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BBE Newsletter Fall 2022

Staff News

Magnus Hoffman Receives NIH Pioneer Award!

Magnus Hoffmann (PhD '22), BBE Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate

Magnus Hoffmann (PhD '22), a postdoctoral scholar research associate in biology and biological engineering, is the recipient of an Early Independence Award. This award, established in 2011, provides an opportunity for exceptional junior scientists who have recently received their doctoral degree or completed their medical residency to skip traditional postdoctoral training and move immediately into independent research positions.

Hoffmann recently completed his PhD in the laboratory of Pamela Björkman, the David Baltimore Professor of Biology and Bioengineering, Merkin Institute Professor, and executive officer for biology and biological engineering. He received Caltech's Milton and Francis Clauser Doctoral Prize for his PhD thesis, titled "Nanoparticle Technologies to Cure and Prevent Infectious Diseases." The Clauser Prize is awarded annually to a student or students whose PhD theses reflect extraordinary standards of quality, innovative research, and the potential of opening new avenues of human thought and endeavor. At Caltech, Hoffmann has developed a novel self-assembling nanoparticle technology that he will apply to design protein- and nucleic acid-based vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2, HIV-1, and other viruses.

Staff Features in History

Aurora Ruiz Sandoval in the Fly Food Lab

Aurora Ruiz Sandoval was featured in the Caltech Magazine and #SoCaltech in Spring 2019. Let's recap!

Aurora Ruiz Sandoval is in charge of making fly food for all of the BBE research labs. The recipe she uses was created by Professor Ed Lewis (Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor of Biology). The food is a mixture of water, agar, cornmeal, yeast, sucrose, molasses, and CaCI2,. This recipe is cooked in a steam kettle for 30 minutes, after which solutions of Na Tartrate, Tegosept and Propionic Acid are added. The kettle cooks and stirs the food, then it is cooled and dispensed into bottles and vials for the research labs. Once the food is cooled, plugs are put on the bottles and vials. They are stored at room temperature before being picked up by the labs. Each lab is responsible for feeding their research flies.

Aurora Ruiz Sandoval preparing the fly food for storage

When interviewed for the article "A Fruitful Collaboration" in Spring 2019, Aurora explains a day in the life of fly food production; “Your days are very busy,” but it feels good when somebody gets recognition for their research, and you think, ‘I had something to do with that. I made the fly food.’”

Cynthia Carlson Retiring After 29 Years of Service at Caltech

Cynthia Carlson working hard to wrap things up!

Cynthia was born and raised in Altadena and Arcadia. She attended Arthur Amos Noyes Elementary. Arthur Noyes, a chemist and educator, played a significant role in the founding of Caltech and the development of the Chemistry department and the core curriculum – the beginnings of the Caltech we know and are a part of today.

After graduating from UCLA, serving in the Peace Corps in Zaire/Congo, working in television sitcom production, and leading tours through Asia and the South Pacific, Cynthia came to Caltech in October of 1992 as a part-time staff member in the HSS Chair’s office. Within six months her position went full-time and she enjoyed five years supporting faculty in the humanities and social sciences, learning all aspects of division administration.

In 1997 when Chris Schuld from HHMI reached out to her about working for Steve Mayo, she was in the midst of a week with two major events and a conference. Prof. Mayo agreed to interview her at 6pm on a Friday evening and she accepted the position of administrative assistant for his lab – a new and engaging environment where she added to her skills and knowledge. She also had the experience of a lab move from Braun to Broad.

As Prof. Mayo’s HHMI term ended, Cynthia looked for the next job opportunity. She contacted a former visiting faculty member for a recommendation. The professor refused to write one, stating that she wanted to hire her – to start up a new JD/PhD program at Vanderbilt University Law School in Nashville, TN. That led to a year-long adventure, from 2007-2008, working through all the hoops of setting up a new graduate program and recruiting students.

Desirous of returning to California, Cynthia accepted an offer to return to Caltech as the Assistant to the Vice Provost, Steve Mayo, where she played an important role in WASC accreditation review and the Caltech Children’s Center project .

