or keep pressing Tab key no navigate
Biography
Dr.Alamelu Sundaresan (Lalita) was one among 17 distinguished scientific awardees from the different faculties in the University of Oslo. Among the awardees were Nobel Laureates and prominent Academics selected for their singular contributions in their fields of expertise. These individuals were conferred with honorary doctorates during the University of Oslo’s Annual Celebration on 2 September 2024
Group photo of the distinguished honorary laureates (Bottom and next from bottom rows) featuring Dr.Sundaresan (second from left bottom row)
Professor Alamelu Sundaresan, acting chair of the Department of Biology at Texas Southern University, is a pioneer in developing model systems to study how external conditions can affect various types of tissues.
Mr. William P. King the Vice President of Admissions and Recruitment will talk about opportunities and insights on admission.
Where: SB Room 200
When: 12:00 pm April 29, 2024
Lunch will be provided
Are you interested in biomedical/health research?
Are you pursuing a biomedical sciences/health professions degree at TSU?
Are you interested in cancer-related careers?
8-week summer program exploring cancer research, education, and outreach at TSU and BCM
Gain hands-on experience in Advanced Technology with cancer research and community engagementCareer mentoring & networking with faculty, pharmacists, and scientists in cancer research at TSU and BCM
Participants receive $4,000-$5,000 stipend
June 10-August 5, 2024
APPLICATION DEADLINE April 1st, 2024
contact: 713-313-6732 | p20cured@tsu.edu
Are you a science major who’s interested in a research career related to cardiovascular diseases?
LSU HEALTH SHREVEPORT EIGHT-WEEK NIH-FUNDED RESEARCH PROGRAM AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT INCLUDES HOUSING AND $3,800 STIPEND
June 10-August 2, 2024
APPLICATION DEADLINE February 28, 2024
October 11, 2023
Location: SB 156
Time: 12:00 pm
Presenter: Dr. Alamelu Sundaresan
Abstract:
Bone loss in microgravity is the second most important risk to space missions.
Exposure to the microgravity environment of space causes astronauts to lose calcium from bones. This loss occurs because the absence of Earth’s gravity disrupts the process of bone maintenance in its major function of supporting body weight.
Exposure to the microgravity environment of space causes men and women of all ages to lose up to 1% of their bone mass per month due to disuse atrophy, a condition like osteoporosis. It is not yet clear whether losses in bone mass will continue if a person remains in the microgravity environment or level off in time.
The mystery, for the moment, is what signals permit bone tissue to adapt to a weightless or an Earth (1 g) environment. Researchers do not yet know whether the biomechanical stimuli that are changed by microgravity directly affect osteoblast and osteoclast function or if other physiological factors such as hormone levels or poor nutrition contribute to bone loss. NASA investigators are studying gravity-sensing systems in individual bone cells by flying cultures of these cells on the Space Shuttle and observing how they function. Discoveries made during space biomedical research on bone are already contributing to a better understanding of osteoporosis and the treatment of bone mass loss on Earth as well as in space. The single most important contribution that NASA research has made to the understanding of bone deterioration in osteoporosis is heightened awareness of the importance of gravity, activity, and biomechanics – that is, the mechanical basis of biological activity – in bone remodeling.
Mechanical forces – the action of energy on matter – appear to coordinate bone shaping processes. The standard theory of bone remodeling states the body translates mechanical force into biochemical signals that drive the basic processes of bone formation and resorption. Aging, especially in post-menopausal women, and exposure to microgravity uncouple bone resorption and formation. When this uncoupling occurs, formation lags behind resorption, and the result is bone loss.Researchers are not yet certain whether bone resorption speeds up or the bone formation slows down, though recent experimentation in space indicates that microgravity might somehow affect both processes. Progress in developing methods of preventing or treating disuse atrophy and osteoporosis depends on better understanding the mechanisms that cause the problem. Determining how the body translates mechanical loading (physical stress or force) into the signals that control bone structure may reveal how aging, inactivity, and space flight uncouple bone formation and resorption. Only in the absence of gravity can we determine the influence of weight and stress on bone dynamics. By studying what mechanisms translates mechanical stress on bones into biochemical signals that stimulate bone formation and resorption, space life scientists may be able to determine how to maintain bone mass
Alamelu Sundaresan presently serves as the Chairperson- (Int) for the Department of Biology, housed in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology at Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas. The main goal of her research is to study human immunology in adverse environments, and what happens when the immune system is compromised such as in cancer, ageing, microgravity, nutritional deficiency, and auto immune conditions. We also work with nutritional supplements to improve the immune system towards global health solutions and collaborate internationally on this.
Main foci include bone tissue engineering (three patents), nutritional immunomodulation, mathematical modelling & toxicology of radiation, biophysics, particulates, and neurodegeneration. Dr Sundaresan is an Adjunct Faculty in the Dept of Surgery at UT health involved with inflammation, toxicity, and immune response. She is also a Visiting Scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston.
