Archived News
CBC Winter 2010 Workshop in Informatics for Proteomics Received with Enthusiasm
February 4, 2010
The CBC-organized winter workshop in Informatics for Proteomics, held at the UIC College of Pharmacy on January 26-27, 2010, offered two days of lecture and hands-on informatics training. The workshop covered the basics of mass spectrometry, data extraction, database searching, and several advanced topics such as the use of stable isotopes and chemical labeling in quantitative proteomics and the identification of post-translational modifications with mass spectrometry. Participants were also introduced to top-down proteomics and recent updates to the facility's LTQ-FT Ultra mass spectrometer. The number of applicants far exceeded the capacity of the workshop; the 21 accepted attendees were selected from the three CBC universities as well as from Loyola University and Rush Medical Center. Given student interest and enthusiasm, presentation of additional workshops is under consideration. Please contact Jola Glotzer (jolaglotzer at uchicago dot edu) or Larry Helseth (helseth at uic dot edu) with questions or comments.
The CBC Scholars Program
January 29, 2010
Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC) is pleased to announce the inaugural class of CBC Scholars. Each CBC University was invited to nominate up to three outstanding advanced graduate students to participate in the new CBC Scholars Program. The class of 2010 will consist of eight members (listed below) each to receive a grant of $5,000 per year for up to two years to be used for academically related purposes such as travel to conferences.
The CBC Scholar Program intends to develop a leadership forum for students from the CBC Universities to advance the CBC mission of fostering collaboration and excellence. The first gathering of the CBC Scholars took place on January 27, 2010.
Chicago Biomedical Consortium Scholars: Class of 2010
Northwestern University:
Justin Cassidy, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology
Weston Daniel, Department of Chemistry
Jaclyn Shepard, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
University of Illinois at Chicago:
Rima Chaudhuri, Department of Bioengineering and Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
Matthew Curtis, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Haripriya Ramu, Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
The University of Chicago:
Sam Nalle, Department of Pathology
Erin White, Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology
CBC announces 2009 Fall Round Catalyst Awards
January 8, 2010
The Chicago Biomedical Consortium’s Catalyst Award program offers funding of up to $200,000 for one- or two-year collaborative research projects. Catalyst Awards aim to support creative new inter-institutional collaborations in basic biomedical research.
The following three research teams received the CBC Catalyst Award in 2009 Fall Round:
Serdar Bulun, MD, (NU), Jonna Frasor, PhD, (UIC) and Yang Dai, PhD, (UIC) recieve a CBC Catalyst Award for project: A Systems Biology Understanding of Estrogen Receptor Action.
Alexander Minella, MD, (NU) Marsha Rosner, PhD, (UChicago) and Robert Rosner, PhD, (UChicago) recieve a CBC Catalyst Award for project: Cell Cycle Regulatory Networks: An Integrative Approach.
Lonnie Shea, PhD, (NU) and Deborah Tonetti, PhD, (UIC) recieve a CBC Catalyst Award for project: A High throughput signaling pathway analysis during cellular organization into structures.
An NU Start-Up Wins 2009 CBC Business Plan Competition
From Emily Ayshford, The McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
May 30, 2009
VesselTek Biomedical, an innovative vascular products company started by Guillermo Ameer, associate
professor of biomedical engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at
Northwestern University, his former student Antonio Webb, and Melina Kibbe, assistant professor of
surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine, will receive a $10,000 prize for winning the annual competition,
which invites graduate student teams from the three CBC schools — Northwestern, University of Chicago, and
University of Illinois at Chicago — to submit biomedically relevant business plans in order to compete for
the grand prize. This year, six teams competed.
VesselTek Biomedical started a year ago after Ameer realized that the biocompatible coating that promotes
the safety and success of vascular repairs that he developed in his lab would need outside funding and support
if it were ever to make it to market.
“Tony Webb did an excellent job presenting,” Ameer says, “and winning this competition validates the company’s
goals. When it comes to raising funds, we hope it will open doors.”
Ameer says a synthetic graft with biocompatible coating that would reduce thrombosis and could be on the market
within three years. A drug-eluting version, making artificial graft procedures as successful as those using natural
vessels, will follow within the next five years.
The Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC), launched with a demonstration project in 2002 and a full granting program
starting in 2006, aims to stimulate collaboration among scientists at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago,
and the University of Illinois at Chicago that will transform research at the frontiers of biomedicine. The Chicago
Biomedical Consortium is supported by The Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust.