When Steve moved to Biology and Biological Engineering (which was only Biology at the time) in summer 2010, Cynthia moved as well. Faculty hiring was a priority along with donor cultivation and the start of the new Chen Building project.

COVID hit, division chairs shifted, and Cynthia was pleased to continue in the role of assisting the new Chair, Richard Murray, in working to evaluate, update, and improve division processes.

As Cynthia departs Caltech her son Brandon carries on her legacy at JPL. Cynthia and her husband Charlie will be exploring the western states, visiting friends and family, while determining where to next place their time and energy.

Congratulations Lauren Breeyear!

Lauren Breeyear in her new office digs, Alles 188.

Lauren Breeyear is our new Neurobiology/Computation and Neural Systems (NB/CNS) Options Representative! She is missed in the Admin Office, but is only a hop, skip, and jump down the hall in Alles 188. Stop by to say "Hi"!

Division Administration Changes

Responding to feedback from faculty and staff and capitalizing on the strengths of individual team members, BBE has made some changes to the administrative support structure of the division. These adjustments are designed to focus on providing quality assistance to the division, while allowing professional development opportunities for staff:

HR – Consolidating our efforts, Laurinda Truong will now work with all faculty to create job descriptions and postings as well as on-boarding regular, temporary, term, and occasional staff (ensuring key/card access, mailbox set up, Kronos training, P-Card, and TechMart set up).

Purchasing – Sue Zindle will be the Speedy Ordering System (SOS) Buyer for all of BBE and act as liaison to Procurement. Manny, Andreas, and Albert will continue assisting with purchasing and receiving, while Sue will provide to those who need it, assistance with large and/or complicated orders. Sue will continue to provide guidance for P-Card reconciliations and will maintain her role as custodian of division petty cash, but she will step away from supporting the Chen building (see next).

Building Support – Alberto Gomez & Jessica Silva will assist with initiating and following-up on Facilities Service requests for non-lab-related facilities needs across all BBE buildings, including key requests and card access. They will store centrally and manage all Safety Orientation Checklists. This group will also forward Facilities notices of interruptions of service or other projects that affect our buildings. Note: Tish Cheek will be stepping in while Jessica Silva is on leave.

Faculty Affairs – Cynthia Carlson is retiring and we have posted her replacement position. Once identified, the new hire will concentrate on faculty appointments, renewals, coordinating faculty meetings and events, and supporting faculty searches; the person will also handle appointments for Visitors and Visiting Associates. This role will continue to provide proposal pre-review and administrative assistance to the Chair and DOO.

BBE Options – Liz Ayala will assume the role of interim Options team lead, working with the other division Option Managers to oversee TA and course assignments, catalog entries, as well as the admissions process. She will provide reporting on all graduate and undergraduate activities. Lauren Breeyear will be the new Option Manager for CNS/NB.

Events Coordination – TBD/Open Position – With Lauren assuming her new role as Option Manager for CNS/NB, we are seeking an individual to act as point-person for planning and executing division events, including seminars, special events, retreat, DEI, symposiums. This person will act as the main contact/liaison for BBE administrative support. This position is posted and we are interviewing finalists and hope to have a new hire soon.

Communications – Katie Fisher will expand her role publishing the division website and newsletter to include a BBE event calendar and annual report. Among other related duties, she will network with Strategic Communications, assist with gathering data for Visiting Committee, maintain mailing lists and issue division emails.

Accounting Support – Janie Malone will process charges, monitor activity, and reconcile expenses for division resource centers and facilities. Along with providing other division financial support, she will assist with facilities use and technical service agreements.

Postdocs – Stefany Nielsen will continue to facilitate processing appointments of BBE postdoctoral fellows, interfacing with other units, tracking visa requirements. She will also assist with appointments for Guests, External Affiliates, Volunteers and Minors. Stefany is also stepping in to assist with many duties previously handled by Cynthia, as we recruit a replacement.

