Cyrielle Houdin, advanced beauty marketing manager at Microphyt, talks toPersonal Care Insights about its two launches: DunaPure, an active ingredient that uses Arctic microalgae to help create flawless skin, and Luteana for the scalp, the first integrative solution to rebalance and soothe sensitive skin.
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My parents and my fathers sister left Vietnam in late 1981, while my mother was in her second trimester carrying me. The U.S. war in Vietnam ended with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. Over the next two decades, more than 1.2 million Vietnamese people fled the country. Of those, 700,000 left in fishing boats to escape the tumultuous political climate.
To escape Vietnam on a fishing boat meant risking ones life for an unforgiving journey three to five days in the open ocean with only the food you could carry, and the fear of being attacked by pirates or caught and imprisoned by the Viet Cong.
Courtesy of Minh Bui
Minh Bui is a senior research biologist researching centromere biology at the National Cancer Institute.
The open water journey took my parents to an Indonesian refugee camp. The fishing boats had to maneuver around Singapores waters, where a military blockade was formed to prevent refugees from entering its borders. They landed on one of two remote Indonesian islands (each housing about 15,000 refugees), one dedicated to resettling Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge and the second for the Vietnamese. After I was born, we lived in the refugee camp for a year. My father describes the camp as a place no one wanted to live, filthy and chaotic. My mother does not speak of it.
Because of an agreement between the U.S. and the Vietnamese men who fought alongside Americans against the Viet Cong, my father, mother and I were selected to immigrate to the U.S., while my aunt went to Australia. We resettled just north of Washington, D.C. in the Maryland suburbs. For the first few years, we relied on the kindness of relatives who immigrated before us and assistance from our church. My mother had a middle school education and my father had attended high school. Throughout my childhood, they incessantly emphasized the importance of education for my sister and me.
My upbringing instilled in me a strong will. My parents each worked two to four jobs, 12 to 16 hours a day, for most of my childhood. When my friends parents were making dinner and helping them with their homework, I was making dinner and helping my sister with her homework. Failure wasnt an option.
After completing high school in 1999, I received a full academic scholarship to Montgomery College, a local community college, and a scholarship to attend a summer semester at Cambridge University, allthrough the Montgomery Scholars program.. That same year, I began my internship training at a local proteomics biotech company.
I transferred to the University of Maryland, College Park, and completed my bachelors degree in 2003, continuing my scientific training under the supervision of Marco Colombini and Leah Siskind in membrane biophysics. In 2005, I rotated to Zhongchi Lius lab where I trained in plant genetics and graduated with my Ph.D. in 2009.
In 2017, I had the rare opportunity to go back to the refugee camp where I was born. It is now a museum and memorial honoring the lives of those who did not complete that three to five-day ocean journey. I saw the 1,500-square-foot hospital where I was born, the replica models of the shacks that temporarily housed the families, and images of children and grandparents being lowered into the ocean because they did not survive the journey. No one had ever told me the story of what the Vietnamese boat people endured, and seeing it in documented detail was humbling and emotional. I felt fortunate and grateful that I was too young to remember.
Refugee children often feel a need to make our parents proud after they risked everything to give us the opportunities their country of origin could not afford them. In 2009, I was the first, and am still the only, member in my immediate and extended family to earn a doctoral degree. That same year, I was recruited to the National Institutes of Health under the direction of Yamini Dalal, where I now conduct research in centromere biology using genetic, biochemical, biophysical and cell biology approaches.
Throughout my years as a researcher, Ive seen a great diversity of people in labs diversity in skills, expertise and way of thinking. Sometimes a trained geneticist encounters a problem, but it takes a biochemist to find a solution. Be it our racial background, upbringing or gender, diversity helps advance science by filling in gaps; each person alone is not equipped to address every question. Immigrants make up 25% of the STEM workforce in the U.S., adding our unique approach to questions from angles others may not have thought of.
