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FIRST
Alumnae Receive Major Funding
Program
Update
Annual
IRACDA Conference
Fellows' Monthly Seminar Series
FIRST Fellows Receive Faculty Appointments
Articles
Published about FIRST
Available Positions
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Program
Update
Former
FIRST fellow, Dr. Valerie Haftel, has just recently
been promoted to Asssociate Professor with tenure at Morehouse
College in the Department of Biology. Valerie has been at Morehouse
since completing the FIRST program in 2003. She was in
our FIRST class of fellows when our grant began in 2000 and is
the first to receive tenure at a college or university. Valerie
continues to support the mission of the FIRST program and has
been an active teaching mentor for several years. Please feel
free to send your congrats to Valerie (vhaftel@morehouse.edu).
FIRST
has accepted 15 candidates into the program for the 2009-2010
fiscal year - Lea Marie Alford, Boston College; Matthew
Campbell, postdoctoral fellow, Yerkes Primate Research
Center; postgraduate university: University of Wisconsin-Madison; Anatasha
Crawford, Georgetown University; Avanti Gokhale, Jacob
Kagey and Heather Ross, Emory University; Melissa
Henderson, East Carolina University; Jennifer
Hurst-Kennedy, PaDreyia Lawson and Jennifer
Kovacs,
Georgia Institute of Technology; Jennifer Larimore,
Ph.D., Postdoctoral fellow, Emory University; postgraduate university:
University of Alabama, Birmingham; John Pulliam,
postdoctoral fellow at Morehouse School of Medicine; postgraduate
university: Emory University; Cherie Rooks,
University of Georgia; Tammi Taylor, Indiana
University School of Medicine; Katherine Wilkinson,
University of California–San Diego. They have very
diverse research interests and have been placed in laboratories
in departments throughout Emory University. Those departments
include Physiology, Department of Medicine-Cardiology Division,
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Cell Biology, Chemistry,
Biology, Pharmacology, Yerkes National Primate Research Center,
Neurology Division and the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
at Morehouse School of Medicine..
The
deadline for receiving applications for fiscal year 2009-2010
has passed. Selected fellows are matriculating into their
selected laboratory to begin their research projects. We
will start accepting applications for the 2010-2011 fiscal year
on January 1, 2010. Please contact FIRST@emory.edu if
you have any questions or need additional information.
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Annual
IRACDA Conference
The 2009 IRACDA
conference was hosted by the ISIS program
at the University of California, San Francisco from June 7-10, 2009. The
meeting was held at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel near Union Square
in San Francisco. See http://www.iracdaconference.info for
more information. A few of the PowerPoint presentations from
the IRACDA conference have been posted on the conference website
at: http://www.iracdaconference.info/presentations.html.
Additionally, FIRST fellow, David T.
Glover, won an award for Best Research Poster at the Conference. |
- D.T.
Glover, S.K. Hollingshead, and D.E. Briles. Streptococcus
pneumoniae surface protein PcpA elicits protection against
lung infection and fatal sepsis, and facilitates adherence
to lung epithelial cells. IRACDA Conference. University of
California, San Francisco
The
2010 IRACDA Conference will be hosted by the TEACRS
- Training in Education and Critical Research Skills located
at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. The
dates are from June 6-9, 2010. So mark your calendars today. More
information to come! |
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FIRST
Alumnae Continue to Receive Major Funding
Dr.
Vincent Ciavatta,
Research Scientist, at the Atlanta Vision Loss Center at
the Veterans Administration Hospital, just received the
VA Merit Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs
which will fund his research for the next three years.
The title of his grant is "Mechanism and Origin of Neuroprotection
from Subretinal Electrical Stimulation," and will be funded
from April 1, 2010 to April March 31, 2013 with a total
award of $749,000.
Dr.
Sarah Brosnan, an
Assistant Professor at Georgia State University, has received
a Career Award from NSF from the Division of Social and
Ecomonic Sciences for 5 years for a total award of $677,462
(see
Notice
of Award). This
is her second NSF award which will guarantee her funding
through June 20, 2014. In October, 2007 she was
awarded a grant from NSF for $514,658,
1 month after she started her faculty position at GSU.
This was her first grant application which she actually
wrote while still in the FIRST program in anticipation
of the start of her faculty position at Georgia State
(see Notice
of Award).
Dr.
Daniel Williams, Assistant
Professor, Department of Biology, North Carolina Central
University has received 2 grants. The first from
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The project title is: Modulation
of Virulence Determinants Contributing to Gonococcal Pathogenesis and
the project period is from 8/1/2008-7/31/2011 with
a total award of $225,000. His
second grant is an NSF – Collaborative
Grant with Duke University. The project title is Genome
Wide Root Analysis and the project period is from 8/1/2008-7/31/2012
with a total award of $160,000.
Dr.
Jessica Sales - An Assistant Research Professor at Emory
University in the School of Public Health, Department of Behavioral
Science & Health
Education, just received a K01 award funded by NIH, National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The title of her project
is Factors Associated with Teens' Non-Responsiveness to
HIV Intervention and is funded from April 1, 2009 - March 31, 2014.
Assistant
Professor of Biology at Haverford College, Dr.
