OCTOBER 2012, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 1

ASSOCIATION FOR GRADUATE STUDENT DIVERSITY

NEWSLETTER

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE By Stephen C. Murray

CONTENTS:

Hello there! My name is Stephen Murray and I am the

president of the Association for Graduate Student Diversity for 2012-

2013. I want to welcome you to another fine edition of our newsletter

and tell you a couple of the news stories for this issue. But first I want

to tell a bit about our organization. The Association for Graduate

Student Diversity (AGSD) at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)

strives to increase diversity, promote retention and graduation of

graduate students in the biomedical sciences, and foster professional

and career development of our members. What does this mean to

you? Well, it means we are an organization by the students, for the

students. We try to provide a platform for leadership opportunities

and networking and we hold many activities (both academic and just

fun) and are always working to have more. This is where you can

help out! Have a good idea or just want to get involved here at BCM?

Send us an email at agsd.bcm@gmail.com and let us know!

So what is new and exciting with our organization? Well the

first big news story is that we are officially a graduate school

organization, the first at BCM! Another exciting piece of news is our

new Enhancing English Communication Skills groups that meet

several times a week- keep reading to find out more information on

this exciting opportunity. For more information on our activities both

past and present, read on to other articles written by our officers and

members.

This work is licensed under a Creative

Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-

NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

AGSD mission statement: We strive to increase the diversity of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at BCM, by involving students and post-docs of all cultural, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. If you are interested in joining AGSD, contact agsd.bcm@gmail.com

Those interested in opportunities like writing articles, editing or designing of the newsletter, or suggesting names for the High Achieving Scientist column contact: atri@bcm.edu

President’s Message 1 Finding a Voice 2

High Achieving Scientist: Dr. Richard Sifers

3

Social Activities 5

Featured Member: Rossi Irobalieva

6

AGSD Officers: 2012-2013 8

OCTOBER 2012, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 2

Finding a Voice Authors: Tabassum Majid & Stephen Murray

“Sally Sells Seashells by the Seashore” - This famous tongue twister may be fun for most American born

students when they started learning English, but for many who are new to the United States, this sentence lends

insight into why integration is hard. Tongue twisters, idioms, pronunciation practice, and conversations about

geography and culture are just some of the activities taking place at the English language skills groups available to

you at Baylor College of Medicine each week.

The English language groups were first started as a pilot program by Gayle Slaughter, PhD, Associate

Dean for Graduate Student Diversity, to serve as a mode to improve conversational skills. A group of about 18

participants volunteered and were provided with both lunch and different topics each week to discuss, allowing

for a comfortable place to have both native (facilitators) and non-native (participants) English speakers, practice

speaking English. Once the pilot study was over, however, Stephen Murray, president of AGSD, felt that there

needed to be a continuation for the participants, and thus the English language skills group was born.

This all-volunteer group has continued to meet throughout the summer, and has attracted the interest of

medical students, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, laboratory technicians, spouses of employees of BCM,

and students from Rice University. In a small classroom in the Alkek building, 5 to 35 people gather in small

groups, discussing everything from “th” sounds to inspirational figures in American history. “The variety in the

classes is enjoyable. We come from different places and this class gives us a chance to make friends,” says Xue, a

participant of the group. Often, facilitators are learning just as much about Chinese, Japanese, French, Hispanic

and Latin American, Korean, Taiwanese, and Indian culture as the participants do about the American culture

when each group is sharing their views.

In a recent meeting, quotes from famous individuals in pop culture helped spur conversations with

participants on success, humor, and social norms. These seemingly small activities have had a big impact on

helping participants identify confusing aspects of the American lifestyle, culture, and language and are targeted to

help them feel more comfortable in a new country.

Participants are always eager to join and ask for feedback in addition to bringing questions or phrases they

have faced throughout the work week that they have had trouble understanding. A regular group of participants

and facilitators attend weekly on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1-2 pm. Stephen Murray reflects, “The groups

are going well. We still have new people showing up almost every session …overall we still have a great deal of

interest and are always looking for more native English speakers to come help out.” The English language groups

will continue as long as we are able to reserve rooms, and AGSD is happy to take more volunteers to participate

or facilitate. The only qualifications are that you come with an open mind, some patience, and a sense of humor. If

you are interested in volunteering or have any questions, feel free to contact Stephen Murray at

scmurray@bcm.edu.

