Shan Yan, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at UNC Charlotte, has received a $1.7 million R01 research grant from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. Findings are expected to offer insight into how cancers develop and to open avenues to new therapeutic strategies, especially with pancreatic cancers.

Yan’s lab researches DNA damage that human cells sustain each day from internal and environmental assaults. Oxidative DNA damage and single-strand breaks, or SSBs, in the DNA duplex are critical challenges to genomic stability and can lead to the formation of tumors when the body does not repair the damage quickly or properly.

An elaborate network called DNA damage response pathway detects these abnormal DNA structures through a process called checkpoint signaling, and coordinates the repair and activation.

Yet, the processes by which this signaling and DNA repair take place are still only partly understood because of their complexity and speed, and the difficulty of studying complex interactions within living cells. Additionally, little is known about how cells sense the unrepaired oxidatively-damaged DNA in the first place.

New Work Can Help Us Understand Cancer Development

A better understanding of how the body senses oxidative stress signals for a checkpoint response could offer insights into how cancers and neurodegenerative disorders develop following oxidative stress. This knowledge could ultimately lead to new treatments via modulation of the underlying molecular mechanism.

The 5-year grant (NIH R01CA225637) Yan’s lab has received will support the continuation of the lab’s study of the mechanism of a repair protein called APE1 in DNA damage response. While APE1 is known for its critical functions in base excision repair and transcriptional regulation, it is currently unknown whether APE1 plays an essential role in DNA damage response pathway.

“In particular, this support from the NIH will drive the new direction my lab has started, to look at single-strand breaks and repair, and signaling, as we try to figure out the molecular details of how that works,” Yan said. “We hope we can come up with new methods for cancer treatment or the treatment of aging-related neurodegenerative diseases in the future.”

Using innovative biochemical and structure-function analysis in egg extracts from Xenopus – a genus of highly aquatic frogs – and mammalian cells, the Yan lab intends to demonstrate how the damage is recognized and processed. Target proteins found in Xenopus are correlated with those found in cancer patients. The researchers will also validate the findings from the Xenopus system in mammalian cells, including pancreatic cancer cells.

Yan and other researchers from his lab, including students and post-doctoral fellows, have published several peer-reviewed papers documenting earlier findings. One of the most recent papers, “APE2 promotes DNA damage response pathway from a single-strand break,” was published in January 2018 in the journal Nucleic Acids Research (Oxford University Press).

The Research Project Grant (R01) is the original and historically oldest grant mechanism used by NIH, providing support for health-related research and development. The Yan lab also has been supported, in part, by grants from the NIH/NIGMS (R15GM101571 and R15GM114713) and funds from UNC Charlotte (Duke Energy Endowment Special Initiatives Fund and Faculty Research Grants).

Previous stories about Yan’s lab can be found here and here.

Words and Image: Lynn Roberson, CLAS Communications Director

This summer, dozens of College of Liberal Arts & Sciences undergraduate students from varied majors and disciplines will gain experience in research through UNC Charlotte initiatives that emphasize learn-by-doing models. They also will benefit from professional development opportunities, mentoring and interactions with each other.

Over 30 College of Liberal Arts & Sciences undergraduate students who are part of the Charlotte Research Scholars Program will conduct research projects on diverse topics, including cystic fibrosis characteristics, attitudes toward immigration, body self-image, air quality, pancreatic cancer, the future of conservation through a Victorian lens, and other subjects.

As student scholars, they will join with students from across the university in this in-depth research experience. Along with the students, a similar number of CLAS faculty are serving as one-to-one mentors for students in the program.

The summer program started in 2012 for high-achieving undergraduate students to gain experience in research and professional development in their field of interest. These opportunities are not always available in the undergraduate classroom. This learn-by-doing model places an emphasis on graduate education and allows the scholars to put their experiential learning into practice, preparing them to excel in their future studies and research.

In addition to mentored research activities, scholars participate in weekly professional development training to build skills critical to professional success.  Topics include responsible conduct of research, developing a competitive research fellowship application, preparing an academic resume, professional communication tools, and a session on preparing for graduate school.

Other summer research activities also are going on in 2018 that will involve college students and faculty, including several Research Experience for Undergraduates Programs and the Charlotte Community Scholars Program, which began in 2015 as a sister program to the Charlotte Research Scholars Program. Students work directly with a faculty mentor and a community partner on an engaged scholarship project, participate in weekly professional development meetings with other undergraduate research students, and present their research findings at the annual Charlotte Research Symposium, the capstone event for all of the undergraduate research programs.