CBC Microscopy Forum Highlights New Imaging Techniques and Applications
March 26, 2009
On March 26, 2009, the CBC gathered 10 local principal investigators with an interest in various aspect of microscopic imaging for
a special Forum: Seeing Small is Believing Big. Over 100 researchers from Northwestern, University of Chicago,
and UIC attended the half-day event at the University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center. The primary purpose of this event was to
familiarize this group of excellent, diverse, and multi-institutional investigators with the array of microscopy-based research and
resources going on across the city. Presentations covered topics ranging from “New Fluorescent Proteins for In Vivo Imaging” to
“Micromanipulation and micro-visualization studies of protein-DNA interactions and chromosome structure.” The forum was organized
by Vladimir Gelfand (Northwestern), Lawrence Miller (UIC), and Jerrold Turner (University of Chicago). It is the CBC’s hope that
this and similar faculty-initiated efforts will foster more and stronger collaborations across the three institutions.
Benjamin Glick: Prof, Dept of Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology
University of Chicago
New Fluorescent Proteins for In Vivo Imaging
Margaret Gardel: Asst Prof, Dept of Physics
University of Chicago
Dynamics of the F-actin Cytoskeleton
Vladimir Gelfand: Prof, Dept of Cell & Molecular Biology
Northwestern University
Imaging organelle transport in cultured cells
Wonhwa Cho: Prof, Dept of Chemistry
University of Illinois at Chicago
Molecular imaging of membrane trafficking and remodeling
Kathrin Banach: Asst Prof, Dept of Medicine, Cardiology
University of Illinois at Chicago
InsP3 signaling domains in cardiac pacemaking
Lawrence Miller: Asst Prof, Dept of Chemistry
University of Illinois at Chicago
Lanthanide protein labels and time-resolved imaging
Barry Lai: Physicist
Argonne National Laboratory
X-ray Imaging of Native Cellular Processes and Chemistry
John Marko: Prof, Dept Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Cell Biology
Northwestern University
Micromanipulation and micro-visualization studies of protein-DNA interactions and chromosome structure
Philip Hockberger: Assoc Prof, Dept of Physiology
Northwestern University
Application of Two-Photon Microscopy to Studies of Neural Stem Cell Migration and Dendritic Physiology
Jerrold Turner: Prof, Dept of Pathology
University of Chicago
Looking at Leaking: New Views of Epithelial Barrier Regulation
Newly Hired CBC Associate Director
March 25, 2009
The Chicago Biomedical Consortium is pleased to welcome Gene Webb, Ph.D. to the position of Associate Director.
Gene joins us from the University of Chicago’s Biological Sciences Division Dean’s office, where he carried out
planning and assessment of initiatives for the Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine. As the Division’s
Planning Manager, Gene oversaw reviews of the grant portfolio as well as long-range assessments of research and
education accomplishments, goals, and resource allocation. Gene is trained as a geneticist and molecular biologist
and brings a broad understanding of the biomedical sciences, research funding, science education and academic
administration.
Since its inception in 2006, the CBC has successfully implemented a strategic plan to promote biomedical
research in the Chicago area. This has been accomplished through awarding to date a portfolio of grants
that include Catalyst Awards (14), Spark Awards (5), Lever Awards (2), Faculty Recruitment Awards (1), as
well as educational and infrastructure programs. In total, over $17M has been awarded to foster collaborative
scientific programs between the three CBC institutions (Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and
the University of Illinois at Chicago). Gene will be located at Northwestern University’s Evanston campus and
can be reached at g-webb at northwestern dot edu or by phone at (847) 467-0633.
New Catalyst Award - "Proteolysis-inducing peptides as tools for chemical genetics"
February 26, 2009
Three scientists, Stephen Kron (University of Chicago), Brian Kay (University of Illinois at Chicago), and Stephen Kent (University of Chicago) have received the new CBC Catalyst Award in January, 2009.
In detail, ProTaPs consist of three functionalities: a targeting peptide that binds to
specific protein target, a domain that binds to an E3 ubiquitin ligase to induce
polyubiquitination and a cell penetrating peptide to deliver the ProTaP to its site of action.
These three functionalities can be synthesized independently as peptide modules and then linked
together by native chemical ligation. This modular approach allows great flexibility, so that a
large number of ProTaPs can be synthesized and tested in parallel. Treating cells with a ProTaP
will rapidly induce ubiquitin-proteasome dependent destruction of the target protein. We hope to
validate ProTaPs alongside knockouts and knockdowns as a tool for analysis of gene functions,
but also as a novel route to validating proteins as targets for therapeutics.