The English Language Groups are in session weekly on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1-2 pm

OCTOBER 2012, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 3

High Achieving Scientist: DR. RICHARD SIFERS, Ph.D.

Dr. Richard Sifers earned a Ph.D. in the field biochemistry and

biochemical genetics from the University Of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, OK. His entire post-doc experience was spent

with Dr. Savio Woo here at BCM. Currently, he operates an internationally-

recognized lab as a full professor in the department of Pathology and

Immunology, and holds secondary appointments in the departments of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Molecular and Cellular Biology,

Structural and Computational Biology, and Molecular Biophysics, Cellular,

and Molecular Biology, Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine, and the Medical Scientists Training Program. In addition to his participation in

those graduate programs he is a co-director for the graduate program in

Immunology. He is also a faculty member of the BCM Human Genome

Sequencing Center, Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Huffington Center on Aging, Center for Liver Diseases (Texas Children’s Hospital), Texas

Medical Center Digestive Disease Center, and the Texas Gulf Coast

Consortia. As an educator, he currently serves as a team teacher for the courses, “Foundations of Basic Science to the Science of Medicine: Core

Concepts,” “Biology of Aging,” and “Pathophysiology of Disease.” He is

also a teacher and co-director for the graduate school course “Organization of the Cell.” Dr. Sifers also serves as the Assistant Dean for Post-doctoral

Research and Career Development. Finally, he has been extremely fortunate

to receive numerous awards for his educational efforts, including: “Best

Course,” “Best Lecturer” (for three consecutive years), a Fulbright and Jaworski Faculty Excellence Award (for Teaching and Evaluation), and the

Robertson Presidential Award for Excellence in Education.”

Dr. Richard Sifers agreed to answer some questions for our issue:

Tell us about your experience as a graduate student.

I entered graduate school after working for two years as an analytical chemist at an energy plant near Kansas City, MO. Upper

management was so impressed with my work ethic and interpersonal skills that they offered me the ‘head scientist’ position. Within two days, I had

decided to apply to graduate school because I wanted more out of life than a

nine-to-five job (although the pay was outstanding). Graduate school was a very interesting experience because it was necessary for me to develop

disciplines beyond what I had known. I actually failed my very first general

biochemistry exam, and had ended up with the second-to-worst score among all the other graduate students. I worked very diligently thereafter and ended

up with the second-highest score on the final exam. Interestingly, I bragged

about this achievement to the guy that had made the worst score on the

original exam, but it turned out that he had made the highest score on the final exam. From this experience, I learned that fear is a great motivator.

OCTOBER 2012, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 4

HIGH ACHIEVING SCIENTIST: DR. RICHARD SIFERS, Ph.D.

What are some of the skills that you acquired over time that have prepared you for your position?

I was always a very hard working individual, having grown up on a farm/ranch in northwest Missouri. However, to

do well in science I soon learned it was necessary for me to

become more disciplined in many areas. Although I had learned how to properly design experiments and interpret the

generated data, much of this had been accomplished at the

expense of mastering other important subjects. For example, I

had neglected the importance of writing, presentation, and organizational skills. Through much effort plus some useful

guidance from various mentors, I eventually acquired not only

the aforementioned skills but was able to master multi-tasking!

Tell us about your work for the Post-doc Research and Career

Development.

Because of all the bench work required to earn a Ph.D.,

plus the well-meaning excessive participation of some mentors to ensure that the associated findings are published, some

graduate students fail to fully develop the professional skills

that are needed for the next step in their careers. Many mentors and members of federal and private funding agencies have

begun to recognize these inadequacies when an individual

begins his/her first post-doctoral position. Without these skills,

it will be very difficult for some exceptional, technically- trained individuals to succeed as an independent scientific

investigator or to even successfully pursue a career that might

diverge from having one’s own laboratory. Fortunately, several years ago the BCM graduate school began to provide

numerous skill development workshops and courses (including

a specific career development course) to help remedy this

unfortunate situation. In fact, I am currently working with other deans and executive leaders at BCM in an attempt to

establish a Career Development Center that will more fully

organize all of these (and more) events, plus assist individuals with their career advancement.