Images show students presenting at a previous Charlotte Research Symposium.

Mukulika Bose, a doctoral student in biological sciences, has received a 2018 P.E.O. International Scholarship from the P.E.O. Sisterhood, an organization focused on helping women around the world participate in graduate study in the U.S. and Canada.

Bose is a member of Pinku Mukherjee’s lab in the Department of Biological Sciences. She describes herself as being full of enthusiasm and keen about science. Her goal is to use her curiosity and knowledge to seek answers that can contribute to the welfare of society, she says.

Before joining the doctoral program at UNC Charlotte, Bose completed her master’s degree in biotechnology and was the recipient of a Chancellor’s Gold medal at Presidency University in Kolkata, West Bengal. There, she gained hands-on experience in cell biology, plant biotechnology, genetics, immunology and biochemistry. She completed her bachelor’s of science in microbiology with honors at Asutosh College, affiliated under University of Calcutta.

The International Peace Scholarship Fund is one of six philanthropies that include ownership of an all-women’s college, Cottey College, and five projects that provide higher educational assistance. Established in 1949, this specific fund provides financial support for women from other countries to participate in graduate study in the United States and Canada. The philosophy of the P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization) is that education is fundamental to world peace and understanding. The P.E.O. Sisterhood is an international women’s organization of about 230,000 members, with a primary focus on providing educational opportunities for female students worldwide.

Bose participated in the Graduate School’s Fellowship Application Incentive Program, which provides a cash incentive and assistance for students to seek out and apply for financial support.

For more information on the Fellowship Application Incentive, please visit the Graduate School’s How Graduate Student Funding Works page.

UNC Charlotte’s Devin Clegg sees a strong linkage between his selection for a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and lessons he learned when conducting biological sciences research and playing football with the Charlotte 49ers.

Clegg, who completed his bachelor’s degree in exercise science at UNC Charlotte in 2016, is pursuing a master’s degree in biology at UNC Charlotte. With the fellowship, he will receive three years of financial support over a five-year fellowship period – a $34,000 annual stipend and $12,000 cost-of-education allowance to the graduate institution. Clegg is among 2,000 awardees chosen this year from over 13,000 applicants.

Clegg is affiliated with two research labs in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences – the labs of marine biologist Adam Reitzel and molecular and cell biologist Richard Chi. Clegg’s research combines molecular biology and protein biochemistry to uncover how genomes evolve in animals.

“I am looking into an organism that is not a conventional model organism to use for my project,” he said. “I am going to use the sea anemone, a cnidarian, and since it’s not a very well known model, I think that was a big aspect of my selection for the fellowship. What I am researching is a transcription factor. It’s a protein that aids in the regulation of other specific proteins that help with things ranging from normal development to antioxidant properties and many other things.”

He joins two other NSF Graduate Research Fellows in Reitzel’s lab, which boasts three of the six GRFs currently at UNC Charlotte. Tyler Carrier, a Ph.D. student, joined the lab in September 2015, and Remi Ketchum, a Ph.D. student, joined the lab in January 2017.

Clegg first was exposed to molecular biology when Chi served a turn as the UNC Charlotte 49ers Football Faculty Coach. At a players’ meeting, Chi described his research and tossed out an offer to mentor players interested in the life sciences.

“I sat down with him when we had the team dinner, and talked with him,” Clegg said. “He was a little skeptical. I understand why. Coming from a kinesiology background, I knew pretty much nothing about molecular biology techniques and working in a lab setting, but it all worked out.”

Through hard work and determination, Clegg obtained an internship with Chi’s lab, which employs molecular biology, protein chemistry, live cell imaging and yeast genetics to study proteins involved in membrane trafficking.

Devin Clegg (left) works with UNC Charlotte Biological Sciences researchers Adam Reitzel and Richard Chi.

“When I first met Devin and saw his determination and his desire to learn, I believed he would be a strong addition to the research team in my lab,” Chi said. “He has proven that true in his time with us, as he has grown as a researcher. His research holds potential not only for him, but also for his particular field of study. I know, too, that he will continue to evolve as a scholar and also as a mentor for students who are coming behind him, which is important not only in my lab but also in modern research generally.”

