CLOSE
Science & Technology

by -
0 1166
From left, Iwao Ojima, Ashna Garg and Maurizio Del Poeta. Photo by Kathryn Takemura

By Daniel Dunaief

It worked for mice and now, several years later, has shown promise for cats.

Researchers from Maurizio Del Poeta’s lab, working closely with those from Iwao Ojima’s team at Stony Brook University, have demonstrated that an experimental treatment against a fungus resistant to the current standard of care can work with cats battling a ferocious infection, albeit on a small sample size.

The Stony Brook team, along with scientists and veterinarians in Brazil, used a drug they created in 2018 called D13 to treat 10 cats with severe forms of a fungus that affects cats and humans called sporotrichosis.

With this treatment, which the researchers introduced as a powder into the cat’s food, half of the 10 felines whose skin was under insidious attack from the fungus staged remarkable recoveries, offering a potentially promising development that could one day also offer an alternative care for cats and for people.

“The prevalence in South America is 25 to 20 cases per 100,000 people, which is not low,” explained Del Poeta, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Immunology. “It affects mostly immunocompromised people and particularly people who have cats or people taking care of infected cats.”

Tis cat presented no improvement of the tumor-like lesion and of an ulcerated lesion on the nasal region upon treatment with ITC. After adding D13, the cat significantly improved, even though clinical cure was not achieved after 4 weeks of treatment with ITC and D13 combination.

Typically, people get superficial infections, but a person who is severely immunocompromised could have an infection that spreads and becomes fatal.

The work taps into the expertise of Ojima, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry. Ojima worked on the structure elucidation, the structure activity relationship and development of efficient synthetic methods for large scale synthesis of the drug.

Recent Stony Brook PhD graduate Ashna Garg contributed to this ongoing effort.

Ojima described the work as “solidly encouraging” and added that the scientists have “even better compounds in the same series for human use” that are more potent and more selective to fungi compared to humans which makes systemic toxicity “very low.”

Del Poeta’s lab has been studying sphingolipids metabolism and signaling in fungal and mammals cells to identify new markers for early diagnosis and microbial enzymes/ molecules essential to cause infections in the attempt to develop new antifungal targets.

To be sure, in the cat research, five out of the 10 cats didn’t complete the study. One of them died, although the cause of death was unknown, and four of the other cats abandoned the study.

Additionally, one of the cats for whom the drug worked showed an elevated level of a liver enzyme, which returned to normal within weeks of the conclusion of the study.

Still, the results were promising and provided encouraging improvements for cats battling an infection that threatened their health.

“I am very pleased with the efficacy of D13 on cats in Brazil,” explained Ojima, adding that it is “a compelling result.”

Additionally, in other preliminary studies, D13 works against various fungal infections, including cryptococcosis, aspergillosis and candidiasis. A new derivative of D13 is more effective for those other infections, the scientists said.

Del Poeta explained that the scientists chose to do the research in Brazil because of the prevalence of sporotrichosis in the area and because he had established collaborations in the country in earlier research.

‘Proud and grateful’

For her part, Garg was thrilled to contribute to research that provided a remedy to a deteriorating condition in an animal some of her friends own as pets.

Cat owners often reacted emotionally when she told them about her work, appreciating the significance of the results.

“I am deeply proud and grateful to have contributed to this work,” said Garg. “Its remarkable effectiveness continues to inspire and motivate me.”

A significant part of her PhD revolved around taking the initial lead compounds and developing second and third generation compounds to enhance their effectiveness and bioavailability.

With three bromine atoms, D13 is an unusual therapeutic treatment.

Bromine is “relatively rare among the top 200 pharmaceuticals,” Garg explained. “Bromine can be toxic or can act as an irritant. Part of my work involved exploring ways to reduce the bromine content” to make the treatment more viable in drug development. The scientists are working to understand why and how this treatment works.

“The exact mechanism of action of D13 is not fully understood yet but we are getting very close,” Garg explained.

With the third generation of D13, the team identified compounds that are highly fungal specific with broad spectrum activity, effectively eradicating 100 percent of the three malignant type of fungi.

“It’s important to note that some first and second generation compounds also demonstrated excellent antifungal activity at very low drug concentrations, even if they did not achieve complete eradication on one of the three fungal strains,” Garg added.

While promising, this study does not indicate a new human treatment will be on the market in the short term.

The scientists are doing toxicology studies and hope a new therapeutic option might be available as soon as five years, Del Poeta estimated.

From Delhi to Stony Brook

Garg, who defended her thesis in December, grew up in Delhi, India, where she pursued her undergraduate studies in Chemistry at Delhi University.

After that, she earned her Master’s in Chemistry at Vellore Institute of Technology in Tamil Nadu, India.

Garg arrived at Stony Brook in 2019 and joined Ojima’s lab in early 2020, just at the start of the pandemic.

“It was indeed a challenging time to start a new position,” Garg acknowledged.

Currently a resident of Poquott, Garg enjoys living on Long Island, where she visits beaches, drives around the area and cooks.

Garg, who attended meetings in the labs of both Professors Ojima and Del Poeta, is grateful for the support of these senior scientists, who were also part of her thesis committee.

Del Poeta described Garg as a “dedicated scientist” with an “impeccable” work ethic.

“Drug synthesis can be very challenging,” Del Poeta described. “She is tirelessly resilient.”

Garg is staying at Stony Brook for another year as a post-doctoral researcher.

Del Poeta is pleased with the productive collaboration he’s had with Ojima, whom he described as “passionate, intellectually stimulating, dedicating, inspiring and hard working.”

If Del Poeta sends an email on Saturday night, Ojima typically replies by Sunday morning.

“It is an honor to collaborate with him,” Del Poeta explained. Ojima’s work “makes these impressive results possible.”

by -
0 1095
Kevin Gardner Photo by Elise Sullivan

By Daniel Dunaief

Kevin Gardner has ambitious research goals. 

The Vice President for Research at Stony Brook University, who started working on Long Island on the same day as interim President Richard McCormick, is encouraging researchers to pursue interdisciplinary grants.

“We have a very robust office of proposal development,” said Gardner in an interview from Washington, DC when he was meeting on Capitol Hill with the New York delegation prior to the holidays. “Our strategy is to focus on growing larger grants.”

With a team prepared to help faculty across the university, Gardner hopes to drive innovation and discovery while building the university’s research budget.

The total funds from the top 1.6 percent of grants at the university account for 23 percent of the university’s research expenditures, which means that winning additional awards in this top tier could have a material effect on the funds that enable research.

The team that works with Gardner does considerable administrative work, reducing the burden for scientists focused on directing and overseeing research. Stony Brook also provides project management support.

Faculty members “can’t write these giant grants without that kind of support,” Gardner said. Stony Brook wants to get to that rarefied air where universities receive large, ambitious funds for comprehensive interdisciplinary work.

Going after these larger grants predates Gardner’s arrival.

“This is something that has been in the making for a couple of years,” said Gardner. He has seen an uptick in applications for these kinds of projects.

Stony Brook started research town halls this fall, with the first describing and encouraging collaborations between the east and west campuses.

Gardner has renamed his office the Office for Research and Innovation.

“This was done to more formally combine the offices of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development,” he explained. “Innovation speaks to new technologies, new approaches, and we have important roles in helping Long Island businesses innovate and continue to be successful. This is true for startups but equally true for manufacturing companies (through our Manufacturing Extension Program) and through our Small Business Development Center, among others!”

