COPY OF Events

The University of Maine has received a $11.3 million Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support interdisciplinary biomedical research. The COBRE will focus on research about the mechanisms that regulate cellular behavior in response to cues from outside the cells, from the impact of persistent viral infections on cell systems to the mechanisms that lead to muscle cell development. The research has the potential to inform future treatment of infectious diseases, neuromuscular disorders and muscle aging and regeneration.

The COBRE is led by Clarissa Henry, professor of biological sciences in the School of Biology and Ecology and director of the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering at UMaine.

“This award will transform the landscape of biomedical research at the University of Maine and foster innovation in the life sciences statewide,” Henry says.

It will primarily support five research projects led by early career investigators from UMaine and the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, including UMaine’s Melissa Maginnis, Jared Talbot, Joshua Kelley and Ben King, as well as Romain Madelaine at the MDI Biological Laboratory.

Both Maginnis and Madelaine initiated their research programs in Maine through INBRE grant awards.

The award will also support the creation of a Microscopy and Image Analysis Core headed by Rob Wheeler, associate professor of microbiology at UMaine. Wheeler also received an INBRE early-career Investigator award in 2009.

Read Full Story Here

Melissa Maginnis, PhD, University of Maine

Romain Madeleine, PhD, MDI Biological Laboratory

Rob Wheeler, PhD, University of Maine

In the five-day residential research course held during January winter break, students learned to use microscopy and quantitative PCR, a process to help understand biological pathways and diseases, to detect Bivalve Transmissible Neoplasia (BTN) in steamer clams. Students also introduced a gene through transfection for green fluorescent protein into a eukaryotic marine parasite that affects oysters and saw expression of this gene using fluorescent microscopy.

“Electroporation of cells is so cool. Zapping cells to insert DNA? I had no idea it was even possible,” SMCC student Lucas Girard said of the research experience. “I feel like I’m thriving here; being around passionate peers is just the best.”

Full Story Here

Photo credits: SMCC

Cliff Rosen, M.D.,  is the co-PI of the Northern New England CTR Network and the Director of the Center for Clinical & Translational Research at MaineHealth Research Institute. He spoke about research initiatives at MaineHealth and opportunities for Maine at a recent Science Cafe hosted by the MDI Biological Laboratory. Watch his talk here:

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We send emails to the IDeA community in Maine about upcoming courses, seminars, grant opportunities, and programs that may be helpful to faculty and students.

The 2023 Student Summer Fellowship Program is now open for applications.

The fellowship program, which provides 10-week mentored research experiences to undergraduate students enrolled at INBRE partner institutions around Maine, is scheduled to run May 31^st-August 5th.

Contact:

Hannah Lust, Ph.D.,  (gro.lbidmnull@tsulh
Assistant Director of Research Training and Outreach
MDI Biological Laboratory

Congratulations to the ten Maine students receiving awards for outstanding posters at the recent Maine Research Symposium on Biomedical Science and Engineering, held on October 13-15, 2022.

About 85 students presented posters, representing undergraduate and graduate programs at INBRE schools throughout our state. We are grateful to faculty and industry leaders across multiple universities, biomedical and healthcare organizations who took the time to judge posters and discuss research projects with students. The full list of awards and abstracts is posted on the Awards/Abstracts tab.

Graduate student awards

• Ashley Soucy GSBSE/MaineHealth Institute for Research
  RAB27a-mediated regulation of the vascular microenvironment
• Madison Mueth GSBSE/UNE
  Sex differences in susceptibility to develop advanced osteoarthritis pain
• Sam Costa GSBSE/MaineHealth Institute for Research
  PD-L1 Expression Promotes Bone Marrow Immunosuppression and Bone Loss with Diet-Induced Obesity
• Bailey Blair GSBSE/University of Maine
  Uncovering Candida albicans Factors that Modulate the Host Phagocyte Response
• Brianna Gurdon GSBSE/JAX
  Brain-wide spatial analysis reveals cell-type-specific genetic modifiers of Alzheimer’s disease progression
• Mubarak Khlewee University of Maine
  The influence of heat and mass transfer on the setting rate of adhesives between porous substrates
• Ines Khiara University of Maine
  Engineering the Development of Neuromuscular Circuitry On-Chip

Undergraduate student awards

• Lucia O’Sullivan Bowdoin College
  Using Artificial Intelligence Software to Investigate the Effects of Early-Life Adversity on Anxiety-Like Behavior
• Sydney Bonauto Bowdoin College
  Leveraging rat ultrasonic vocalization playback to expose sex-specific outcomes following early life adversity

Clinical poster award

• Vrushabh Daga University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine
  The Impact of Prophylactic Ceftriaxone Treatment on Antimicrobial Resistance Development by Colonizing Microbes

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First Annual Maine Research Symposium on Biomedical Science and Engineering

Bates College junior Rebecca Anderson, a double major in biochemistry and math, studied regeneration and regenerative medicine during a summer internship at the MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, funded by Maine INBRE at Bates.

She worked with Joel Graber, Ph.D., a senior staff scientist and director of the computational biology and bioinformatics core at MDIBL. With fellow scientists worldwide, Graber is researching the axolotl, a Mexican salamander that has the astonishing ability to regrow limbs and major organs.

Understanding the salamander’s ability to regenerate can help researchers “improve human wound healing and tissue scarring,” says Anderson.

She focused on developing a search tool that allows researchers to identify orthologs, genes that are derived from the same gene in a common ancestor. Specifically, researchers hope to find axolotl genes within the human genome and other commonly studied organisms.

Anderson got to talk with faculty and graduate students about their journeys and, at the end of her fellowship, gave a community-wide presentation as part of the Student Summer Symposium at MDIBL. That helped her to “communicate science effectively to a lot of different audiences.”

“It’s been really cool to see all these different areas of science that I can be a part of, and think about what I want to do in the future.”

Full article from Bates News

photo credit to Phyllis Graber Jensen, Bates College

INBRE-Funded Investigator and Bowdoin College faculty member Dr. Jennifer Honeycutt took her undergraduate researchers to the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society’s annual conference in Scotland earlier this year. Congratulations to senior Seneca Ellis who came home with a poster award!

Read the details here:

https://www.bowdoin.edu/news/2022/07/bowdoins-honeycutt-takes-students-to-neuroscience-conference-in-scotland.html

Read our May 2022 newsletter here!

As the Maine IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (ME-INBRE) enters its 22nd year (and the fourth of the current five-year funding cycle) it is exciting to reflect on what we’ve accomplished and how we are positioned to further augment and expand biomedical research excellence in Maine. This National Institutes of Health (NIGMS) funded Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program began in 2001 …

The Maine INBRE in its 22nd Year – Looking Back and Ahead