She has authored more than 100 peer reviewed publications and 150 presentations. All her projects involve international collaboration. We work and network with many key collaborators in Denmark, Norway, Brazil, UK, and Germany to name a few. The lab is presently funded by the NSF, NIH, NASA, and industry.
September 13, 2023
Location: SB 156
Time: 12:00 pm
Presenter: Dr. Ejiro Umaka
Probing the quark-gluon plasma with the sPHENIX detector
Abstract: sPHENIX is a new RHIC detector designed for high precision measurement of jets and heavy flavor probes of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). sPHENIX is equipped with a suite of tracking detectors for vertexing, timing, and momentum measurement; calorimeters for photon, electron, hadron and jet measurements; and event characterization detectors for centrality and event plane measurements. sPHENIX’s first data began in late May 2023 primarily to commission the detector. Several physics observables including and not limited to jet correlations, jet substructure, open heavy flavor and upsilons are planned measurements with this year’s data and with data in the upcoming run in 2024.
This talk will discuss probes of the QGP and sPHENIX readiness for these measurements.
Ejiro Umaka did her PhD work on ALICE at the LHC at CERN, which was granted to her in 2020 by the University of the Houston. She studied the QCD crossover temperature via net-particle fluctuation measurements in Pb-Pb collisions. She joined the sPHENIX collaboration at RHIC and the ATLAS collaboration at the LHC in 2020 studying jets and event plane dependent observables while she was a postdoctoral associate at Iowa State University. In 2022, she joined Brookhaven National Laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher where she continues to work on jet and flow related observables in sPHENIX. She is currently serving as sPHENIX juniors’ committee co-chair, software coordinator for sPHENIX event plane detector; and she is an avid yoga practitioner.
Light lunch will be provided.
May 3, 2023
Location: SB 158
Time: 12:00 pm
Presenter: Dr. Nancy L. Glenn Griesinger
Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Cancer Prognosis and Prediction: The Statistician’s Crucial Role – A Comprehensive Sequel
Abstract: Building upon last month’s award-winning presentation, this one-hour sequel delves into the resurgence of artificial intelligence (AI) and its application in machine learning for cancer prognosis and prediction. The discussion will include the relevance of computational biology and the incidence of intestinal polyps in ApcMin/+ mice, highlighting the connection between intestinal polyps and colon cancer from a clinical perspective. This joint presentation’s main focus will be the integral role of statisticians in developing predictive models using machine learning, as well as the benefits of utilizing nonparametric empirical likelihood theory based statistical models. We can achieve more accurate predictions by employing empirical likelihood and reducing dependence on distributional assumptions.
Nancy L. Glenn Griesinger is a tenured professor of mathematics and statistics with a Ph.D. in statistics from Rice University, who has been teaching at the university level for 21 years at universities in Texas, South Carolina, and California. Dr. Griesinger is also the founder and CEO of Mobile Math, LLC, a mathematics tutoring agency.
Light lunch will be provided.
April 26, 2023
Location: SB 156
Time: 12:00 pm
Presenter: Dr. Jason Rosenzweig
“Bacterial Stress Responses”
Abstract: Prokaryotic bacteria are the oldest and most highly evolved beings on our planet. Due to their relatively small size, they have had to develop numerous mechanisms to survive in a much larger and often times hostile world. Bacteria are often faced with threatening biotic and abiotic stressors that they must either mitigate and/or survive. This seminar will focus on Gram-negative bacteria, and how they navigate host-cell induced stress, temperature stress, and chemical stress. More specifically, ribonucleases, enzymes involved in the maturation and degradation of RNA, and the multiprotein complex, the degradome, will be evaluated for their roles played during bacterial stress responses.
Light lunch will be provided
For more information please contact Dr. Ayodotun Sodipe
Ayodotun.Sodipe@tsu.edu
Texas Southern University hosted the Summer Scholars Academy, July 1 – August 1, 2022 housed in the Department of Biology, College of Science, Engineering and Technology (COSET). The academy was devoted to changing the lives of future leaders of tomorrow. Scholars were exposed to a dynamic curriculum in mathematics, science, coding, and forensics to expand their daily horizons. As an outreach program richly rooted in the heart of Third-Ward, Houston, Texas, educators and students spent their summer learning and creating tools to help them be more successful for the upcoming school year. Our goal at TSU is to provide an experience for students to be a part of the higher education spectrum with professors and community leaders to guide them. Our one-month program each year reaches over 150 students. This free community-based program works with surrounding organizations such as Houston Food Bank, HISD and Fort Bend ISD to provide high quality enrichment through instruction and nutrition.
TSU Summer Scholars Academy under the leadership of Dr. Ayodotun Sodipe, offered teachers accurate, unbiased, and up-to-date information on the role that science plays in our lives. The curriculum included essential principles and fundamental concepts of math and science. Instructors used an interactive framework that let students explore how science and math are used daily.
