IIGB/CEPCEB Chemist Michael Pirrung announced the development of a compound with the potential to fight renal cancer in a lecture he gave on Feb. 19 at the 5th International Conference on Drug Discovery and Therapy, held in Dubai, UAE. Named TIR-199, the compound targets the “proteasome,” a cellular complex in kidney cancer cells, similar to...

CEPCEB celebrated its 10th anniversary with a full-day symposium Friday, December 14, 2012 in the Genomics Auditorium! The program featured five external speakers, including the Noel T. Keen Lecturer, and three CEPCEB speakers. The day also included lunch and refreshments, our awards ceremony honoring outstanding research achievements by CEPCEB lab members, closing statements, and a...

An international effort involving approximately 70 scientists in nine countries (Germany, UK, Australia, USA, Finland, Japan, Israel, France, Italy) with nine working at UCR developed a high-resolution genomic resource for barley that could potentially help produce higher yields, improve pest and disease resistance, and enhance its nutritional value. IIGB/CEPCEB researchers Timothy Close and Stefano Lonardi...

IIGB/CEPCEB member and professor of genetics Julia Bailey-Serres was elected Secretary of the American Society of Plant Biologists, a professional scientific society with almost 5,000 plant scientists from the U.S. and 50 other nations. She will assume this position October 1, 2012. Julia has a long history of service with ASPB, having served several years...

Wenbo Ma, an IIGB/CEPCEB associate professor of plant pathology and microbiology, has been selected as a “2012 Schroth Faces of the Future Symposium” speaker at the annual meeting of the American Phytopathological Society (APS), which is scheduled to take place in Providence, RI, in early August. In her talk, Ma will discuss her research, which...

An IIGB/CEPCEB Professor in the Plant Pathology & Microbiology department, Shou-wei Ding, was elected as an American Academy of Microbiology Fellow. The Academy, the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology, recognizes excellence, originality, and creativity in the microbiological sciences. Awardees are chosen based on their “records of scientific achievement and original contributions...

IIGB/CEPCEB Director Natasha Raikhel was one of 84 newly elected members to the National Academy of Sciences, considered one of the highest and most competitive honors to be bestowed on a scientist. The NAS annually elects members and foreign associates in recognition of distinguished career achievement in original research. Raikhel’s election celebrates a life-long contribution...

Linda Walling has been awarded a 2011 Fellow of ASPB (American Society of Plant Biologists) Award for her contributions in the areas of plant response and plant/insect interactions, and her long-standing service to the scientific community. In addition to IIGB/CEPCEB members Natasha Raikhel and Julia Bailey-Serres, she is the third UCR faculty to be honored...

A team of IIGB plant cell biologists has discovered how to rewire a plant’s cellular machinery to heighten its response to stress– a finding that can be used to engineer crops to give them a better shot at surviving and displaying increased yield under drought conditions. The discovery, made in the laboratory of Sean Cutler...

The ninth annual CEPCEB awards ceremony will take place on Friday, December 16, 2011, from 2-4pm in the Genomics Building Auditorium. The 2011 Noel T. Keen Lecturer is Rob Martienssen, a Professor and HHMI/GBMF Investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. Since 2002, CEPCEB has recognized research excellence in plant cell biology, genomics...

The ninth annual CEPCEB Special Award Ceremony was held on December 16, 2011 from 2-4pm in the Genomics Auditorium. The following individuals were acknowledged by the Center for Plant Cell Biology for their outstanding research achievements in the 2010-11 period: 2011 Outstanding CEPCEB Undergraduate Student: Matthew Alpert, Computer Science & Eng., Mentor: S. Lonardi 2011...

Experts in IIGB member Julia Bailey-Serres’ lab and The University of Nottingham now report they have discovered how plants sense low oxygen levels to survive flooding – a finding that could lead eventually to the production of high-yielding, flood-tolerant crops, benefiting farmers, markets and consumers everywhere. Specifically, the researchers identified the molecular mechanism involved. This...

IIGB/CEPCEB Researcher Susan Wessler is the recipient of the prestigious FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) 2012 Excellence in Science Award, one of the highest bestowed honors in science. The award recognizes women whose career contributions in scientific research, teaching and mentoring, and service career have served to advance a scientific discipline significantly...

The grand opening of the innovative “Neil A. Campbell Science Learning Laboratory,” named after a well-known biologist and UC Riverside alumnus, will take place on July 7, 2011 and provide experimental research experience to undergraduate students. Campbell, who died in 2004, was named in 2001 a “Distinguished Alumnus,” the highest award given by the UCR...

IIGB/CEPCEB researchers have made a discovery in the lab that could help drug manufacturers develop new antiepileptic drugs and explore novel strategies for treating seizures associated with epilepsy – a disease affecting about two million Americans. To understand exactly how neurons function during epileptic seizures, Maxim Bazhenov, an associate professor of cell biology and neuroscience...

Xuemei Chen, an IIGB/CEPCEB professor of plant cell and molecular biology, has been named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute – Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (HHMI-GBMF) Investigator. Nationwide, only 15 HHMI-GBMF Investigators have been selected from 239 applicants “who have led independent laboratories at one of the approximately 200 U.S. medical schools, universities, and research...

Two CEPCEB graduate students, Erin Brinton and Jessica Diaz, were awarded three-year fellowships of approximately $40,500 per year as part of the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). Erin Brinton, a graduate student in the lab of professor and geneticist Julia Bailey-Serres, received a fellowship for her project titled “Genetic Approach to Improving...

IIGB/CEPCEB geneticist Susan Wessler will give a free public lecture titled “The Dynamic Genome: Unintelligent Design,” in Rooms D-E, University Extension Center (UNEX) at 6 p.m., Thursday, April 14, 2011 as part of the CNAS Spring 2011 Science Lecture Series. Wessler’s lecture will be introduced by a science teacher from one of the local school...

IIGB/CEPCEB researcher Howard Judelson has received a $9 million five-year grant from the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) to research late blight, which primarily attacks potatoes and tomatoes, and ensure a sustainable and long-term control of this devastating disease. Late blight symptoms include the appearance of dark lesions...

IIGB/CEPCEB researchers have demonstrated in the lab and greenhouse that rice that is flood tolerant is also better able to recover from a drought. If rice plants’ combined tolerance to flooding and drought could be improved, rice productivity in many countries in the world could be protected and even substantially increased. Bailey-Serres and her team...