"Waking up this morning, I smile. 24 brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment."­ – Thich Nhat Hanh

“To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed.” –  Sidney Poitier

“I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life.” – Miles Davis

I was watching a reel the other night and the person asked a great question. If someone offered you $100,000, but it meant you wouldn’t wake up the next day, would you take it? No? How about $1,000,000? Still, no? How about $10,000,000? That’s a lot of money. STILL, no? Stop and think about that for a second.  If you aren’t willing to trade that kind of money for not waking up, you’re saying something about how much waking up is worth to you. Don’t take it for granted. Every day that you wake up, you get the chance to do something.  Whatever you’re succeeding at, in the midst of, or struggling with, a new day presents a new opportunity to keep doing what you’re doing or to do something different.

“My favorite things in life don't cost any money. It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.” –  Steve Jobs

“What I do is I keep trying to focus on what I am doing now, instead of wasting time thinking about what went wrong in the past or will happen in the future.” –  Jung HoYeon

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” — Muhammad Ali 

Every other year, Dr. Hrabowski would make the time to come and speak to the high school students from Upward Bound Math Science and Classic Upward Bound who trade in six weeks of their summer for the opportunity to learn and grow at UMBC.  One year, one of the students asked Dr. Hrabowski how much he had to work to have the life that he lives.  I’ll never forget his answer, he told the students (much to their disbelief and dismay) that he worked 12-14 hours per day, 6 days a week.  He paused to let the grumbles, moans, and nervous laughter bubble up and ebb.  Then he said that he also made sure to spend time daily praying, connecting with his beloved wife and loved ones, exercising, meditating, and reading.  That got silence.  I get it.  That is a LOT of hours grinding and you’re maintaining healthy habits on top of that!?  Reading it now, it seems daunting.  Is it though? Many of you feel busier than you’ve ever been.  You are already putting in those kinds of hours every day and it still doesn’t seem to be enough.  And here I come telling you that you should be working more, or longer, or harder.  The good news is, that is not what I am telling you, well not necessarily. 

“Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.” – Anne Lamott

“Don't use time and words carelessly - neither can be retrieved.” –  LeCrae

“Don't waste your time chasing butterflies. Mend your garden, and the butterflies will come.” – Mario Quintana

I can’t speak for you, but I can find and silence the alarm on my phone with both eyes closed and never take my head off the pillow.  I can’t tell you how many times I have said to myself just five more minutes and I’ll get up, or get going, or stop scrolling, or get back to work. When I finally look up an hour or so later, I don’t know where the time went.  For you it may be that too, or one more reel, or TikTok, or episode, or game, or video, or song… The list is long.  The distractions are many.  This is the way, and the way is not easy.  Do not hang your head or rack yourself with guilt or shame.  Be honest with yourself about how you’re spending your time and whether that is what you want for yourself.  If you don’t know, take stock. Spend a week tracking how you spend the hours in your day.  At the end of that week, look at it, critically and objectively.  If you’re good with it, great, keep it up.  If you’re not good with it, great, now you can see where you can improve. And then what?  Well, then you work to make it as easy as possible for you to be your best self and do your best work. 

I don’t have time to put all of that in my calendar… Yes, you do.

I work better under pressure… No, you don’t.

I tried that before, and it didn’t work for me… Try it again a different way.

I work better when I multitask… No, you don’t.  No one does.

I can do it all… Yes, you can, just not all at once.

“Whatever life may send your way - make the best of it. Don't waste your time and energy worrying about it. Instead, find a way to do something about it. Learn from it, adjust to it, be strong, be flexible, and be your best in every situation.” – Les Brown

“Look closely at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming.” – Alice Walker

“It's never a waste of time or money to invest in yourself, no matter the source. True wealth begins inwards and emits its light outward into everything else, including the people you surround yourself with.” – will.i.am

What am I asking you to do?