Every week the University offered opportunities for all scholars to experience hands-on science learning with field trips. Students enjoyed a combination of science displays, group activities, and hands-on experiments. Activities were matched to the Texas Essential Skills also known as the TEKS. With certified educators and handpicked interns, students’ safety and knowledge were the key to success. With the help of President Crumpton-Young, our program was able to continue to support our students’ ambitions of being doctors, scientist, engineers, and teachers. TSU Summer Scholars program is committed to be the most respected STEM outreach program within the historic third-ward area. We are devoted to change, and foundational building that will lead our students to pursue a college on our campus.
Supervisor: Desire Jackson SB 306
Dr. Jackson’s research focus is on the effects of heavy metal exposure on fetuses. The hypothesis behind this interest is: prenatal exposure to arsenic alters gene expression during development . In the laboratory, graduate students have examined the effect of arsenic at low levels on gene expression in rat pups during gestation and within two weeks of birth to determine the effects of gene expression. This work is important because the effects of arsenic exposure on gene expression in these developmental stages have not been well studied. The thought behind these studies is that prenatal exposure to Arsenic alters gene expression during development which may eventually lead to various tumor types in the adult organism. The prediction is that an alteration in gene expression will be seen when a comparison is made between the control and the arsenic -treated groups. Alteration of expression of genes associated with cell proliferation and DNA damage could be in the study group and could be linked to the potential for tumor formations in the adult.
Graduate students in her lab have used RNA isolation, RT-PCR and Quantitative Real Time PCR to study the effects of Arsenic exposure on the expression of specific genes associated with cell cycle regulation and oxidative stress. Students have studied the effects of pre- and peri-natal exposure to Arsenic on gene expression in fetal rat liver, in fetal rat kidney, and in fetal rat lung. Her students have also studies the effects of pre-natal exposure to Arsenic on gene expression in fetal rat kidney and in fetal rat brain.
Supervisor: Mario Hollomon SB 304
Dr. Mario Hollomon’s laboratory investigates the effect of autophagy on cancer development and metastasis. Specifically, the 
laboratory investigates the effect of autophagy modulation on the sensitivity of cancer cells to anticancer therapy. Using lenitvirus, we have generated several stable knockdown cancer cell lines that have enabled the laboratory to investigate the effect of autophagy proteins on the response of cancer cells to anticancer drug treatment. We have shown that autophagy inhibition, through knockdown of ATG5, can have an opposing effect on osteosarcoma cells treated with camptothecin. We are currently investigating the mechanisms responsible for this opposing effect. We are also investigating the effect of other autophagy-related proteins on the response of cancer cells to anticancer drug treatment.
The laboratory also investigates cell death signaling pathways in cancer cells. Here, we also use lentivirus to knockdown the expression of select cell death pathway-associated proteins to better understand their role in the cell death pathway. In addition, the laboratory also investigates the role of endogenous antioxidants in protecting cancer cells against anticancer drug-induced cytotoxicity.
COSET students attended a banquet at the Annual Medical Education Conference where medical students were congratulated to their matching to a residency program.
Student National Medical Association (SNMA) was founded in 1964 as a sub-division of the (NMA) after recognizing the need to give active support to medical students and encourage them in their pursuit of careers as physicians. The Minority Association of Pre-Health Students (MAPS) represent the undergraduate and post-bac student-run chapters that extend the mission of SNMA and NMA: increasing the number of African-American, Latino, and other students of color entering and completing health professional schools. Texas Southern University chapter of SNMA-MAPS attended AMEC for the third time. SNMA 54thAnnual Medical Education Conference (AMEC) took place on March-28 to April 1, 2018 in San Francisco, California. Our MAPS chapter was able to take 20 students fully funded including travel, registration and hotel costs thanks to the support of Texas Southern University’s College of Science, Engineering, and Technology (COSET). This event allowed us to be exposed to diverse career opportunities, network with medical representatives, and build professional and academic skills. This event included many schools such as University of Chicago, Vanderbilt Medical School, Meharry Medical School, Howard Medical School, Harvard Medical School just to name a few.
Dr. A. Sodipe (Biology) and 20 students of the TSU-MAPS (Minority Association of Pre-Health Students) participated at the Annual Medical Education Conference
Contributed by: Dr. A. Sodipe and K.Kalifa
Biology professor Dr. Marian Hillar has been invited to present a seminar at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at Oxford University in England. The conference, to be held July 19-22, was organized in collaboration with the International Society for Science and Religion. The conference theme is Religion, Society, and the Science of Life. Dr. Hillar’s seminar, Natural Moral Law: From the Stoics to Kant, Darwin and Modern Evolutionary Science will detail that modern science provides a biological basis for human moral behavior and validates philosophical speculation. The presentation is based on his book, Historical Development toward Non-Theistic, Humanist Ethics: Essays from the Ancient Stoics to Modern Science.
Source: TSU E-newsJune 19-25,2017