You teach some of the most useful biology courses at BCM, what is the best thing you like about teaching?

I sincerely appreciate the accolades. However, to be very honest, I was never really interested in becoming a

teacher. My reason for teaching in the graduate and medical

schools was to simply fulfill the requirements for tenure and as a personal favor (for one of the basic science chairs) to fill a

gap left by a faculty member that had left BCM. I had not

considered that I might actually be good at it! What I like most about teaching is the opportunity to provide the next generation

of scientists with some mechanistic understanding of how

biology operates beyond the genome (at the level of the

encoded proteins). I am particularly glad, and proud, that my lab actually discovered some of what I teach. This allows me

to discuss the actual process of scientific inquiry without

merely providing the students with general facts.

What is the most challenging thing about your position?

Of course, research has its own unique challenges and

these are too numerous to discuss in this particular column. However, in regard to my service to BCM as a dean, I would

have to say that my greatest challenge is convincing graduate

students and post-docs to consider their future beyond their

present circumstances. Many don’t seem to understand that a little investment in skill development right now can go a long

way to ensure their future success in whatever direction they

eventually chose. Failure to fully utilize one’s resources is tragic, at least in my opinion. Finally, I wish that the executive leaders

at BCM would do more to publicly recognize and reward faculty

that serve as outstanding mentors. These people are directly responsible for developing the next generation of scientists and

are therefore indirectly responsible for many of the future

discoveries that will be made in science and medicine!

What do you count as your greatest success?

In terms of research, I chose to study how cells manage their secreted proteome (a term that was used by very few

scientists at that time) as a late stage in gene expression, rather

than to focus (like most scientists) on the genome and its

transcription into mRNA (which I consider to represent an intermediate in gene expression). Using the human alpha1-

antitrypsin deficiency as a model, we were the first to

mechanistically define the central roles played by aspargine- linked oligosaccharides in managing the vast majority of the

secreted proteome. We elucidated how the modified glycans first

function to assist productive folding of the attached nascent peptide, and then orchestrate the intracellular disposal of

permanently misfolded glycoproteins by a process that has been

coined ER-associated degradation (ERAD). In doing this, we

were one of the very first labs to recognize that ERAD and cellular stress response pathways (like the Unfolded Protein

Response) contribute to both the etiology and pathogenesis of

numerous loss-of-function and gain-of-toxic-function human diseases. We substantiated this notion by identifying a Single

Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) in one of the central ERAD

factors that creates a novel conditional hypomorphic allele that slows glycoprotein disposal and is responsible for the most

common genetic form of childhood liver disease in the USA.

What advice can you provide to young scientists regarding

career paths?

Although it will be necessary to study, at least to some

extent, what is currently popular (in order to get funding) don’t limit your focus to the status quo. Rather, explore those areas in

science in which you have passion and be ready to defend your

ideas. You will have to overcome numerous obstacles, including negative personalities and rejections, if you want to be an

original thinker.

OCTOBER 2012, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1

5

Social Activities/Fundraising 2012 Author: Jaclyn Bravo

During this past year, AGSD hosted a handful of social and community outreach activities on campus:

Candy Grams

In the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day, AGSD designed and sold Candy Grams, which consisted of

humorous scientific messages coupled with a sweet treat. Baylor College of Medicine students and staff sent messages to their friends and sweethearts on campus. In addition, we sold Candy Grams for patients at Texas

Children’s Hospital, with sweet messages from well-wishers. Due to patient dietary restrictions, we provided a card

and pencil or stickers attached to the message. There was a great deal of interest and response to our first fundraiser of the year, and we look forward another round next year!

Movie Night

Last month, AGSD hosted a free movie night showing Rise of the Planet of the Apes. We offered this event to draw out fellow students, post-docs and SMART students to both socialize as well as discuss the plot of the movie. AGSD sold popcorn and other delicious movie snacks with complimentary soda. Money raised from this social event will be used to promote and host future events. Due to the interest in this event, we hosted another one on September

27th, from 6-8pm in N315, where we showed Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. We will keep you posted about future

movie nights.