1.     Be intentional about scheduling your time, well in advance, so that you have time to work and play and know which is which. 

2.     Plan your work and work your plan so that you can avoid, as much as possible, scrambling to do things at the 11^th hour.

3.     Be deliberate in using the tools at your disposal to organize and prioritize your time so that it is clear when you should be doing what.  Google calendar is a powerful tool and it’s free. If you have a phone you have a calendar.

4.     Dedicate focused time to your work and put forth maximum effort during that focused time.

5.     Take care of YOU.  As you move, take care of your whole self in real and tangible ways.  One tool to combat burnout is balance, seek it and protect it.  If you need help, get help.  If you need help finding the help, just say something, we are here for you.

6.     Take care of your business.  You are here to get your degree.  Life requires balance for sure but keep the main thing the main thing.  You have persevered through all that you have been through.  Keep that same energy and get this done.  The world needs to see the brilliance you have to offer.

Now go be GREAT!

“Just a Minute” – Anonymous

I have only just a minute,
Only sixty seconds in it.

Forced upon me, can’t refuse it.

Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it.

But it’s up to me to use it.

I must suffer if I lose it.

Give account if I abuse it.

Just a tiny little minute,

but eternity is in it.

as recited by Dr. Benjamin E. Mays at the funeral of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Any views or opinions expressed in this missive are solely the author’s and do not represent that of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County or any programs, departments, or partners affiliated with UMBC. While I make every effort to ensure that the information I am sharing is accurate, I welcome any comments, suggestions, or correction of errors.

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The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) Undergraduate Diversity Fellowship aims to extend paid educational, professional, and mentorship opportunities to historically underrepresented groups, such as Black and brown community college and undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing a career in the field of international affairs or Asia policy.

NBR acknowledges the historical exclusion and underrepresentation of minorities and Black and brown professionals within U.S. foreign policy at all levels and is committed to opening the door to minority voices and perspectives in policy. Through the Undergraduate Diversity Fellowship Program, NBR hopes to begin closing the accessibility gap in the field of International Affairs and to continue to shape the next generation of bright, diverse leaders.

Starting in May, fellows will work 5-10 hours a week remotely prior to their 10-12-week summer internship in NBR's D.C. office. Fellows will become acquainted with NBR, get to know their supervisors and other employees, set goals, and attend NBR events. This training period will allow for supervisors to provide a well-rounded mentoring experience for their fellows before their internship and afterwards. Fellows will learn about NBR and the think tank industry, be introduced to the different teams at NBR, and become familiar with NBR projects.

Mammals are “all-in” on sexual reproduction, explains Mercedes Burns, assistant professor of biological sciences at UMBC. They even have “mechanisms that reinforce the maintenance of sex and make it so that asexual reproduction”—that is, without a mate—“isn’t possible anymore,” she adds. But why?

Even beyond mammals, most vertebrates require a mate to reproduce, but some organisms can reproduce on their own. Both modes of reproduction are relatively common throughout the tree of life. However, animals that are able to switch between the two modes of reproduction are incredibly rare, Burns says.

One example is an organism Burns studies—a member of a group of arachnids known as harvestmen, or more popularly as daddy-longlegs. The species Burns studies only exists on the two northernmost islands of Japan. Through a $987,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, she’ll soon travel there with a group of students to learn more about them.

“The questions I’m asking in this CAREER grant set the stage,” she says, for discovering how species that can reproduce both sexually (with a mate) and asexually (without a mate) “control whether it’s going to be one reproductive mode or the other,” Burns says. “Ultimately we want to understand what allows for this kind of reproductive strategy in these systems, which we don’t see commonly in animals.”

Different environments, different strategies

The NSF CAREER Award recognizes early-career faculty researchers who “have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.” The award supports five years of work on a major research project.

