If you haven’t already added sessions from OHSU Research Week to your calendar, here’s another incentive to sweeten the deal: Attend three or more sessions or events throughout the week and be entered to win one of two iPad Minis*. Be sure to pick up a Research Week passport at the check-in desk in the Old Library starting Monday, May 20 at 12 p.m. Must be present at the Awards Reception on Thursday, May 23 at 6 p.m. to win.

View the full OHSU Research Week schedule.

* Note – you will need to pay the tax on value of the iPad Mini.  We will help with the paperwork.

Guidelines for registering visiting students, such at summer interns, has been updated by the Office of Science Education Opportunities in cooperation with Risk Management and Human Resources. Please note: No student younger than 16 may volunteer or work in a lab area without the express permission of the department chair and Environmental Health and Radiation Safety. Contact Susan Shugerman, Assistant Vice Provost, Education Outreach and Collaboration, to request permission.

What OHSU needs to know about volunteers and interns

If you are mentoring a high school or undergraduate student or teacher this summer, either on your own or through any program (such as CURE, ASE, OIDD Summer Youth Employment Program, Murdock Collaborative Research Program, CROET Summer Student Research Awards or Partners in Scientific Inquiry), please email Susan Shugerman with the name and grade level (high school or undergraduate) of the individual(s) you are mentoring. Please indicate if they are here as a participant in a particular program.

Read more…

Stem cells are thought to hold promise for treating degenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis and heart disease. But finding a source of embryonic stem cells, which can be reprogrammed into any other cell type, has been an obstacle to progress in developing such treatments. Now OHSU’s Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D, and his team have developed a process that transforms human skin cells into embryonic stem cells. This successful reprogramming utilizes somatic nuclear transfer. The Mitalipov lab is the first to successfully use this process to convert human skin cells into human embryonic stem cells, using an approach based on earlier work in nonhuman primates. The new report is in Cell.

See more about this remarkable breakthrough here.

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The Department of Physiology and Pharmacology invites you to attend the 23nd Annual John M. Brookhart Lecture. This year, we’re pleased to be hosting Cori Bargmann, Ph.D., Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Torsten N. Wiesel Professor; Head, Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior, Rockefeller University. Dr. Bargmann will be discussing the “Neuromodulation and regulation of long-term behavioral states.”

The lecture will begin at 4:00 p.m. in the Medical Student Lecture Hall, Richard Jones Hall 4340, on May 16, 2013 and will be followed by a reception in the Atrium Lobby.

About Dr. Bargmann

Dr. Bargmann received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Georgia. She received her Ph.D. in 1987 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she worked under Robert A. Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. She pursued a postdoctoral fellowship with H. Robert Horvitz, also at MIT, until 1991, when she accepted a faculty position at the University of California, San Francisco. She remained there until 2004, when she joined Rockefeller as the Torsten N. Wiesel Professor. Dr. Bargmann also is codirector of the Shelby White and Leon Levy Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior. She has been an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1995.

The V Foundation for Cancer Research has invited OHSU to submit applications for two of their research programs this cycle:

The V Foundation Translational Myelodysplastic Syndromes Research Project
Offers up to $400,000 over two years in support of a translational research project on Myelodysplastic Syndromes as it relates to people with or at risk for cancer.

Deadlines
Internal deadline: May 17, 2013
Letter of Intent: May 31, 2013
Full application (by invitation only): June 19, 2013

The V Foundation Scholar Program in Cancer Research
Designed to identify, retain and further the careers of talented young investigators. This program provides $200,000 over two years directly to young scientists who are developing their own independent laboratory research projects. These grants enable talented young scientists to establish their laboratories and gain a competitive edge necessary to earn additional funding from other sources. Funding is available for both basic and translational research.
To be eligible the candidate must: Have completed at least two years of fellowship training; currently hold a tenured track faculty position; have no more than five years since joining the faculty as instructor or assistant professor; have no more than 10 years since terminal degree (MD or PhD; and have not have been promoted to associate professor. Researchers who have secured their own R01 funding are not eligible. Applicants with institutional or K08 awards are eligible.