As he gained confidence in the lab, Clegg felt like he had found his place. “It felt natural to me,” he said. “Everything really flowed, and it felt natural, like I was supposed to be doing this.”

The direction his research took led to him working also in the Reitzel lab, which employs evolution ecology, genetics, molecular biology, and field studies to answer questions about the evolution of proteins in marine invertebrates, such as sea anemones, jellyfishes and corals.

Following graduation in 2016, he pursued a post baccalaureate to complete courses for a biology degree and to grow his research experience and obtain a better understanding of cellular and molecular biology.

Like Chi, Reitzel quickly saw Clegg’s potential.

“I have been impressed with Devin’s curiosity and his desire to learn new skills and explore new questions,” Reitzel said. “His commitment also to mentoring others and helping them experience opportunities that may be new for them also has impressed me and fits in well with the collaborative focus among the team members in my lab. I am confident he will continue to be a strong contributor to the research and outreach we are doing, and I’m also excited about the growing collaboration he can help us foster with Dr. Chi’s lab.”

Clegg hopes others can draw lessons from his story. He will continue to join other members of the Chi and the Reitzel labs in engaging with the broader community, specifically through mentoring and encouraging younger students. He intends particularly to focus on a stereotype he perceives.

“With graduate studies I want to remove the stereotype of student-athletes and researchers,” he wrote in his application. “Being a former student-athlete, I have experienced classmates talking down as if I was incompetent.”

In his application, Clegg included details about playing football. “I think the reviewers felt I could be a good person for the fellowship because of my work ethic,” he said. “Research is like football in that you practice and practice, and then you have to be ready to deal with issues that come up.”

He already knows one important lesson he will share with others.

“If you don’t try, you’ll never know what could have happened,” he said. “That’s what my mother always told me when I was little, such as trying out for baseball. She said, “You might be scared you’re not going to make it. But don’t be afraid of the rejection. If you don’t try, it’s definitely a no. If you do put that effort forward, you might end up with a yes.” ”

Words and Images: Lynn Roberson, CLAS Communications Director
— The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based Master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.

UNC Charlotte biology alumna and Cabarrus County teacher Jessie L. Enlow stood at the front of the UNC Charlotte Biological Sciences laboratory, holding up slips of paper that were marked to represent DNA sequences. As part of the NC Science Festival series of events at UNC Charlotte, Enlow was a member of a team presenting ways for public school teachers to incorporate biotechnology concepts and tools in their classrooms.

In collaboration with UNC Charlotte biological sciences faculty members Sharon Bullock, Michelle Pass and Tonya Bates, Enlow was an instructor in the free biotechnology workshop, particularly geared for high school biology teachers. The Cox Mill High School teacher was back on familiar turf, since as a North Carolina Teaching Fellow she had earned bachelor’s degrees in biology and a master’s degree in science education at UNC Charlotte. She also was a finalist for Teacher of the Year in Cabarrus County in 2015-16. 

The UNC Charlotte Biological Sciences faculty organized the workshop and invited Enlow to join them, extending a partnership they have developed with Enlow and other teachers at Cox Mill High School. Faculty in the science departments in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at UNC Charlotte have developed strong partnerships with secondary education institutions throughout the region. View more photos on the College’s flickr.

Meanwhile, on this same spring day, faculty and students in the Department of Chemistry and the Nanoscale Science Ph.D. Program were exploring chemistry concepts with children aged 7 to 14 and their parents. With the “Colors of Chemistry” workshop, participants learned about dyes, pigments, and other colorful chemicals by making their own chromatic concoctions. Young people let loose their scientific creativity with bright tie-dye and lather printing experiments. They also learned about atoms and polymers, how scientists study these materials, and how people use these materials daily.

Nanoscale Science Ph.D. student Margaret Kocherga, who is part of the Schmedake Research Group, showed students how various elements react, inviting the young scholars to participate in some experiments. View more photos on the College’s flickr.

CLAS involvement in the North Carolina Science Festival activities also has included the 6th annual UNC Charlotte Statewide Star Party on April 20 at the UNC Charlotte Observatory, as part of North Carolina’s annual statewide star party. Even more science activities presented by CLAS faculty, students and staff — along with many others from across the university — are planned for Sunday, April 29, as UNC Charlotte closes out the North Carolina Science Festival with its UNC Charlotte Science and Technology Expo.