Sexual coercion and harassment are widespread across the animal kingdom. Burns’s project will investigate how these kinds of sexual conflict may drive whether females in the species she is studying reproduce sexually or asexually in different situations. She has already found that populations in prime habitats tend to be dense and consist of a nearly equal number of males and females. However, in more remote, lower quality habitats, the populations are nearly exclusively female.

“We think that over evolutionary time, females are perhaps better able to persist away from these populations of high density, because they have this other (asexual) reproductive method,” Burns explains. She also expects the females that live in denser populations with more males to be more resistant to coercion, because they experience more of it and over time adapt to better avoid it.

To test her hypothesis, Burns and her students will travel to Japan to collect females from various harvestmen populations. In captivity, they will present the females with males and record their behavior. They expect females from populations with a large number of males to respond differently from females taken from populations made up almost exclusively of females. Burns and her students will also do genetic testing on eggs produced by the collected females, to see what portion of the eggs (if any) result from mating with the male they encountered in captivity.

Best of both worlds

Burns finds it odd that the ability to use both sexual and asexual reproduction isn’t more common across the animal kingdom. Having the option to use either method “is kind of the ideal reproductive mode,” she says, because the balance of pros and cons for each method changes with the circumstances.

In sexual reproduction, “you’re able to mix your genes to produce offspring that are going to be different from you, and perhaps will be better adapted to future conditions,” Burns says, which is helpful if the environment is changing or the mother’s genetic traits aren’t well-suited to the current environment. “But when you have excellent genetic combinations, you’re well adapted to your environment, and the environment isn’t changing much, it’s better to not pay the costs associated with sex,” she says, which include breaking up that excellent genome, passing on fewer of your own genes, and even potentially suffering stress and physical harm from sexual encounters.

And yet, using a mix of reproductive strategies is extremely rare. “Because we don’t see it commonly in nature, we want to learn more,” says Burns. “ What are the forces and mechanisms that keep these reproductive modes separate in animals, except in these rare cases?”

Breaking down barriers

Alongside the research component of the CAREER Award is a teaching and mentoring component. Burns and colleagues in modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communications at UMBC will create an in-depth mentoring program for the students who will accompany Burns to Japan. A course on Japanese language and culture, introspective journaling exercises about their expectations and reflections, and more will help the students get the most out of their experience.

The CAREER Award will also support some of Burns’s work as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee chair for the American Arachnological Society.  This includes her efforts to add DEI material to the society’s website and to conduct a demographic survey of its membership. The survey would help the organization better understand its members and the kinds of DEI programming they might be interested in.

Burns has been pursuing this work for some time, but an experience in 2021 inspired her to go further. In April of that year, researchers named a newly discovered spider species Ummidia mercedesburnsae in honor of her contributions to the field, recognizing her as the first known female African American arachnologist. “That kind of spurred me to think, ‘I could do something to leave a legacy for the organization and for the field,’” Burns reflects. “After realizing you’re the first or only one, you want to make sure it isn’t like that forever.”

Learning to love arthropods

In addition to inspiring her own lab group and members of the American Arachnological Society through her research, Burns will bring her love of arachnids and beyond to UMBC students through developing an undergraduate course on arthropod biodiversity and applications.

Despite the immediate “eww” that frequently accompanies bug sightings, “Altogether, I think there are a lot of opportunities to kindle some sort of curiosity and familiarity around insects, arachnids, and crustaceans,” Burns says. “That way we can challenge some of those negative connotations and fears and develop an appreciation for this huge, evolutionarily successful group of organisms. It’s a group that is incredibly diverse and that touches our lives in so many ways.”

A new paper in Nature Communications illuminates how a previously poorly understood enzyme works in the cell. Many diseases are tied to chronic cellular stress, and UMBC’s Aaron T. Smith and colleagues discovered that this enzyme plays an important role in the cellular stress response. Better understanding how this enzyme functions and is controlled could lead to the discovery of new therapeutic targets for these diseases.

