News

• June 22, 2011.  
  Yazhou Chen has registered to attend the 22nd International Conference on Arabidopsis Research in Madison, Wisconsin. He will present his work on "Exploring the molecular network of glucosinolate biosynthesis using bioinformatic tools". He will give a lab presentation about the conference when he comes back.

• June 15, 2011.  
  Together with UF Center for Precollegiate Education and Training (http://www.cpet.ufl.edu), Dr. Chen and Dr. Nick Polfer from Department of Chemistry will organize a second proteomics and mass spectrometry content knowledge workshop for 30 high school teachers from the state of Florida from June 15 to 17. Graduate students from the two laboratories will be actively involved in the workshop. This annual workshop is funded by the National Science Foundation.

• June 1, 2011.  
  Jennifer Parker, a second year Ph.D. student in Dr. Sixue Chen’s lab, has received an I-Cubed Award sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This award is intended to: 1) encourage graduate students in the STEM, including SBE, disciplines to propose, develop and participate in interdisciplinary research projects; 2) provide graduate students with experience working in an interdisciplinary team environment; 3) encourage graduate students to involve undergraduate students in research activities. Congratulations !

• May 16, 2011.  
  Congratulations to Dr. Chen for receiving the Excellence Award for Assistant Professor from the Provost's Office. This award focuses on junior faculty and recognizes excellence in research.

(Photo: President Machen and Dr. Chen at the award ceremony

at the backyard of the President's house)

• May 6, 2011.  
  Congratulations to Justin Goldsmith for graduating with honor. He will move to Chicago to continue his graduate study in medical school.

• April 15, 2011.  
  Dr. Chen has receive the 2011 HHMI Science for Life Distinguished Mentor Award (http://sfl.aa.ufl.edu/index.php?link=dm). Congratulations to Dr. Chen and his lab!

• April 5, 2011.  
  Two more papers have been published from the Chen lab. Yazhou Chen is the first author on both papers. Congratulations to all the authors! - Chen, Y., Yan, X., Chen, S. (2011) Bioinformatic analysis of molecular network of glucosinolate biosynthesis. Computational Biology and Chemistry 35, 10-18.
  - Chen, Y., Pang, Q., Dai, S., Wang, Y., Chen, S., Yan, X. (2011) Proteomic identification of differentially expressed proteins in Arabidopsis in response to methyl jasmonate. Journal of Plant Physiology 168, 995-1008.

• March 17, 2011.  
  Dr. Chen was invited to give a seminar at the Biology Department, University of Pennsylvania (http://www.bio.upenn.edu/events/). His title of his talk is: "Toward Systems Biology of Plant Signaling and Metabolic Networks". He is hosted by Dr. Fevzi Daldal.

• March 1, 2011.  
  Great news came from Michelle Chin, a high school student who did HPLC analysis in the Chen lab. She was place the first place in the Brevard Mainland Regional Science Fair. She will be advanced to participate in the Florida State Science Fair in Orlando. This is a great achievement. Congratulations to Michelle Chin.

• February 24, 2011.  
  Drs. Equar Taka, Hernan Flores-Rozas and Ramesh Katam from Florida A&M University, a minority school visited the Chen lab and the Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research. They are collaborating with Dr. Chen on training underrepresented undergraduate students and early career scientists in collaborative research. They have put together a P20 proposal on a proteomics project.

• February 14, 2011.  
  Welcome Dr. Gang Chen to join the Chen lab as a visiting scholar. Dr. Chen is an Associate Professor at Yazhou University, China. His research project in the Chen lab will be on proteomics of canola stress responses. Chen lab has organized a dinner party to welcome Gang and to celebrate Joe’s rotation!

• February 11, 2011.  
  Joe Collins has completed his rotation project on redox regulation of myrosinase proteins in the Chen lab. He has given a great rotation seminar. It was great to have Joe working in the lab.

• January 28, 2011.  
  A high school student Michelle Chin from West Shore High school in Melbourne Florida has joined the Chen lab to learn and use the HPLC for separating and quantification of isoflavones in control and transgenic soybean plants.  Welcome Michelle!

• January 22, 2011.
  Mengmeng Zhu has attended a Keystone Symposium on Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance Mechanisms, Water and Global Agriculture at Keystone, Colorado. She has presented a poster:  Identification of redox sensitive proteins in Brassica napus guard cells. She has also presented a lab meeting summarizing the new developments and knowledge that she learned in the meeting. Thanks Mengmeng!

• January 5, 2011.  
  Let’s welcome 2011 with a good start! Yan’s paper on the functional analysis of AtIPMDHs in gametophyte development was published in the New Phytologist. Congratulations to all the authors! - He, Y., Chen, L., Zhou, Y., Mawhinney, T.P., Chen, B., Kang, B-H., Hauser, B.A., Chen, S. (2011) Functional characterization of Arabidopsis isopropylmalate dehydrogenases reveals their important roles in gametophyte development. New Phytologist 189, 160-175

• December  15, 2010.
  Dr. Chen has received a teaching award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (http://www.clas.ufl.edu/faculty/teaching-advising.html). Congratulations!