BBE Receiving – Manny De La Torre has a new home base: he is stationed now in Chen. Taking his place in Alles is Alberto Gomez. Broad will continue to be the main location for Andreas Feurabendt. All team members help support our other buildings, but when they’re not running around assisting labs, you can find them in their new locations.

The other division support staff will continue in their roles with few changes: we will be working throughout the coming year to ensure every staff member has one or more colleague cross-trained in various aspects of their duties. Regardless of an employee’s primary role, all administrative staff will continue to respond to the needs of the BBE community, providing support as required, in a timely and professional manner. We aim to have staff fully trained in their new positions and ready to go as the fall term begins.

Quick Email Links

Please welcome our new Postdocs to the Division:

Thierri Callier – Andersen Lab

Ruipu Xin – Chou Lab

Jineun Kim – Anderson Lab

Jonathan Hoang – Gradinaru Lab

Yan Zhang – Murray Lab

Student News

CONVOCATION 2022

Credit: Bill Youngblood

Fall Term has Begun and Winter Term is just Around the Corner!

Caltech's annual convocation ceremony that was held on Monday, September 19, 2022 in Beckman Auditorium offered a warm welcome and introduction to the Institute for new undergraduate students, new graduate students, and new postdoctoral scholars, as well as for their family and friends.

Credit: Bill Youngblood

The program included greetings from President Thomas F. Rosenbaum and an introduction to student life at Caltech by Vice President for Student Affairs Kevin Gilmartin.

The ceremony was a big success! Watch HERE

For your Information...

Career Development

Caltech Staff Development Series available online!

For those who missed the Staff Summer Schools series held in June/July, you may now access them HERE

Lessons include: Elevating Your Career and Personal Brand, How to Keep a Positive Outlook, P3 Powerful PowerPoint Presentations, Journeys in Higher Education, Leading from Where You Are.

Caltech Courses Available on Coursera

Advance your career with Caltech online courses offered through Coursera.

BBE Library News

Announcing SpringerProtocols !

This is a database of protocols covering a wide range of biomedical topics. This resource also includes the very-popular Methods in Molecular Biology book series; Caltech Library now has access to ALL of the books in this series as ebooks. Caltech Library purchased the entire archive of SpringerProtocols, from 1980-present.

Caltech Library is pleased to announce that CaltechDATA, the institutional data and software repository, launched a major upgrade on September 21, 2022.

CaltechDATA has served as critical research infrastructure for campus since 2017, and it hosts over 20,000 records containing datasets and software for a wide variety of disciplines. With this launch, CaltechDATA now runs on the open-source InvenioRDM platform and brings many new features that Caltech researchers have requested:

Easier record creation with autocomplete for creators, affiliations, subjects, and funders

Automatic record versioning

Private share link for reviewers

Improved record views, with dynamic citations and an expanded file previewer

InvenioRDM will enable Caltech Library to more rapidly roll out new features and collaborate with other institutions to establish repository best practices.

Caltech is Partnering with eCampus.com Bookstore!

The eCampus online bookstore is open! Students have the option to ship their textbooks to a personal address or to the library for pickup. They are eligible for price matching and can receive free expedited shipping on all orders.

Landscaping Changes

David Kang, Associate Vice President of Facilities announced in July that in response to increasing drought restrictions from the City of Pasadena and the worsening water shortages across the southwestern United States, Caltech will no longer be irrigating non-functional turf as of July 18, 2022. All functional turf including athletic fields, event spaces, and common gathering areas will continue receiving biweekly irrigation as permitted under current drought restrictions. All campus tree canopy and native landscaping will continue to receive irrigation, as well.

Lawn outside of Beckman Institute

A map of areas that will no longer be irrigated is available HERE. This change will save an estimated 5 million gallons of water per year and further contributes to Caltech’s ongoing efforts to reduce campus water use. More details on these efforts can be found on the Caltech Sustainability website.

Faculty News and Highlights

Faculty Awards

Long Cai, Matt Thomson, David Van Valen, and Kai Zinn Win High-Risk, High-Reward Research NIH Awards!

