ARCS Foundation, Metro Washington Chapter (MWC) January 2024 Newsletter |
|
Feb 3: Winter Membership Meeting, 5-8:30pm, Army & Navy Club in D.C.
Feb 20: Membership Coffee
Mar 4: Visit at University of Maryland, 10:30am
Apr 5: 55 Year Celebration/Eagle Award
|
|
Best New Year’s wishes for a joyous year in 2024, an exciting time of celebrating our chapter's 55 years, the second oldest ARCS chapter nationwide!
Mark your calendars for Fri, Apr 5 when we will be celebrating our 55 Year Anniversary with our Eagle awardee Dr. Renee Wegrzyn at the Army and Navy Club in D.C. This will be an evening of fun, fundraising and celebration of ARCS-MWC, our scholars and our scholar awards program.
Thirty-six members gathered on Dec 7 at the Coyne’s beautiful home, decorated for Christmas, to share good tidings with each other at our annual holiday party. A highlight of the evening was singing accompanied by Mr. Rich on the piano. Special thanks to Mary Jo Raune and Charlotte Knight for organizing the lovely evening and to Holly and Jim Coyne for hosting.
Another shout out to Susan Trice and Trish O’Malley for organizing the ongoing 55-Day Scholar Fund Campaign. This exciting campaign continues until Jan 27 with a goal of raising $20,075 to support one graduate and one undergraduate scholar. Share this opportunity with your friends.
Coming soon is the Feb 3 Winter Membership meeting and dinner at the Army and Navy Club. Be sure to sign up to hear the featured speaker, Mr. Sounil Yu, an internationally known research entrepreneur in the field of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI).
2024 is going to be a great year!
~Julie Hohl and Patty Sparrell, ARCS-MWC co-presidents
|
|
55-day scholar award fundraiser |
|
Raising $20,075.00 to fund one graduate and one undergraduate scholar is a very special way to celebrate 55 years of ARCS-MWC. Help us reach our goal, and you could win a prize.
Here's how it works:
-
Ask friends and family to make a donation to one of your favorite causes: ARCS Metro Washington Chapter’s Scholar Fund in honor of our 55th Anniversary. Click here for a letter you can send.
-
Tell them that ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) is a national, all volunteer organization that advances science and technology in the United States by providing awards to academically outstanding U.S. scholars studying to complete degrees in science, engineering and medical research. All donations go directly to scholars. Member dues cover the costs of administration. Our MWC chapter supports students at Georgetown University, The George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, The University of Maryland and The University of Virginia.
-
There will be a prize for the person who has the most number of friends make a donation for you. Make sure your friends let us know they are making a donation in support of you.
You and they can donate $5, $50, $55, $100, $500, $5,000, $15,000, any amount. Send checks, payable to “ARCS/MWC” with your name on the memo line, to:
P. O. Box 60868
10221 River Road
Potomac, MD 20859-0868
Be sure to mention "in support of your name" in the comments section.
This campaign runs through Jan 27.
|
|
winter membership meeting |
|
Join us on Sat, Feb 3 from 5:00-8:30 pm at the Army & Navy Club, 901 17th St NW, Washington D.C., for our annual Winter Membership meeting and dinner. Guests are welcome. Our guest speaker is Mr Sounil Yu, CTO and Co-Founder, Knostic, presenting “What’s Next in the AI Revolution."
Tickets are $100 each. Valet parking is available. Click here for details and to register. Questions? Contact Mary Jo Ruane at (703) 965-9098.
Thank you to Alice Laning for sponsoring and to Mary Jo Ruane and Charlotte Knight for organizing this event. We hope all members are able to attend.
|
|
Fellowship, good cheer, and wonderful music were the hallmarks of the ARCS-MWC Holiday Party on Thurs, Dec 7, 2023. Holly and Jim Coyne were the generous hosts extraordinaire for about 40 guests, who, after mingling and enjoying the Coyne's spectacular home, congregated to hear welcoming comments from ARCS-MWC co-presidents Julie Hohl and Patty Sparrell. Julie and Patty expressed how wonderful it was to see everyone, provided a brief update of upcoming MWC events, and thanked Holly and Jim and the MWC organizers, Mary Jo Ruane and Charlotte Knight. The guests then sat down to a delicious dinner catered by Mindy's Caterers.