• November  26, 2010.
  Yan He has taken a postdoctoral position in Cornell. The Chen lab had a farewell party in his hornor. Congratulations to Dr. Yan He for his achievement in the Chen lab.

• November  15, 2010.
  Joe Collins, a PMCB graduate student has joined Chen lab for his second rotation in the PMCB program. Joe will work on redox regulation of myrosinases. Welcome Joe!

• November  4, 2010.
  Yihfeng Hsieh and Kevin Cooper have completed their rotation projects in the Chen lab and presented their results at the PMCB rotation seminars. Yihfeng Hsieh’s title is: Redox regulation of SnRK2 from Brassica napus, a putative OST1 functional homolog, and  Kevin Cooper’s title is: Characterization of metabolon formation in glucosinolate biosynthesis. The Chen lab had a pizza party to congratulate the good work!

• October 1, 2010.
  Sarah Yi, a first year Microbiology undergraduate has joined Chen lab. She will be working primarily with Yazhou Chen on the glucosinolate network project. Welcome Sarah!

• September 15, 2010.
  Two PMCB graduate students, Yihfeng Hsieh and Kevin Cooper have join the Chen lab for research rotation. Yihfeng will work on characterizing the Brassica napus OST1 kinase with Mengmeng Zhu. Kevin will work on AtIPMDH interacting proteins in glucosinolate biosynthesis with Dr. Yan He. Wecome Yihfeng and Kevin.

• September 1, 2010
  Michelle Foele, a second year Chemical Engineering undergraduate has joined Chen lab. She will be working with Jennifer Parker on the tomato pathogen project. Welcome Michelle!

• August 31, 2010.
  The high school teacher workshop held in July has turned out to be a big success. The teachers have significantly improved their knowledge in proteins and “omics” based on our post-test evaluations. In addition, five high school teachers have designed protein and proteomics related science labs. They are Ms. Claudia Ochatt from Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Ms. Kane more from West Boca Raton High School, Ms. Valerie Ruwe from Fort Lauderdale High School, Ms. Kristen Russell from Academy of Environmental Science, and Mr. Joe Benskin from Boca Raton Community High School. Thanks to everybody who has participated, contributed to the workshop and made it a big success.

• August 4, 2010.
  Dr. Chen was invited to give a talk at the Plant Biology 2010 - the Annual Meeting of American Society of Plant Biologists. Montreal, Canada. The title is: Identification of redox sensitive proteins in Brassica napus guard cells: new evidence for crosstalk between ABA and MeJA signaling pathways.

• August 1, 2010.
  Chen lab has two more papers accepted for publication. One is on functional specification of Arabidopsis isopropylmalate isomerases by He, Y., Chen, B., Pang, Q., Strul J.M., Chen, S. (2010) Functional specification of Arabidopsis isopropylmalate isomerases in glucosinolate and leucine biosynthesis. Plant and Cell Physiology 51, 1480-1487. Johanna Strul is a HHMI undergraduate who started working in the Chen lab when she was a freshman. She has received an undergraduate research award and a publication award from HHMI. The other is a quantitative review paper by Wang, Y., Li, H., Chen, S. (2010) Advances in quantitative proteomics. Frontiers in Biology 5, 195-203. Congratulations to the authors!

• July 15, 2010.  
  Together with UF Center for Precollegiate Education and Training (http://www.cpet.ufl.edu), Dr. Chen and Dr. Nick Polfer from Department of Chemistry have organized a proteomics content knowledge workshop for 30 high school teachers from the state of Florida. Graduate students from the two laboratories were actively involved in the workshop. Teachers have not only learned basic theory and principles of mass spectrometry and proteomics technologies, but also gained hands-on experience of protein extraction from tissues, gel electrophoresis, image analysis, protein trypsin digestion and peptide mass fingerprinting technology. This annual workshop is funded by the National Science Foundation. Please click here for workshop pictures.

• July 1, 2010.  
  Jennifer Parker has officially joined Chen lab as a Ph.D. student. Welcome Jennifer! Jennifer is from Gastonia, North Carolina and received her B.S. in Plant Biology with a minor in Genetics from North Carolina State University.

A new high-end mass spectrometer LTQ-Orbitrap system including a front-end ultra performance nanoflow HPLC has been purchased and will be set up in July in the Proteomics Facility of ICBR. This instrument will enable many capabilities including label-free protein quantification, high resolution mass spec, posttranslational modification analysis and top-down proteomics.

• June 15, 2010.  
  Welcome Kiva Ebert and Isabel Branstrom (both from A.W. Dreyfoos Jr. High School of Arts at Palm Beach, Florida) to Chen lab for summer research. Both Kiva and Isabel are sponsored by the UF Student Science Training Program (http://www.cpet.ufl.edu/sstp/sstpdates.html) and the National Science Foundation. They will gain hands-on research experience as scientists for six weeks. Kiva will work on Guard cell gene cloning and functional analysis under the direct supervision of Mengmeng Zhu, a third year Ph.D. student. Isabel will work on glucosinolate metabolism under the direct supervision of Yazhou Chen, a second-year Ph.D. student.