Enhancing an entrepreneurial culture

Hannah Estes

At the same time, the university is building and expanding efforts to encourage entrepreneurial initiatives among students and faculty.

Stony Brook recently hired Hannah Estes to become Director of Student Innovation.

Estes, who previously worked with Gardner at the University of Louisville, officially started at Stony Brook on January 6th.

She is focused on the entire school, as she hopes to help encourage students from a range of disciplines pursue various business ideas.

“Entrepreneurship can be found in any school or department,” said Estes, as she has seen new ideas originate in schools of social work, music and education.

She wants students to recognize problems and find ways to solve them. 

Estes plans to reach out to students through newsletters and social media and hopes to spend her first semester at Stony Brook listening to students and getting a sense of their interests and ideas.

In her work at the University of Louisville, she partnered with art school students who were able to get credit and helped coordinate financial aid to get them paid $20 per hour.

“It works and students are able to get away from their desks and get into the community,” Estes said.

As for local students on Long Island who are not members of the Seawolf community, Estes suggested the doors would be open to supporting with them as well.

Working with area high school students can create momentum that can develop into an interest in their business ideas and in joining Stony Brook.

As with the bigger university projects among faculty, the student efforts will also focus on interdisciplinary teams.

“The whole concept is to get out of your bubble and hear new perspectives,” said Estes. “It’s important for students to know that there are different ways of thinking.”

Gardner hopes the student-driven ideas can help engage a culture change among faculty as well.

“It is my sense that students are effective agents of change on a university campus,” Gardner explained. “And beyond that, these types of experiences are incredibly valuable for students during their education. “

In July, Stony Brook hired Dr. Michael Kinch as the inaugural Chief Innovation Officer, who is part of the university’s council and reports to Gardner.

At the same time, Andrew Wooten, the Executive Director of Long Island High Tech Incubator, has been taking inventions and ideas through a proof of concept to launch new companies. Wooten reports to the board of LIHTI.

Computing initiatives

In addition, Stony Brook has started an initiative to create an enclave for a computing environment that provides controlled unclassified information computing.

Such computing power, which is on the road towards classified work, is necessary to apply for funding from the Department of Defense and other agencies.

This effort requires a greater level of security and compliance.

As for high performance computing, the university does not have the level of capacity that the research community needs.

“High performance computing is a challenge at most campuses, particularly now keeping up with needs for AI-related computing,” Gardner explained. Stony Brook has a “very significant level of AI expertise,” which makes keeping up with their computational needs challenging.

Research and Development Park

Stony Brook is looking at how they can make the Research and Development Park an even greater asset to the university and the community.

“Everything we do serves our mission, so we need to make sure our neighbors in [Stony Brook] and our partners across the state share in a vision for how that R&D park can change and serve our mission and our community even better,” Gardner said.

He is energized by the opportunity to work at Stony Brook, where he feels that he has the ongoing support of colleagues who are working well together. As for his visit to Capitol Hill, Gardner travels to meet with the delegation and federal agencies around once a month.

“We want to make sure not just that they are advocates for us (which they most certainly are), but also to make sure we know what we can do for them,” he said. Stony Brook needs to “make sure that we are good partners for them.”

Echoing recent comments from Interim President Richard McCormick, Gardner recognizes the need to add more wastewater treatment to meet the university’s goals for expansion.

The university, which has seen state, national and international interest climb among students as Stony Brook rises in the rankings of universities and attracts major funding, is limited by several factors, including available wastewater facilities.

The university can’t bring in additional students because they don’t have the housing for them and “we can’t have the housing without the wastewater capacity,” Gardner said. “As an environmental engineer, I get it.”

by -
0 713
Stephen Post

By Daniel Dunaief

Thieves come in all shapes and sizes, robbing people of valuable possessions or irreplaceable personal keepsakes.

Diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and forms of dementia also rob people, taking away their memories, connections to their past and even their sense of themselves.

At times, however, people who are battling these conditions can emerge from its clutches, offering a fleeting, or even longer, connection to the person their loved ones knew, the passions they shared, and the memories that helped define a life.

In a study published in November in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Stephen Post, Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics at Stony Brook University, gathered information from surveys with 2,000 caregivers who shared their reactions to unexpected lucidity from forgetful people.

“Caregivers can find inspiration in these fleeting moments,” Post wrote in a summary of the conclusions of the study. “The research aims to guide caregivers and enhance the understanding of the enduring self-identify of deeply forgetful people, promoting compassionate care and recognizing the significance of our shared humanity.”

Such moments of clarity and awareness, at levels that can be more engaging than the typical behaviors for people suffering with various levels of forgetfulness, can be rewarding at any point, but can offer a particular gift to caregivers and families around the holidays.

Possible triggers

Post suggested that these moments of lucidity can be purely spontaneous and surprising. They  can also arise during an intervention, when a caregiver or family member provides some specific stimulation or memory trigger.

“Caregivers can sing a song that their loved ones identify with from earlier in life,” said Post. “We’ve done that here at the Long Island State Veterans Home on the Stony Brook campus.”

Several years ago, Post wrote about a room of 50 veterans, many of whom spent a good part of their days in a haze without acting or interacting with others.

When they heard “The Star Spangled Banner” or other patriotic music, as many as 70 percent reacted and started to sing the song. The duration of participation varied, with some saying a few words or a line, others singing a verse, and still others making it through the entire song, 

After the song, people who might have seemed out of reach could react to closed-ended questions. This could include choices such as whether they preferred toast or cereal for breakfast.

“A good half of them were able to respond and sometimes even carry on a brief conversation,” Post said.

Art can also help draw out forgetful relatives. Groups around the country are taking forgetful people and their caregivers to art museums in small groups. Looking at a famous or particularly evocative piece of artwork, people might express appreciation for the magnificence of a painting.

Poetry can also serve as a stimulus. Forgetful people who listen to the poems of Robert Frost or other familiar writers can respond with the next line to words deeply ingrained in their memory.

“Their affect picked up,” said Post. “They were smiling, they were excited and enthusiastic. That’s great stuff.”

These moments can provide a connection and offer joy to caregivers.

Other possible triggers include smells, such as the familiar scent of a kitchen; interactions in nature, such as the feel of snow on someone’s face; or playing with pets.

The forgetful can “respond joyfully to dogs,” said Post. “It can remind them of [a particular] dog from 30 years ago.”

Additional research

Caregivers who help forgetful people through their daily lives sometimes struggle with the question of whether “grandma is still there,” Post said. That metaphor, however, can miss the “hints” of continuing self identity.

The National Institute on Aging has funded Post’s study on what’s happening with the brain during these moments of lucidity. 

A challenge in that research, however, resides in doing PET scans or collecting other data when those moments are spontaneous and unpredictable.

The work from Post’s recent study indicates that these periods of clarity are important for the morale of caregivers, with many of them feeling uplifted from the interaction.

Post sees further opportunity for study. In his next project, he hopes to cover how to operationalize this information into an intervention. “It’s very practical, very real and can do a heck of a lot” for the forgetful and their caregivers, he said.

To be sure, some forgetful people may not respond to some or all of these cues, as the damage from their diseases may have made such outreach and actions inaccessible.

When these moments, fleeting though they may be, occur, they can be rewarding for caregivers, family members and the forgetful themselves.

