Studies have shown that having confidence in the kitchen leads to fewer fast food meals and more meals as a family to strengthen a healthy lifestyle. A study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior also highlights that young adults with strong cooking skills are more inclined to eat healthy as an adult. This summer, kids are getting to experience food moving from farm-to-table and work on building healthy habits through unique cooking and nutrition classes at Stony Brook Medicine.
Stony Brook Medicine is committed to helping kids gain kitchen experience and learn healthier cooking habits at an early age. On August 15, fourteen kids between the ages of 7 through 10 established healthier cooking habits through learning healthy recipes. On day one of the Healthy Cooking and Baking Classes, kids made hummus and veggie wraps, tabbouleh and fruit smoothies. The 3-day series teaches kids how to prepare their own meals and pick produce from the 2,242-square-foot rooftop garden known as Stony Brook Heights Rooftop Farm. The hospital’s rooftop farm supplies approximately 1,500 pounds of produce per year for patient meal trays and local charities. The program is organized by the Department of Family, Population & Preventive Medicine’s Nutrition Division.
Kids also learned about how food and ingredients are grown; harvested and chose ingredients to prepare healthier food options; tried a variety of fruit and vegetables with the health benefits behind them; and learned proper use of kitchen equipment to prepare meals using ingredients they picked by hand. In addition, each gained a hands-on approach to sustainable methods in farming, such as composting, choosing local foods and water conservation.
The Stony Brook women’s soccer team (1-1-1, 0-0 CAA) offense erupted to secure their first win of the season after defeating Lafayette College (2-1, 0-0 Patriot League) 3-1 on Aug. 24 at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium.
The Seawolves wasted no time getting on the board first after sophomore Gabrielle Côté put the pressure on the Leopard defense by centering a ball into the middle of the box that was deflected into the back of the net by a Lafayette defender at the 13th minute to give Stony Brook an early 1-0 lead.
Stony Brook out-shot Lafayette 9-to-1 in the first half and junior Nicolette Pasquarella made a quick-read save at the 23rd minute to keep the 1-0 lead heading into the break.
Following the half, the squad came out scorching on both sides of the pitch. After a stop by the Seawolves on the defensive side at the 53rd minute, Pasquarella sent a goal-kick to the middle of the field where it was headed by sophomore Luciana Setteducate and sent to senior Reilly Rich. The senior took the ball nearly 40 yards before finding the back of the net with her left foot to give Stony Brook the 2-0 advantage.
The Seawolves kept the pressure on by tallying another goal at the 65th minute. Côté took the ball up the right sideline before she hit a rocket into the back of the net to give Stony Brook a 3-0 lead and ultimately the 3-1 victory.
This was the first ever meeting and victory against Lafayette.
“I’m happy for the team that they got awarded with the win today,” Head Coach Tobias Bischof remarked postgame. “It was a great effort by everybody involved. We were defensively very stable and created some very good scoring opportunities. Scoring three goals in a game is always nice to see.”
Next up, the Seawolves hit the road for the first time this season on Sunday, Aug. 27 as they head to North Andover, Mass., to battle Merrimack University at noon. This will be the first-ever meeting between these two programs.
136 students comprise the RSOM Class of 2027, shown here reciting the Hippocratic Oath.
New RSOM student Jasmine Stansil (center), with her parents and grandparents at the school’s White Coat Ceremony.
Dean Peter Igarashi, MD
Adam Bruzzese wearing his first white coat after receiving from Andrew Wackett, MD, Vice Dean of Undergraduate Medical Education.
136 students launch journey into Medicine at traditional White Coat Ceremony
At the Renaissance School of Medicine’s (RSOM) White Coat Ceremony, 136 incoming students donned their physician “white coats” and took the Hippocratic Oath for the first time. Held at StonyBrook University’s Staller Center, the annual ceremony brings students, their families, and faculty together as the academic year begins and members of the Class of 2027 embark on their journeys toward becoming physicians. The RSOM has held the White Coat Ceremony since 1998.