After 15 years at NIH and 25 years as an experimentalist, I can confidently say that, as a refugee-born immigrant, my scientific education and training have been rigorous, my underrepresented views and strong-willed approaches are valuable, and my passion and love for science remain persistent.
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University of North Florida biology professor Scott Jones recently found mangrove trees in southern Georgia. He said these are the northernmost trees ever recorded.
Back in January, Jones headed north in search of the coastal tree with William Vervaeke, a coastal ecologist for the National Park Service, and Ilka Feller, an ecologist for the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
They started at an area near the south side of Amelia Island and discovered more mangroves than expected. The team continued north until they reached the marshes near Cumberland Island, where they found the northernmost mangrove trees.
Mangroves are tropical plants that typically die when temperatures are below freezing. They are more common in warmer coastal regions like Florida, but due to climate change, mangroves have recently been documented in more northern areas.
Jones said many other factors besides global warming contribute to the northward spread and that mangroves will keep moving up on the map long term.
Climate change is a big driver of the expansion, but there are a lot of other factors involved, including the timing of storm events that bring mangroves up the coast, he said.
Jones explained that while mangroves have a different structure than other saltwater marshes in southern Georgia, the trees spread may benefit its host environment differently. Mangroves have a more hearty, woody root structure that could prevent erosion.
[For example], breaking waves as they come in from storms; mangroves do that in a different way than marshes. And they might be better at that, actually. Thats under investigation, Jones said.
The team used one of UNFs shallow draft boats to access the marshs winding channels for their discovery. Jones said the timing was key during their fieldwork.
You have to go by boat, and it has to be a small enough boat to get up in the marsh, he said. The channel edges where the mangroves areat low tide, its a mud flat; theres no water. At high tide, you can get in and access.
Jones is continuing his fieldwork with mangroves and says he and his colleagues are still in the discovery phase to understand how they can benefit surrounding ecosystems. The Georgia discovery team is writing a paper about their findings.
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UNF biology professor discovers northernmost mangroves ever recorded - UNF Spinnaker
Whats going on here?
EvolutionaryScale, an AI startup revolutionizing biology, just raised an impressive $142 million in seed funding.
What does this mean?
The funding round, led by industry stalwarts Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and Lux Capital, also secured significant backing from AWS and NVIDIAs venture arm. Josh Wolfe from Lux described this milestone as a 'ChatGPT moment for biology.' EvolutionaryScale's groundbreaking large language model, ESM3, aims to transform drug discovery and environmental engineering. Some models will be open-sourced for non-commercial research, while AWS and NVIDIA will support commercial use. EvolutionaryScale's innovative AI has already engineered a novel fluorescent protein, achieving evolutionary advancements that would have taken nature 500 million years.
Why should I care?
For markets: Pioneering the future of biotech.
This substantial investment signals strong confidence in AI's potential to revolutionize biotech. With major players like AWS and NVIDIA backing EvolutionaryScale, investors should watch how these technologies might drive significant growth in the biotech sector.
The bigger picture: AI, biology, and the next frontier.
AI's integration into biology is not just advancing drug discovery but also poised to address environmental challenges, like engineering microbes to break down plastic. However, this progress comes with caution, as generative AI's dual-use potential raises concerns about the creation of bioweapons.
Excerpt from:
EvolutionaryScale Raises $142 Million To Transform Biology With AI - Finimize
What actually happens to the human body in space? While scientists and researchers have heavily researched how various factors impact the human body here on Earth, the amount of information available about changes that occur in the body in space is not as well-known. Scientists, including OHIOs Nate Szewczyk and several of his trainees, have been studying for years how the body, specifically on the molecular side, changes in space. Recently, a new package of papers has been published in Nature journals depicting how the modern tools of molecular biology and precision medicine can help guide humanity into more challenging missions beyond where weve already been.