Jean Mueller with her late mother Geraldine and her father Daniel.
Photo courtesy of Jean Mueller

Jean Mueller, Assistant Director of Nursing/ Project Manager in the Department of Regulatory Affairs, Patient Safety & Ethics at Stony Brook, recently spent time with her father Daniel, 95. The elder Mueller lost his wife of 74 years Geraldine several weeks ago and is in an assisted living facility.

Taking her father out was too difficult, as it could cause agitation and confusion.

“We went and had Thanksgiving dinner with him there,” Mueller said. “He seemed to really enjoy it, in the moment. He knew the food and he knew it was a holiday. He didn’t ask me where my mom was.”

The interactions can be challenging, as she sometimes feels like she’s pulling “all the strings and you don’t know what you’re going to get” when she interacts with him, she said.

Still, Mueller suggested that it doesn’t matter whether he remembers her visits.

“In the moment, he matters, it matters and he’s still a person,” she said. ‘When you get to the point where everything has been taken away from you, and you lost your independence, even if it’s for a short period of time, you can feel valued again.”

She considers it an honor to be able to share that with her father.

A former inspector in the Suffolk County Police Department and a commander of homicide, Mueller’s father has a well-known sweet tooth.

When she visits, Mueller brings an iced coffee with hazelnut syrup and half and half, a crumb cake, croissant or donut. “He’s in seventh heaven,” she said.

When he sees his family, his face “lights up,” said Mueller. 

“Even if the memories of our visit is fleeting, for those moments in time, he’s a devoted father and a valued father and grandfather who still feels our love.”

by -
0 658
Image from BNL
Lab celebrates a year of scientific successes, from creating the biggest bits of antimatter to improving qubits, catalysts, batteries, and more!

With one-of-a-kind research facilities leveraged by scientists from across the nation and around the world, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory is a veritable city of science. Each year brings discoveries, from the scale of subatomic particles to the vastness of Earth’s atmosphere and the cosmos, that have the potential to power new technologies and provide solutions to major societal challenges. Here, the Lab presents, in no particular order, its top 10 discoveries of 2024 … plus a few major Brookhaven Lab milestones.

Heaviest antimatter nucleus

Antimatterenlarge

Antimatter sounds exotic, but it really does exist — just not for long. This year, scientists studying collisions of atomic nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) — an “atom smasher” that recreates the conditions of the early universe — discovered the heaviest antimatter nucleus ever detected. It’s composed of four antimatter particles: an antiproton, two antineutrons, and a particle called an antihyperon. It lasts only a fraction of a second before decaying into other particles. To find it, physicists from RHIC’s STAR collaboration searched through particles streaming from billions of collisions to find just 16 of the rare “antihyperhydrogen-4” particles. There used to be lots of antimatter, back when the universe first formed, but when antimatter meets ordinary matter, the two self-destruct. The ability to create new antimatter particles today, like these heavy antimatter nuclei, gives scientists new ways to test for matter-antimatter differences that might explain why the universe is made only of matter.

Low-temp, direct conversion of natural gas to liquid fuel

Catalystenlarge

Brookhaven Lab chemists engineered a highly selective catalyst that can convert methane, a major component of natural gas, into methanol, an easily transportable liquid fuel, in a single, one-step reaction. This direct process for methane-to-methanol conversion runs at a temperature lower than required to make tea and exclusively produces methanol without additional byproducts. That’s a big advance over more complex traditional conversions that typically require three separate reactions, each under different conditions, including vastly higher temperatures. The simplicity of the system could make it particularly useful for tapping “stranded” natural gas reserves in isolated rural areas, far from the costly infrastructure of pipelines and chemical refineries, and without the need to transport high-pressure, flammable liquified natural gas. The team made use of tools at two DOE Office of Science user facilities at Brookhaven Lab, the Center for Functional Nanomaterials and the National Synchrotron Light Source II. They are exploring ways to work with entrepreneurial partners to bring the technology to market.

Plants’ sugar-sensing machinery

Proteins

Proteins are molecular machines, with flexible pieces and moving parts. Understanding how these parts move helps scientists unravel the function that a protein plays in living things — and potentially how to change its effects. This year, a team led by Brookhaven Lab biochemists working with colleagues from DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory discovered how protein machinery in plants controls whether the plants can grow and make energy-intensive products such as oil — or instead put in place a series of steps to conserve precious resources. The researchers showed how the molecular machinery is regulated by a molecule that rises and falls with the level of sugar, the product of photosynthesis and plants’ main energy source. The research could help identify proteins or parts of proteins that scientists could engineer to make plants that produce more oil for use as biofuels or other oil-based products.

Protecting a promising qubit material

Superconductivity Transitionenlarge

Tantalum is a superconducting material that shows great promise for building qubits, the basis of quantum computers. This year, a team that spans multiple Brookhaven departments discovered that adding a thin layer of magnesium improves tantalum by keeping it from oxidizing. The coating also improves tantalum’s purity and raises the temperature at which it operates as a superconductor. All three effects may increase tantalum’s ability to hold onto quantum information in qubits. This work was carried out as part of the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage, a Brookhaven-led National Quantum Information Science Research Center, and included scientists from the Lab’s Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science Department, Center for Functional Nanomaterials, and National Synchrotron Light Source II, as well as theorists at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. It built on earlier work that also included scientists from Princeton University.

Where cloud droplets are born

Clouds against a blue skyenlarge

A team led by Brookhaven Lab atmospheric scientists made the first-ever remote-sensing observations of the cloud-droplet “birth zone” at the base of clouds, where aerosol particles suspended in Earth’s atmosphere give rise to the droplets that ultimately form clouds. The number of droplets formed in this transition zone will affect a cloud’s later stages and properties, including their reflection of sunlight and the likelihood of precipitation. The research was made possible by a high-resolution LIDAR system that sends laser beams into the atmosphere and measures the signals of backscattered light with a resolution of 10 centimeters. This tool, developed by the Brookhaven scientists in collaboration with colleagues from the Stevens Institute of Technology and Raymetrics S.A., will enhance scientists’ understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions and help them gain insight into how changes in atmospheric aerosol levels could affect clouds and climate — without having to fly up into the clouds.

Hacking DNA to make next-gen materials

3D nanostructuresenlarge

Scientists at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) are experts at using DNA as a tool for “programming” molecules to self-assemble into 3D nanostructures. By directing molecular and nanoscale building blocks toward specific arrangements they’ve designed, the researchers create novel, functional materials that exhibit desirable properties like electrical conductivity, photosensitivity, and chemical activity. This year, a team of researchers from CFN, Columbia University, and Stony Brook University significantly improved this process and expanded its applications. By stacking several material synthesis techniques, the team developed a new method of DNA-directed self-assembly that enables the production of a wide variety of metallic and semiconductor 3D nanostructures — the potential base materials for next-generation semiconductor devices, neuromorphic computing, and advanced energy applications. It is the first method of its kind to produce robust and designed 3D nanostructures from multiple material classes, setting the stage for new breakthroughs in advanced manufacturing at small scales.

Scientists calculate predictions for EIC measurements

Factorizationenlarge

Nuclear theorists used supercomputer calculations to accurately predict the distribution of electric charges in mesons, particles made of a quark and an antiquark. These predictions will provide a basis for comparison in future experiments at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), a facility that, among other goals, will explore how quarks, and the gluons that hold them together, are distributed within mesons, protons, and neutrons. The calculations also helped validate “factorization,” a widely used approach for deciphering particle properties. This approach breaks complex physical processes into two components, or factors, and will enable many more EIC predictions and more confident interpretations of experimental results. Calculations like these will help EIC scientists unravel how the fundamental building blocks that make up atoms stick together.