The incoming students are a select group, and according to RSOM administrators is one of the most diverse classes in the school’s history. Only 8.5 percent of all applicants to the RSOM for 2023-24 were accepted into the program. Approximately 20 percent of class consists individuals from historically marginalized communities, and 54 percent of the class are women.
Collectively the students received their undergraduate degrees from 66 different colleges and universities from around the country. StonyBrook University (20) and Cornell University (17) were the undergraduate schools with the most representation. The class has a combined median undergraduate GPA of 3.89. While many of the new students are from different areas of the country, 77 percent hail from New York State.
“To the Class of 2027, you are entering medicine at an exhilarating time,” said Peter Igarashi, MD, Dean of the RSOM, who presided over his first White Coat Ceremony. “Scientific discoveries in medicine are occurring at a breathtaking and awe-inspiring rate. Diseases that were rapidly fatal when I was a medical student, such as multiple myeloma and leukemia, are now routinely treated. Advances in human genetics have enabled truly personalized medicine, and the development of an effective Covid-19 vaccine less than one year after the onset of the pandemic saved almost 20 million lives and underscored the essential role that science plays in public health.”
All of the students have a story as to how and why they have chosen Medicine as a profession.
For New York City native Adam Bruzzese, an NYU graduate, his family’s difficulties and challenges they had within the healthcare system was a big trigger to increasing his passion for medicine. Adam’s 11-year-old sister had mysteriously become paralyzed, and he played an integral part in providing her healthcare as a teenager and college student. He witnessed disparities of care as she moved through the health system, plus the myriad of tests and physician opinions along the way. It was eventually determined her paralysis was caused by Lyme Disease.
Manteca, California native Jasmine Stansil, a standout student in high school and at the University of California, San Diego, was always fascinated by the human body as a kid. She also became captivated by how physicians can have an incredible impact on human life when she watched Untold Stories of the ER. But she was most inspired to pursue Medicine because of her grandmother, who endured multiple strokes.
“Watching doctors provide her care made me want to do the same for others,” says Stansil. “I am hoping to become an academic physician who will provide clinical care, teach and conduct research.”
Jerome Belford, one of the 20 class members who attended StonyBrook University as an undergraduate, described his interest in medicine as coming from a “passion that stems from a desire to promote physical and emotional health and wellness.”
From Long Island, Belford is a volunteer EMT who decided to attend the RSOM because of its broad research and clinical opportunities and standout education that provides experiential and hands-on medical training. He hopes to eventually provide patients who have historically not had access to the best medical resources improved care, either as an emergency physician or though primary care as an internist.
White coat ceremonies are an initiation rite and are symbolic to Medicine as a profession that combines professionalism with scientific excellence and compassionate care. In an era of telemedicine, aging populations, new knowledge about infections and diseases, and emerging technologies, Medicine remains a dynamic and changing profession that continues to impact the health and well-being of society.
Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis celebrated the successful conclusion of Stony Brook’s 2023 Chancellor’s Summer Research Excellence Fund internships which facilitated the university’s Summer Opportunity for Academic Research (SUNY SOAR). SUNY SOAR is a pilot program that provided $250,000 from SUNY to Stony Brook as well as to other SUNY institutions.
The Principal Investigator (PI) on this initiative was Karian Wright, Director of the Center for Inclusive Education (CIE) with co-PIs: Dr. Maria Nagan, Karen Kernan and Lisa Ospitale. SUNY SOAR expanded opportunities for undergraduates with financial need and/or first generation college students and offered its participants a stipend ($5,000), a meal plan ($800), plus full housing support ($4059/student), a significant factor in recruiting students with financial hardship. The inaugural group of 25 SUNY SOAR participants (Summer 2023) comprises 20 Stony Brook and 5 non-Stony Brook SUNY students.
Stony Brook was one of the initial participants of the Summer Research Excellence Fund, along with Binghamton University, University at Buffalo, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and SUNY Polytechnic Institute.