Deadlines
Internal deadline: May 24, 2013
Full application: July 1, 2013

Only one application is permitted per institution for each opportunity. If you are interested in applying, please submit your CV, a 1-5 page research summary, and a letter of support by the internal deadline using the limited submission form.

See the rest of this week’s Funding Alerts.

Nancy L. Haigwood, Ph.D.–director of the ONPRC and Senior Scientist–has been appointed to the National Institutes of Health Council of Councils. This body advises the director of the NIH on research opportunities, policy, public health concerns, and other strategic priorities for the NIH.  Dr. Haigwood will serve through October 2015.

Dr. Haigwood is the fifth Director of ONPRC and will contribute deep knowledge of the vital role that NIH-sponsored research resources play in creating the foundation for ground-breaking discovery in the service of human health.

Dr. Haigwood and her research team study new approaches to developing HIV vaccines that fully or partially protect from HIV disease. She led the preclinical development of a novel HIV vaccine while serving as Research Director for the Chiron Corporation in Emeryville, California, and she was the founding Director of the Viral Vaccines Program for the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. Dr. Haigwood was also the first Scientific Ombudsperson at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center i. She is currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International AIDS Vaccine Institute and has served as a regular member on NIH Advisory Panels and Study sections.

See the full press release here.

The symposium Cellular Imaging at the Nanoscale will take place at OHSU on June 27-28, 2013, in the Old Library Auditorium. This event will showcase cutting-edge microscopy technologies that can be used to image biological systems at high resolution. Presentations and discussions will focus on imaging cellular systems in 4D, novel tools and probes for imaging, super-resolution microscopy (SRM), and correlated light and electron microscopy. Imaging experts, including Eric Betzig (Janelia Farm), Alice Ting (MIT), and Alan Waggoner (CMU), will share the latest developments in high resolution imaging in biological systems. Researchers from OHSU and the local community will share how advanced imaging methods have transformed their understanding of different cellular systems, including cancer cells, neurons, and pathogenic bacteria.

Attendance is free, but registration is required.  Registered participants will receive an email invitation to participate in hands-on workshops: register here.

A poster session will feature research from our graduate students and postdocs.  Abstract deadline is June 1.  Registration instructions are below the fold.

For more information, or to submit an abstract, please email nanoscale2013@gmail.com

This event is supported by the School of Medicine Research Roadmap and fulfills a key Roadmap goal: enhance the ability of OHSU researchers to form collaborative focus groups or consortiums in pursuit of interdisciplinary research and innovative funding. Learn more at www.ohsu.edu/researchroadmap.

Read more…

New this year at OHSU Research Week, we’ve planned a series of career development panels that are designed to spark conversation between students, fellows, and faculty on topics like developing a good relationship with you mentor, finding a job, and surviving grad school. OHSU Researchers from all disciplines are welcome to attend.

How to prepare for the job search and interview process

Wednesday, May 22, 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., OHSU Auditorium

Postdoctoral fellows and graduate students are invited to attend this informal Q&A panel led by two recently hired faculty and one senior faculty member. Our new faculty panel members, Summer Gibbs, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Laura Heiser, Ph.D., research assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, will share their job search experiences as well as provide insight on how to prepare for the interview process. Senior faculty member Steven Shea, Ph.D., director of the Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology, will shed light on what employers are looking for during the job search process.

How to establish a strong mentoring relationship

Thursday, May 23, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., OHSU Auditorium

This panel discussion focuses on how to make the most out of a mentoring experience. Learn from experienced mentors and mentees about what you can and should not expect from a mentor/mentee relationship, how to clarify roles, and how to set boundaries. They’ll also provide tips on what has worked for each of them. This discussion is directed to a wide variety of participants, from students and postdocs to faculty; clinical researchers to basic scientists. Facilitated by Cynthia Morris, panelists include David Jacoby, M.D., professor of Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; Amie Peterson, M.D., MCR, assistant professor, Neurology; Karen Eden, Ph.D., associate professor, Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology and Wilmon Grant, Ph.D., MCR, postdoctoral fellow, OHSU/PVAMC.