A classroom approach in which students seek solutions to problems rooted in real meteorological data; non-traditional teaching techniques to help students grasp organic chemistry; and a focus on students choosing research projects geared to their interests are just some of the innovative, hands-on approaches this year’s CLAS Excellence in Teaching Awards recipients use to challenge students.

In recognition of their exceptional teaching, Casey Davenport, Jacob Horger and Valerie Bright have received the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ Excellence in Teaching Awards for this academic year.

Davenport, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, has received the Integration of Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award. Horger, a lecturer and organic lab coordinator in the Chemistry Department, has received the Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Full-Time Lecturer. Bright, an adjunct faculty member in the Department of English, has received the Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Part-Time Faculty Member. They received their awards at a college celebration on Monday, April 23 in the Halton Reading Room in Atkins Library.

Integration of Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award

Casey Davenport is described by Geography and Earth Sciences Department Chair Craig Allan as a talented educator and a rising scholar in the fields of Severe Weather Meteorology and Science Pedagogy. Her scholarship is evidenced by seven articles published or in press in top-tier journals. She also has an upcoming publication in the Journal of College Science Teaching, a peer-reviewed journal published by the National Science Teachers Association.

Casey Davenport (right) tracks the path of a weather balloon.

Students play a significant role in Davenport’s research program productivity, with seven of her 18 conference presentations featuring the work of student researchers. She uses innovative teaching approaches in a series of intensive and highly quantitative undergraduate courses that center on what is called a flipped classroom approach, where students work together to explore solutions to problems rooted in real meteorological data.

A UNC Charlotte graduate praised her for being challenging and for promoting critical thinking skills. Her approaches have resulted in her receipt of a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning grant, through which she uses a pedagogy known as worked examples to impact student learning in the atmospheric dynamics courses. The award committee was particularly impressed by the fact that this success in integrating teaching and research has been achieved within her first four years at UNC Charlotte.

Finalists for the Integration of Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award were Heather Perry, an associate professor in the Department of History and Shan Yan, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.

Perry is a highly innovative instructor in the classroom who has developed new pedagogical approaches to engage undergraduate students in the study of history. These novel approaches include the History Avatar Project, in which students impersonate historical or fictional actors to acquaint themselves with lived history, as well as the use of primary sources in many of her classes.

Biological Sciences Department Chair Pinku Mukherjee and colleagues have described Yan as an effective teacher for undergraduate students in the classroom and an attentive and dedicated mentor. This is evidenced in part by student authorship of research articles in prestigious peer reviewed scientific journals and their performance in university undergraduate research fairs.

Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Full-Time Lecturer

Jacob Horger has been a lecturer and the organic lab coordinator in the Chemistry Department at UNC Charlotte since fall 2010. He received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of South Carolina in 2010. While a doctoral student, he was a three-time winner of the Joseph Bouknight Teaching Award.

Jacob Horger frequently works in the labs with students.

At UNC Charlotte, Horger teaches a number of organic chemistry courses and labs. In these, he uses a variety of different pedagogical strategies to reach his students. These include active learning activities, in-class problem solving, specification grading, and collaborative laboratory projects.

The efficacy of his unorthodox pedagogy was a common theme in his many award nominations by his students. “I have never had a teacher so passionate and dedicated to making sure their students succeed,” one student wrote. “Organic is such a difficult topic but I feel Dr. Horger he makes it much easier to (comprehend). He utilizes different methods in class to be sure we understand the topics.”

The awards committee was impressed by Horger’s willingness to continually revamp his courses for his students’ benefit, by his deployment of non-traditional approaches in the classroom, and by his genuine concern that students master skills necessary to continue their studies.

Finalists for the Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Full-Time Lecturer were Peta Ann Katz, a full-time lecturer in the Anthropology Department, and John Russell Taylor, a full-time lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

In her courses, Katz offers a mixture of tried-and true and cutting-edge scholarship. She encourages her students to actively engage with assigned material, pushing them to generate their own questions and write on topics of their own choosing. She also is committed to opening her students up to new perspectives and new global realities, centering her teaching in a real-world, student-centric approach.

Taylor works hard in all of his classes to create a productive learning environment. He begins by trying to gauge which learning style and pace will work best for each particular group of students or individual student. He also encourages students to engage actively in their own learning and makes himself available outside of class as much as possible.

Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Part-Time Faculty Member

Valerie Bright is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of English, teaching in the department since 2012. English Department Chair Mark West has called Bright one of the department’s strongest undergraduate teachers.

Valerie Bright teaches a children’s literature class.

Students frequently comment on her high energy, her enthusiasm for the course material, and her creativity in the classroom. The awards committee was particularly impressed by Bright’s focus on critical and imaginative thinking and her attention to small details. Impressive too is the way she structures her classes, so that students can be self-directed learners. Students can choose their own research subjects, encouraging them to be more personally involved with their work.

A major goal is to help students improve their active listening and develop critical thinking skills. Bright said she wants her students to leave the classroom with more information about the subject matter, and she also wants them to show overall growth as individuals. She particularly wants them to appreciate diversity and gain confidence.

Bright regularly has taught two of the core liberal studies courses the department offers for the general education program as well as core courses in the area of children’s literature, Literature for Young Children and Adolescent Literature. In 2012, she received her master’s degree in English at UNC Charlotte, and in 2016, she completed her Master of Library and Information Sciences at UNC Greensboro.

Finalists for the Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Part-Time Faculty Member are David Clausen, an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies and Felecia Harris, an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Africana Studies and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.

In the classroom, Clausen approaches the material that he teaches as both an instructor and a student. As he writes in his teaching statement, “For me, teaching begins with the acknowledgement that I am, and always will be, a student. In this, my students seem to recognize that they are being guided by a kindred spirit, a fellow seeker who continues to ask the same questions they bring with them to class.”

About her teaching, Harris writes, “all students are unique and have something special that they can bring to their own education. I will assist my students to express themselves and accept themselves for who they are, as well embrace the differences of others.” Students routinely identify her as the one person at UNC Charlotte who made the most significant, positive contribution to their education on senior exit surveys.

Images: Lynn Roberson | Top Image: Valerie Bright (from left), Jacob Horger, Casey Davenport at the awards ceremony.

Academically talented, low-income students who want to study biological sciences can find life-changing opportunities through a new regional partnership among UNC Charlotte, Gaston College and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.

This innovative initiative is possible as a result of $4.5 million in funding from the National Science Foundation’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) program. The collaborative effort seeks to increase the number of students who complete both associate of science and bachelor’s of science degrees in the biological sciences.

The initiative – called the SPARC4, or STEM Persistence and Retention via Curricula, Centralization, Cohorts, and Collaboration Project – will provide 156 scholarships over five years, beginning in fall 2018. The initiative is an expansion and scale-up of a project at Gaston College called SPARC³ that resulted in improved academic scores for the participating students and higher percentages of that college’s students completing their associate degrees when compared to the college’s general population.

For each year of the new initiative, 10-12 students at each community college will be chosen for one-year renewable scholarships, faculty and peer mentoring, and targeted advising designed to promote successful transfer to the biology or pre-biology major at UNC Charlotte in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Students will be eligible for continued scholarships and academic support when they transfer to UNC Charlotte.

Students in a cell biology lab at UNC Charlotte conduct experiments as part of their class. SPARC4 scholars will benefit from similar hands-on research and collaboration.

While the initiative will work with specific students at the three institutions, knowledge gained from the partnership holds the potential for broader impact, academic leaders say. This anticipated impact particularly relates to upward mobility, which can be linked to educational attainment levels.

“This partnership will accomplish much more than helping these specific students,” said Dr. Joan Lorden, UNC Charlotte Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. “The initiative will help all three partners implement and then study interventions to find out what works best to help these students, and others like them, succeed. We can then apply these proven interventions more broadly, with far-reaching impact at our institutions and elsewhere.”

The successful SPARC³ project at Gaston College began in 2009 and has shown increased rates of students transferring into STEM majors at North Carolina universities, in addition to improved academic scores and associate degree completion by those students. The new initiative will draw from that work and the efforts of SPARC³ program leaders at Gaston College: Ashley Hagler, SPARC³ Director, Dr. Melissa Armstrong, Science and Mathematics Chairperson, and Dr. Heather Woodson, Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs.

Gaston College saw improved academic scores and higher degree completion rates with its SPARC3 project.

