School of Molecular Biosciences

“A Surprise Path to Regenerative Medicine” on Thursday, March 27, as part of the annual Showcase celebration of Washington State University.  This annual award recognizes a faculty member whose achievements in research, scholarship and teaching place him or her in the front ranks of his or her discipline.  Professor Reeves has been a faculty member since 1979 and is one of the most highly cited scientists at WSU. He is ranked in the top 1 percent of cited authors for journals in the life sciences and in 2010 was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for contributions to the field of chromatin research, particularly for studies elucidating the structure and function of the HMGA family of non-histone architectural proteins. The HMGA proteins play a central role in regulating gene transcription, DNA replication and control of cell proliferation.  They are involved in both the cancerous transformation of normal cells and in the promotion of tumor cells to more malignant states, making them attractive targets for new anti-cancer drugs.  Read more here.

at this year’s Showcase banquet dinner held on Friday, March 28.  This award recognizes “an Association of Faculty Women (AFW) member whose leadership has advanced the role of women in the WSU system and/or who has demonstrated leadership in higher education, the community or her profession at the local, state, regional, national or international level.” It was established in 2000 to show AFW’s appreciation to former President Smith for his leadership in advancing the role of women at WSU.  A scientist and professor at WSU since 1998, Black’s  work focuses on the develop targeted therapies to treat cancer, where biomarkers distinguish and kill cancerous cells while sparing noncancerous cells.  Read more here.

at the Showcase banquet dinner. Galen, the animal care facility manager for SMB, is not only in charge of the day-to-day operations of the animal facilities but he also provides instruction to his staff about animal husbandry, oversight of equipment maintenance and advice to faculty on breeding habits and other factors that potentially could affect research data. Gorence has displayed outstanding ability and worked extra hours to accommodate a construction project that required moving animals and equipment and decontaminating facilities. He is applauded for his anticipation of problems and solutions in a way that causes minimal disruption to research.

that were announced at the Showcase banquet dinner.  Dr. Chai’s research focuses on focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms for maintaining integrity of telomeres, the physical ends of eukaryotic chromosomes.  Telomeres protect genome stability by preventing chromosomes from inappropriate fusions, degradation, and recombination. Failure of maintaining functional telomeres results in genome instability that leads to diseases such as cancer and premature aging.  Read more here.  Dr. Oatley’s research focuses on deciphering: 1) the molecular mechanisms within spermatogonial stem cells that control self-renewal and differentiation; 2) the pathways controlling postnatal development of the spermatogonial stem cell pool to establish the adult stem cell population; and 3) determinants of the stem cell niche microenvironment within mammalian testes. Read more here.