Atomic ‘GPS’ uncovers hidden material phase

schematic shows how the absorption of a laser photon initiates a small change that propagates throug

Brookhaven scientists created the first-ever atomic movies showing how atoms rearrange locally within a quantum material as it transitions from an insulator to a metal. Their research marked a methodological achievement, as they demonstrated that a materials characterization technique called atomic pair distribution function (PDF) is feasible — and successful — at X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) facilities. PDF is typically used to observe materials that change over minutes to hours at synchrotron light sources, but the bright and short X-ray pulses produced by an XFEL facility enabled the capture of atomic movement on a picosecond time scale. With the new ultrafast PDF technique, which provides atomic routes like a navigation app, the researchers discovered a “hidden” material state, providing new insight into what really happens when certain quantum materials are excited by a laser.

Chemists engineer surprising battery chemistry

Research wearing purple gloves adjusts equipmentenlarge

Lithium-metal batteries, which have lithium metal anodes, can store more than twice the energy of lithium-ion batteries with graphite anodes. Yet most battery-operated devices are still powered by lithium-ion batteries. This year, Brookhaven chemists made significant contributions to DOE’s lithium-metal battery efforts by adding a compound called cesium nitrateto the electrolyte separating the battery’s anode and cathode. Their addition ultimately targeted the interphase, a protective layer formed on the battery’s electrodes and closely linked to the number of times a battery can be charged and discharged. The cesium nitrate additive made the batteries recharge faster while maintaining cycle life. However, closer analysis with tools at the National Synchrotron Light Source II and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials revealed two surprises: an unexpected interphase component and the absence of one previously considered essential for good battery performance. Though these findings challenge conventional battery beliefs, they create new opportunities for battery engineering.

X-rays unlock structure and function in cells

superimposed tomography imagesenlarge

Every plant, animal, and person is a complex microcosm of tiny, specialized cells. These cells are like their own worlds, each with unique parts and processes that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Being able to see the inner workings of these microscopic building blocks at nanometer resolution without harming their delicate parts has been a challenge. But this year, Brookhaven Lab biologists and scientists at the National Synchrotron Light Source II used a combination of X-ray methods to see inside cells in a whole new way. By using both hard X-ray computed tomography and X-ray fluorescence microscopy, they can reveal not just the structural details but also the chemical processes inside cells. This multimodal X-ray imaging approach could have significant implications in fields such as medicine, bioenergy, agriculture, and other important areas.

Other major milestones Brookhaven Lab celebrated this year

Milestonesenlarge

Electron-Ion Collider begins procurements

DOE gave the go-ahead for the purchase of “long-lead” equipment, services, and/or materials needed to build a state-of-the-art Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). This nuclear physics facility will be built at Brookhaven in partnership with DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and a wide range of other partners to explore the inner workings of the building blocks of matter and the strongest force in nature. Purchasing materials and equipment needed for sophisticated components for the EIC accelerator, detector, and supporting infrastructure ensures that the team will be ready when construction begins. It’s an important step toward the ultimate goal of efficiently delivering one of the most challenging and exciting accelerator complexes ever built by the mid 2030s.

Scientific data storage record

The Lab’s Scientific Data and Computing Center now stores more than 300 petabytes of data — the largest compilation of nuclear and particle physics data in the U.S. For comparison, that’s far more data than would be needed to represent everything written in human history plus all the movies ever created. The cache comes from experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, located at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Thanks to a combination of relatively economical tape storage and a robot-driven system for mounting data to disks, the cache is easily accessible to collaborators all around the world. The system is set up to meet evolving and expanding data needs for a range of existing experiments at Brookhaven and beyond, including the future Electron-Ion Collider.

NSLS-II celebrates 10 years of light

On Oct. 23, the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) celebrated its 10th anniversary of first light, the moment when its first X-rays were delivered. Over the last decade, this ultrabright light source has grown from six beamlines to 29, ramped up its accelerator current from 50 milliamperes to 500 milliamperes, hosted nearly 6,000 visiting researchers from around the world, and published more than 3,200 research papers. Since 2014, NSLS-II has enabled researchers to study the physical, chemical, and electronic makeup of materials with nanoscale resolution. And with continual advancements over its 10-year history, the facility remains one of the world’s most advanced light sources, accelerating breakthroughs in fields ranging from biology to quantum information science.

Atmospheric observatory opens in Alabama

Brookhaven Lab’s world-leading atmospheric scientists led the plan to install a suite of DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility instruments at a new observatory in the Southeastern U.S. The Bankhead National Forest observatory opened on Oct. 1 and hosted its first scientific workshop and media tours earlier this month. For at least five years, the observatory will provide data for scientists to investigate the complex interactions among clouds, vegetation, and aerosols suspended in the atmosphere. The observatory will contribute valuable insights into aerosol-cloud interactions and feed data to weather and climate models for a more comprehensive understanding of Earth’s atmospheric dynamics.

The research described above was funded primarily by the DOE Office of Science. RHIC, CFN, NSLS-II, and ARM are DOE Office of Science user facilities.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.

by -
0 533
Brookhaven National Laboratory Director JoAnne Hewett. Photo by Jessica Rotkiewicz/BNL

By Daniel Dunaief

Instead of flying a plane through clouds and gathering data during a three to five second window of time, researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory are one of three teams proposing constructing a cloud chamber.

This new research facility would allow them to control the environment and tweak it with different aerosols, enabling them to see how changes affect drizzle formation.

“This is fascinating,” said JoAnne Hewett, Director of BNL and a self-professed “science geek.”

Hewett, whose background is in theoretical physics and who came to BNL from SLAC National Accelerator Lab in Menlo Park, California, has been the director of the Upton-based lab since April of 2023.

In a celebrity podcast interview, which will be posted on TBR News Media’s website (tbrnewsmedia.com) and Spotify, Hewett addressed a wide range of issues, from updates on developing new technologies such as the Electron Ion Collider and the construction of buildings, to the return of students to the long-awaited reopening of the cafeteria.

The U.S. Department of Energy is currently considering the proposals for the cloud chamber and has taken the first steps towards initiating the project.

Hewett, who is the first woman to lead the national lab in its 77-year history, is hoping the winner will be announced this year.

More x-ray tools

In a discussion about the National Synchrotron Lightsource II, which is a circular electron accelerator ring that sends x-rays into the specialized beamlines, Hewett described a study at the recently opened High Energy X-ray Scattering beamline, or HEX.

The state-funded HEX, which is designed for battery research, recently hosted an experiment to examine the vertebrae from Triceratops.

The NSLS-II, which opened a decade ago and has produced important results in a range of fields, will continue to add beamlines. BNL recently received approval to build another eight to 12 beamlines, depending on available funding. The lab will add one beamline in 2025 and another two in 2026.

Electron-Ion Collider

BNL, meanwhile, is continuing to take important steps in planning for an Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), an ambitious $2.8 billion project the lab won the rights to construct.

The collider, which will reveal secrets of the quarks and gluons that make up atoms, will start construction in 2026 and is expected to generate data sometime in the early 2030’s.

As groups of scientists develop plans for the EIC, they apply to the government to reach various milestones.

