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ɫ��ֱ�� instructor named a 2025-2026 Fulbright Scholar

Kylie Clarke — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 23:45:20 +0000

ɫ��ֱ�� instructor named a 2025-2026 Fulbright Scholar Kylie Clarke Wed, 07/16/2025 - 17:45

Award will allow Associate Professor Katherine Lininger to teach at the University of Trento and conduct research on the Tagliamento River floodplain in Italy

Katherine Lininger, a ɫ��ֱ�� Department of Geography associate professor, has received a U.S. Fulbright Scholar award starting in fall 2025 to study and teach in Italy. The award is provided by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Scholarship Board.

The Fulbright award will allow Lininger to investigate interactions among floodplain vegetation, downed wood, water flows and sediment fluxes to better understand and predict changes in floodplains over time. With collaborators at the University of Trento, she will conduct fieldwork, geospatial analyses and numerical modeling to understand ecogeomorphic processes in the Tagliamento River floodplain in northeastern Italy.

Additionally, Lininger will lecture in courses at the University of Trento, lead field trips, give research seminars and mentor graduate students. She said her project will advance ecogeomorphic understanding of floodplains, which provide important ecosystem services, and will support her career trajectory and goals.

Katherine Lininger is an associate professor of geography whose research has mainly focused on large floodplain rivers. Her research methods include fieldwork, statistical modeling and remote sensing.

“I’m honored to take part in the Fulbright program and look forward to building internation connections and collaborations,” Lininger said. “With this award, I will work with researchers at the University of Trento in Italy, investigating interactions between river flows, sediment fluxes and plants to better understand and predict physical and ecological changes in floodplains over time. Our work will inform management and restoration of river floodplains.”

Each year, more than 800 individuals teach or conduct research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 400,000 talented and accomplished students, artists and professionals with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research abroad. Notable awards received by alumni include 63 Nobel Prizes, 98 Pulitzer Prizes and 82 McArthur Fellowships.

“The benefits extend beyond the individual recipient, raising the profile of their home institutions. We hope ɫ��ֱ�� can leverage Katherine Lininger’s engagement abroad to establish research and exchange relationships, connect with potential applicants and engage with your alumni in the host country,” the Fulbright Program said in its award announcement.

Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program, which operates in more than 160 countries worldwide.

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Award will allow Associate Professor Katherine Lininger to teach at the University of Trento and conduct research on the Tagliamento River floodplain in Italy.

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ɫ��ֱ�� instructor named a 2025-2026 Fulbright Scholar

Kylie Clarke — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 17:26:19 +0000

ɫ��ֱ�� instructor named a 2025-2026 Fulbright Scholar Kylie Clarke Tue, 07/15/2025 - 11:26

Award will allow Teaching Professor Caroline Conzelman to teach and conduct research on sustainability in Murcia, Spain

Caroline Conzelman, a teaching professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Residential Academics Program (RAP) at the ɫ��ֱ��, has received a Fulbright Senior U.S. Scholar Program award in international affairs and environmental studies for fall 2025 in Spain. The award is provided by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Scholarship Board.

Conzelman’s Fulbright project is titled “Participatory Action Research on Urban-Rural Sustainability Challenges in Murcia, Spain.” Partnering with the Universidad de Murcia, Conzelman will work with undergraduate students to examine sustainability challenges in urban and rural areas of the valley of Murcia.

Trained as a cultural anthropologist, Conzelman’s objectives are to provide students with mentorship and training in applied ethnographic research methods to study how civil society, business and government leaders define and promote sustainable business goals. Additionally, she will give a series of workshops and organize a symposium on campus to present her findings and highlight innovative local solutions as well as meaningful career paths.

“I am honored to have this opportunity and am excited to work with and learn from the faculty and students at MU, and to help facilitate relationships between our universities in support of sustainability through social innovation, entrepreneurship and community engagement,” Conzelman said. “I appreciate the man and varied experiences I have had at CU over the last 28 years that allowed me to be a successful candidate.”

“The benefits extend beyond the individual recipient, raising the profile of their home institutions. We hope ɫ��ֱ�� can leverage Katherine Conzelman’s engagement abroad to establish research and exchange relationships, connect with potential applicants and engage with your alumni in the host country,” the Fulbright Program said in its award announcement.

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Award will allow Teaching Professor Caroline Conzelman to teach and conduct research on sustainability in Murcia, Spain.