“Stony Brook University prides itself on delivering a world-class, affordable education to our diverse student population, many who are the first in their families to attend college,” said Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis. “As a flagship public research institution, we recognize students have a critical role to play in solving society’s biggest challenges. Thanks to the Chancellor’s Summer Research Excellence Fund/SUNY SOAR, our students gained essential hands-on experience working closely with faculty researchers who are innovators and leaders in their fields.”
SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr. said, “Internships are essential to providing students with real-world, practical experience that will prepare them for their future careers. SUNY has set the goal that every student will be able to participate in an internship by the time they graduate. The Chancellor’s Summer Research Excellence Fund was the first step in making that goal a reality and investing in the upward mobility of SUNY students.”
Internships contribute to student success by presenting students with the skills and opportunities they need to succeed in their career through real-world experience and increase their marketability. Sixty percent of employers prefer to hire graduates and workers with internship experience, and a 2022 study found that for each additional high impact internship completed, students boosted their job or continuing education placement odds as well as their starting salary.
Represented in this illustration is the authors’ finding that DNA hypermethylation disrupts CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) mediated boundaries which in turn lead to aberrant interactions between an oncogene and an enhancer, driving hyperproliferation and subsequently tumorigenesis from normal OPCs. Photo by William Scavone/Kestrel Studio
Study in Cell led by Stony Brook researcher provides unique analysis in a glioma model
Gliomas are incurable brain tumors. Researchers are trying to unlock the mysteries of how they originate from normal cells, which may lead to better treatments. A new study published in the journal Cell centers on epigenetic rather than genetic changes that drive normal cells to form tumors. The work reveals the precise genes that are regulated epigenetically and lead to cancer.
Genes make us who we are in many ways and are central to defining our health. Cancer is often viewed as a disease caused by changes in our genes, thus our DNA. Epigenetics is the study of how behavior, environment, or metabolic changes can cause alterations to the way genes work. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes do not change one’s DNA, and they can be reversed.
“We used tumor samples and mouse modeling to discover and functionally demonstrate the role of epigenetic alterations in gliomas,” says Gilbert J. Rahme, PhD, first author and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacological Sciences at the Renaissance School of Medicine, and formerly a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “By doing this, we discovered genes regulated epigenetically in gliomas, including potent tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes, that drive the tumor growth.”
In the paper, titled “Modeling epigenetic lesions that cause gliomas,” the research team show in the model that epigenetic alterations of tumor suppressor and oncogenes collaborate together to drive the genesis of this brain tumor.
The authors explain that “epigenetic activation of a growth factor receptor, the platelet-derived growth factor receptor A (PDGFRA) occurs by epigenetic disruption of insulator sites, which act as stop signs in the genome to prevent aberrant activation of genes. The activation of PDGFRA works in concert with the epigenetic silencing of the tumor suppressor Cyclin Dependent Kinase Inhibitor 2A (CDKN2A) to transform a specific cell type in the brain, the oligodendrocyte progenitor cell (OPC), driving the formation of brain tumors.”
Rahme says the next step is to test whether therapies that can reverse the epigenetic changes observed in brain tumors can be helpful as a treatment.
A problematic atmospheric greenhouse gases, methane comes from natural gas, agriculture, and swamps.
John Mak
Recently, John E. Mak, a Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University worked with an international group of scientists to demonstrate a process that removes methane from the atmosphere.
A mixture of dust from the Sahara and sea spray reacts with methane to form carbon monoxide and a small amount of hydrochloric acid.
In a recent paper published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Mak, corresponding author Matthew Johnson, who is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, and others showed how a novel process removes 5 percent, plus or minus 2 or 3 percent, of the methane from the atmosphere in specific areas.
“What we are showing is that some methane in the middle of the tropical Atlantic Ocean region may be removed” through this process, Mak said from the Gordon Research Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry in Sunday River, Maine.
The research validates a mechanism Mak had proposed in the late 1990’s, when he conducted studies funded by the National Science Foundation in Barbados. “When I first made the observations, I proposed that what we were seeing was a chlorine mediated removal of methane,” Mak explained.