The package of papers, titled Space Omics and Medical Atlas across orbits, includes manuscripts, data, protocols, and code, representing the largest-ever compendium of data for aerospace medicine and space biology. Over 100 institutions from more than 25 countries worked together to coordinate the release of this molecular, cellular, physiological, phenotypic, and spaceflight data.
Szewczyk, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and a principle investigator in the Ohio Musculoskeletal and Neurologic Institute, coauthored seven different articles including: Spaceflight induces changes in gene expression profiles linked to insulin and estrogen, Astronaut omics and the impact of space on the human body at scale, Understanding how space travel affects the female reproductive system, Transcriptomics analysis reveals molecular alterations underpinning spaceflight dermatology, Aging and putative frailty biomarkers are altered by spaceflight, and Ethical considerations for the age of non-governmental space exploration.
In addition to coauthoring several papers, Szewczyk also involved his trainees on six of the papers. The trainees include OHIO medical studentsAnthony Carano and Caroline Coffey; Alexia Tasoula, a Ph.D. student in the translational biomedical sciences program; post-doctoral research Craig Willis, an OHIO alum and current assistant professor at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom; as well as Dr. Henry Cope, researcher with the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.
Their articles highlight research from how spaceflight induced changes in insulin and estrogen signaling in rodents and humans, to ethical considerations for commercial spaceflight, and known and potential impacts of spaceflight on reproduction.
Weve studied worms for years but now have the ability to study people, Szewczyk said. We are at a place, particularly with NASA and the commercial sector, where we can focus on using more modern omics techniques to try and better understand changes in astronauts themselves, which can revolutionize their health.
Szewczyk, known for his work researching worms in space, highlights the significance of these creatures as the first multicellular animals to have their genome sequenced. Leveraging genomics tools and techniques developed through worm studies, researchers have been able to delve into the molecular changes experienced by organisms in space. He notes that for over two decades, worms have been sent into space to observe gene expression alterations, paving the way for these similar studies in humans.
But as space flight becomes more commercialized and more people outside of just NASAs astronauts pursue orbit, the need to understand the molecular level of humans in space becomes more important in ensuring their health and safety.
According to Szewczyk, the U.S. is growing in its space-based economy and as a result of that, there is now increased interest in commercial space flight. In Ohio, there is a new space park in Columbus set up by the commercial company Voyager Space.
The more commercial space flight grows, the more important understanding peoples omics is, Szewczyk explained. Space medicine is evolving from something that really only NASA was responsible for since they were the only organization sending people into space, to something more common as commercial space flight grows. We are seeing an increase in this type of flight from SpaceX and other companies and it is crucial that those entering space are prepared. Flight providers must provide medical coverage for their participants. When people go to the International Space Station (ISS), it is governed by certain rules and regulations, whereas with commercial space flight, these same guidelines dont necessarily apply. There is interest to grow space medicine and advance techniques for looking at health in space, especially as more people are able to go into orbit.
Szewczyk's impact extends far beyond the laboratory as he actively advocates for open science and international collaboration, particularly in the field of space research. As co-chair of the NASA GeneLab Animal Analysis Working Group, he promotes the sharing of scientific knowledge among international space agencies, exemplified by initiatives like integrating the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) into NASA working groups. Moreover, his involvement in a JAXA Flagship Project includes leading efforts to harmonize ethical concerns and research methodologies for precision health in astronauts across multiple space agencies, including NASA, ESA, and JAXA.
Humans are humans regardless of where they are from or currently live and the way space impacts them is ultimately the same, Szewczyk said. So the more we can all work together to compare how astronauts and those visiting space react in space, the better we can work to ensure safety and determine what guidelines need put in place for their health while in space and returning.
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Lincoln, Neb. Carly Olson grew up in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, surrounded by but never seeing the fascinating aquatic life she would one day build a career upon.
The aquatic life eventually catching her eye wasnt the famed walleye of Minnesota but zooplankton. In particular, Olson became interested in the microscopic crustaceans that feed on algae and then serve as fish food themselves.
