Presented by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Storytelling and Memory will be performed by the Tanglewood Music Center’s Fromm Quartet at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Music and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer on Friday, August 2 at 7 p.m. Free admission is available by registering at https://webforms.rpi.edu/storytelling-memory-tanglewood-music-center.

Chunyu Wang, M.D., Ph.D., professor of biological sciences and chemistry and chemical biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been awarded a five-year grant of more than $3.7 million by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging to study Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) isoform interactions with heparan sulfate (HS) in Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Circadian clocks, which drive circadian rhythms, are entwined with many essential systems in living things including plants, fungi, insects, and even humans. Because of this, disruptions to our circadian clocks are linked to higher disease rates in humans, including certain cancers and autoimmune diseases. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Jennifer Hurley, Ph.D., Richard Baruch M.D. Career Development Chair and Associate Department Head of Biological Sciences, has dedicated her career to understanding the mechanisms that allow our circadian clocks to keep time.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Boleslaw Szymanski, Ph.D., and Chunyu Wang, M.D. Ph.D., have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement Science (AAAS). Steven Cramer, Ph.D., who was elected AAAS Fellow in 2017, was elected Council Member of the Section on Engineering.

Jonathan Dordick, Ph.D., Vice President for Strategic Alliances and Translation and Institute Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), has recently received two prestigious honors.

We all know how a bad night’s sleep can affect how we feel. In fact, the disruption of our sleep has been implicated at many levels of human disease, including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and disorders associated with aging.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students will have the opportunity to meet with and learn from forensic scientists and other professionals from the New York State Police (NYSP) Crime Laboratory System at 2 p.m. on March 26 at the Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D. Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Heparin, the world’s most widely used blood thinner, is used during procedures ranging from kidney dialysis to open heart surgery. Currently, heparin is derived from pig intestines, but scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered how to make it in the lab. They have also developed a path to a biomanufacturing process that could potentially revolutionize how the world gets its supply of this crucial medicine. 

Steve Eshiemogie, a doctoral student studying chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been recognized as an honorable mention in the annual Cell Press Rising Black Scientists Awards for his essay “From village to lab: An African scientist’s quest for a sustainable future.” [MS1] More than 350 students across a range of scientific disciplines applied.