This new tool will be used to analyze chromatin modification and protein assembly at DNA double strand
breaks. We will identify a small number of key target proteins and exploit phage display to discover high affinity
and high specificity binding peptides that will tether a ProTaPs to each of these proteins. Because
ProTaPs can be used much like a drug, they will allow determination of the requirements for normal
responses to DNA damage, such as modification of histone proteins, recruitment and assembly of DNA
damage signaling and repair proteins, and for assembly of the characteristic protein complex at the
double strand break site. They will exploit a GFP fusion to 53BP1, a protein that rapidly localizes to
DNA breaks, as a fluorescent reporter for changes in chromatin modification or protein assembly. By
examining changes in the characteristic relocalization of GFP-53BP1 from diffuse nuclear distribution
to discrete foci at double strand break sites and then tracking whether the persistence of the foci is
normal, we will be able to determine whether a ProTaPs has disrupted a key function in the DNA damage
response. This work will identify new mechanisms and targets in DNA damage response and provide useful
data on the approach of targeting chromatin as a route to radiosensitization.
Developing a new tool to help understand protein function in the response to DNA damage may have broad
consequences. The new drug-like molecules to be studied here may provide leads for a new class of drugs that
will enhance the effects of radiation on tumors, with the potential for major impact on the treatment of metastatic
cancer.
Open Position - CBC Senior Program Manager
January 28, 2009
The successful candidate must be able to travel between all three campuses.
Specific Responsibilities:
Acting as program liaison to coordinate efforts among NU, UC, and UIC by directing communications between NU and CBC
sites, outside entities and scientists and facilitating interaction among high-level individuals at the three institutions
in order to coordinate policies, procedures and long and short-term plans in order to maintain this large-scale
collaboration; Assisting with writing projects by reviewing proposals submitted for funding, providing appropriate
follow-up recommendations and assisting in the timely submission of required annual grant reports and continuation
applications to ensure uninterrupted funding; Monitoring program management between institutions by setting goals and
developing and implementing policies and procedures within program guidelines to ensure that consistent and acceptable
standards are met; Supporting development initiatives by managing publicity efforts in local, regional, and national
scientific funding communities, creating announcements and publicity pieces, and coordinating press releases with the
three press and development offices to cultivate exposure and recognition of the CBC; Overseeing the content of the CBC's
website, database, email list-serves and access grid used to allow easy communication within the CBC community; Planning
and directing the CBC symposia and workshops in areas of interest; Work with faculty to develop Graduate-level courses
and student activities in CBC-interest areas. Interface with CBC-funded infrastructure projects and oversight boards to
enhance collaborative use; Performing other related duties as required or assigned;
Minimum Qualifications:
A master's degree required, preferably in Biomedical or Natural Sciences or the equivalent combination of education,
training and experience from which comparable skills can be acquired; Excellent writing skills; Excellent oral
communication skills; Demonstrated ability to organize, prioritize and work under pressure to meet deadlines;
Demonstrated ability to facilitate effective communication, cooperation, respect and teamwork within the CBC; The
ability to self-motivate and to work with minimal direction; Displayed initiative; Demonstrated attention to detail;
Strong analytical, quantitative and reasoning skills; The ability to maintain confidentiality; Excellent decision-making,
planning and problem-solving skills.
Preferred Qualifications:
A Ph.D. or the equivalent combination of education, training and experience from which comparable skills can be acquired; Good interpersonal skills; Familiarity with one or more of the CBC institutions; Previous administrative, academic
research program, or other relevant experience.
All applications received before February 26, 2009 will be considered. TO APPLY visit Northwestern
University's Careers site by clicking here. Once you are
on the Careers Home page, please follow the below steps to view the Sr Program Manager position:
1. Choose Academic/Administrative Jobs under "Apply Now"
2. Type: Sr Program Manager into the Keywords text box in Basic Job Search
3. Click on the Search button to view the search results.
CBC Lever Program Demonstrates Success in Focusing Large-Dollar Awards
$2M CBC Lever Award Helps Attract $9.2M in Center Funding for the Chicago Tri-Institutional Center for Chemical
Methods and Library Development
September 30, 2008
The CBC has awarded the second Lever Award to a group of scientists from the three CBC member institutions; Sergey Kozmin
(University of Chicago), Karl Scheidt (Northwestern), Hisashi Yamamoto (University of Chicago), Vladimir Gevorgyan (UIC)
and Viresh Rawal (University of Chicago), Milan Mrksich (University of Chicago), and Jie Liang (UIC). The $2 million Lever
award matches a $9.2 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the establishment and operation
of the Chicago Tri-Institutional Center for Chemical Methods and Library Development (CTCMLD). The CTCMLD will provide significant
new resources for biomedical research in the Chicago community and boost drug discovery efforts in the area by advancing
high-throughput organic synthesis and integrating the production of new small-molecule libraries with broad biological screening.