Andrea Morris,
who finished the FIRST program in 2003, received an NIH grant
for "Sonic the Hedgehog." The five-year grant—the first of its kind awarded to
a faculty member at a small liberal arts college—supports
Morris’ exploration into the molecular mechanisms of
visual system development, focusing on a particular gene
called, yes,
“sonic hedgehog” and its role in retinal axon guidance
which is the process of connecting the eye to the appropriate
parts of the brain that allow for visual perception. (For the
complete article see: http://www.haverford.edu/news/stories/861/51.)
Dr.
Valerie Haftel, Associate Professor in the Department
of Biology at Morehouse College, has been awarded the Department
of Education Minority Science Improvement grant. The grant,
entitled "Enhancement
of Interdisciplinary Science", begins in October of
2007, and lasts until September of 2010 for a total budget
of $476,000. Valerie also completed the FIRST program in
2003. (For the complete article
see: http://www.morehouse.edu/academics/bio/news.html.)
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FIRST
Fellows Continue to Receive Faculty Appointments
(For the full list of appointments received by
FIRST fellows see
Job Placements of Graduates)
- Chris
Bates, Ph.D., Assistant PRofessor, Department
of Biology, Augusta State University - Begins August, 2009
- Joann
Brooks Powell, Ph.D., Instructor, Department of Biology, Spelman College
- Begins August, 2009
- Elethia
Tillman, Ph.D., Instructor, Department of Biology, Spelman
College - Begins August, 2009
- Kesmic
Jackson, Ph.D., Academic Professional, Department
of Biology, Georgia State University - Begins June, 2009
- Laurie Krug, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor, SUNY - Stony Brook University in Long
Island, NY- Began Dec. 1, 2008
- Kyla
Ross, Ph.D., Academic Professional, Department
of Biology, Georgia State University - Began January 2, 2009
- Montreka
Dansby, Ph.D., Nutrition Specialist, with the Cooperative
Extension Program at North Carolina A & T State University
- Began March, 2009
Other Positions:
- Jason
Miranda, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at Pfizer
Regenerative Medicine in Cambridge, UK - Begins August
10, 2009
- Danso
Ako-Adjei, Ph.D., Viral Genome Curator, Computercraft
(contractor for NIH), Washington, DC - Began June, 2009
- Karen Pazol, Ph.D., Epidemiologist in the Maternal and Infant
Health Branch, Division of Reproductive Health at the CDC - Began
April, 2009.
- Ian M. P. Joseph, Interdisciplinary Scientist, Federal Drug
Administration (FDA), Atlanta, GA - Began April 27, 2009
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Published
Articles About the FIRST Program
The
most recent article published about FIRST outlines a model for
increasing minority participation in the sciences:
Keen-Rhinehart,
E., Eisen, A., Eaton, D. and McCormack,
K. (2009) Interactive methods for
teaching action potentials, an example of teaching innovation
from neuroscience postdoctoral fellows in the Fellowships
in Research and Science Teaching (FIRST) program. The
Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, 7:A74-A79.
C. Brommer and A. Eisen. (2006) FIRST: A model for increasing
quality minority participation in the sciences from the undergraduate
to the professoriate level. J. of Women and Minorities
in Science and Engineering, 12:35-46.
Read
about FIRST in the May issue of the Journal of College Science
Teaching:
J.D. Holtzclaw, A. Eisen,
E.M. Whitney, M. Penumetcha, J. Hoey, & K. S. Kimbro. (2006)
Incorporating a new Bioinformatics component into Genetics at
a historically black college: Outcomes and Lessons. CBE Life
Sci Educ, 5:52-64.
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FIRST
Fellows Seminar Series
The FIRST Seminar
Series is a peer
research conference where fellows give mini-seminars about their
individual research. It is also a forum in which fellows can practice
an upcoming lecture for a particular course or practice a job talk
prior to going out on job interviews. The most senior fellows generally
begin the series of talks each year since they are further along
in their research. Fellows are encouraged to take notes and give
their colleagues feedback as to their general knowledge of the subject
and presentation.
The conferences
will be held on the 2nd Tuesday of every month from 12:00 - 1:00
PM. Refreshments will be served. All are welcome to attend.
Seminar
Schedule 2009-2010
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Available Postdoc Positions
A postdoctoral
position is available at Emory University; Department of Physiology
in the Helms Laboratory. In general, this laboratory
studies the molecular mechanisms regulating epithelial sodium channel
(ENaC) activity as it relates to maintaining alveolar fluid balance. Technical
approaches include experimentation with isolated lung tissue from
transgenic mice; patch-clamp electrophysiology using live tissue
and cultured cells; and confocal imaging using latest fluorescent
indicators. The ideal candidate will have interest in studying
ion channel regulation or redox signaling, have less than 3 years
prior post-doctoral training, and have an M.D. or Ph.D. However,
all creative and innovative applicants will be considered. US
citizenship not required; candidates must be eligible to obtain
a valid employment authorized visa. Please send a curriculum vitae,
brief statement of research interests (not to exceed 1 page), and
professional references to: My
N. Helms, PH.D., Assistant Professor, mhelms@emory.edu.
Emory
University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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