Washington U. scientists help unravel corn genome

By Georgina Gustin
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

A team of scientists led by researchers at The Genome Center at Washington University have sequenced the entire gene map of corn, helping unravel the basic biology of the nation's largest crop and providing information that could lead to key developments for corn growers.

The $29.5 million project, funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Departments of agriculture and energy, launched in 2005. The corn genome is similar in size to the human genome and has repetitive characteristics that make it especially difficult to decode. But the project was completed in the scheduled three years and within budget, researchers said.

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Dr. Garza Speaking on H1N1 Tonight

2009-2010 PhD Stipends in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences

With so many schools to chose from, it can be difficult to navigate through all of the stipends and benefits. Wendy Chao, a Harvard graduate, has put together a comprehensive list of PhD programs with adjusted stipends* and fringe benefits** (which are taken into consideration for tie breaks).

This is a great resource for those applying to graduate school.

Check out Wendy's list here!

*Adjusted to cost-of-living in New York City (home to the highest stipend) using the cost-of-living calculator at bestplaces.net/col. These numbers are by no means definitive, and should be used for general reference purposes only. Actual costs-of-living will obviously vary depending on multiple factors - including how lavish your lifestyle is, or even which calculator you use.

**Additional monetary funding based on available information. Tuition, insurance premiums, and fees are generally waived; only exceptions are noted (if information is available).

$80 million in stimulus grants awarded to WUSTL

Washington University has been awarded nearly $80 million in funding from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to support research across a broad range of projects, including cancer, Alzheimer's disease, renewable energy, diabetes and climate change.

As of Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year, University faculty had received 207 awards. Some $73 million came from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), ranking Washington University among the top 10 academic institutions in NIH stimulus funds. Other awards were received from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

"The research funding we have been able to attract to Washington University will lead to new discoveries that will have direct benefit to people throughout our region and, indeed, across the world," Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said. "Our successful competition for this funding is in large measure due to our many talented and experienced faculty who have distinguished themselves as world-class researchers. I am proud of the extra effort that many in our community made to bring this funding to St. Louis."

In all, 175 faculty members from the School of Medicine, Arts & Sciences, School of Engineering & Applied Science and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work received awards.

The largest chunk — $10 million — went to the Genome Center for a project to generate comprehensive genetic maps of mutations that underlie 20 different types of cancer. The researchers will sequence the DNA of cancer patients and compare it with DNA from tumor samples of the same patients to identify genetic changes that may be important to cancer. Over time, the project is expected to lead to new ways to diagnose, treat or even prevent cancer.

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by Caroline Arbanas

Solnica-Krezel to lead developmental biology department

Lilianna Solnica-Krezel, Ph.D., has been chosen to head the Department of Developmental Biology at the School of Medicine.
Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, announced the appointment, effective Jan.1, 2010.
Solnica-Krezel
"Lila is a visionary scientist and outstanding leader who will reach across departments and schools to build the strongest possible developmental biology department," Shapiro said. "I am confident that with her guidance, this department will continue to be at the forefront of research that is redefining how we think about human disease and how best to treat it."
Solnica-Krezel is the University Professor and the Martha Rivers Ingram Professor of Developmental Genetics at Vanderbilt University. She also is a professor of biological sciences, of pediatrics and of cell and developmental biology.
"I am honored by the invitation to head the new Department of Developmental Biology at Washington University, which has superb traditions in the area of developmental neurobiology and embryology," Solnica-Krezel said. "It is a particularly opportune time for developmental biology research as recent technological breakthroughs in the animal model systems afford insights into human embryonic development. We are discovering that many of the adult human diseases have their origins during embryogenesis, while studies of stem cells and regeneration are bringing us closer to curing human diseases and pushing boundaries of aging. I am thrilled about joining the excellent group of developmental biologists at Washington University and working with them to shape the future of the department."
The molecular biology and pharmacology department became the developmental biology department in 2007. The change reflected a shift in the department's research focus from embryonic development, aging, regenerative biology and physiology to an organism's development through life.
As head of the Department of Developmental Biology, Solnica-Krezel succeeds interim head David M. Ornitz, M.D., Ph.D., who has held the position since October 2004. Ornitz will return to his full-time research and teaching responsibilities.
"As an internationally regarded scientist and key member of the department for more than 17 years, David was the ideal person to guide the department through its renaming and its recent shift in focus," Shapiro said. "He has done a tremendous job and has ensured the department's success."
Solnica-Krezel earned a master's degree in molecular biology from Warsaw University in Poland in 1985 and a doctorate in oncology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research in 1991.
She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in developmental genetics in 1995 at Harvard Medical School, where she helped to initiate and carry out the first large-scale genetic screen for mutations affecting zebrafish embryonic development.
Solnica-Krezel studies the molecular and genetic mechanisms that control the early development of vertebrate animals. She has studied this process in zebrafish, using a combination of genetic analysis with embryological and molecular methods.

By Diane Duke Williams

Cells in fruit fly gut can prompt tumor growth

Tumor growth can start from stem cells in the gut, say School of Medicine researchers studying fruit flies.

They found that tumors can grow from adult stem cells that have lost a specific tumor-suppressor gene. The gene, Apc, has previously been implicated in human gastrointestinal cancers, including colon cancer, the second-leading cause of cancer-related death in the Western world.

"A long-standing question in cancer biology is 'Do tumors arise from specific cell types?'" said lead author Craig A. Micchelli, Ph.D., assistant professor of developmental biology. "We asked what happens when the Apc gene is specifically disabled in fruit fly intestinal stem cells, and we observed that the mutant cells proliferate rapidly to create tumors. Our studies demonstrate that adult stem cells in the intestinal tract of fruit flies can function as a cell of origin for tumorigenesis."

The study was published in the journal Development.
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Obama taps Beachy to lead new federal agency

President Barack Obama has asked Roger Beachy, Ph.D., president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, to lead a new federal agency that will transform the way that plant science research is funded in the United States.

Beachy is the founding president of the Danforth Plant Science Center, a private, nonprofit research institute in St. Louis County founded in 1999 by a partnership that includes Washington University.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, or NIFA, a newly named agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will manage the external grants of the Department of Agriculture, including the competitive grant program now called the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.

In the past decade or so, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has distributed between $120 million and $180 million in competitive grants. "The goal we're aiming for in the next four or five years is an annual budget of $700 million," Beachy said.

"Plants are key to the future, to our survival," Beachy said. "But they just haven't been getting the attention they need from the research community or the U.S. public.

"We're beginning to see aberrations in climate, and the Earth's growing population will need not just more food but better food and will need to use less of the world's water supply so that the growing population will have what they require to live," Beachy said

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