How to choose a postdoctoral position

Friday, May 24, 11:20 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., Old Library 217

Learn from our panel of postdoc experts how they found and chose their postdoctoral fellowship. Students are encouraged to ask questions about any part of the process they are most interested in, such as how to identify and contact potential mentors, how to prepare for the postdoc interview process, and what to look for in a mentor. Panelists include: Jared Fischer, Ph.D., Molecular and Medical Genetics; Matthew Jones, Ph.D., Environmental and Biomolecular Systems; Kateri Spinelli, Ph.D., Neurology; and Damian Zuloaga, Ph.D., Behavioral Neuroscience.

How to survive graduate school

Friday, May 24, 1 to 1:55 p.m., Old Library 217

It’s one thing to get into graduate school. It’s another to survive it. Our postdoc experts will provide advice on time management, writing your first scientific manuscript, how to prepare for your thesis defense, and other topics. This discussion-oriented workshop is designed for graduate students at all stages. Panelists include Connie Nguyen-Truong, Ph.D., RN, Nursing; Julia Perederiy, Ph.D., Jungers Center for Neurosciences Research; Alain Silk, Ph.D., Dermatology; and Kristen Zuloaga, Ph.D., Anesthesiology.

Non-academic careers options for scientists

Friday, May 24, 3 to 4 p.m., Old Library 217

Professionals from various industries join us to give an insider’s look at life beyond the academic landscape. Included are a hydrologist from the U.S. Geological Survey, a member of the Environmental Services Bureau of Portland, a scientist at Invitrogen, and a patent lawyer at Klarquist Sparkman, LLP. Particular focus will be on career trajectory from graduate school onward, what each occupation entails, and other life lessons learned along the way.

For more information, visit www.ohsu.edu/researchweek or contact research@ohsu.edu.

How is the sequester affecting your lab? NIH Director Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., is seeking feedback via social media on how the sequester is impacting biomedical research.

Tweet to Dr. Collins using the hashtag #NIHSequesterImpact.

If you ever wonder what research we’re working on here at OHSU, now is your chance to find out. May 20-24, more than 300 students, faculty, fellows and research staff will be presenting their work at OHSU Research Week. All OHSU employees are welcome to attend. Below are some highlights from the Research Week schedule.

Over 350 scientific presentations

Listen to OHSU researchers present their research at one of 26 oral sessions, or check out one of the four poster sessions scheduled throughout the week. View the OHSU Research Week schedule, which you can search by presenter or topic.

Receptions

OHSU Research Week’s opening reception will be held Monday, May 20 at 4:30 p.m. in the Richard Jones Atrium. Later in the week, please join us for an awards reception on Thursday, May 23 at 6 p.m. in the Old Library.

Three keynote talks

• Mace Rothenberg, M.D., senior vice president of clinical development and medical affairs at Pfizer. Tuesday, May 21, 12 to 1 p.m. in the OHSU Auditorium.
• Peter Byers, M.D., professor of medicine and pathology, University of Washington. Thursday, May 23, 2013, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., OHSU Auditorium.
• David Schneider, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford School of Medicine. Friday, May, 24, 2013, 4 to 5 p.m., OHSU Auditorium.

View all keynote speaker bios.

Career Development Workshops

• How to prepare for the job search and interview process
• How to establish a strong mentoring relationship
• How to choose a postdoctoral position
• How to survive graduate school
• Nonacademic careers options for scientists

View dates and times for all Career Development Workshops.

Three Minute Thesis Competition

Think you can describe your research to tram travelers in the time it takes to reach CHH? New this year at Research Week, OHSU will hold its first Three Minute Thesis Competition for graduate students on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 5 p.m. Get more information.

Student Day Friday

• Student-only oral presentations
• An ugly data competition
• Student reception and more!

For more information, visit www.ohsu.edu/researchweek or contact research@ohsu.edu.

Updated 5/10: A shuttle will be available for transportation to and from OHSU’s West Campus. For more information, contact Cristina Butterfield.