In March of this year, the lab met a hurdle called CD3A, which provided $100 million in funding for long lead procurements for some of the parts for the 2.4 mile circumference particle collider.

The next review, called CD3B, will be in early January and will involve $50 million in funding.

The funding for these steps involves ordering parts that the lab knows will be necessary.

The EIC will address five key questions, including how does a proton acquire its spin, what is the nature of dense gluon matter, how do quarks and gluons interact within a nucleus, what is the role of gluons in generating nuclear binding energy, and how do the properties of a proton emerge from its quark and gluon constituents.

Researchers expect the results to have application in a wide range of fields, from materials science, to medicine, to creating tools for complex simulations in areas including climate change.

Return of students

After the Covid pandemic shut down visits from area primary schools, students are now returning in increasingly large numbers.

In 2023, around 22,000 students had a chance to find scientific inspiration at BNL, which is starting to approach the pre-pandemic levels of around 30,000.

School buses come to the science learning center on the campus almost every day.

In addition, BNL hosted a record number of student internships, which are typically for college-age students.

In addition to inspiring an understanding and potentially building careers in science, BNL is now opening a new facility. The science users and support center, which is just outside the gate for the lab, is a three-story building with meeting room space.

“It’s going to be a one-stop-shop” for visiting scientists who come to the lab, Hewett said. Visiting scientists can take care of details like badging and lodges, which they previously did in separate buildings.

Additionally, for staff and visitors, BNL reopened a cafeteria that had been closed for five years. The cafeteria will serve breakfast and lunch with hot food.

“That’s another milestone for the laboratory,” Hewett said. With the extended time when the cafeteria was closed, just about everything will be new on the menu. The reopening of the facility took years because of “all the legalese” in the contract, she added.

A new vision

Hewett spent the first nine months of her tenure getting to know the people and learning the culture of the lab.

She suggested she has a new vision that includes four strategic initiatives. These are: the building blocks of the universe, which includes the Electron-Ion Collider; leading in discovery with light-enabled science, which includes the National Synchrotron Lightsource II; development of the next generation information sciences, including quantum information sciences, microelectronics and artificial intelligence; and addressing environmental and societal challenges.

As for the political landscape and funding for science, Hewett suggested that new administrations always have a change in priorities.

“We’re in the business of doing science,” she said. “Science does not observe politics. It’s not red or blue: it’s just facts.”

She suggested that generally, traditional basic research tends to do fairly well.

The BNL lab director, however, is “always making a concerted effort to justify why this investment [of taxpayer dollars] is necessary,” she said. “That’s not going to change one bit.”

After a recent visit to Capitol Hill, Hewett described her relationship with the New York delegation as “great.” She appreciates how the division that affects people’s perspectives in different parts of the world and that has led to conflicts doesn’t often infect scientists or their goals.

In the field of particle physics, “you have Israelis and Palestinians literally working together side by side,” she said. “It all comes to down to the people doing the science and not the government they happen to live under.”

Hewett also continues to believe in the value of diverse experience in the workplace. “We need the best and the brightest,” she said. “I don’t care if they’re pink with purple polka dots: we want them here at the laboratory doing science for us. We want to develop the workforce of the future.”

Adding key hires

As Hewett has settled into her role, she would like to fill some important staff functions. “This is really two or three jobs that I have to get done in the time it takes to do one job,” she said. “A chief of staff is very much needed to help move some of these projects along.”

Additionally, she is looking for someone to lead research partnerships and technology transfer. “As you do the great science, you want to be able to work hand in hand with industry in order to do the development of that science,” she said.

She said this disconnect between research and industry was known as the “Valley of Death.” Institutions like BNL “do fundamental science and industry has a product, and you don’t do enough of the work to match the two with each other.”

by -
0 849
Bruce Stillman, CEO of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Photo courtesy of CSHL

By Daniel Dunaief

The Oscars could learn a thing or two from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The facility, which conducts research in cancer, neuroscience, genomics, quantitative biology and plant biology, hosted its 19th annual Double Helix Award Dinner on Nov. 14.

Front row from left, 2024 Double Helix Medals honorees Dr. Katalin Karikó, Daniel and Alisa Doctoroff.
Back row, from left, CSHL Chair Marilyn Simons, President & CEO Bruce Stillman, and Grace Stillman. Photo courtesy of Patrick McMullan Company

Held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and emceed by CBS journalist Lesley Stahl, the dinner, so named for the twisting ladder structure of the genetic material DNA, raised $7 million while honoring Nobel Prize winner Katalin Karikó, and Daniel and Alisa Doctoroff, a husband and wife team who are leaders of Target ALS.

Bruce Stillman, CEO of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, recently discussed the awards dinner, an innovative and potentially revolutionary study on aging, science funding, and a host of other topics in an exclusive interview.

The honorees at this year’s dinner were “really fantastic,” Stillman said.

Originally from Hungary, Karikó thrived in work that helped lead to BioNTech and Pfizer’s work using messenger RNA to create a vaccine for COVID-19 despite setbacks including four demotions while a scientist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Her experience shows how “a scientist can do Nobel prize winning research despite adversity,” Stillman said. She had an “idea she wanted to stick with.”

Through Target ALS, the Doctoroffs have helped generate progress in research on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Daniel Doctoroff, who has ALS, had been Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding and CEO and president of Bloomberg LP.

The dinner has raised over $67 million since its inception and has honored scientists and public figures, including the late boxer and inaugural winner Muhammad Ali, baseball Hall of Fame right fielder Reggie Jackson and Nobel Prize winner and co-discoverer of gene editing tool CRISPR Jennifer Doudna.

As a part of the celebration, the lab produces videos of the honorees, who have made significant contributions to philanthropy or to research or who have been advocates for health.

A week after the dinner, Stillman had written a letter to potential honorees for next year.

“It’s a lot of work to do this properly,” said Stillman. “We have a time limit on the evening. We want everyone out by 9:30 p.m. We timed this whole thing down to the minute and it worked out very well.”

An important aging discovery

While the lab produced a large volume of research studies that could have implications in a range of fields during the year, Stillman highlighted the work of Corina Amor Vegas as being “probably the most impactful down the road.”

Corina Amor Vegas. Photo ourtesy of CSHL

Amor Vegas used a technology developed to treat cancer to address the effects of aging.

She produced chimeric antigen receptors on the surface of the immune system’s T cells to attack senescent cells, which have aged and are not functional but could otherwise cause aging related problems such as diseases.

In a mouse model, Amor Vegas found that treating these aging mice with modified forms of their own T cells, through car-T immunotherapy, improved metabolic dysfunction and exercise capacity. Indeed, even a single treatment was enough to provide long term benefits for these mice.

The work attracted considerable venture capital interest and the lab is in discussions about how to pursue a business approach that taps into the potential use of this discovery.

As for businesses, the lab has a number of companies that are “under the radar screen” but that will have an impact in their fields.

Professor Partha Mitra started a company called Clarapath that will make “a major splash” with its automatic slides for pathology, Stillman said. A machine can do the work automatically that is otherwise labor intensive.

Down the road, scientists could apply artificial intelligence to analyze the samples. The laboratory has several faculty that are doing machine learning or AI in their research in areas such as neuroscience or genetics.

Through a neuro-AI scholars program, CSHL brings in people who have had a high level of training in computer science related to machine learning. The scholars come to CSHL for one or two years, where they work in a neuroscience lab.