It was a wonderful chance to catch up with long-time and new friends! The evening was capped by a special sing-along led by Holly and Jim, featuring piano playing by Mr. Rich, a virtuoso musician who provided accompaniment to many holiday and musical favorites. About 20 of us joined in with heartfelt enthusiasm, celebrating in a manner dating back generations and awestruck of the many stellar voices among our friends! It was a wonderful introduction to the holiday season. Keep an eye on our website for a gallery of photos from the party that will be added soon!
|
|
55 year celebration/eagle award |
|
Save the date: our ARCS-MWC 55 Year Anniversary / Eagle Award Celebration is on Fri, Apr 5 from 6:00 - 9:30pm at the Army Navy Club in Washington, D.C.
The theme is "Look to the Future of Science and Technology." Our Eagle Honoree will be Dr. Renee Wegrzyn, Director of Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) appointed by President Biden, recognized as one of TIME Magazine #100 NEXT.
Fantastic venue, amazing speakers, great celebration! Start spreading the word to family, friends and colleagues. Our goal is to have over 100 attendees, raise as much money as possible for our Scholar Fund and 100% participation from our members through ticket sales, donations and live auction.
Watch your email and mailbox for details and your invitation.
|
|
As we celebrate our chapter’s 55th anniversary, we highlight Mary Kennedy’s involvement in ARCS-MWC.
Mary Kennedy has been an ARCS-MWC member since 1995! Sponsored by Peggy Adams, she is an Honorary Member and a Life Member, a result of Mary's many years of commitment to and support of ARCS-MWC. We thank Mary for her continued membership in our chapter.
Mary became interested in ARCS because her sister was a member of, and very involved in, the San Francisco chapter (now called the Northern California Chapter), including as President and as lead of the chapter’s financial operations. Mary enjoyed meeting the SF chapter’s members and participating in SF chapter activities and events. When her husband, Anthony Kennedy, was invited by President Reagan to be a U.S. Supreme Court justice, the SF chapter told her that the Metro Washington chapter was a fun chapter with great people. Mary contacted then the ARCS-MWC President, Andi Purple, who sent her a newsletter and more information about the chapter. Mary also learned that ARCS-MWC had bridge activities and, as an avid bridge player, she mentioned the chapter and bridge to Holly Coyne, also an avid bridge player. Mary and Holly both became members. Mary really liked the ARCS-MWC members, and she really liked science, so it was a good fit. Though potential conflicts of interest with her husband precluded her from fundraising, Mary did have fun enlarging the ARCS-MWC bridge group and chairing the bridge committee.
Mary stayed in ARCS-MWC because she was very interested in the Scholars and went to all events to learn more about their research. Mary herself likes science and used the scientific method throughout college. She majored in experimental psychology with a history minor and then pursued a Master’s degree in education. She became a teacher, applying her psychology and the scientific method background to her teaching.
Her proudest achievements and fondest memories of ARCS-MWC were the friendships she made. ARCS-MWC is a group she felt comfortable with and could relate to: a really fun group of ladies who were also very enthusiastic and passionate about the chapter’s mission!
