School of Molecular Biosciences

Congratulations to Dr. Eric Shelden, Associate Professor in SMB, for his recent appointment to the Editorial Board of PLOS ONE.  This Online journal was launched in December, 2006, as an efficient and economical venue for disseminating research in all areas of science and medicine. Today it is the largest journal in the world, publishing well over 2000 articles per month.  PLOS ONE’s editorial criteria focuses on the technical quality of the work rather than any subjective judgments such as perceived novelty or limited relevance to a specialist field. 

July 21-24: Pilot workshop about STEM teaching with a twist

The WSU College of Veterinary Medicine’s Teaching Academy and the Provost’s Office are hosting a “Scientific Teaching” workshop on the Pullman campus from July 21-24^th. . Taught by members of the National Academies Summer Institute, 24 pre-registered participants from WSU will learn how to improve undergraduate-level teaching and draw diverse students into STEM careers (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

The goal is to provide training in the principles of Scientific Teaching to WSU STEM and allied faculty so that they can leave the workshop with a plan for implementing best teaching practices in their classrooms this coming academic year.  WSU is serving as a pilot institution for this new model for wide-scale faculty development in educational pedagogy at a single university.  The Institute is supported by the CVM Teaching Academy and the WSU Office of Undergraduate Education in the Provost’s Office.  For more information contact: Dr. William B. Davis, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, CVM and Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Molecular Biosciences. 

Congratulations to Drs. Chengtao Her and Eric Shelden who recently were awarded intramural grants from the College of Veterinary Medicine to pursue their research. 

The focus of Dr. Her’s research is to gain “a better understanding of the roles of mismatch repair proteins in restricting aberrant (toxic) NHEJ repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) during S and G2 phases of the cell cycle. This understanding is important because DSB repair activity directly influences the effectiveness of many DSB-inducing anticancer agents.”  

Dr. Shelden’s grant from the Marvel Shields Autzen Fund is focused on research to better “understand why brain and other central nervous system tissues lose tolerance to stress as they develop and age, and to develop strategies for improved intervention in and treatment of central nervous system injuries in veterinary and clinical settings.” 

Congratulations to Dr. Wang, an Assistant Professor in the School of Molecular Biosciences, who, along with her colleagues at the Colorado School of Mines (Golden, CO) was recently awarded NSF grant CMMI-1359671, “Collaborative Research: Use of Microbially-Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation to Improve Seismic Behavior of Saturated Sands”.  The goal of this 3 year grant, of which she is a Co-PI, is to investigate and optimize microbial metabolism to modify the engineering properties of soils and prevent potential damage from earthquakes.