Graduate School Night

IMSD, AGSD, and the SMART program shared a table during a graduate school organization night this July.

The activity was dedicated towards informing the summer SMART students about the various programs present at BCM. We were able to interact with future young scientists and spend time sharing our experiences with students.

Future Activities

Recently, AGSD met with the Graduate Student Association at UT-Houston. We have proposed hosting various networking and social events with this group as well as others around the Texas Medical Center. One such

idea to foster camaraderie would be a host a BCM Ping Pong Tournament, Bingo Night with prizes, and Relay Races

between faculty, students, and post-docs. Because AGSD seeks to incorporate the many interests and diversity here at

BCM, we are excited to have the chance to network with established organizations that conduct these events regularly.

This fall, look forward to a Pumpkin Painting/Carving Contest to be held the week of Halloween to spread

the fall cheer. Pumpkins will be judged for first, second, and third place. Currently, we are working on a partnership with a local hospital to donate these festive pumpkins to welcome this spooky fall holiday.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

1. BCM Social Dance Club and Latin Dance Factory will be offering 4 Saturday Classes on October

13 and 20, 2012, November 3 and 10, 2012 at 3-4 PM at the Rayzor Lounge $5 per class.

2. BCM Ping Pong Tournament.

3. Pumpkin Painting/Carving Contest.

Stay tuned for updates.

OCTOBER 2012, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 6

Featured Member: ROSSI IROBALIEVA

Tell us about your undergraduate experience and your journey to

BCM.

I went to college at the University of Maryland, Baltimore

County (UMBC). While I was there, I was fortunate to be a part of the

Meyerhoff Scholarship Program – a program that focuses on

underrepresented minority students, who are interested in pursuing a

career in science. My first semester at UMBC, I decided to choose

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology as my major, because I

liked biology and computer science. This was a shiny new discipline at

the time and while we only had one Bioinformatics specific seminar

our senior year, the major itself provided me with the opportunity to

dip my toes in all areas of science – math, biology, chemistry, physics

and computer science.

My senior year, I went to the Annual Biomedical Research

Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). I was presenting my

summer research and also checking out graduate schools (mostly

trying to score some fee waivers). That’s where the Gulf Coast

Consortia (GCC) table caught my eye. They had a huge poster and

somewhere on there “Computational Biology” was written in large

font. The representative kindly explained that first, I had to be

accepted in one of the GCC (Texas) schools and then I could apply for

any of the GCC fellowships. I turned around and since the University

of Houston table was busy, I went to the BCM one and the rest is

history. I had heard about BCM before – Dr. Slaughter had visited

UMBC while I was there and a couple of my friends had come over

for the SMART summer program. However, I had never been to Texas

before my interview. But one look at Baylor College and I was sold!

I came to BCM straight after college and I am a sixth year

student in the Structural and Computational Biology and Molecular

Biophysics (SCBMB) program now. I work in Dr. Wah Chiu’s lab. Dr.

Chiu runs the National Center for Macromolecular Imaging at BCM

and is the director of the SCBMB program. Our lab has about 35

people and more than 200 active projects. My focus changed a couple

of years back and I now work with small nucleic acids. In fact, I work

with the smallest specimens than anyone in the cryo community has

ever worked with.

My main project focuses on a small, but critical, segment of the

HIV-1 genome. HIV packages two copies of its RNA genome and

both are needed for a successful viral lifecycle. The region I study is

responsible for genome encapsidation initiation. It is also the initiation

site of dimerization of the two RNA copies, a process, which is very

important for the virus. We work alongside our Nuclear Magnetic

Resonance (NMR) collaborators. They are pushing the limits of NMR

in the pursuit of studying this 52 kDa RNA (a bit too big for NMR),

while on our end we are pushing the limits of cryo-EM (we usually

like our specimens to be at least 100 kDa).

What are your career interests?

I feel very strongly about

science education. I find that most

people do not care about science

because of a bad academic

experience or because they just do

not see how science applies to

‘real life.’

One thing I am very

passionate about is community

outreach. I think my dream job

would be to go around and talk to

people about science and general

medical topics and help them

learn more about who they are (at

the cell level) and about the world

around them.