Meetings

Stillman was pleased with the meetings on site this year, including one on epigenetics and CRISPR.

At the end of May in 2025, CSHL plans to have a symposium called Senescence and Aging.

The lab has invited scientists to speak from Germany, Israel, Japan and the United Kingdom as well as from Harvard, Brown and Yale. Locally, Amor Vegas, Assistant Professor Semir Beyaz and Professor Lloyd Trotman have also received invitations to share their work.

Stillman anticipates the publication of compelling findings from CSHL next year, including in autism.

At the same time, the lab is building a new Neuroscience Research Complex that should be finished in 2026. The 36,347 square-foot facility will include three modern buildings that focus on neurodegenerative diseases, brain-body physiology and quantitative biology and NeuroAI.

The construction has been going “very well,” Stillman said.

Science and politics

Amid talk of a rationalization of the research budget next year when the former and future president Donald Trump takes office, Stillman cautioned against a heightened focus on translational studies.

“If we knew what basic science would be translational, we would be doing it,” Stillman said. “If you go back and look at fundamental discoveries of how a disease can be cured, like Spinraza, people would have said, ‘Don’t study this or that.’”

Professor Adrian Krainer developed the drug Spinraza at CSHL, which is an effective treatment for an otherwise debilitating childhood disease called spinal muscular atrophy.

The development of CRISPR came from a study of bacteria that grow in a marine environment.

If Trump’s administrators think they can predict that every dollar will be productive, “they are nuts,” Stillman said. “We should have a discussion before they start pronouncing what should be done.”

Converting the National Institutes of Health into a directed translational research institute will push down American competitiveness.

China is planning to spend large sums of money in basic research. If the United States cuts back in these areas, this is a “recipe for the country to become a second class citizen to those that are “investing in basic science.”

The Human Genome Project cost $3 billion over 25 years. The returns exceed $1 trillion, Stillman said.

“That’s an enormous payoff,” he added. 

Despite concerns and a watchful eye on research funding, Stillman shared a positive outlook.

“I’m not pessimistic about the future,” he said. “The United States economy is very strong.”

by -
0 987
A 3D constructed building in Ukraine. Photo courtesy of Utu (Ukraine)

By Daniel Dunaief

Instead of discarding concrete from damaged or destroyed buildings during Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Alexander Orlov, Professor in Materials Science & Chemical Engineering at Stony Brook University wants to try to figure out ways to recycle these materials to create new and desperately needed shelters.

Alexander Orlov. Photo courtesy of SBU

Leading a team of researchers in the United States, Poland and Ukraine, Orlov received about $700,000 worth of funding from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and the Polish National Science Centre to develop ways to create these potentially life-saving structures by using three-dimensional printers.

Far larger than the desktop printers, these three-dimensional printers build one layer of a building at a time, reducing the time and labor needed in construction. 

The idea behind the project is to “turn the tragedy of these damaged buildings into new structures,” said Orlov.

In some cases, these buildings could be cheaper and faster than conventional construction methods.

“This research will address challenges in building resilient and sustainable infrastructure by using novel, inexpensive and energy efficient solutions,” Marija Krstic, assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Stony Brooks said in a statement.

The family of Ukrainian soldier Yaroslav Berezov, who died during the beginning of the Russian invasion, received the first 3D printed house earlier this year, according to the Odessa Journal.

The walls of the house were printed in 58 machine hours, as the printer laid down the inside and outside of the house at the same time.

The idea of doing 3D printing is becoming more popular in Ukraine. The leader in this type of printing is a company called COBOD, which used the technique to rebuild a school in the city of Lviv. The school, which has weatherproof construction and is expected to last for more than 20 years, has four classrooms with a capacity for 100 students.

One layer at a time

Orlov explained that the 3D printing process acts like an ice cream machine, as it lays down one layer of a building at a time with material squeezed through a cone.

In the design of these structures, the machine pauses for some length of time — five or 10 minutes in some cases — to ensure that the layer is strong enough to support additional weight. The structure also requires some time to settle, which could be about two weeks, before adding heavier objects, such as a roof.

Assistant professor Marija Krstic in the Department of Civil Engineering along with a graduate student. Photo from SBU

The machines use waste and add it to a cement mix to form concrete.

In this project, the research is focused on a proof of concept that Ukrainian construction companies might use to build additional homes or shelters.

The National Science Foundation is providing $300,000 in funding for Orlov’s portion of the work.

Stony Brook University is building a 3D printer and is adding parts to it to make it more efficient and reliable. Poland is also purchasing a printer while Ukraine already has one.

The Office of Naval Research is providing funding directly to Ukraine and the Polish National Science Centre is supporting efforts in that country.

“The Navy supports disaster relief and typically offers assistance in any part of the world” after catastrophes including hurricanes and earthquakes, Orlov said.

It takes about two to three days to build a building the size of a house. The process still requires manual labor to add the roof because it has different materials.

The timing of the research is particularly important because of the escalating scale of Russian attacks and amid the approach of winter. People in the capital of Kyiv endure seven hours of bombing each night. The civilian experience is similar to what people in London experienced during World War II, when they hid in shelters and had to be quiet amid the shattering of buildings.

Ukraine has lost about 50 percent of its energy infrastructure, a number that is likely to climb even as colder weather descends on the country. The estimated cost to repair that energy infrastructure is about $60 billion and is likely to climb as the war continues, Orlov added.

Without energy and heat, “this could be the worst winter in the history of the country,” Orlov said.

In developing ways to build these structures, Orlov hopes to create buildings that are mechanically the same or better than traditional homes and with thermal properties that are increasingly important amid temperature extremes.

The biggest challenge for scientists and engineers is that these buildings may not be reproducible, depending on the different available materials. The researchers need to figure out if they can have high-quality printing from different sources.

Personal experience

For Orlov, the horrors of war and the threat of injury and death are all too real. He extracted his mother Tetiana and his father Mykhailo, out of Kyiv, where their apartment windows were blown out after a Russian rocket leveled a nearby five-story building.

Orlov’s parents are struggling even on Long Island, where the sound from nearby fire station causes them to try to run and hide each time they hear the alarm. Motorcycle noises, which have the same vibrating hum as Iranian drones, also terrify them.

Project origins

The research Orlov is doing started when he was working with a Polish researcher. Orlov saw the funding opportunity and reached out to professors in Kyiv to ask how he could help. The researchers worked together to write the proposal.

Orlov, who works in the Consortium for Inter-Disciplinary Environmental Research and has secondary appointments in the Chemistry Department, the Institute for Advanced Computational Science, the Advanced Energy Center, and the Department of Technology and Society, is spending considerably more time than he expected on this project. That, he said, comes in part from the need to cross cultural barriers in working with people from different countries.

Any construction of 3D printed shelters would face the challenge of finding energy to power these machines. Some of that power could come from mobile generators, while the printers could also use intermittent power.

“There are unique challenges that have to be tested during the war,” Orlov explained.

At each of the research sites, students have the opportunity to contribute to the project. Stony Brook has two faculty members and several graduate students who are involved at this point.

Orlov is hoping to provide Ukrainian companies with recipes that might lead to the construction of these shelters.

by -
0 818
Olaf Kleingbeil at the Pezcoller24 Symposium in Italy in June, 2024. Photo by Claudia Tonelli

By Daniel Dunaief

The wreck-and-check method sometimes works, providing the kind of clues that lead to cures.