Long Cai, Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering

Long Cai, professor of biology and biological engineering, is the recipient of a Pioneer Award. This award challenges investigators at all career levels to pursue new research directions and develop groundbreaking, high-impact approaches to a broad area of biomedical or behavioral science.

Cai's research focuses on spatial genomics, using super-resolution and live-cell microscopy to study gene regulatory networks in cells and organisms. He and his team have developed a novel imaging method, called seqFISH, that allows over 10,000 genes to be imaged directly in single cells, revealing how cells are organized in tissues like the brain and illustrating previously unknown dynamics in stem cells.

Matt Thomson, Assistant Professor of Computational Biology; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute

Matt Thomson, assistant professor of computational biology and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator, is a co-recipient of the Transformative Research Award along with Zinn.

Thomson studies self-organization and collective behavior in biological systems. He is particularly interested in understanding how communication between cells within a tissue leads to both self-organization of physical structures and a coordinated response to physiological change. Thomson's group develops mathematical modeling and data analysis methods and develops single-cell mRNA-seq analysis methods to analyze the response of immune and brain cells to different applied signals and contexts.

David Van Valen, Assistant Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute

David Van Valen (PhD '11), assistant professor of biology and biological engineering and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator, is the recipient of a New Innovator Award. This award supports unusually innovative research from early career investigators who are within 10 years of their final degree or clinical residency and have not yet received a research project grant or equivalent NIH grant.

Van Valen studies the quantitative and physical principles underlying information processing in complex biological systems. He and his group are developing computational and experimental methods at the intersection of imaging, genomics, and machine learning to enable scalable measurements of living systems with single-cell resolution.

Kai Zinn, Howard and Gwen Laurie Smits Professor of Biology

Kai Zinn, Howard and Gwen Laurie Smits Professor of Biology, is the recipient of a Transformative Research Award. This award promotes cross-cutting, interdisciplinary approaches and is open to individuals and teams of investigators who propose research that could potentially create or challenge existing paradigms.

Zinn's research seeks to understand how genes control the patterns and functions of synaptic connections in the brain, using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. The lab's major focus is characterizing certain proteins that mediate interactions among neurons and between neurons and other cell types.

Justin Bois and TA Hristos Courellis Receive 2022 SCUBA Award

The Caltech Student Committee for Undergraduate Biology/BioE Advancement (SCUBA) recently awarded faculty member Justin Bois and teaching assistant Hristos Courellis with 2022 BBE Teaching Awards in recognition of their contributions to teaching and inspiring students in BBE.

Jusin Bois, Teaching Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering

Upon receiving this award, Professor Justin Bois responded: “I consider it the highest privilege to teach the students of Caltech. They are among the very best students in the world in terms of ability, work ethic, and creativity. It's a privilege I am grateful for every day. So, to be recognized by them for my contributions to their education is a great honor to me. That students I respect so much showed their appreciation with this award further motivates me to do my very best to train our uniquely excellent students to be the best scientists and engineers they can be. I am humbly grateful for the award!”

Hristos Courellis, Teaching Assistant

Teaching Assistant Hristos Courellis expressed his appreciation upon receipt of his award: “It was an honor and a privilege to be a teaching assistant for CNS 187 (Neural Computation) for the inaugural offering since the previous iteration last taught in 2016. I am humbled that the students thought of me for this award, as it was a team effort from every single individual in the class that made the entire experience as thought provoking and downright fun as it was. We all, students and instructors alike, worked tirelessly to build a productive learning environment through our active class discussions and (occasionally lengthy) office hours which I’ll never forget! Thank you CNS 187 Spring22 Class! I look forward to seeing the great things you will accomplish with the tools and knowledge we developed together.”

BBE Researchers Awarded NIH BRAIN Initiative Grant to Partner with Minority-Serving Institutions

(Left) Viviana Gradinaru, Faculty Advisor of CLOVER Center and Professor of Neuroscience and Biological Engineering; Director, Center for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience (Middle) Timothy Miles, Scientific Director of the CLOVER Center (Right) Damien A. Wolfe, Caltech-CPP ASPIRE Program Manager & Research Technician.