In order to achieve the maximum impact, the CTCMLD will feature a high degree of collaboration and synergy with several research
programs at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and University of Illinois at Chicago.
Sergey Kozmin will serve as the director of the Center during the initial five-year period. The CTCMLD collaborative group will
also include exceptional strength in organic synthesis, represented by Karl Scheidt, Hisashi Yamamoto, Vladimir Gevorgyan and
Viresh Rawal, as well as the leading expertise in surface engineering of Milan Mrksich and cheminformatics of Jie Liang.
The NIH
award was made in September 2008.
CBC Lever Awards are matching grants made to inter-institutional
groups that are submitting large-scale grant proposals. Lever Awards are primarily used to establish transformative infrastructure
that can be made broadly available to the Chicago scientific community.
The CTCMLD represents a high-impact tri-institutional collaboration with projects to be headed by PIs from all three CBC member
institutions. The CTCMLD Lever Award will support the following three key initiatives:
1. Enhancing the capabilities of the High-Throughput Synthesis component of the Core Facility of CTCMLD at University of Chicago,
by establishing a professionally staffed facility with the state-of-the-art equipment for high-throughput synthesis, purification
and analytical characterization of newly generated chemical libraries.
2. Establishing the Hit-to-Lead Development Resource of the CTCMLD at Northwestern University, which will provide unique support
for innovative research at the interface of chemistry and biology in Chicago area.
3. Developing a Computational Cheminformatics Core at UIC, which will be used to guide production of small-molecule libraries
with favorable physicochemical properties and will facilitate analysis of the compound screening data.
Once established with Lever Award funding, the core facilities will be available to researchers at all CBC institutions.
$3M CBC Lever Award Helps Attract $15M in Center Funding for the Chicago Center for Systems Biology
September 1, 2008
The CBC awarded $3 million over three years to help establish the Chicago Center for Systems Biology (CCSB). The CBC
Lever Award matches a $15 million award from The National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The NIH award was
made in September 2008. The CCSB will be one of 10 National Centers for Systems Biology -- the first of its kind in
Illinois and an outstanding new research resource for the Chicago region. Systems Biology is an emerging field,
focusing on the study of complex interactions in biological systems, including everything from the smallest molecules
to complete organisms.
Kevin White, the first appointed “CBC Professor” at the University of Chicago, will direct the CCSB. The Center will
focus on collaborations among Chicago-area experts in genomics, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, stress
and physiology, chemistry and physics, and computational faculty who specialize in network modeling and high-performance
computing. Combining experimental and computational tools, the CCSB will study the dynamic behavior of gene networks in
cells, tissues, and organisms, paying specific attention to transcriptional networks and master genes that regulate the
activity of other genes.
CBC Lever Awards are matching grants made to
inter-institutional groups that are submitting large-scale grant proposals. The Principal Investigators on the Lever Award
to the CCSB are Luis Amaral (Northwestern), Robert Grossman (UIC), Richard Morimoto (Northwestern), and Kevin White
(University of Chicago). Lever Awards are primarily used to establish transformative infrastructure that can be made broadly
available to the Chicago scientific community.
The Lever Award to the CCSB will support the following four key initiatives:
1. Developing an enhanced imaging core, that uniquely combines microfluidics and confocal microscopy for live imaging
of model organisms, tissues, and cells.
2. Cultivating a recombination and high-throughput cloning core to support genetic modifications to chromosomal sections
for human, mouse, Drosophila, and C. elegans genomes.
3. Advancing a computational core that will integrate intimately with the biological driver projects and which will produce
software modules that will be useful to a much broader community.
4. Establishing a “CBC Research Fellows Program in Systems Biology” to train the next generation of young scientists in the
art of interdisciplinary research in Systems Biology.
Once established with Lever Award funding, the core facilities will be available to researchers at all CBC institutions.