“We expect to see additional students finishing their degrees and transferring to UNC Charlotte as a result of this grant,” said Dr. Heather Woodson, Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs at Gaston College. “The impact on Gaston College and our partner institutions in this initiative will be very positive, and the effects on individual students in our community will be profound. The new partnership will allow community college transfer students to benefit from an enhanced student experience and significant financial support at both the community colleges and UNC Charlotte. We also will be able to more closely track student performance after transfer.”

Students who were part of the SPARC³ project at Gaston College and who transferred to UNC Charlotte call the support they received transformational.

“SPARC³ was the best experience in my educational journey,” said Erin Spurrier, a biology major at UNC Charlotte. “This program provided me with new skills, support, opportunities, experiences and an environment that not only helped me succeed, but provided me with a new and exciting outlook on higher education. To me this program represents the future and a way schools can encourage their students to enjoy learning.”

The SPARC4 partnership effort is expected to expand participation in STEM fields by a more diverse population.

“We are proud to work collaboratively on this initiative. Increasing the number of students pursuing careers in STEM fields is critical to diversifying the science and technical expertise in our region,” said Dr. Carol S. Spalding, President of Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. “This grant will help support students who will really benefit from additional mentoring and financial resources.”

The students will be members of discipline-based learning communities at the community colleges and UNC Charlotte. They will participate in hands-on research opportunities and inquiry-based activities in STEM courses. Each of the partner institutions will also emphasize student-centered learning by redesigning STEM courses in which students frequently struggle. With the course redesigns, the project will directly benefit more students than just the scholarship recipients.

Rowan-Cabarrus Community College is focused on students gaining the skills and knowledge necessary for careers in the life sciences.

At UNC Charlotte, the scholarship recipients will benefit academically from enrolling together in sections of required courses outside the biology major where those majors have historically struggled. These courses will feature the use of peer mentors trained specifically to address transfer student issues. They also will have the opportunity to work on research projects with UNC Charlotte biological sciences faculty and to present their work at professional conferences.

“Students who transfer to UNC Charlotte in the biological sciences from community colleges can find the transition difficult, and many drop out, particularly those who have not completed their associate degrees,” said Dr. Elizabeth Stearns, SPARC4 Project Director and UNC Charlotte sociology professor. “Academic, financial and social support can increase the graduation rate for these students, and we believe our new partnership will allow us to use that support to intervene at critical moments for these scholars at all three institutions.”

The regional partnership is expected to contribute to the nationwide conversation around the issue of what helps – or hinders – community college students as they strive for careers in STEM fields, particularly in the life sciences.

Collaborators at each institution include faculty from diverse disciplines, as well as institutional leadership. At UNC Charlotte, in addition to the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, partners include the University Transfer Center, which is a resource for transfer students. Each year, UNC Charlotte welcomes more community college transfers than any other North Carolina college or university.

The contact person for fall 2018 scholarships for students at Rowan Cabarrus Community College is Biotechnology Program Chair Dr. Carol Scherczinger. At Gaston College, the contact is Chief Development Officer Julia P. Allen. At UNC Charlotte, qualified students will be invited to participate.

About the Collaborators:

UNC Charlotte is North Carolina’s urban research university. With fall 2017 enrollment of more than 29,300 students, the University leverages its location in the state’s largest city to offer internationally competitive programs of research and creative activity, exemplary undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs, and a focused set of community engagement initiatives. As the largest and most diverse college at UNC Charlotte, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences advances the discovery, dissemination, and application of knowledge and creativity and – by building the academic programs for tomorrow – educates students to be critical and imaginative thinkers and engaged citizens for a world increasingly characterized by diversity and change. We are committed to developing an inclusive environment where diversity, in all its forms, is valued and incorporated in the full-range of college activities.

Opening its doors in 1963, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College is one of 58 colleges in the state-supported North Carolina Community College System. Rowan-Cabarrus is a comprehensive, community-focused institution of higher learning, serving the residents of Rowan and Cabarrus counties at multiple campus locations and through on-line programs. Rowan-Cabarrus offers fully-accredited associate degree programs in more than 30 areas of study, including arts and sciences, business, information technology, health and public services, engineering technologies, and biotechnology, as well as dozens of diplomas and certifications. Rowan-Cabarrus provides more than 2,000 course offerings, serving a yearly overall enrollment of more than 20,000 students. In addition, Rowan-Cabarrus provides the education and job-training programs needed to meet many of the workforce demands of the North Carolina Research Campus being developed in Kannapolis.