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More protections needed to safeguard biodiversity in the Southern Ocean

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 18:07:17 +0000

More protections needed to safeguard biodiversity in the Southern Ocean Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/22/2020 - 12:07

Kelsey Simpkins

Current marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean need to be at least doubled to adequately safeguard the biodiversity of the Antarctic, according to a new ɫ��ֱ�� study

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Meet DNA’s chaperone

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 17:13:12 +0000

Meet DNA’s chaperone Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/26/2019 - 10:13

Cay Leytham-Powell

Researchers have discovered the structure of the FACT protein—a mysterious protein central to the functioning of DNA

It’s long been known that the proteins that package DNA—like students at a high school dance—require a chaperone. But what exactly that guardian looks and acts like has been a mystery—until now.

A team of researchers at the ɫ��ֱ�� has cracked the puzzle of the ‘Facilitates Chromatin Transcription’ (or FACT) protein structure. This protein is partly responsible for making sure everything goes smoothly and no improper interactions take place when DNA temporarily sheds and replaces its guardian proteins, or histones.

These findings, which are the result of a project five years in the making at ɫ��ֱ�� and out today in the journal Nature, will have ripple effects for not only our understanding of the genome and gene transcription, but for our understanding of cancer and the development of anti-cancer drugs.

“This is just the start for this protein. It’s not the end,” said Yang Liu, a research associate at ɫ��ֱ�� and one of the study’s lead authors.

Ever since its discovery in 1998, the FACT protein has been of great interest for those who study DNA, largely because of the possibilities it presents. But, despite decades of effort, many of the central questions of how the protein works remain unanswered.

Yang Liu and Keda Zhou, seen here, are both research associates in Luger's lab and are the study's two lead authors. Figure above of the FACT protein is courtesy of Karolin Luger.

The FACT protein is an essential type of histone chaperone. These guardian proteins escort other proteins during the deconstruction and reconstruction of nucleosomes (the structural unit responsible for organizing and packaging DNA). This happens during gene transcription (the step where DNA is copied into RNA), DNA replication, (where the entire genome is replicated faithfully), and DNA damage repair (which is essential to prevent disease such as cancer).

However, with no clear structure for the protein available, scientists have been less than clear as to how exactly it does both: How does one protein both destroy and maintain?

This new research, though, sheds light on both.

“For a long time, people have been trying to find the mechanism behind how it (this protein) helps transcription,” said Keda Zhou, a research associate at ɫ��ֱ�� and the other lead author for the paper. “People have been working on different aspects of this protein, so we’re really happy that we’re the first to see it in action. It’s really exciting.”

The research team, aided by two other labs also led by women—one in New York and the other in Texas—managed to finally solve the puzzle by isolating the FACT protein and, through a combination of hard-work, ingenuity and tenacity, map it out and catch it in the act of both destroying and maintaining the nucleosome.

What they found is that FACT resembles the saddle and fork of a unicycle, made up of multiple domains that straddle the nucleosome ‘wheel’ of the unicycle. Up until that point, researchers were seeing only one domain at a time, causing confusion and contradictory results.

And yet, it appears that none of those differing findings are wrong.

“Their (Liu and Zhou) work really put everything together. And it seems like everybody’s right, which is just really cool,” said Karolin Luger, the endowed chair of biochemistry at ɫ��ֱ��, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator and the study’s senior author.

This discovery is only the beginning for this protein, both for Luger’s lab and the broader medical community.

Earlier this year, ɫ��ֱ��, with the help of matching funds from HHMI, purchased a new, state-of-the-art cryo-electron microscope, which allows scientists in all biomedical disciplines to see biomolecular structures in ultra-high-resolution. Luger plans to use this new microscope to look more into the FACT protein, keeping in-house what they once had to send to other laboratories.

“Now with these new technologies, we can catch other protein machines in the act of doing their job,” said Luger. “We can almost put together movies where we see every step, we see what every part is doing during this process, and this is what this technology has made possible.”

The researchers also feel like this research might shed light on cancer, which is often the result of something in the genetic transcription or DNA replication and repair process going awry, and, by extension, cancer treatment research.

“There are lots of unknowns,” said Zhou. “But this is a starting point.”

Researchers have discovered the structure of the FACT protein—a mysterious protein central to the functioning of DNA

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