Spring 2008 Catalyst Award Announced
July 17, 2008
Bruce T. Lahn (University of Chicago) and John A. Kessler (Northwestern University)
have received a Catalyst Award for their project entitled "Testing the ‘Occlusis’
Model of Cell Fate Restriction." The research team recently developed a cell fusion
strategy to address the absence of a ready experimental system for ascertaining
whether the silent state of a gene is the result of cis rather than trans regulation.
The strategy makes it possible to dissect out the relative contribution of cis versus
trans mechanisms to gene silencing and entails fusing two disparate cell types and
searching for genes differentially expressed between the two genomes of fused cells.
The researchers plan to develop the cell-fusion-based approach for identifying and
analyzing occluded genes and, specifically, intend to pursue the following two aims:
1) to test whether the occluded state of a gene, once acquired during development,
is essentially irreversible; and 2) to explore the biochemical mechanisms underlying
gene occlusion.
HeartSounds, Inc. wins CBC Business Plan Competition
May 30, 2008
The CBC sponsored and hosted a business plan competition on May 30, 2008. Participants included graduate student teams from
the Business Schools at the three member institutions (Northwestern, University of Chicago and UIC). Biomedical business
endeavors participate in the life science industries and work toward solutions in areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical
devices, biotechnology, and healthcare. Teams competed for a grand prize of $10,000 and HeartSounds, Inc was selected as
the grand prize winner.
HeartSounds™, Inc. is a start-up medical device company specializing in computer-aided auscultation, an emerging field in
medical diagnostics. Founded at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in 2007, HeartSounds offers a patented technology
platform utilizing signal extraction technologies to provide non-invasive devices for advanced cardiac monitoring and diagnostics.
The company will initially develop the FetalPATCH™, a superior wireless electronic fetal heart rate monitor for use in labor &
delivery as well as prenatal care. The FetalPATCH™ will provide a more comfortable patient monitoring environment and reduce the
hospital expenditures associated with labor. HeartSounds is also developing additional products including, a device to
non-invasively evaluate Pulmonary Arterial Pressure as well as a user-independent automated murmur screening tool.
Contact information
Website: www.HeartSoundsDevices.com
Founders:
Amir Bastawrous, MD, CSO bastawrous@HeartSoundsDevices.com
Michael D. McCoy, COO mmccoy@HeartSoundsDevices.com
Matthew W. Norris, CEO mwnorris@HeartSoundsDevices.com
Roland Priemer, PhD, CTO
New CBC Spark Award Program
February 25, 2008
The Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC) is pleased to announce the launch of its
new Spark Award that provides between $300,000 and 400,000 per award to the most
imaginative and collaborative researchers from the CBC universities (UIC, UC and
NU). The Spark is intended to entice researchers to bring their risky and
innovative biomedical ideas forward at a much earlier stage than would typically
be funded by the NIH or NSF. The 2008 budget for the SPARK award is $1,600,000
and is designed to advance multi-institutional and intra-disciplinary
collaborations of exceptional creativity and to accelerate high impact of
biomedical research in Chicago. The process begins with a one-page pre-proposal
submitted at any time and evaluated on a rolling basis. To
view the Request For Applications (RFA) click here.
In Memoriam
October 30, 2007
Dan C. Searle, former chair of G.D. Searle and Company and a philanthropic and
civic leader in Chicago and the nation, died on October 30, 2007 at the age of 81.
It was Dan’s visionary leadership that prompted the establishment of the Chicago
Biomedical Consortium in 2006. His belief in the importance of scientific
discovery for the improvement of mankind and his recognition that collaboration
among Chicago’s leading research universities was essential for both scientific
and civic advancement provided the framework for the CBC. In its mission and
programs the CBC honors his memory and continues his legacy.
First CBC Investigator Named
July 1, 2006
The CBC, through its Recruitment Resources Fund, has supported the recruitment
of Kevin White to the University of Chicago where he will be professor in the
Departments of Human Genetics and of Ecology and Evolution and director of the
new Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology (IGSB). White has been designated
a CBC Investigator for the period 2006-09 in recognition of his commitment to the
collaborative work of the CBC. The CBC made a $1 million grant to help establish
the Center for Cellular Screening, a high throughput cellular screening facility
within the IGSB. The project will occur in three phases and will ultimately lead
to a facility that will serve investigators throughout the Chicago metropolitan
area.
Click here for the
announcement of White’s appointment in the University of Chicago Chronicle.