Viviana Gradinaru and Tim Miles, with the help of Damien Wolfe, were awarded an NIH BRAIN Initiative grant partnering Caltech with Cal Poly Pomona titled "Broadening access with an Armamentarium Vector Core powered by inclusive research experiences".

Published Papers

Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative condition that damages a person's ability to think, remember, and perform basic functions. According to the National Institutes of Health, Alzheimer's affects more than 6 million Americans, mostly ages 65 and older. Though the neurological damage from the disease is irreversible, early detection and intervention has been shown to slow its progression. Read Article Featured in Alzheimer's & Dementia

Dog owners whose pets meet during a walk are familiar with the immediate sniffing investigation that typically ensues. Initially, the owners cannot tell whether their dogs will wind up fighting, playing, or trying to mount each other. Something is clearly happening in the dog's brain to make it decide how to behave toward the other dog—but what is going on? Read Article Featured in Nature

Just two weeks after announcing the development of a mouse embryo model, complete with beating hearts and the foundations for a brain and other organs, from mouse stem cells, researchers in the laboratory of Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, Bren Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering, have published new findings about another mouse embryo model reaching similar developmental stages, but created out of only mouse embryonic stem cells. This modification has simplified the protocol and makes the embryo model easier to be adopted in other laboratories. Read Article Featured in Cell Stem Cell and "Synthetic" Mouse Embryo with Brain and Beating Heart Grown from Stem Cells

Fruit flies—Drosophila melanogaster—have a complicated relationship with carbon dioxide. In some contexts, CO2 indicates the presence of tasty food sources as sugar-fermenting yeast in fruit produces the molecule as a by-product. But in other cases, CO2 can be a warning to stay away, signaling an oxygen-poor or overcrowded environment with too many other flies. How do flies tell the difference? Read Article Featured in Current Biology

If you are in a major city anywhere in the world, it is probably quite easy to grab a cheap hamburger from a nearby fast-food restaurant. But what you may not realize is that the meat in that cheap burger can actually illustrate a grand narrative about how humans have shaped the planet. From the land used to raise cattle for beef consumption, to the water used to feed those cattle, to the fuel used to transport the beef all over the world, the human progress that enables us to easily buy a burger—and, for that matter, hop on a plane, charge our phones, and take part in the multitude of activities that make up our everyday experiences—has changed the biosphere. Read Article Featured in Current Patterns

Faculty Archives

Alfred H. Sturtevant (1891-1970) Professor of Biology Cartographer of Classical Genetics

Many of the foundations of classical genetics were built in the “fly room,” the nickname of Thomas Hunt Morgan’s laboratory at Columbia University. As an undergraduate, graduate fellow, and research scholar from 1908 to 1928, A.H. Sturtevant was a principal builder of that foundation. In the span of two decades, Sturtevant contributed to the rediscovery and resuscitation of Mendelian genetics, he created the first genetic map in history, and he found answers to fundamental questions relating to genetic arrangement and chromosomal variation and mutation. When Caltech recruited T.H. Morgan to create the Institute’s Division of Biology in 1928, Morgan understood that he would be consumed by administrative matters. He made sure that Sturtevant joined him in the move to Pasadena, so that the revolutionary work conducted at Columbia would continue at Caltech.

Alfred Henry Sturtevant spent his first seven years in Illinois, where his father taught mathematics at the college level. His father then decided to become a farmer, and the family moved to Alabama. This would prove formative for Sturtevant’s subsequent interests. Throughout childhood, he was fascinated with the pedigree and expressed traits of his father’s horses. Entering Columbia in 1908, with an education from a one-room schoolhouse, Sturtevant immediately began learning Mendelian genetics which provided a formal framework for his innate interest in pedigrees. A class taught by Morgan became the starting point of a lifelong research partnership—the student dazzled by the professor’s passion and knowledge, and the professor recognizing a special talent to be nurtured. Morgan offered Sturtevant a desk in the fly room and encouraged him to publish on horse pedigrees that drew from his childhood notes.

