June 2023

The City University of New York and the Center on Health and Environment Across the LifeSpan (HEALS) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have awarded grants to three interdisciplinary projects that partner research faculty from both institutions. Each project integrates environmental health and exposomics to explore the impact of climate change on health. Congratulations to CUNY faculty winners: Nicholas Steiner (The City College of New York), Pinar Ayata (CUNY ASRC/CUNY Graduate Center), and Brett Branco (Brooklyn College) and Ilias Kavouras (CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy).

The saying “Sharing is caring,” might sound familiar but what about “Sharing is science?” That may not be an official turn of phrase but it’s one that Professor Eta Isiorho lives by. Every time Professor Isiorho, director of the Structural Biology Initiative’s Macromolecular Crystallization Facility, completes a crystal structure, she promptly uploads it to an open access archive of 3D structure data. Why? Because “As a scientist, it does no good to get data and information and keep it to yourself,” says Professor Isiorho. “The point of science — I feel — is to understand more and to tell other people about what you understood. If you try to understand everything by yourself, you can’t and so it limits your knowledge.”

Vanessa Alfonso, Environmental Sciences Initiative

Zabdiel Roldan Ayala, Environmental Sciences Initiative

Roksana Azad, Structural Biology Initiative

Schidza Cime, Environmental Sciences Initiative

David Dansu, Neuroscience Initiative

Richard Huang, Nanoscience Initiative

Charles McDonald, Neuroscience Initiative

Sm Nihal, Environmental Sciences Initiative

Sami Sauma, Neuroscience Initiative

Tamar Skaist, Structural Biology Initiative

Brittany Washington, Environmental Sciences Initiative

Xingjian (Jim) Xu, Structural Biology Initiative

Yerzhan Zholdassov, Nanoscience Initiative

The NanoBioNYC program selected its first cohort of six CUNY graduate students, last year. Their training kicked off with a series of professional development workshops in Fall 2022 and continues throughout the new year, as they prepare for an immersive summer experience in three career tracks.

The CUNY ASRC’s Environmental Sciences Initiative partnered with water experts, universities, government, civil society, and business stakeholders from several continents to harvest ideas on how to effectively advance the United Nations goal to ensure access to water and sanitation for all. Here’s what they came up with!

When Malcolm Gladwell, New York Times best-selling author, joined the CUNY ASRC to discuss the role that public higher education institutions can play in communicating science and ensuring that STEM education and research data are available and accessible to all.

This event was a part of our “Communicating Your Science” workshop series.

Congratulations to Volastra Theraputics for in-licensing sovilnesib — a promising KIF18A inhibitor in Phase 1 for ovarian, breast, and other cancers — and securing $60 million in Series A financing to grow and accelerate their pipeline targeting chromosomal instability. This is a major investment!