Gaston College is one of 58 community colleges in the North Carolina Community College System. Serving both Gaston and Lincoln counties, Gaston College enrolls approximately 8,000 students each term in curriculum programs and averages over 17,000 annually in its Economic and Workforce Development and Continuing Education programs. Gaston College offers over 100 fields of study to obtain a degree, diploma or certificate.

Images: Lynn Roberson and courtesy of Gaston College and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. First image: Current students conduct research in a UNC Charlotte biological sciences lab; SPARC4 scholars will benefit from mentorship and hands-on research, such as shown here.

Irwin Belk Endowed Professor for Cancer Research Pinku Mukherjee is the 2018 recipient of the First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal, UNC Charlotte’s most prestigious faculty award in recognition of excellence in research. She was honored formally at an awards ceremony Wednesday, April 11, at the Harris Alumni Center at Johnson Glen.

Since 1987, the University annually, with the support from First Citizens Bank, presents this award to recognize and foster the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and creative endeavors.

Mukherjee, who also is chair of the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, is a leader in transforming how cancer is diagnosed and treated. She has designed innovative approaches that more accurately detect breast cancer early, and she is developing targeted therapy and imaging for pancreatic, ovarian and colon cancers. Mukherjee’s groundbreaking cancer research has produced a U.S. patent and has resulted in grants from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Susan G. Komen Foundation totaling more than $3.5 million as principal investigator and more than $500,000 as co-investigator.

“Pinku Mukherjee’s research not only has the potential to make possible early detection of cancers to allow early therapy but also to avoid unnecessary surgical procedures in people who do not have cancer but receive positive results in current tests that are notorious for their high rate of false positives,” said Mark Clemens, professor of biological sciences at UNC Charlotte.

In 2011, Mukherjee co-founded OncoTab Inc., a UNC Charlotte biotechnology spinoff company that is launching its first product (a simple blood test) that aids in the diagnosis of breast cancer for women in which a mammogram fails. She holds several patents for the development of a novel antibody that has applications in molecular diagnostics and anti-cancer therapeutics. OncoTab Inc. has won several awards including one from NCBiotech as well as the grand prize at the Charlotte Venture Challenge.

First Citizens Bank Award 2018

“Pinku Mukherjee serves as a role model for translational science through her work to bring lab discoveries into the marketplace where they can have a substantial, positive effect on human health,” said Paul Wetenhall, executive director of UNC Charlotte Ventureprise. “She is an outstanding ambassador for UNC Charlotte research.”

Mukherjee earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Bombay University, India, and master’s and doctoral degrees in applied immunology from the University of London. She completed postdoctoral training at Pennsylvania State University and held faculty appointments at Indiana University Medical Center and the Mayo Clinic. Mukherjee was the 2015 recipient of the O. Max Gardner award, the highest faculty accolade given by the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina.

“For 31 years, First Citizens and UNC Charlotte have come together to honor the outstanding achievements of an exceptional faculty member,” said Kim Allred, senior vice president at First Citizens Bank. “The spirit of the Scholars Medal truly reflects our bank’s ‘Forever First’ commitment to the people, businesses and communities we serve. It’s a great privilege for us to recognize Pinku Mukherjee for her immense contributions and the impact her work is having within the field of cancer research and most importantly, in the lives of people who face this illness.”

The First Citizens Bank Scholars Medal was created to spotlight the important contributions UNC Charlotte and its faculty are making, not only in its community, but also throughout the Carolinas, the nation and the world. Past award recipients have influenced scholarship in a number of academic disciplines and fields, including engineering, psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology, history, arts and education.

The solution to an intricate mathematical problem is a thing of beauty for UNC Charlotte researcher Xingjie (Helen) Li – much like a poem, with its economy, precision and ability to give joy.

“With a poem, you often just use a few words to describe something,” Li says. “And in mathematics, we also use a few expressions to describe a problem. It’s complicated stuff, but you know there is a unique path to this complex thing. And through the truth of mathematics, you can identify this unique path.”

As an applied mathematician drawing from expertise in the fields of physics and materials science, Li’s work on mathematical models holds promise for issues such as the defects in crystalline structures that cause potholes in roads, load balancing in communication networks, and better understanding of behaviors of cancer cells and bacteria.