At that time, he didn’t have the ability to make those measurements. The technology, however, has evolved over the years and researchers can now measure chlorine radical precursors such as Cl2 and other chlorine compounds.
Indeed, Maarten van Herpen, first author on the study and a member of Acacia Impact Innovation, approached Mak with a new theory and a new mechanism that he thought could explain Mak’s results from decades earlier.
“They were excited to hear that no one had solved the problem,” said Mak.
By working together through this international team, the group was able to take new measurements and utilize advances in their understanding of atmospheric processes.
‘New, but old’
Mak had conducted his studies towards the beginning of his time at Stony Brook University in the late 1990’s as a part of one of his first federally funded projects.
“It’s a little unusual for people to make use of observations so far in the past,” said Mak. “It opens up a new, but old avenue of research.”
Mak, who is conducting studies in other areas including a recent project in New York to investigate air quality and air chemistry mechanisms specific to the greater New York City region, believes the research on this PNAS paper takes him almost full circle back to this earlier work.
“There’s a feeling of satisfaction that good measurements are useful for a longer period of time,” he said.
In this study, Mak helped interpret some of the data his collaborators generated.
The reactions
The process of removing methane starts with sea spray, which is aerosolized by bubbles bursting at the contact point between the ocean and the air. The chlorine comes from that sea spray, while iron comes from the continental crust.
Saharan dust can traverse the globe, but scientists are not sure of the spatial extent of this process. They believe it could be throughout the tropical Atlantic, but it could be in other dust laden ocean regions in the Indian and Pacific Oceans as well.
That process creates what is described as a reactive chlorine species, which is on the hunt for a positively charged particle, such as one of the four hydrogen atoms attached to carbon in methane.
Once the chlorine removes a hydrogen, it creates a methyl group, or CH3, and an incredibly small amount of hydrochloric acid, or HCl, at about one part per quadrillion.
The acid, in fact, is so low that it doesn’t cause any acidification of the oceans. Ocean acidification primarily comes from the absorption of carbon dioxide gas, which reacts with seawater and eventually increases the amount of positively charged hydrogen atoms, decreasing the ocean’s pH.
Meanwhile in the atmosphere, the remaining methyl group is oxidized to carbon monoxide, which eventually becomes carbon dioxide. That is also a greenhouse gas, but is not as potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere as methane.
Now that the group has explored this process, Mak explained that the next step will involve proposing a field campaign in the tropical Atlantic with state of the art instruments.
Mak believes the journal PNAS likely found the subject matter compelling on a broader scale, particularly because this process affects weather and climate.
Outside work
When he’s not working, Mak enjoys boating and fishing. A native of Southern California, Mak is a commercial pilot, who also does some flying as a part of his research studies.
As for climate change, Mak suggested that the weather extremes from this year, which include record high temperatures in the ocean near the Florida Keys and high temperatures in areas in Arizona, are a part of a pattern that will continue.
“What we have been and will continue to observe are changes to the broad equilibrium of energy balance of the Earth ocean atmosphere system,” he explained. “There’s a lot of inertia in the system. But when you change the input by changing the forcing, you upset that equilibrium.” That, he explained, could alter the weather, which is generated as a response to differences in energy from one place to another.
On Thursday, August 10, the Stony Brook Cancer Center Mobile Mammography Van will make a special visit to the Town of Brookhaven’s Rose Caracappa Senior Center, 739 Route 25A, Mt. Sinai, to provide breast cancer screenings from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This service, co-sponsored by New York State Senator Anthony Palumbo and the Town of Brookhaven, is provided at no cost to the patient. However, appointments are required. Anyone interested can call 631-638-4135 for more information or to schedule an appointment.
Eligibility:
Female (40 years and older)
No mammograms in the past year
Not pregnant or breastfeeding
No implants or breast issues such as a lump or nipple discharge
Never diagnosed with breast cancer
Office visit with a gynecologist, primary care physician or internist who is willing to accept the results of the screening.