Although she had grown up fishing and swimming in lakes and streams, she learned of the existence of zooplankton only after trying to sign up for a pre-veterinarian class at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
When she couldnt get into the already-full class, she took a class in marine biology instead.
"I took that course, and I was hooked," she said. "I was like, 'Yup, this is it.'"
With a microscope, she could see the many zooplankton that help balance the food web in inland waters and help keep these ecosystems healthy.
"It really just was like, 'There's this whole other world to discover and learn about.' That was just really fascinating to me," she said.
Olson went on to earn her bachelor's degree in biology with an emphasis in aquatic science in Wisconsin. She then earned her doctorate in biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame. She now works withJessica Cormanas a postdoctoral researcher on astoichiometry projectfunded by EPSCoR and teaches limnology, the study of inland waters.
In late July and early August, she will teach a three-week, three-credit limnology course at theCedar Point Biological Stationnear Lake McConaughy in western Nebraska. She taught it last summer for two weeks but extended it another week after students suggested she do so in follow-up surveys about the class.
During last summers course, she led six students in collecting water samples from Lake Ogallala, five lakes at Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge, the North Platte River and a groundwater-fed stream. They examined the water samples with microscopes to figure out which zooplankton made up the community serving as food for fish and keeping algae in check. Students had the assignment to draw 30 organisms they saw.
They also took measurements of nitrogen, phosphorus and chlorophyll a in the water samples. These serve as nutrients for algae and are an important part of the food web, but in too high amounts, they can result in harmful algae blooms that strip the water of oxygen.
Olson had the students enter the data they collected in Excel and create figures and plots to summarize it. She instructed them in ecological stoichiometry, looking at the ratio of elements in the water to see if they were balanced right for aquatic life.
They used sensors to measure the different oxygen and temperature levels in the water. They also visited the hydroelectric dam on Lake McConaughey and worked with Nebraska Game and Parks to catch and view fish in Lake Ogallala.
"Surprisingly, western Nebraska is a really great place to teach limnology," Olson said. "There's a lot of water and interesting systems to contrast out there in the Sandhills."
This summer, she plans to add a trip to the Snowy Range in Wyoming to contrast alpine lakes with the Sandhills ones.Daniel Gschwentner, the graduate student who served as her teaching assistant in the class last summer, will coteach. They have opened the class to graduate students as well as undergraduates.
Olson said she would like to increase enrollment in the class, now at seven or eight students. Students generally pay only tuition for the class because they stay in cabins at the Cedar Point Biological Station and receive scholarships covering room and board.
Student feedback on last summers class was positive, she said, and she learned a lot from the class too.
"This course really solidified I can create a course from scratch--with help, for sure," she said. "And I can lead these students and create a really great, effective and enriching learning experience for them and create some sort of community.
The experience confirmed for her that she was on the right track for her career, she said.
The School of Natural Resources seconded that notion by awarding her the Postdoctoral Excellence Award at the school banquet on April 6, 2024.
Looking forward, Olson said she is considering being a professor or researcher in state or federal government.
"I feel myself being pulled towards making sure that I have some element of teaching and mentoring in my work," she said.
And the decision to continue with water at the center of her career makes sense to her when she reflects on her life and growing up near the Mississippi River in South Saint Paul and then the Saint Croix River in Stillwater, Minnesota.
"I've always lived right next to a big river," she said. "Even in my day-to-day life, water has always been there.
Link:
Olson offers students a window into aquatic world - Nebraska Today
The courses of the new biology curriculum is based on Greenlandic experiences and scientific findings. The course names are derived from Greenlandic names for seals or reindeer. Starting with 12 students, applications are open and the course will start on February 1st, 2025. Image: Daniel Lyberth Hauptmann
A new chapter is being added to Greenlands university history these weeks. For many years, educating biologists within the country has been a dream. A dream that has now come true.
