This WiSE Wednesday we honor the 2019 WiSE faculty mentor awardee, computational biologist and Associate Professor Dr. Molly Gale Hammell who studies transposable elements (the so-called “jumping genes” that CSHL legend Barbara McClintock is famous for discovering). McClintock studied their role in corn color patterns, but Hammell instead looks at their role in neurodegenerative...
In the early 1920s, hematologist Lucy Wills studied a blood disorder called prenatal macrocytic anemia, which was causing impoverished pregnant textile workers in India to develop symptoms including fatigue and heart problems – and could even cause death. Could she find a cure – or prevent it all together? Well, where there’s a Lucy...
If you watched the Breakthrough Prize (sometimes called the “Oscars for scientists”) last weekend – Dr. Virginia Man-Yee Lee likely stood out – she was one of the few female awardees, but throughout her career, she has been standing out for a much more important reason – her amazing scientific contributions. Lee is a...
Last week WiSE teamed up with CSHL’s Diversity Initiative for the Advancement of STEM (DIAS) and Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to host Dr. Ushma Neill for a special seminar on allyship – what allies are, why they’re necessary in STEM, and how women and minority scientists can be best supported by their...
Ilona Banga was a Hungarian biochemist who co-discovered actomyosin – the actin/myosin combo that allows muscles to contract so you can move. She also co-discovered the first elastase, a protein capable of degrading the protein elastin, which gives tissues like veins their flexibility, and her clever thinking saved her research institute’s valuable equipment and...
