This year’s David Grier Prize for Innovative Research in Biophysical Sciences was awarded to Biophysical Sciences graduate student, Daozheng Gong. The prize recognizes new and exciting work done in the lab of any mentor in the Biophysical Sciences Program. Daozheng, along with four other finalists, presented his proposal, Developing a novel ultra-rapid 2-photon microscope to study neural activity of >2M cell/s in large volumes using multiplexed targeted beamlets and “Quantum light”, at a mini-symposium in December.  Congratulations, Daozheng!

Congratulations to Jeff Zhang who successfully defended his dissertation, Revealing RNA Dynamics, Processing and Modifications with Fluorescent Microscopy. Jeff was co-advised by Professors Jingyi Fei and Chuan He.

Congratulations to Nabil Faruk, who successfully defended his dissertation, The Pros and Cons of Backbone Flexibility in Molecular Dynamics Docking of Protein Complexes. Nabil was co-advised by Professors Benoit Roux and Tobin Sosnick.

Congratulations to Andrew Molina!  His proposal, "Characterizing the Antigenicity of Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Variants" has been selected to receive the annual Biophysical Sciences Research Proposal Prize.  The intent of this award is to recognize students for their excellent ideas for Biophysical Research Immersion class projects.

NSF announces $25 million institute in Chicago for quantum biology research creating opportunities for research at the interface between quantum science and biology.  The center, directed by Professor Greg Engel, will focus on quantum sensing for biophysical science and bioengineering.

https://qubbe.uchicago.edu/TeamMembers.html

Congratulations to Alan Selewa who successfully defended his dissertation, Single-cell Genomic Approaches for Interpreting the Genetic Architecture of Complex Traits. Alan was co-advised by Professors Oni Basu and Xin He.

Congratulations to Devin Harrison who successfully defended her dissertation, Non-uniform single and sub-cellular glycolysis fuel heterogeneous cell motility. Devin was co-advised by Professors Yun Fang and Jun Huang.

Congratulations to Josh Riback, recruited from his postdoc at Princeton to a Tenure Track Faculty Postion at Baylor University.  Josh has received a Recruitment of First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Members Award from The Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas.

Jessy Morgan has been awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the USDA for her research on the interactions between pamps (pathogen-associated molecular patterns) and damps (damage-associated molecular patterns) during the plant immune response.  Congratulations Jessy!

Vedant Sachdeva has been selected to receive a William Rainey Harper Dissertation Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year.   This fellowship is one of the University of Chicago’s highest honors and is given in recognition of Vedant's record of achievement and professional promise.  Congratulations Vedant!