Posted on December 26, 2024 in ASRC News, Structural Biology Initiative
Message from the Director
In my opinion, December gets a bad reputation as being the month of hectic scurrying among various professional and personal commitments, ranging from final exams to shopping for holiday presents, all while the days are getting shorter and shorter. From my perspective, I think it’s actually a wonderful chance to stop for a moment to appreciate how far we’ve come in the (almost) twelve preceding months, be thankful for things successfully done, and recharge a bit before tackling the year ahead.
In this vein, 2024 has been an amazing year for SBI. We commemorated our 10th anniversary in September, which included our hosting of Bill Kaelin to talk about the impact of structure-guided drug discovery in renal cell cancer. We’ve been excited to welcome Francesca Vallese to our fold, as she begins her time as a new assistant professor with us and correspondingly with CCNY Chemistry and Biochemistry. It’s been great having her as a new tenure-track faculty member on the floor, bringing exciting new research directions from her training nearby at Columbia. It’s also been wonderful to hear very good news on trainees, papers, and grants from two more senior assistant professors, Shana Elbaum-Garfinkle and Daniel Keedy, with their tenure and promotion processes underway. And finally, it’s also been a great year on continuing to build on our uniquely strong links with the New York Structural Biology Center — arguably one of the best places in the world to do our kind of science, conveniently next door to us and led by top-notch experts like their executive director, Jeff Kieft.
Next year will have its share of big moments ahead, including our second five-year external review in May and plenty more discoveries made, students trained, and new ideas discussed. Looking forward to doing many of those in time, building off the broad and solid foundation of the current year.
Kevin Gardner
Director, Structural Biology Initiative
Download the Structural Biology Initiative Winter 2024 Newsletter
In this Issue:
- New Faculty and Students
- Publications
- Achievements at a Glance
- Spotlight on: Dr. Priyasha Deshpande
- Upcoming Events