• June 1, 2010.  
  Welcome Yazhou Chen, Khader Ghneim and Dr. Cecilia Silva-Sanchez to the Chen lab! Yazhou Chen is a Ph.D. student coming from Northeast Forestry University, China. He has been awarded a graduate fellowship from the Chinese Scholarship Council for conducting Ph.D. thesis research overseas. Khader Ghneim is an undergraduate student from Georgetown University in Washington DC. He will do summer research in the Proteomics Facility. Dr. Silva-Sanchez came from Mexico City. She will work on protein posttranslational modifications using mass spectrometry based technologies.

• May 7, 2010.  
  Congratulations to Yan He for passing his Ph.D. defense! He has been officially awarded the Ph.D. degree.

• April 15, 2010.  
  Jin Koh has joined the Chen lab to conduct some proteomics work of Tragpogon as part of his Ph.D. project.

• March 9, 2010.  
  Congratulations to Mengmeng Zhu for passing her proposal defense! She is officially a Ph.D. candidate.

• February 2, 2010.  
  Jennifer Parker has completed her rotation project on redox regulation of Arabidopsis AtIPMDH proteins in the Chen lab. She has given a great rotation seminar.

• January 5, 2010.  
  Welcome 2010! Another paper from the Chen lab has been accepted for publication. It is a proteomic analysis of salt tolerance by Pang Q, Chen S, Dai S, Chen Y, Wang Y, Yan X. Comparative proteomics of salt tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana and Thellungiella halophila. Journal of Proteome Research, in press.

Congratulations to the authors!

• November 27, 2009.  
  The Chen lab has two new papers accepted for publication. One is a report of AtIPMDH1 gene function by He Y, Mawhinney TP, Preuss ML, Schroeder AC, Chen B, Abraham L, Jez JM, Chen S. A redox-active isopropylmalate dehydrogenase functions in the biosynthesis of glucosinolates and leucine in Arabidopsis. The Plant Journal, in press.

The other is the proteomics work of ABA signaling in guard cells by Zhu M, Simons B, Zhu N, Oppenheimer DG, Chen S. Analysis of abscisic acid responsive proteins in Brassica napus guard cells by multiplexed isobaric tagging. Journal of Proteomics, in press.

Congratulations to the authors and keep up the good work!

• October 15, 2009.  
  Mengmeng Zhu has presented her recent results on guard cell hormone signaling at the NSF Research Day Meeting.

• September 8, 2009.  
  A high-end mass spectrometer QSTAR Elite LC-MS/MS system (AB Sciex Inc.) funded by Dr. Chen's NIH grant has been set up and running samples. High quality iTRAQ quantification data can be expected from this system.

• August 5, 2009.  
  Chen lab together with Dr. Sally Assmann lab organized a three-day National Proteomics Workshop and Symposium. Over 100 participants from the United States and other countries have attended the workshop and symposium, which was partly supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF). Please see http://proteomics.centers.ufl.edu for more information about the event.

• July 16, 2009.  
  Dr. Chen has received the National Science Foundation's most prestigious award for junior faculty: the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. The award is for “Understanding Molecular Networks Controlling Plant Glucosinolate Metabolism”.
  
  The CAREER award supports junior faculty who "exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. CAREER teacher-scholars are selected on the basis of creative, career-development plans that effectively integrate innovative research and education."

• June 11, 2009.  
  Dr. Xiaofen Jin, from Dr. Sarah Assmann's lab at the Pennsylvania State University, arrives today to collaborate on the guard cell metabolomics project. She will work closely with Qiuying Pang and Mengmeng Zhu from the Chen lab on guard cell metabolite analysis, using LC-MS technology. They will also test protocols for the upcoming Proteomics Workshop, to be held in early August.

• May 15, 2009. 
  Dr. Chen's lab welcomes four bright undergraduate students who will work in the lab throughout the summer. Jennifer Sanford is supported by a fellowship from the South East Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (SEAGEP). Kwami Gyimah, Justin Goldsmith and Bryno Guy are all supported by the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) award from the National Science Foundation.

• March 10, 2009. 
  Ms. Johanna M. Strul, an undergraduate majoring in chemical engineering at the University of Florida, has won the HHMI Science for Life undergraduate research award. Johanna's research project in Chen lab is on the characterization of chloroplast thioredoxin regulated redox proteins. She is supervised by a third year graduate student Yan He and Dr. Chen.

For more information on this award, visit UF's Science for Life website.

• August 15, 2008. 
  High school students Gordon Wilson, Sau-Hyon Cho and Alec Fufidio have successfully completed their summer research in our lab.
  Everyone was greatly inspired by the experience. Each student gave a presentation explaining their project and the work they accomplished.
  The Chen lab held a farewell party for them.