While the topics may appear dissimilar, Li keeps her focus on the underlying math and physics.

Take the issue of load balancing in communication networks, and the increasing density of bacteria or cancer cells, for example. For Li, each of these issues represents a transportation issue, when considered from a mathematical perspective.

“These two things seem to be less relevant to each other,” she says. “But from an interior scope perspective, they are very related. You always want to keep the physics – the structure of the problem – in mind. Then you can design better schemes. The scope for crystals, or the scope for biological application, or the scope for these load balancing dynamics, they share some similarities.”

One of her research projects seeks to solve pattern differential equations that mathematically describe the physical phenomenon of the blowup of bacteria density. With chemotaxis, a chemical stimulus can cause bacteria to direct its movements.

“Because of this attracting property, that means the density of bacteria will concentrate,” Li says. “Numerically, or from a computation point of view, it looks like the density blows up. So, to compute the evolution of the density, how bacteria gather and are concentrated to a very local place, this simulation is not easy.”

Li’s work seeks to simulate this process using a mathematical model to help biologists and other researchers better understand the process that naturally occurs. By using modeling, the process should be observable in a more stable environment, with broad biological science implications.

“Biologists can apply these types of models to cancer because cancer cells also concentrate and blow up within a short time,” she says.

Modeling Holds Relevance For Communications Systems

This particular modeling also could be relevant to communications networks, such as server farms, distributed memory machines, cloud computing, and communication systems. Companies use mathematics to balance the load on their networks, as the volume of customers, communications and files on the systems can affect their efficiency – and customers’ experience. In a conference proceeding published in December, Li and colleagues Reza Aghajani of University of California, San Diego and Kavita Ramanan of Brown University introduced a new framework to analyze large-scale load balancing networks with general service time distributions.

“This issue has some similarity compared to the evolution of the bacteria because they are all hyperbolic transportation type problems,” Li says. “So, in other words, the stabilization techniques used in the biology problems can be adjusted to the load balancing problems.”

In her work with crystalline solids, Li received funding from the National Science Foundation in summer 2017 for research into multiscale methods for crystalline nanomaterials. Crystals are solids whose components, such as atoms and molecules, form a regular crystal structure.

“Crystals are nice, organized materials,” Li says. “They have structures and usually these structures are periodic. And in the three-dimensional real world, there are 14 different types of structures. These crystals have perfect structure if there’s no defect but once there’s a defect introduced – like a crack – locally near the defects, the perfect structures are lost. But away from the defects, the rest of the material is still nearly perfect.”

Defects Can Prove Dangerous

Crystal defects, such as cracks, dislocations and grain boundaries, can cause materials to fail. Understanding the physical forces at work can lead to improved materials and responses to defects. A practical implication can be seen with potholes in roads, which occur as a result of crystal defects.

“Due to the cold weather in winter, cracks occur in the highways, which are very dangerous,” Li says. “And in summer, the government puts a lot of money into filling in these holes, but they come again in winter. In order to model the provocation of these potholes, we are more interested in the evolution of the crack tip.”

She is researching how to combine one model that is more efficient – in other words, less expensive – and another model that is more accurate but more expensive, to model defects.

The two models are called bottom-up, which Li describes as coarse-graining of microscopic descriptions (atomistic models) of material behavior, and top-down, which is informing macroscopic models (continuum equations) with physics gleaned from the microscopic scales.

“The bottom-up approach usually is used for a relatively small real space problem – nano-sized,” she says. “Because you start from the atomic level, you would expect your problem can not be of a huge size. But for the top-down approach, because you start with an empirical model, you are looking at something large, from a physical perspective.”

While the research has specific practical potential in its application, it also holds promise for learning more about how the models can be combined.

As Li continues to expand and pursue her research, she also will continue to expand her connection with student research and applied learning in the classroom. She will pursue forming a Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics organization at UNC Charlotte and was instrumental in arranging a Carolinas Women in Mathematics Symposium in 2017, which involved students.

“I think every student has their own gift, so it makes me feel very happy if I can motivate a student to find the beauty of mathematics and to find the connection between mathematics and other applications,” Li says. “Working with students is a lot of fun. They are very creative. They can have brilliant ideas about improving the model.”

Words and Image: Lynn Roberson, CLAS Communications Director | Graphic: Ashley Plyler, CLAS Graphic Designer