Mary suggested that recruiting from the scientific world would be the most effective way to gain new members, suggesting that ARCS-MWC approach companies in the sciences and healthcare. Also, building on her career as an educator, Mary added that potentially recruiting members from Thomas Jefferson High School and other science and engineering high schools in the area might be an avenue to introduce ARCS-MWC to parents whose children are in the schools.
|
|
Allison N. McCrady – Danaher Corporation Scholar
1st Year Scholar, PhD Candidate, Biomedical Engineering
University of Virginia
|
|
Research:
Current assessments of muscle function for neuromuscular disease rely on a patient’s ability to complete tasks, excluding those with anxiety and cognitive challenges. Using ultrasound imaging and modeling to develop new ways to estimate patient function directly from clinical muscle measurements will improve treatment decisions and therapeutic development for patients.
Describe the expected benefit of your research to society:
Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy are progressive neuromuscular disorders that result in severe muscle weakness and decline in muscle function measured through subjective ratings of participatory movements, largely ignoring the direct impacts of the disease on skeletal muscle. As new treatments emerge, patients achieve more motor milestones and live longer, creating a need for improved functional assessment tools. My research will provide these novel tools at an optimal time when several new investigational therapeutics are nearing FDAD approval for these patient groups. My research will also improve our understanding of the impact of disease induced muscle changes on force generation, allowing for novel therapeutic targets to be discovered. My research will also bridge the gap between lab and clinic by implementing a powerful finite element modeling pipeline into the clinic to directly measure patient muscle function from muscle measurements. These new assessment tools will create objective and sensitive methods to assess patient function that are inclusive to all patients across functional and cognitive ability scales, expanding the enrollment of these underrepresented groups in clinical trials and improving clinical treatment decisions.
Community Service, Contributions to DEI and Volunteer Work:
I am extremely enthusiastic about STEM outreach, as it was instrumental to my development as a researcher. I continuously seek and organize opportunities to inspire young kids, especially girls, to love and pursue careers in STEM. An example is the organization of a biomechanics activity exploring the effect of impairments on gait through the lens of Cerebral Palsy. I facilitated this activity for middle school girls at Girl’s Geek Day and high school girls at the Bio-Med Tech-Girls. Both of these groups are supported through the Charlottesville Tech Girls organization, an organization I am passionate about maintaining a connection with through my career. I have also helped facilitate events for National Biomechanics Day, a global event seeking to expand the influence and impact of biomechanics on our society. These events have included developing virtual demos of ultrasound to explore tendon mechanics and participating in a live demonstration of working with wearable sensors to quantify gait metrics for high school students. I am currently helping to organize a new activity on the concept of moment arms and the relation to muscle function. This activity is part of National Biomechanics Day, and will be facilitated for 3 organizations (Monticello High School, Computers 4 Kids, and Charlottesville Tech Girls).
In the Multiscale Muscle Mechanophysiology (M3) Lab, I am the current Green Labs Leader and led the initiative to become a certified Gold Level Green Lab in Summer 2022. This entailed working with the UVA Office of Sustainability and Green Labs group to design a custom plan to reduce our lab’s environmental impact and meet program milestones. We participated in cleaning up our lab space, reducing power usage and waste, and organizing a sustainability lab retreat in the community gardens. Currently, I am involved in discussions about how to reduce the environmental impact of the Biomedical Engineering Department with institutional leaders.
|
|
Sheila S. Iyer – Danaher Corporation Scholar
Undergraduate Scholar, Biomedical Engineering
Johns Hopkins University
|
|
Research:
Research in human genetics and genomics, using bioinformatic tools and creating analysis pipelines to study DNA sequencing data and mutations in genes.
Describe how and ARCS Award will benefit your Research
Curiosity about how things work has always propelled my life. In middle school, I looked through a microscope at a cell and saw the nucleus, mitochondria, and other organelles, each with distinct functions. Staring into the 6-micrometer nucleus, I was amazed at how differential expression of DNA creates different types of cells - muscles, skin, entire systems! I became fascinated by genomics, the study of DNA and how it shapes us. It amazed me how a seemingly random string of letters was the code for our life, and I was struck by the innovative ways scientists were extracting meaning from DNA. I was fortunate to attend Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST), a STEM-intensive magnet high school which was ranked #1 in the country and requires a rigorous application process. I took advanced courses in DNA science, artificial intelligence, computer vision, neurobiology, and performed research on nerve regeneration in crayfish in our neuroscience research laboratory. This incubated my love and interest in researching the intersection of medicine and computer science for a data-informed approach to study disease mechanisms.