The timing proved auspicious. In 1910, Morgan made major advances with the discovery of the Drosophila white-eyed mutation, and key observations that explained the principle of sex linkage. It was an environment ripe for further discovery. Sturtevant’s first major project was to build on Morgan’s work concerning recombination, which explained the phenomenon of Drosophila offspring expressing traits absent in either parent. Noting a disparity in the frequency of combined characteristics that were passed on, Morgan found that the chromosomes of the male and female parent crossed with each other, exchanged genetic information, and created a new and unique recombinant chromosome. Following this logic, Sturtevant postulated a correlation between the distance of given genes and the likelihood of separation during recombination—the farther apart of two given genes, the less likely they would be inherited in recombined form. By measuring this frequency, Sturtevant could determine the distance of genes from one another. The data further suggested a certain precision, which meant that the chromosome must house genes in a linear rather than haphazard fashion. Sturtevant realized that this linearity lent itself to an ability to “map” genes, which offered a means of visualizing their arrangement and distance from one another. At 22 years old, Sturtevant had created the world’s first genetic map, for which he was awarded a doctorate in 1914.

A.H. Sturtevant examining specimens in Kerckhoff (Caltech Archives)

Sturtevant remained in the fly room as a Carnegie postdoctoral scholar, and he soon expanded his research purview to explore generational genetic transmission and the process of sexual selection by which organisms of one sex compete and choose to mate with the opposite sex. Charles Darwin had initially distinguished sexual selection from natural selection, and by the early 20th century it was known that this process existed throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. Sturtevant’s experiments to analyze Drosophila sexual selection, which used mutant genes to change the fly’s eye color, innovated the concept that mutant genes could explain behavior. Building on these findings, Sturtevant began to look at how genes control sexual differentiation. He identified certain recessive genes as the source of intersexuality, and he went on to discover a specific gene capable of changing a female Drosophila to male, thereby defining the trait of sex as complex and dictated by numerous and different genes.

Ever the perceptive researcher, in 1920 Sturtevant developed experiments on Drosophila with both male and female characteristics (known as gynandromorphs, whose cells did not evenly split during the process of mitosis) to understand the occurrence of somatic mosaicism. With this condition, an organism is host to genetically discrete cell populations because of a mutation. Unlike inherited mutations, this postzygotic mutation (i.e., acquired during lifetime) expresses traits locally and are not passed to the next generation. In searching to understand how genetic information translates to expressed traits, Sturtevant realized that the uninherited mutation produced a dark red eye color found in wild Drosophila, even though genetically, the eye had the mutation that produces a vermilion eye color. He surmised that the non-vermillion genes must be sourced from elsewhere in the body. This made Sturtevant witness to the first instance of a reparable gene defect, thereby laying a foundation stone of the modern field of biochemical genetics.

In the 1920s, Sturtevant merged his contemporary work on mutations with his graduate research on genetic arrangement. As always, he was after a fundamental question: does the placement of a given gene within the chromosome influence its function? Sturtevant focused on the Drosophila Bar mutation which caused slitted or kidney-like eye shapes in eyes that are normally round. Unlike most other mutations, Bar was sufficiently common, which lent itself to experimental inducement and analysis. Sturtevant observed Bar and Ultra-Bar (a mutation causing smaller eyes) derivations to be the result of a crossover process he called “unequal” because they were paired unequally and tandemly duplicated in the chromosome. This insight explained the instability of Bar and how the number of genes can increase in a chromosome, and it also demonstrated what is known as the position effect, whereby a gene’s expression can change when its location changes.