Ilisimatusarfik and Greenland Institute of Natural Resources have jointly established a new bachelors degree in biology called SILA, which is now open for applications for admission to the course. The biology education is based in Nuuk. Many families in Greenland are lucky to have a relationship with hunting, fishing, and being out in nature. It is an obvious strength to build an education on, says Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann, head of the department for the new SILA biology education. She adds: We have an enormous amount of biological knowledge in our society, so SILA aims to build on the knowledge people already have.
For Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann, who holds a Ph.D. in microbiology, the story began in 2016 when she wrote a blog post. The post contained the first tentative ideas for what would later become SILA. The thoughts revolved around the idea that it would be ideal for Greenland to have a biology program that builds on the experience and skills many people in the population already possess. I come from a family and a culture where reindeer hunting is very significant. It dawned on me how much biological knowledge is needed for reindeer hunting and how great it would be to include hunting as part of an education, Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann explains.
We are so excited. Who will be our students? How will this be for them? Will it be as good as we dream about?
Over the past three years, she has been responsible for fulfilling the dream of a Greenlandic biology program. And now we are finally here. We have created the program. We have a course called Tuttu (reindeer). And we will go reindeer hunting. Its quite touching to think about.
In addition to Tuttu, the semester plan also includes courses named Appa (thick-billed murre), Siku (ice), Puisi (seal), and Imaq (the sea). These courses are all based on Greenlandic reality. For Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann and the rest of the SILA staff, its obvious why Greenland should be able to train its own biologists. Over 90 percent of our income in this country is based on living creatures from the sea. Its the fisheries that pay for our hospitals. Its the fisheries that pay for our daycare centers. So, of course, we need a population with the skills to understand the ecosystems we are a part of and who can manage them, Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann states.
However, Aviaja Hauptmann Lyberth believes that the program is valuable not only for Greenlandic society but also for individuals. Education is about much more than just entering the job market. Education is also a process where people discover how to make a difference in the world. Not only by acquiring concrete tools but also by developing a critical sense and discovering who they are as a person, she says. So we want this program to build confidence in people.
With this in mind, they have made it possible for applicants to qualify for the program in various ways so everyone has equal opportunities to enter the program. There is room for the person who has achieved top grades in school and has always known they want to pursue something in the natural sciences. But there is also room for the group for whom the school system wasnt designed but who actually have a lot of biological knowledge and can contribute significantly to society, says Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann. Therefore, Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann and her colleagues will give the most weight to the motivated application when selecting the first students at SILA.
The first class at SILA has room for 12 students. The classes will take place in the Pikialaarfik building at Ilimarfik (the campus area in Nuuk), where the program is also located today. Applications are open now and until November 1. We are so excited. Who will be our students? How will this be for them? Will it be as good as we dream about? Aviaja Lyberth Hauptmann and her colleagues will find out on February 1, 2025, when the doors at Pikialaarfik open for the first students.
Text: Nicolline Larsen, Photos: Daniel Lyberth Hauptmann
Interested? Applicants can find all information here
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Now you can get a bachelor's degree in biology in Greenland - Polarjournal
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Some of the most destructive invasive species come in small packages. Few come smaller than the spiny water flea, a tiny crustacean with a long, spiked tail.
Spinies and the more famous zebra mussels change lake ecosystems far out of proportion to their size. At the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Gretchen Hansen is untangling the web of biological and chemical impacts that these and other aquatic invasive species weave.
A lot of our research focuses on documenting impacts while also identifying places that are more sensitive or more resilient, says Hansen, an assistant professor in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology. We also study climate change and how lakes and fish respond.
Spinies are part of the zooplanktontiny animals that drift around with tiny plants called phytoplankton. So are native water fleas, which are eaten by many young fish and, unfortunately, spinies. Spinies afflict lakes large and small, including Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin, and Minnesotas Lake Mille Lacs.
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