Note: Individuals who do not have health insurance will be processed through the Cancer Services Program of New York, if eligible.
Day of the mammogram: Do not wear deodorant, perfume, powders, lotions or creams on the breast area. Bring photo ID and insurance card, if insured.
This project is supported with funds from Health Research Inc. and the New York Department of Health.
This graphic shows how per unit water saving by dry cooling increases carbon emissions by each power unit globally, a significant issue for example in areas of India. Qin et al., 2023. Nature Water
Study published in Nature Water suggests integrating planning may reduce carbon emissions in the future
Water scarcity and climate change is a threat to energy security, as carbon emission reduction from water and dry cooling of power plants remains a major challenge worldwide. An international collaboration of scientists including Gang He, PhD, of Stony Brook University, used global power plant data to demonstrate an integrated water-carbon management framework that bridges the gap to coupling diverse water carbon-mitigation technologies with other methods. Their findings are detailed in a paper published in Nature Water.
Thermal electric power generation uses substantial amounts of freshwater primarily for cooling of power plants, amounting to 40 to 50 percent of the total water withdrawal in the U.S. and 40 percent in Europe. Meanwhile, power generation accounted for approximately 36 percent of the energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions across world economies in 2019. The authors note that consequently, the power sector has a high dependence on freshwater resources and demonstrates intrinsic water-carbon interconnections that have critical implications on reliable electricity output and energy security, particularly under climate change.
In “Global assessment of the carbon-water tradeoff of dry cooling for thermal power generation,” they conclude such integrated planning is crucial to address the complex interactions between water and energy systems. The team constructed a global unit-level framework to assess the impact of dry cooling—a vital water mitigation strategy—alongside alternative water sourcing and carbon capture and storage (CCS) under different scenarios.
According to He, a co-author and Assistant Professor in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University, the research team collected unit-level power plant data, which included basic power generation unit information such as fuel and engine types, installed capacity, cooling technologies and other details. Then they estimated carbon emissions and water withdrawal based on what is known of emission factors at plants and water intensity by the cooling technologies, fuel types and local meteorology.
He says that from their global data the CO2 emission and energy penalty from dry cooling units were found to be location and climate specific, and ranged from 1 to 15 percent of power plant output. Additionally, efficiency losses were high under climate changes scenarios.
On a positive note, the team discovered potentially promising solutions to alleviate water scarcity around the power plants – such as increasing accessibility to wastewater and brine water that can provide viable alternatives to dry cooling and reduce energy and CO2 penalties.
Additionally, He and coauthors concluded that CCS emerged as a valuable tool to offset CO2 emission tradeoffs associated with dry cooling, especially when alternative water sourcing alone is insufficient in certain power plant regions.
However, He stresses that the issue is complicated globally, as CCS could demand more energy and thus more emissions, and wastewater could be useful but has its limitations and may not be available near some power plants.
The authors are concerned about the potentially increasing water-carbon tradeoffs with dry cooling. They write: “Facing increasing water concerns, dry cooling has been and may continually be promoted as an emerging freshwater mitigation technique in some major economies in the next few decades along with renewable energy transitions.”
He says the research leading to the paper underscores the urgency of integrated power sector planning in the face of dual water-carbon challenges and “highlights the importance of considering climate-specific factors and interconnected systems to achieve sustainable energy solutions.”
The work was led by Dr. Yue Qin of Peking University. He’s research contributing to the paper findings is supported by the Global Energy Initiative at the ClimateWorks Foundation.
The combat boots and dog tags worn by Alan Alda in M*A*S*H will be auctioned off on on July 28. (LM Otero/AP)
Update:
The combat boots and dog tags Alan Alda wore while playing Hawkeye Pierce on the television series “M-A-S-H” sold at auction on July 28 for $125,000.
Alda held onto the boots and dog tags for more than 40 years after the show ended but decided to sell them through Heritage Auctions in Dallas to raise money for the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University.
