College of Sciences

Georgia Tech has received a rapid grant of more than $86,000 from the National Science Foundation to study air-monitoring data the university conducted during the BioLab incident in Rockdale County this fall. Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences deployed a mobile monitoring station at the city of Conyers' request shortly after the fire started on Sept. 29. The blaze lasted about two and a half weeks, created a plume of chemicals that wafted over the county and parts of metro Atlanta, and has prompted more than 20 class-action lawsuits blaming the company for illnesses and business closures.

Professor Greg Huey and his research group plan to calibrate and study the data, make it accessible to the public, identify as many compounds as possible that were in the plume, and prioritize reviews based on toxicity.

(This story also appeared at Atlanta Business Chronicle.)

Lipid-protein interactions are crucial for virtually all biological processes in living cells. However, existing structural databases focusing on these interactions are limited to integral membrane proteins. A systematic understanding of diverse lipid-protein interactions also encompassing lipid-anchored, peripheral membrane and soluble lipid binding proteins remains to be elucidated. 

To address this gap and facilitate the research of universal lipid-protein assemblies, researchers including School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Assistant Professor Andrew C. McShan developed BioDolphin — a curated database with over 127,000 lipid-protein interactions. BioDolphin provides comprehensive annotations, including protein functions, protein families, lipid classifications, lipid-protein binding affinities, membrane association type, and atomic structures.

Have you ever noticed how a particular song can bring back a flood of memories? Maybe it’s the tune that was playing during your first dance, or the anthem of a memorable road trip. People often think of these musical memories as fixed snapshots of the past. But recent research suggests music may do more than just trigger memories – it might even change how you remember them.

In this article, Ph.D. student in the School of Psychology Yiren Ren discusses recently published research, which has uncovered intriguing connections between music, emotion, and memory. 

(This story also appeared at The Washington Post, Neuroscience News, and inkl.)