In the case of cancer, however, taking out one gene or one protein may not be enough, particularly when a combination contributes to cancer growth or to inactivating the body’s defenses against the disease.

Olaf Klingbeil. Photo courtesy of CSHL

Over the course of seven years, first developing a technique, then searching for possible clues about what the work might reveal, Olaf Klingbeil, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Professor Chris Vakoc at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, discovered two proteins that work together to do cancer’s bidding.

Called Mark 1 and Mark 2, these two proteins in combination keep a tumor suppressor called Hippo from doing its job, enabling a wide range of cancers from continuing to grow.

The Hippo pathway is one of the most dysfunctional in all human cancer biology.

The journey to this discovery is as compelling as the finding itself.

Klingbeil honed a technique that took out a series of genes, hoping to find out how more than one protein might be involved in the kind of on-off switch geneticists are often seeking to slow or squelch cancer.

Indeed, disrupting either of the proteins on its own would not have been enough, as the disease would have progressed with a singular inhibitor.

“When you manipulate A or B individually” you don’t see much difference in the cancer cells, Vakoc said. “When you manipulate A plus B, you get a massive effect.”

Vakoc suggested that his lab developed a new technology to find cancer targets, enabling them to search for processes and contributors that were otherwise invisible. Klingbeil used lentiviruses to introduce CRISPR gene editing into cancer cells.

“What [Klingbeil] developed, a method where you can introduce two [changes] at the same time, can be engineered to target combinations of genes,” Vakoc said. “It took years to figure out how to do this.”

Klingbeil explored the effect of making these double knockouts through many perturbations.

“It was the largest project in my lab to this point,” said Vakoc.

A eureka moment

Klingbeil examined several potential leads that might provide clues about how to attack cancer cells. He published 1,719 single gene knockouts and 2,529 paralog double knockouts and expected to find a few jewels. 

Christopher Vakoc. Photo courtesy of CSHL

He likens the process to panning for gold at a creek, which involves getting rid of numerous stones before discovering that gold nugget, which, in this case came in the form of two kinases, which add phosphate labels to macromolecules.

When Klingbeil honed in on Mark 2 and Mark 3, he couldn’t immediately understand why inhibiting these enzymes affected some forms of cancer, but not all of them. 

The postdoctoral researcher read a study in which the researchers looked at the tumor suppressive function of Yap/Taz in leukemia and neuroendocrine cancers and realized that these were the cancer types that didn’t show a reaction to inhibiting these kinases.

This was the first hint that Marks 2 and 3 and Yap/Taz might work together, Klingbeil explained.

The affected cancers include liver, lung, colorectal, ovarian, triple negative breast cancer, pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer. That list also includes rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of pediatric cancer for which Vakoc, in particular, is eager to develop new treatments.

While numerous scientists are seeking ways to block this pathway directly, the focus on Mark 2 and Mark 3 presents a new potential opportunity.

Marks are “totally overlooked in the community” and are “not a known target,” said Vakoc. “This is the first paper that announces these as cancer targets in a compelling way.”

An existing drug

Once he discovered this link, Klingbeil searched for existing drugs that might target Marks 2 and 3. Fortunately, he found one that Merck had tried to develop for Alzheimer’s disease.

While that didn’t work as well as the pharmaceutical company had hoped, the CSHL researchers are looking to use it as a starting point for a future therapy.

“We are excited that there’s a chemical matter” that might help treat cancer, Vakoc said, adding that such a treatment will likely require “a lot of love by chemists to give them the ideal attributes” for any therapeutic approach.

The drug Merck produced inhibited Marks 1 and 4 as well as 2 and 3, which provides opportunities to tailor it for the most relevant enzymes. By increasing the specificity of the drug for two of the four proteins, researchers and pharmaceutical companies could reduce the side effects of inhibition.

To be sure, Vakoc and Klingbeil cautioned that this discovery, while encouraging, wouldn’t likely provide a magic bullet for cancer, which has a way of becoming resistant to treatments and to tapping into other unknown or unseen pathways to continue to cause harm.

Effective future treatments that involve inhibiting Marks 2 and 3 could require the use of a combination of therapies, which might outmaneuver or slow the progression of cancer.

A personal message

Earlier this year, Klingbeil learned that the journal Cancer Discovery had accepted the paper for publication in an unusual way. He was attending a dinner one night at a conference in Italy when Elizabeth McKenna, the Executive Editor of the journal, approached him.

“She told me she was about to send an email” to Vakoc that the paper was accepted, Klingbeil said. “I was very excited. I’m happy to publish it and that I could convince the most critical reviewers about the value of the work.”

After a productive and rewarding collaboration with Vakoc, Klingbeil is preparing for the next steps in his career. He is speaking with various institutions, particularly in Europe, where he can be closer to his family and his native Berlin, Germany while continuing to advance his scientific career. He plans to continue to work with Vakoc after he leaves.

“The discovery was big enough to carve out a piece for him and me,” Klingbeil said and suggested he would study Mark function in pancreatic cancer in more detail.

On the personal front, fate lent a hand when Klingbeil first arrived on Long Island.

He started his life here in the middle of the winter, without a car or a driver’s license. The lab provided temporary housing on campus. He had a choice to share an apartment with either a French or an Italian postdoctoral researcher.

He chose to live with postdoctoral researcher Claudia Tonelli, who works in the lab of Cancer Center Director David Tuveson and is now his partner. The two researchers, who started dating a few months after living together, have a daughter Lily.

As for his work, he is cautiously optimistic that this discovery may one day help with new and effective therapies.

by -
0 771
Bottom row, from left, Andrew Whitely, VP Business Development and Technology Transfer at CSHL; Dr Susan Poser, President of Hofstra University; students Dimitri Dumontier; Charlie Chung, Yong Lin, Stephen Staklinski and Javier Anduaga; Dr. Janet A. Lenaghan, Dean of the Frank G. Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University; and Erick Hunt, Director of the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Hofstra University Top row, from left, students Zifei Wang, Viet Hang Lee, Yujia Li, Jed de Ruiter-Swain, and Eva Lentsch. Photo courtesy of Hofstra University

By Daniel Dunaief

Ten graduate students and postdoctoral researchers stepped outside their familiar surroundings at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory into a different campus and discipline recently.

As a part of the inaugural Bioscience Business Innovation Program, these developing scientists spent a week working with a collection of business professors at the Frank G. Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University, where they learned a range of subjects such as financial planning, intellectual property, leadership and project management.

The program, which will include a second week of training in March, is designed to teach developing scientists about market validation, Food and Drug Administration processes, and the creation of business models. The program also teaches leadership, team building and communications, which could help researchers who enter the pharmaceutical or biotechnology fields after they leave CSHL.

The goal is to “familiarize these new researchers on several aspects of business, marketing, finance, and management” which will help them consider the potential commercial application of their work, said Anoop Rai, Finance Professor at Zarb and one of the instructors in the Bioscience Business effort.

Indeed, in applying for some grants for startups from agencies like the National Science Foundation, researchers need to answer questions relating to growth, profitability and a target market.

“A knowledge of business is probably very important in that sense,” added Rai.

Scientists often have an interest in developing an innovation that could be useful for society, whether that’s a drug to treat a disease, a test to monitor health, or a new product. Such efforts need to “be marketed to become successful,” Rai said. “This group may, at some point, try and make [their findings] into a successful venture.”