The buyer’s name wasn’t released.
——————————-
When Alan Alda reported to the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the summer of 1972, he received two items from wardrobe that became the only M*A*S*H mementos he kept when the show ended in 1983.
Costumers handed him a pair of scuffed-up combat boots, inside which someone had written in black marker the name of his character: “HAWKEYE.” He was also given a pair of dog tags which the names of strangers had been stamped: Hersie Davenport and Morriss D. Levine.
Alda was grateful the dog tags didn’t say Benjamin Franklin Pierce of Crabapple Cove, Maine. That would have made them mere props that couldn’t have carried the weight of war. Wearing those real dog tags, the genuine article, “seemed like a handshake,” Alda says. Until recently, he knew nothing about the two men whose names are on those dog tags — one, a Black soldier from the South; the other, a Jewish man from New York.
“Yet every day for 11 years, putting them on over my head and wearing them, I had a very close connection with them,” said Alda. “I always wondered what their lives were like. Were they alive, or were they dead? How had they served? They were real people to me, even though I didn’t know anything about them other than their names. But to this day, I remember the names very well, and that’s why it meant a lot to me.”
These pieces of wardrobe, the last remnants of his tour of duty, mean so much to Alda he now parts with the boots and dog tags only to help fund what has become one of his greatest passions.
Heritage Auctions will auction off Alda’s M*A*S*H mementos in a single-lot auction on July 28. All the money raised will benefit the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University and the university’s School of Communication and Journalism. Heritage will also donate all of its proceeds to the center.
“Hawkeye’s boots and dog tags are not only entertainment memorabilia from a beloved series, but the cherished keepsakes of a national treasure,” says Heritage’s Chief Strategy Officer Joshua Benesh. “And before that, they were the personal artifacts of real soldiers. They now take on a new life as a source of fundraising for a noble cause in which a noble man has invested so much of his time and resources, and we are honored to be even a small part of such a grand gesture.”
Alda kept the boots and dog tags for years in a closet because he did not know where else to store them.
“Then I realized that they could come to life again to be used to help the Center for Communicating Science because, probably, somebody would be interested in having a memento of the show,” he says. “I can’t think of a better use for them.”
When asked if it will be difficult to say goodbye to these last keepsakes from M*A*S*H he responded, “Not at all. Because I knew they were going to a good cause. They were going to do more good than sitting in my closet. They were screaming, ‘Let me out!’ I thought, what a great chance to put these boots and dog tags to work again. For 11 years, they helped promote the idea that human connection could be a palliative for war. And now they can promote the idea that a human connection can get us to understand the things that affect our lives so deeply.”
Maurizio Del Poeta is taking another approach to battling fungal infections that can be deadly, particularly for people who are immunocompromised.
Maurizio Del Poeta. Photo from SBU
A Distinguished Professor at Stony Brook University in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, Del Poeta has made progress in animal models of various fungal infections in working on treatments and vaccines.
After receiving an additional $3.8 million from the National Institutes of Health for five years, Del Poeta is expanding on some findings that may lead to a greater understanding of the mechanism that makes some fungal infections problematic.
The Stony Brook Distinguished Professor is studying “what makes people susceptible to fungal infections,” he said. “It’s something I’m really passionate about.”
Del Poeta explained that researchers and medical professionals often focus on the people who get sick. Understanding those people who are not developing an infection or battling against a fungus can provide insights into ways to understand what makes one population vulnerable or susceptible and another more resistant.
Expanding such an approach outside the realm of fungal infections could also provide key insights for a range of infections in the future.
Indeed, the awareness of specific signals for other infections could help protect specific populations, beyond those who had general categories like underlying medical conditions, who might be more vulnerable amid any kind of outbreak.
“It’s possible that the study we are doing now with fungi could stimulate interest” in other areas of infectious disease, Del Poeta said.
He suggested that this was “pioneering work” in terms of fungal infections. At this point, his lab has produced “strong preliminary data.”
