Skip to main content

Best Wishes, Aniruddha

Congratulations to CMCI postdoc Aniruddha Belsare who will soon be joining the Boone and Crockett Quantitative Wildlife Center (QWC) in the Department of Fisheries & Wildlife at Michigan State University as a Research Associate. his work will focus on the development of quantitative tools to evaluate tne inform wildlife disease control and management, specifically chronic wasting disease in white-tailed deer.

Aniruddha is looking forward to the opportunity to work with and mentor undergraduate and graduate students at QWC. “I’ve been impressed by the collaborative culture and the strong atmosphere of collegiality at the QWC,” he said.

He said that he will miss the small-town setting of Moscow and the scenic Palouse and his colleagues at the U of I.

At a small going-away reception, Aniruddha shared that he first arrived in Moscow on the weekend when the university was closed. But, wanting to see where he’d be working, he grabbed the address and asked Google to show him the way. He was so very, very disappointed when the directions kept taking him to warehouse-type buildings on the edge of campus. It wasn’t until later that he realized the address he was using – 875 Perimeter Drive – was the mailing address for the entire campus and not the physical location of his soon-to-be office. He was relieved and thrilled when he later discovered that the stunning IRIC was where he would actually be working.

CMCI will miss Aniruddha and his scientific contributions but wishes him well on his new adventures.

New Publication Cites CMCI Grant

Where does a cell put it’s resources?

CMCI participant and Department of Physics faculty member Andreas Vasdekis, and his research colleagues Hamdah Alanazi, Amrah Canul and Christopher Williams published a study in the journal Nature Communications. They introduce a new imaging technique to record how a single cell allocates its resources between the production of chemicals and cell growth. These measurements have only been possible on groups of cells, resulting in an average and will be useful in developing biotechnologies and tracking human health.

National Academy of Sciences Member Jim Bull to Join U of I Faculty

National Academy of Sciences Member Jim Bull to Join U of I Faculty

This article was written by Leigh Cooper, Science and Content Writer at University of Idaho Communications and Marketing. We’re excited that Dr. Bull is affiliated with the Center for Modeling Complex Interactions.

MOSCOW, Idaho — Feb. 13, 2019 — National Academy of Sciences (NAS) member Jim Bull will join the University of Idaho faculty in fall 2019. He will be the first NAS member affiliated with an educational institution in Idaho, according to NAS. The academy is a nonprofit and private society of scholars charged by Congress to provide the nation objective and independent council on scientific and technological matters; Bull was elected to NAS in 2016.

Bull is an evolutionary biologist who has specialized in the evolution of viruses and sex determination. He joins the College of Science Department of Biological Sciences from The University of Texas at Austin.

“What I really want to do here at U of I is focus on socially relevant problems and their solutions,” Bull said.

At U of I, Bull will focus on his teaching and three main research projects:

  • Bull plans to offer a course he designed in Austin that instructs students on how to think scientifically. The class, geared toward non-science majors, is dedicated not to teaching students about a specific scientific discipline but how to evaluate and use evidence to draw conclusions. He is also looking forward to directing undergraduate research and enlarging the undergraduate experience beyond the classroom.
  • He is starting a collaboration with Department of Mathematics faculty members Steve Krone and Chris Remien that will use computer modeling to investigate the effectiveness of a genetic engineering technology called gene drive that spreads desired genes throughout a population.
  • In work with Department of Biological Sciences’ Scott Nuismer, Bull will study the potential for designing vaccines that could be transmitted from animal to animal without inoculating each animal individually in order to create an immune population. He hopes work with researchers from the University of Wisconsin and U.S. Department of Agriculture in Fort Collins, Colorado, will result in a transmissible vaccine for the raccoon rabies virus.
  • Bull will test the use of bacteriophages — viruses that infect bacteria — to prevent bacterial infections, like urinary tract infections or ear infections, in dogs and cats.

Solve the Puzzle!

Several people reported the correct answer and students and postdocs were rewarded with chocolate at the CMCI Luncheon yesterday.

The image was created by CMCI Postdoctoral Fellow Dharmesh Patel for the College of Science 2018 Photography and Graphic Arts Contest.


Congratulations to CMCI student researcher Emmanuel Ijezie who submitted one of the top 5 images to be displayed outside the College of Science Dean’s Office: Terminal Bronchiole.

Congratulations, Madison Bergeman

College of Science Dean Ginger Carney recently announced the recipient’s of this year’s Hill Undergraduate Research Fellowships. Madison Bergeman, who works with Professor Christine Parent, was one of eight recipients for her project, “Effects of sequential co-infection of viruses in Drosophila adult flies.”

Additionally, CMCI-affiliated undergraduates Brandon Larsen and Nicole Recla were also each awarded a $1000 research grant. Brandon and Nicole also work with Christine Parent.