OCTOBER 2012, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 7

FEATURED MEMBER: ROSSI IROBALIEVA

Could you share with us your experiences as a mentor?

I have always had great mentors throughout high

school, college and now grad school. One thing that they

have all taught me is the importance of reaching out and

giving back. I first started mentoring back in high school,

where I was involved with an after school program that

helped struggling math students. They all believed that they

could not do math. My goal was to help them pass the

mental barrier and show them how much fun math is. Then,

my freshman year in college, I mentored a girl from a local

middle school and in graduate school I have been involved

in several mentoring activities, such as Saturday Morning

Science. I find that mentoring is a two-way street – as a

mentor, you always learn from your mentees.

What are some extracurricular activities you have been

involved in and what was your favorite?

I tend to get involved in too many extracurricular

activities. At BCM, I have been a part of Saturday Morning

Science, AGSD (during the first two years, when we were

still trying to establish ourselves as an organization and

come up with a name!), the Graduate Student Council (also

organized the First Year Initiative one year), teaching

ballroom dancing as a part of BCM’s Social Dance Club

and volunteering at several other events. My out-of-school

activities include photography, yoga and running.

I absolutely love working with students so I would

have to say that Saturday Morning Science has been one of

the most rewarding experiences. I find working with middle

and high school students truly inspiring and eye-opening.

These are all very bright, wonderful kids and some of them

are faced with life challenges well beyond their age. Being

able to interact with them, inspire them and encourage them

is truly priceless.

What is a typical day in your lab?

Interacting with my lab mates is an integral part of

my lab day. We take about science and bounce ideas off

each other, but we also discuss pretty much everything

else – politics, world events, life, and hobbies.

How do you keep yourself motivated?

Some days it is easy. I find simply walking

through the medical center to be inspiring – we are so

lucky to have so much awesome science surrounding us.

However, research is hard and given that things fail more

often than they work out, some days staying motivated

can be truly a challenge. When an experiment keeps on

not working out, I try to remember the big picture and

look ahead and I often have to give myself a pep talk.

Sometimes it also helps to switch gears and work on a

different project for a while. Finally, I love traveling so

the prospect of going to a cool and exciting conference is

always extremely motivating. This past May, I went to a

Gordon Research Conference in Europe. I had been

thinking about this conference for the past two years and

working toward being able to go and present my research.

Having amazing lab mates does not hurt either – it is

always nice to have someone to commiserate with and

bounce off ideas.

How about some of your favorite BCM moments?

I always think fondly of my first semester at

BCM. When I was not in my rotation lab or classes, I

spent my time learning how to play pool from the guys in

my program or studying for those very first graduate

student exams.

My lab has an annual Christmas white elephant

party. This is one event that we all look forward to and

start thinking about six months in advance. It is always a

race to find the most awesome gift that everyone will

want.

Since I work in a cryo-EM lab and do a lot of

computational work, my days are quite different from those

of most other graduate students. My schedule is very

dynamic. Some days I walk in at 7 am to make sure that the

microscope I am using is cooled down and everything is set

for a long day of data collection. Other days, I stroll in a bit

later than that and spend my day doing data analysis, which

often involves writing small scripts to run computational

analysis on our clusters. Then sometimes, I spend my days

staring at three-dimensional models and trying to make

sense of my data.

Since our lab is so big, the gift picking part

usually takes quite a while. And as for the food – we

always have a potluck. With such a large and diverse

group we always have a wonderful, delicious selection of

food.

OCTOBER 2012, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 8

AGSD OFFICERS 2012-2013

President- Stephen Murray

Vice President/Treasurer- Tabassum Majid

Secretary- Meagan Pitcher

Social Committee Chair- Jaclyn Bravo

Historian/Communications Chair- Benu Atri

NEWSLETTER EDITORS:

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Benu Atri

MANAGING EDITOR: Stephen C. Murray

Article Editors

Finding a Voice Maria Terrón

High Achieving Scientist Meagan Pitcher

AGSD-upcoming events Tabassum Majid

Featured Member Stephen Murray

One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX – 77030

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