Having achieved a staggering rate of discovery with much of his career ahead of him, Sturtevant’s decision to join Morgan at Caltech virtually assured that Kerckhoff would soon become a world-leading center of genetics research. It also offered some opportunity to move out of Morgan’s shadow and to establish his own reputation as a preeminent mentor and collaborator. In one of his first projects at Caltech, working with Sterling Emerson, Sturtevant demonstrated that certain traits of the primrose plant were not a function of mutation, as was widely assumed, but the result of translocation of chromosome arms. With Theodosius Dobzhansky, Sturtevant studied wild Drosophila and the phenomenon of inversion, whereby a portion of the chromosome breaks and reattaches in the opposite direction, causing a defect. These findings served as a base point for understanding the phylogeny, or the evolutionary diversification, of wild Drosophila. With George Beadle, Sturtevant combined research on inversion and crossover effects that connected chromosomal aberrations in Drosophila with the occurrence of inversion in heterozygote flies—those in possession of two different alleles for a given gene. And with Edward Novitski, Sturtevant explored parallel mutations and the role of inversion in determining the changing order of genes in Drosophila, and they found key chromosomal similarities across discrete Drosophila species.

In the postwar era, Sturtevant widened his intellectual vista. He thought deeply about the implications of his work on evolutionary theory, and he was acutely concerned about human genetic health in the age of the atom bomb. Sturtevant returned to his childhood interest in pedigrees with numerous publications on taxonomy. And his 1965 study A History of Genetics is a classic retrospective of a classical age. In the modern era, it would be difficult to overstate what Sturtevant and his colleagues have made possible, as the field of genetics has matured to the point where fundamental discoveries could be translated to human applications. Perhaps this point was most powerfully articulated at the dawn of genomics in the 21st century. In 2001, on the occasion of publishing the initial findings of the Human Genome Project, the NIH likened this endeavor to a massive exploratory endeavor. Just as the Apollo mission to the moon began with the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, the long road to mapping the human genome began with Sturtevant’s genetic map in the fly room.

Research Article by David Zierler, Director, Caltech Science Heritage Project

David Zierler and the Caltech Heritage Project

David Zierler, a historian of science, joined Caltech in 2021, to document the rich histories across divisions, including BBE. David is also engaged in two projects that visibly celebrate the history of genetics research at Caltech: one that covers all of Caltech and another that concentrates on research that has been conducted in Kerckhoff in its first hundred years. The larger project will result in a display in Parsons-Gates in Spring 2023, while the Kerckhoff history endeavor is ongoing.

You can learn more about the Caltech Heritage Project at heritageproject.caltech.edu and you may contact David at dzierler@caltech.edu.

BBE Announcements

Mark your Calendars for the BBE Retreat November 4th and 5th!

Things will kick off with a poster session on the evening of Friday, November 4th followed by an all-day extravaganza on Saturday, November 5th, concluding with our BBE Family Dinner on the Beckman Auditorium Lawn. Food by LA Roots. Drinks by Black Lab. Guitar by Alfredo Cáceres. Cookies by Milk Bar. Swing by Jumpin’ Joz Band. Magic and mentalism by David Stryker. Bubbles, face painting, and balloon art by Bubblemania. Bouncy climbers, obstacle courses, and slides for all ages. Science and engineering by you! On-site childcare will be provided Friday evening and all day Saturday. Retreat Program

Welcome New Students

We are pleased to welcome 42 new graduate students and 32 new undergraduates to the division this year! We’ll get a chance to meet all of the new arrivals at the BBE retreat in November.

COVID Update

As of October 3, 2022, masking in all indoor settings, with the exception of instructional spaces or environments where it is otherwise explicitly indicated, is voluntary. BBE no longer has a separate set of divisional mask guidelines, though individual groups can set more restrictive policies in their own spaces. Instructors, speakers, and performers may elect to remove their masks indoors when all other individuals in the space are masked.

Caltech continues to do surveillance testing. All undergraduate students, graduate students living in Caltech-managed housing or participating in in-person learning, and employees with an Institute-approved exemption from COVID-19 vaccination are required to participate in twice-weekly surveillance testing. Faculty and staff involved in in-person instruction or reporting on-site are encouraged to participate in the program.

Current Caltech policies can be found here: https://together.caltech.edu

Website Update

The Research page of the BBE website has been updated! It now articulates the many areas of research across the division and which groups are active in them. The Option web pages have also been updated and are in the process of adding graduate option handbooks for each option that provides information on PhD requirements that complements the information in the Caltech catalog.

