing therapeutics, and maximize independence for higher quality of life.
Molecular drivers of aging hold the keys to extend healthy human lifespan and both delay the onset of and develop targeted therapeutics for age-associated diseases. Dr. George Sutphin, assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology, neuroscience, cancer biology, and genetics, integrates systems biology, comparative genetics, and molecular physiology to identify new genetic and environmental factors in aging and characterize their roles in age-associated diseases
Some changes to the brain are expected with aging, like mild decreases in memory, multitasking, and attention span. Despite these common changes in cognition, many older adults develop debilitating neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Dr. Carol Barnes, director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, pioneers the field of precision aging and brain health. By understanding how the brain changes with age, scientists and clinicians can better assess functional impairments on information processing and memory, ultimately leading to better prevention and therapeutic strategies.
Like the brain, our bones also deteriorate over time, especially for women. Dr. Zhao Chen, department chair ofepidemiology and biostatistics in the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, has contributed to osteoporosis prevention through her findings on body composition changes with intervention and aging. Dr. Chen, a professor of anthropology and statistics, also investigates bone strength and skeletal muscle losses associated with aging, as well as hormone and calcium/vitamin D interventions.
The body’s immune system similarly weakens with age, increasing the vulnerability to infections and cancer. Co-director of the Arizona Center on Aging and immunobiology department head Dr. Janko Nikolich-Žugich addresses the intersection of aging and immunity from three main angles.
First, the physician-scientist studies how the immune system changes over one’s lifespan, and how those changes affect our interactions with microbial pathogens. Dr. Nikolich-Žugich and his team have discovered degenerative changes that adversely affect production and maintenance of immune cells. Moreover, they’ve found multiple defects in sensing and response to bacteria and viruses, leading to impairment in the activation of the immune system. These findings are a springboard to correct the age-associated molecular and cellular defects with novel targeted strategies.
To address the causes and consequences of whole-body inflammation in aging, Dr. Nikolich-Žugich integrates information from the immune system with gut function, cellular metabolism and energy sensing. He aims to determine whether scientists and physicians can intervene against diseases of aging and, perhaps normal aging itself, by modulating inflammation.
“Inflammation is a protective process if deployed immediately and extinguished quickly after the infection is gone. But if it lingers and is not extinguished, it becomes one of the worst enemies of healthy aging, making most, if not all, chronic diseases worse,” said Dr. Nikolich-Žugich, also a professor of medicine, nutritional sciences, genetics and neuroscience.
Based on this, Dr. Nikolich-Žugich is devising anti-inflammatory interventions to extend longevity. Once he understands the molecular basis for end-organ function and factors that lead to diminished quality of life, the physician-scientist will implement a drug discovery program to optimize treatments to prolong life.
Dr. Richard Simpson, associate professor of nutritional sciences, pediatrics and cancer biology, focuses on the effects of aging, stress and exercise on the immune system. Through his translational research, Simpson, also an associate professor of physiological sciences and immunobiology, aims to discover how exercise and other behavioral interventions offset age-related reductions in immune system functioning.
Dr. Purnima Madhivanan, associate professor of public health, studies the protective effects of yoga on elderly health. Current lifestyle intervention approaches are poorly suited to older patients with multiple, co-occurring, and inter-related health conditions. Madhivanan believes that comprehensive, holistic approaches that improve physical, emotional and mental well-being are better suited for an aging population.
To address this unmet need, Madhivanan is adapting Senior Yoga, an evidence-based mind-body lifestyle program, for primary care settings in India and Tucson. Her studies will provide a better understanding of interventions that reduce the burden caregivers experience to improve the health of the aging patient.
About the University of Arizona BIO5 Institute
The BIO5 Institute at the University of Arizona connects and mobilizes top researchers in agriculture, engineering, medicine, pharmacy, data and computational science, and basic science to find creative solutions to humanity’s most pressing health and environmental challenges. Since 2001, this interdisciplinary approach has been an international model of how to conduct collaborative research, and has resulted in disease prevention strategies, innovative diagnostics and devices, promising new therapies, and improved food sustainability. Learn more at BIO5.ORG.
Lo Que Pasa spoke with University experts, including Dr. Melanie Hingle, a UArizona Department of Nutrition associate professor and BIO5 member, about nutrition, fitness and mindfulness, and asked their advice on how to stay on top of each as the coronavirus upends many routine aspects of daily life. Maintaining mental and physical health during a pandemic can seem very challenging, but is a very important step to take. Dr. Hingle gives a look into her pantry and shares her tips for keeping a healthy diet while staying at home.
A study has been initiated by Hendrix Genetics and GenetiRate, a US based start-up founded by UA Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences associate professor and BIO5researcher Dr. Benjamin Renquist, to apply a new technology that has the potential to measure the feed conversion rate of rainbow trout. The ability to select trout with significantly improved feed conversion would mean farmers would gain the benefit of increased growth rate while maintaining feed intake.