Attending a Sigma Xi conference my junior year of high school, I watched Dr. Ben Langmead of Johns Hopkins University present a talk on making the most of petabytes of genomic data. This began my foray into computational genomics, when I interned for him and worked on a project studying the reference bias of DNA sequence alignment tools; I continued my work as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), working on creating Biastools, a reference bias diagnostics pipeline deployed as a command line tool. At JHU, I was awarded a research grant by the Office of Undergraduate research and worked in Dr. Steven Salzberg’s lab, devising a pipeline for assembling and identifying nuclear mitochondrial insertions which can cause diseases including cancer if inserted into oncogenes.
With my growing interest in medicine and the clinical implications of genetic variation, I wanted to study how specific genetic variants affect disease pathogenesis and how biomarkers can be used clinically. I secured a research position in the Armanios lab at the JHU School of Medicine where I have created analysis pipelines to study large biobanks of sequencing data along with clinical phenotypes to study clonal hematopoiesis (CH, a precursor to cancer) as an adaptive evolutionary response to telomere dynamics. I discovered a novel CH mutation that is more prevalent among individuals with short telomeres. I also used my analysis pipeline to identify long telomere candidate genes which can be important cancer risk factors. We use an innovative approach, focused on applying computational techniques to analyze a broad population of individuals to identify candidate genes or specific mutations involved in disease pathogenesis.
This is followed by wet-lab functional assays to determine mechanisms behind disease development and to understand the potential for diagnostic utility for patients. Through my research experiences, I have found that research is a beautiful expression of creative thinking that allows us to unpack how the world works. Researchers are like magicians coming up with new tricks; they must think about their goals, analyze existing information, and devise novel, out-of-the-box methods to drive discovery. With the support of the ARCS award, I aim to continue studying mechanisms behind TERTp clonal expansion and role of genomic variants in disease pathogenesis. In the Armanios Lab, I was named a Turock Scholar and received a research grant through JHU’s Bloomberg Distinguished Professor program for prior research. I know how research grants support creative problem solving. This award money will also reduce my undergraduate tuition. What I am most excited for is also the opportunity to be exposed to the rich network within ARCS including former JHU scholars and other alumni. This will enable me to hear and learn from the experiences of others who are at different stages of their research careers.
|
|
Check here for updates from the ARCS-MWC councils.
|
|
Activities: We are planning to auction high-end items with an auctioneer at our 55 year celebration/eagle award event in April. Do you have a weekend or week at a vacation home, cabin or getaway that you would like to donate to be used in the auction? Contact Mary Jo Ruane at Maryjoruane@yahoo.com or at (703) 965-9098.
|
|
Communications: Special thanks to Elli Nesbitt for the long-serving member series she created and for the photos she's taken and articles she's written about several ARCS-MWC events.
|
|
Nominating: Formation of the nominating committee is complete. Committee members are:
-
Jane Riddle - Board, Chairman
-
Patty Sparrel - Immediate Past Chairman
-
Sarah Doverspike - Board
-
Amy Mykityshyn - Board, Alternate
-
Alice Laning - Member
-
Beth Czaban - Member
-
Carolyn Racich - Member
-
Becky Corcoran - Member, Alternate
If you are interested in a particular board position for 2024-2025, contact a member of the nominating committee.
|
|
Development: Our 55-day scholar award fundraiser is live! Details are above. Help us reach our goal.
|
|
University Relations: Our first university visit is at the University of Maryland on Mon, Mar 4 and 10:30 am. Watch your email for details and registration.
|
|
P.O. Box 60868
10221 River Road
Potomac, MD 20859-0868
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