Scientists would benefit from knowing about business in case they move to the next stage in their research or business development. To be sure, a two-week course offers an opportunity to learn and to develop an awareness of the business world, but doesn’t provide a comprehensive formula for success. The students will “get a feel more on the venture funding side, not so much on the complete running of a business,” said Rai.

Still, at the end of the program, the CSHL researchers will have an opportunity to make a pitch alongside a law student and a MBA candidate that a group of experts will evaluate. These pitches will require a basic understanding of business.

Student experience

Some of the students, who put most of their research aside for a week to immerse themselves in intensive training from a host of lecturers and experts, felt they have already benefited from such instruction.

Stephen Staklinski

One of the biggest take-home messages for PhD candidate Stephen Staklinski, who works in the lab of Professor Adam Siepel, involved understanding the consumers of any future product.

In research, Staklinski reads papers and looks for information that’s missing in the field. He rarely communicates directly with people who might be affected by any future discovery until a project is well under way. With a business viewpoint, he gained a new perspective he feels he can integrate effectively into his research.

Staklinski recognized the value of talking to physicians and cancer patients about some of their biggest issues. He sees the benefit of these open communications about how to serve patients who are battling various conditions.

In his current research, Staklinski builds statistical probabilistic models around the human genome. Specifically, he’s looking at molecular sites in RNA and is searching for targets that lead to metastatic processes. In working with experimental collaborator, Staklinski said he can “think about therapeutics to block this.”

Viet Hang Le, a postdoctoral researchers in the lab of Professor Linda Van Aelst, felt she received an introduction on how to develop fundamental research findings towards making new therapies.

“We got to learn about the laws and policies involved” in creating a new company, said Le. On the clinical safety side, she also learned how new products maneuver through health care and reach patients.

Her original curiosity was to see how research findings could lead to real-life treatments. Understanding business fundamentals opens more career options.

Indeed, even if Le and her colleagues continue to conduct research, she feels she can communicate more effectively with industry partners. It also whet her appetite for more business learning.

“It really bridges the gap between our background in fundamental science and the requirement for an MBA course,” Le explained. 

She is working on two projects in Van Aelst’s lab. In the first, she is studying early onset epilepsy, which is a symptom of an X-linked intellectual disability in patients carrying a mutation in the gene Oligophrenin 1.

In the second, she is exploring how the nervous system influences the progression of cancer in main tumors and metastatic tumors.

“We built a hypothesis on how different branches of nerves might increase the growth of cancer,” said Le. In Van Aelst’s lab, they are working with primary breast cancer and liver metastasis.

Originally from Dan Nang, Vietnam, Le spent a number of weeks during several summers as a part of the US Navy Pacific Partnership delivering medical treatment to medically underdeveloped areas in the country.

Through her lab work and any budding business interest, she would like to figure out how to deliver medical care to patients who might struggle with the financial or logistical challenge of affording care.

By connecting with experts who’ve negotiated various obstacles, “I’m gaining a clearer sense of how to streamline the path from discovery to patient care, cutting down unnecessary costs and time without compromising safety,” she said.

by -
0 704
Participants of last year's Human Library event. Photo by Rachael Eyler, Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

Stony Brook University is providing another opportunity for students and the community to venture beyond the labels that define and, at times, limit our views and understanding of each other.

Chris Kretz

For the second year, the university is hosting the Human Library, which gives participants an opportunity to learn about other people’s lives.

Started in 2000 in Denmark, the Human Library brings “books” (people from different walks of life, which has included a refugee, disabled parent, and person with bipolar disorder) with “readers,” who have a chance to ask questions for 30 minutes with each book.

The chapters these books share has surprised readers and given them a chance to reconsider how they view people whose lives or life experiences are different from their own.

“It’s not meant to teach people something or have them leave being converted to some new thought process,” said Chris Kretz, Head of Academic Engagement at Stony Brook University Libraries. “It gives [readers] an opportunity to speak with someone they may never normally encounter or have a conversation they may not get to have.”

The Human Library event occurs on Wednesday, Nov. 20 from noon to 3 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library’s Central Reading Room. Participants don’t need to pre-register and can show up at the library, where about 110 readers visited last year.

Kretz recommended the latter session for interested community members, which would allow them to park for free to attend the event.

Following the defined structure created by the original Human Library, attendees won’t know about the specific backgrounds of the books until they arrive. The people that represent the books will all sit at desks wearing the same black t- shirts.

“In the conversation, the colors come out,” Kretz said.

Indeed, Richard Tomczak, Director of Faculty Engagement in the Division of Undergraduate Education at SBU and a reader at last year’s Human Library, can attest to that. Tomczak spoke with a book who grew up in the outer boroughs of New York as a member of the working class.

“When you’re having a conversation about shared experiences or experiences that are new to you, it brings out the human characteristics,” said Tomczak. “I wanted to listen and absorb it all.”

Choosing a book

When readers sit down, the book offers a prologue about their lives, providing some details about their experiences. Readers who aren’t sure where to start asking questions or perusing through different chapters in the book can use prompts at each desk to begin their interaction. Readers who stay for an entire session  will be able to interact with three or four books.

Participants of last year’s Human Library event.
Photo by Rachael Eyler, Stony Brook University

“This is an opportunity for people to hone their conversational skills,” said Kretz, as well as to learn about the lives of the books who are offering details that may surprise and move the readers.

Indeed, this year, the university is stocking tissues near each book for those readers who may feel particularly touched by the stories they hear.

The university would like to ensure that the conversation is respectful and that both sides are comfortable with the discussion.

“We have rules for readers,’ said Kretz. “When they sit down with the book, the pages are in mint condition. We want to make sure everyone is on the same page. Books don’t necessarily have to answer every question.”

Kretz urged attendees to recognize that the interaction is not a debate, but presents ways for people to understand more about their own judgments and, as the Human Library website suggests, to “unjudge” each other. In addition to speaking and asking questions, readers and the books will have a chance to process what they’ve heard.

“By design, it’s a session where you have to listen,” said Kretz. “One of the values is that people get a chance to practice this muscle.”

Second year

In the second iteration of the Human Library, Stony Brook added the later time so people could come after work. The administrators have also reached out to journalism classes and to people in international programs. 

Students from other countries will “have a chance to meet people they wouldn’t have met” during their time abroad, Kretz added.

After speaking with the people who served as books last year, Stony Brook heard that the books also wanted to serve as readers of some of the other people’s lives.

University officials were pleased with the exercise last year.

“I’m impressed by how open our community was,” said Kretz. “People learned a great deal from listening to each other.”

The university is considering making this an ongoing annual tradition and might even bring people together each semester.

Other New York schools and libraries have embraced the Human Library process, including Adelphi and SUNY Albany. The Human Library has also caught on globally, as people in 85 countries on six continents have helped facilitate these conversations.

While the participants engage in meaningful discussion, the exchange isn’t designed to create a lasting social network or lead to ongoing connections between the readers and the books.

“It’s not meant for them at the end of the reading to shake hands and exchange business cards,” explained Kretz.

The event is sponsored by the University Libraries and the DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility) Team with the Division of Student Affairs, Office of Diversity Inclusion and Intercultural Initiative, Office of Military and Veteran Affairs, and Diversity, Intercultural and Community Engagement, and the Program in Public Health.

Prev1...345...72Next Page 4 of 72
TBR News Media is your local news and entertainment website.
We provide you with the latest breaking news and information for your community.
Contact us: [email protected]

Most Viewed

©