An important drug treatment side effect as a signal
This investigation arises out of work Del Poeta had done to understand why some people with multiple sclerosis who took a specific drug, called fingolimid, developed fungal infections during their drug treatment.
Del Poeta observed that the drug inhibits a type of immunity that involves the movement of lymphocytes from organs into the bloodstream.
Fingolimid mimics a natural lipid, called a sphingolipid. Del Poeta showed that this sphingolipid is important to contain the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans in the lung. When its level decreases, the fungus can move from the lung to the brain.
Indeed, Fingolimid mimics sphingosin-1-phosphate (S1P) and binds to several S1P receptors.
Del Poeta believes that the pathway between S1P and its receptor regulates the immunity against Cryptococcus. Blocking a specific receptor is detrimental for the host and may lead to reactivation of the fungus.
Putting a team together
Nathália Fidelis Vieira de Sá. Photo by Futura Convites studio
Del Poeta has been working with Iwao Ojima, a Distinguished Professor and the Director of the Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery in the Department of Chemistry at Stony Brook, to create compounds that energize, instead of block, the target of fingolimid.
Del Poeta has recruited two scientists to join his lab in this effort, each of whom has educational experience in nursing.
Nathália Fidelis Vieira de Sá, who is a registered nurse at the Federal University of Minas Gerais and a chemistry technician at Funec- Contagem City, will join the lab as a technician in the second week of September.
Fidelis Vieira de Sá, who currently lives in her native Brazil, is an “expert on collecting and analyzing organs for mice,” explained Del Poeta in an email.
For her part, Fidelis Vieira de Sá is thrilled to join Del Poeta’s lab at Stony Brook. “I’m very excited,” she said in an email. She is eager to get started because the research is “of such great relevance to public health” and is occurring at such a “renowned institution.”
Fidelis Vieira de Sá believes this is a public health issue that could have a positive impact on people with immunodeficiency conditions who need effective treatment so they live a better, longer life. When she was a peritoneal dialysis nurse, she had a few patients who had fungal infections.
“This is very serious and challenging, detection is difficult, and the life expectancy of these patients drops dramatically with each episode of infection,” she explained.
Fidelis Vieira de Sá, who has never lived outside Brazil, is eager for new experiences, including visiting Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, and the One World Trade Center Memorial.
As for the work, she hopes that, in the near future, Del Poeta will “be able to explain this mechanism deeply and to develop new drugs that will act on this receptor.”
Dr. Marinaldo Pacífico Cavalcanti Neto
Dr. Marinaldo Pacífico Cavalcanti Neto, who is an Assistant Professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, will be arriving at Stony Brook University on August 6. Dr. Neto earned his bachelor of science in nursing and has a PhD in biochemistry from the Medical School of Ribeirão Preto at the University of São Paulo.
Del Poeta described Dr. Neto as an “expert on animal handling and genotyping,”
Dr. Neto recognizes the burden of fungal infections around the world and hoped to work with someone with Del Poeta’s credentials and experience in immunology and infection.
Understanding how cells eliminate infection, how cells might have a lower capacity to control an infection, and looking for how cells respond to treatments such as fingolimid could be a “great strategy to understand why these are so susceptible,” he said.
While Dr. Neto’s background is in immunology, he hopes to learn more about molecular biology.
Unlike Fidelis Vieira de Sá, Dr. Neto, who will live in Centereach, has worked previously in the United States. He has experience at the National Institutes of Health and at the University of California at San Diego and has been attending Del Poeta’s lab meetings from a distance for about a month.
Dr. Neto, whose interest in science increased while he watched the TV show Beakman’s World while he was growing up, is eager to work in an area where he can apply his research.
He appreciates that his work may one day “be used in the generation of protocols in a clinic.
That process creates what is described as a reactive chlorine species, which is on the hunt for a positively charged particle, such as one of the four hydrogen atoms attached to carbon in methane.
When he’s not working, Mak enjoys boating and fishing. A native of Southern California, Mak is a commercial pilot, who also does some flying as a part of his research studies.
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