The enzyme is named ATE1, and it belongs to a family of enzymes called arginyl-tRNA transferases. These enzymes add arginine (an amino acid) to proteins, which often flags the proteins for destruction in the cell. Destroying proteins that are misfolded, often as a result of cellular stress, is important to prevent those proteins from wreaking havoc with cellular function. An accumulation of malfunctioning proteins can cause serious problems in the body, leading to diseases like Alzheimer’s or cancer, so being able to get rid of these proteins efficiently is key to long-term health.

Tantalizing implications

The new paper demonstrates that ATE1 binds to clusters of iron and sulfur ions, and that the enzyme’s activity increases two- to three-fold when it is bound to one of these iron-sulfur clusters. What’s more, when the researchers blocked cells’ ability to produce the clusters, ATE1 activity decreased dramatically. They also found that ATE1 is highly sensitive to oxygen, which they believe relates to its role in moderating the cell’s stress response through a process known as oxidative stress.

“We were very excited about that, because it has lots of very tantalizing downstream implications,” particularly related to the enzyme’s role in disease, says Smith, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

Smith’s lab works initially with the yeast protein but also showed that the mouse version of ATE1 behaves similarly. That’s important, Smith explains. “Since the yeast protein and the mouse protein behave the same way,” he says, “there’s reason to believe, that because the human protein is quite similar to the mouse protein, it likely behaves the same way as well.”

A new approach

Before they made their breakthrough discovery, Smith and then-graduate student Verna Van, Ph.D. ’22, biochemistry and molecular biology, had been attempting for quite some time to induce ATE1 to bind with heme, a compound that contains iron and is necessary to bind oxygen in blood, to confirm another group’s results. It wasn’t working, and they were getting frustrated, Smith admits. But one day, as Smith was preparing a lecture on proteins that bind with clusters of metal and sulfur atoms, he realized the proteins he was about to cover with his students looked similar to ATE1.

After that realization, Smith and Van took a new approach. In the lab, they added the raw materials for creating iron-sulfur clusters to a solution with ATE1, and the results showed that ATE1 did indeed bind the clusters. “This looks promising,” Smith remembers thinking. “We were super excited about it.”

The fact that the enzyme binds the clusters at all was interesting and new, “but then we also asked if that’s affecting the enzyme’s ability to do what it does,” Smith says. The answer, after more than a year of additional experiments, was a resounding yes. In the process, Smith’s group also determined the structure of ATE1 in yeast (without the cluster bound to it), which they published in the Journal of Molecular Biology in November 2022.

Subtle but significant

Around the same time, another group also published a slightly different ATE1 structure. The other group’s structure had a zinc ion (another metal) bound in place of the iron-sulfur cluster. With the zinc in place, one key amino acid is rotated about 60 degrees. It might seem inconsequential, but Smith believes that rotation, which he presumes is similar with the cluster, is the key to the cluster’s role in ATE1’s function.

The rotated amino acid is directly adjacent to where a protein would interact with ATE1 to be modified, ultimately flagging it for degradation. Changing the angle of that amino acid changes the shape of the location the protein would bind “very subtly,” but changes its activity “more than subtly,” Smith says. 

Looking ahead and looking back

Smith would also like to explore how other metals, beyond zinc and the iron-sulfur cluster, may affect the enzyme’s activity. Additionally, his lab is working to determine the structure of ATE1 in an organism other than yeast and to confirm the ATE1 structure with an iron-sulfur cluster bound.

All these steps will build up a clearer picture of how ATE1 functions and is regulated in the cell. Smith also says he believes proteins that so far have not been shown to bind iron-sulfur clusters may indeed rely on them.

This new paper actually harks back to Smith’s first days at UMBC. He has always been interested in protein modifications, and adding arginine is a more unusual one. “It’s always something that I had filed back in my mind, and thought, ‘Oh, it would be really interesting to get a better understanding of how that works,’” he says. 

Several years later, his group is now on the leading edge of discovering how arginine modifications influence cellular function and disease.