Town Hall Followups

Dianne Newman, David Warren, and Richard Murray are working on putting together status updates to the various actions that have been taken in response to the feedback received from the BBE Town Hall that was held in April. A few key items in response from that meeting are:

The graduate options are putting together ways for current graduate students to get more insight and provide input into how to improve the graduate admissions and recruiting process. Please talk to your option rep (Bil Clemons [BMB], Long Cai [BE], Henry Lester [NB], David Prober [Bi], Thanos Siapas [CNS]) to learn more about what is being done in your option.

An informational webpage has been put together to provide a centralized resource for incoming and ongoing postdocs: https://www.bbe.caltech.edu/resources/postdoc-information. If you have suggestions for additional topics that should be listed, please feel free to contact the BBE postdoc reps (Sayan Dutta, Zachery Lonergan, Estefania Sanchez Vasquez, and An Zhang) or the BBE postdoc reps faculty advisor (Lior Pachter).

The BBE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee, chaired by Pamela Bjorkman, is ramping up for the year and starting to think about new activities to help improve the climate in BBE. The committee has funds available for individuals who want to undertake DEI-related activities and need some funds to support their efforts: https://www.bbe.caltech.edu/diversity/dei-resources/apply-for-funding

David Warren has been meeting with lab and facilities managers to explore ideas on how to enhance project tracking and cost-accounting. An informal group of staff have also created a Slack channel to discuss mentoring and professional development opportunities. Another group of lab members are strategizing on ways to save energy, conserve resources and recycle waste in labs.

The second annual BBE Town Hall will take place in April 2023.

Seminars

In person BBE seminars are back! Division-wide seminars will be held on Tuesdays from 3:30-4:30pm coordinated by the BBE seminar committee (chaired by Paul Sternberg). In addition to hosting speakers who give talks that we think everyone in the division will be interested in, we’ll also have more specialized seminars in the various areas of research in the division. We’ll also have a regular neuroscience seminar, being coordinated by a committee led by Yuki Oka, and the bioengineering lecture series (BELS), being planned by fourth and fifth year BE students working with Long Cai. This is in addition to a lot of specialized seminars and informal seminars, so we hope that there are many opportunities to bring in and interact with outside speakers on all sorts of different levels.

You can find a list of all BBE-relevant seminars on the BBE website: https://www.bbe.caltech.edu/calendar

Holiday Party

We are working on plans for a division-wide holiday party during the week of December 12th. More details will be provided as we get closer to the date.

Fisher Scientific Stockroom Open and Operating!

The Caltech|Fisher Scientific Stockroom in Alles 181 is open and fully stocked. If you do not find what you need use the attached QR code to request additions to our inventory.

Have You Checked Out the BBE RESOURCES Page?

We continue to add many useful resources to this page. Take a peek if you haven't visited recently. You will find helpful links such as:

  • Quick Email Links to Group Contacts
  • Division Calendar
  • Division Contacts
  • Conference Room Reservation Information
  • Caltech Forms
  • Holiday Schedule
  • Incoming Postdoc Information
  • Procurement Guides and Resources...and so much more!

Please contact Katie Fisher with your ideas for the Resource Page - katief@caltech.edu

Scan Here!

Featured Events

Saturday, October 15 - SURF Seminar Day

Wednesday, November 2 - Watson Lecture, The Dance of Life: How Do We Become Ourselves? Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, 7:30pm, Beckman Auditorium

Friday/Saturday, November 4-5 - BBE Retreat, Campus, 11/4 5-7pm Chen Breezeway, 11/5 9am-8pm Chen 100, Breezeway, Broad Cafe Courtyard Register

Tuesday, November 15 - Caltech Bioscience Industry Day, 1-3pm, Chen Breezeway

December 23-31 - Holiday Closure

Wednesday, January 4 - Winter Term Begins

All upcoming events can be found on the BBE Calendar

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Photo Credits: Caltech, Katie Fisher

Credits:

Created with images by tippapatt - "Working on laptop computer" • Elnur - "Four books isolated on the white background"