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November 2012
Greetings!

The "Recent Publications from our Faculty" section of this newsletter is the most widely read content, and this month will not disappoint our loyal readers. Our faculty have been very busy and it is beginning to show in recent collaborations. We hope you enjoy reading about all the new research happening at BioFrontiers.
BioFrontiers Researchers Uncover New Cancer Target

In a new paper recently released in Nature, BioFrontiers Institute scientists at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Tom Cech and Leslie Leinwand, detailed a new target for anti-cancer drug development that is sitting at the ends of our DNA.

Researchers in the two scientists' laboratories collaborated to find a patch of amino acids that, if blocked by a drug docked onto the chromosome end at this location, may prevent cancerous cells from reproducing. The amino acids at this site are called the "TEL patch" and once modified, the end of the chromosome is unable to recruit the telomerase enzyme, which is necessary for growth of many cancerous cells. Read more
JSCBB Earns LEED Platinum Rating 
The University of Colorado Boulder's Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology building has received a LEED platinum rating -- the highest possible evaluation -- from the United States Green Building Council.

The 336,800-square-foot research and teaching facility  opened in April on the university's east campus. More than 60 faculty and 500 researchers, staff and students work inside, tackling a wide swath of challenges from cancer and heart disease to the development of new biofuels. LEED certification is a national benchmark for sustainable design, construction, operation and maintenance. Read more 

IQ Biology Blog: Night at the Museum
by: Lauren Shoemaker 
Lauren Shoemaker is a second-year grad student in the IQ Biology program.

The kickoff for the 72nd Annual Meeting for the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology was the night of October 17th-that's right, the meeting began on National Fossil Day.

 

To be honest, I didn't know that there was such a thing as National Fossil Day before attending SVP (as I'm guessing you didn't know until just now, either). However, the holiday was well-celebrated among the SVP crowd, with posters of wooly mammoths, stickers, and celebratory pins. While the Welcome Dinner for SVP wasn't specifically set-up for National Fossil Day, it definitely still fit the theme. Read more 

Recent papers by our faculty 

Manipulation of miRNA activity accelerates osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs in engineered 3D scaffolds. (J Tissue Eng Regen Med) - Kristi Anseth

SFB Award Winner in the Ph.D. category: synthesis and application of photodegradable microspheres for spatiotemporal control of protein delivery. (J Biomed Mater Res A.) - Kristi Anseth

Covalently tethered transforming growth factor beta in PEG hydrogels promotes chondrogenic differentiation of encapsulated human mesenchymal stem cells. (Drug Deliv Transl Res.) - Kristi Anseth

Synthetic hydrogel scaffold is an effective vehicle for delivery of INFUSE (rhBMP2) to critical-sized calvaria bone defects in rats. (J Orthop Res.) - Kristi Anseth

In Situ Control of Cell Substrate Microtopographies Using Photolabile Hydogels (Small) - Kristi Anseth

3D Photofixation Lithography in Diels-Alder Networks. (Macromol Rapid Commun.) - Kristi Anseth

The RNA worlds in context. (Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol.) - Tom Cech

The TEL patch of telomere protein TPP1 mediates telomerase recruitment and processivity (Nature) - Tom Cech and Leslie Leinwand

Advancing analytical algorithms and pipelines for billions of microbial sequences. (Curr Opin Biotechnol.) - Rob Knight

An improved Greengenes taxonomy with explicit ranks for ecological and evolutionary analyses of bacteria and archaea. (ISME J.) - Rob Knight

Co-habiting amphibian species harbor unique skin bacterial communities in wild populations (ISME J.) - Rob Knight

Nurture trumps nature in a longtidunal survey of salivary bacteria communities in twins from early adolescence to early adulthood. (Genome Res.) - Rob Knight

Interferon-gamma causes cardiac myocyte atrophy via selective degradation of myosin heavy chain in a model of chronic myocarditis. (Am J Pathol.) - Leslie Leinwand


Events
Upcoming Event
s

BioFrontiers Seminar
Roy Parker, CU Boulder
Nov. 13, 4-5 p.m.
JSCBB - Butcher Auditorium

BioFrontiers Seminar
Scott Handley
Wash. Univ. School of Medicine
Dec. 4, 4-5 p.m.
JSCBB - Butcher Auditorium

BioFrontiers Seminar
Zhongping Tan, CU Boulder
Dec. 11, 4-5 p.m.
JSCBB - Butcher Auditorium

Biochemistry Seminar
Erin O'Shea, Harvard/HHMI
January 16, 3:30 pm
JSCBB - Butcher Auditorium
Save these Dates!

Butcher Symposium
Friday, November 1, 2013

BioFrontiers Symposium
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Follow us on Twitter!
BioFrontiers recently joined the ranks of microbloggers on Twitter. You can follow us at @biofrontiers or visit: 
Recent Awards
Natalie Ahn, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Associate Director of BioFrontiers accepted a Professor of Distinction award.

Chris Bowman, Professor and Patten Chair of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and BioFrontiers Task Force member, was one of six faculty across the CU system to receive the award of Distinguished Professor.
Hubert Yin's Research Earns  Journal Cover
Hubert Yin's research on small molecule inhibitors of the TLR1-TLR2 complex was recently selected to be on the inside cover of the December Angewandte Chemie. The cover art (shown above) was done by BioFrontiers undergraduate student Devan Gomez.
More about BioFrontiers
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Collaborate with our faculty 

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