BSE News

The projects of 15 Biosciences Area scientists and engineers received funding through the FY21 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program.

Mina Bissell, distinguished senior scientist in the Biological Systems and Engineering (BSE) Division, is one of five recipients of the 2020 Canada Gairdner International Award – an annual honor given to scientists who have contributed to transformative human health research.

The projects of 14 Biosciences Area scientists and engineers received funding through the FY20 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program. The funded projects span a diverse array of topics and approaches including: developing closed-loop plastics from biogenic feedstocks; reimagining a root system optimized for plant-microbe interactions; and creating computational tools for extracting macromolecular conformational dynamics. Lab-wide, 96 projects were selected from a field of 168 proposals. Biosciences Area efforts account for 18.5 percent of the $23 million allocated.

Biosciences Area researchers, in collaboration with colleagues at Nanjing Medical University in China, performed the first study to prospectively investigate the gut microbiome in relation to Hirschsprung-associated enterocolitis (HAEC), a leading cause of death in Hirschsprung disease patients. They identified a microbiome signature that might predict the development of postoperative HAEC. In addition, they found that exclusive breastfeeding might reduce the risk of HAEC through modulation of the intestinal microbiome.

Trinity College Dublin in Ireland and Western University in Ontario, Canada each honored Biological Systems and Engineering (BSE) Division Distinguished Scientist Mina Bissell this fall for her exceptional body of work in cancer biology, which shifted the central paradigm of the field.