Dawit Gebremichael Habte, an Eritrean author and refugee, shared his story during Refugee Awareness week, exposing us to the realities of life as an immigrant. He left us with the message that context is always essential. His book not only discusses his experience in Eritrea during civil unrest, but his life in America and the complexities of identity.

During the talk, Habte set the stage by disclosing statistics, quotes, and media from what led to the Eritrean-Ethiopian war. To provide context about his life, we were taken through the emotional journey of how one becomes a refugee. Through accounts from imperialists, clips of tragedy, and a timeline of devastation, we tasted a hint of the grief that consumed him as he left his country as a teenager.

Habte’s book, “Gratitude in Low Voices,” envelopes his experiences. The reader travels along with him as he steals into Nairobi, feels his anxiety as he is arrested in Kenya, and treads in his uncertainty as he enters a new land. During his confession to us, he revealed that even when he was detached from his homeland, he still managed to upkeep his Eritrean pride by joining communities with other Eritrean immigrants and tending to his Eritrean roots.

Before his talk, Habte played the audience videos of traditional Eritrean culture. We watched music videos from Tigre and Kunama ethnic groups. Throughout the event, Habte was welcome to interacting with the audience and sharing the richness of his culture with us.

When asked about his adoption of an immigrant status, Habte mentioned he did not assimilate. He managed to emphasize the Eritrean part of his identity, and tacked on the American suffix.

Habte told us that while there were the difficult parts of his life, he had also experienced wonderful joys. He was sponsored to enter the United States, where he attended Johns Hopkins University and met some of his highly-esteemed mentors. The author shared a story about a mentor who promised him and his colleagues that she would be available for them, for anything. He doubtfully took her word, and landed a job working for her that was influential in his life.

While Habte revealed his origins and who he was to the audience, he managed to maintain an element of secrecy. His books, on display adjacent to him during his talk, were constantly referenced. He spoke of his review from one of New York’s former mayors, Michael Bloomberg, which described it as “a candid, inspiring memoir of cultural and historical importance.”

Given the current state of the nation and heavy decisions regarding individuals of immigrant status in America, Habte’s talk and the events of Refugee Awareness Week are not only on-time, but critical to transform UMBC into a place where meaningful conversations that uplift our differences and celebrate our commonalities can be held.

To truly understand where someone else comes from, we must allow others to have the floor and talk, uninterrupted, about their experiences. We must show them that here, they are safe. Here, they do not have to run for their lives.

Jenny Perlin, a traveling artist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the Cooper Union, and The New School in New York, was invited to share her arts and knowledge with the UMBC community.

Inspired by issues of truth and misunderstanding, Perlin uses art to replicate reality in an unconventional, indirect way that amuses viewers whilst provoking their thoughts. The meaning behind Perlin’s art ironically erupts from a scientific perspective. Astronomer William Herschel had discovered infrared light just like how many create art — accidentally.

However, the key that links Perlin’s perspective and Herschel’s discovery is this: infrared light is not visible to the human eye, and yet its existence makes great impact on the world. Perlin hopes that her Refractionist art has the same effect on people; that the meaning of her art is hidden, yet impactful. The goal is to make the invisible visible to the eye.

Perlin’s animations are hand-drawn and filmed on a faulty 16mm camera which creates a blackened, jumping screen every few seconds in her videos. Perlin adores this disruption for she believes it to express how she, as a human, has no right to complete control even over her own creations. There is a natural distraction that will always emerge.

Perlin pursued ideas with scientific descent that embraced colorful and imaginative visuals. For one of her projects, titled “One Hundred Sinkholes,” Perlin found inspiration in one of her greatest fears: sinkholes. She associated them with sudden displacement which is a terrifying phenomenon.

Perlin took images of sinkholes and simplified them by merely outlining their sharpest, most definite features and coloring in the created shapes with bright colors. She created an animation out of 100 of these small drawings. This project gave her control over her fear, and Perlin found a dynamic beauty in sinkholes.

Another film, titled, “Those are Stars,” was an animation inspired by The Child of the Cavern, a book by Jules Verne. The book described a girl who, having lived underground all her life, was awestruck by the stars when brought to the surface.

Perlin’s drawings, reflectant of the story, were simplistic yet easily embodied a child’s enchantment with the sky and stars. Figures of thin ladders and arrows were youthful, accompanied by a variety of colors which helped the film carry an optimistic, exploratory tone.

Perlin’s ongoing project, “Long Sleepers,” was created upon hearing the story of Peter Klaus who, after becoming belligerently drunk, falls into a twenty-year slumber and awakes in his predestined future. Much like an adult realizing their age and contrasting it with their youthful mind in comparison, Peter Klaus finds himself in complete confusion as to how so much time has passed without his knowing. There is an innate human fear of growing old.

Inspired by this tale, Perlin is currently creating a film which follows real characters that seek to halt time, or more specifically, demise. This summer, Perlin will visit Vivos, a company which creates and sells underground bunkers, in hopes that this will give her more ideas and conclusions for her project.

Perlin’s pieces all carry meanings that are not directly explained, giving the viewers discretion and power over discovering their individual interpretations. Her pieces confront natural human fears, giving Perlin a sense of strength in this predictably unpredictable world.

Cancer is most devastating when it metastasizes—when tumor cells break away, travel through the bloodstream, and then attach elsewhere, only to grow another tumor. A significant amount of scientific research has focused on finding ways to prevent metastasis. For some time, scientists have understood that a particular biochemical pathway, known as the PDK1 pathway, is active in metastasizing cancer cells. But no one knew why.

In a new paper published in PLOS ONE, Songon An and colleagues have shown for the first time that the PDK1 pathway regulates the formation of a three-protein complex that facilitates two chemical pathways: One builds purines (two of the four building blocks of DNA) and the other produces thiamine, a B vitamin. While it’s still unknown how purine and thiamine levels contribute to metastasis, the authors hypothesize ways they could be related, and they are planning further research to reveal any links.

For example, the three-protein core complex that PDK1 regulates is sometimes joined by three more proteins. Together, the six proteins form a larger complex called the purinosome, which carries out all 10 reactions necessary to build purines. Without the three peripheral proteins, however, purine production only goes halfway, and the molecule the core complex makes is more likely to end up as the vitamin thiamine.

Making purines is an energy-intensive process, so one hypothesis is that decreasing purine production during metastasis helps the cell survive while it is detached from a nutrient source like an organ. “Looking at this metabolic switch—which pathways are in use during metastasis versus when the cell is attached—may be where our research goes in the future,” says An.

The team’s immediate next step is to validate the function of the three-protein core complex. After that, they’ll investigate whether the core complex and the six-protein purinosome are actively coming together and breaking apart in metastatic cells. “Blocking those dynamics could be an alternative way to block metastasis,” An says.

A broader goal for An and collaborator Greg Szeto, UMBC assistant professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, is to map the various protein complexes and the signaling pathways they regulate in cancer cells. “We want to put every signaling pathway into the same context,” An explains. “Whenever the proteins have different spatial assemblies, we would like to know which pathways are on and which ones are turned down.”

So far, the researchers have only looked at one pathway at a time (such as PDK1), but by using a cutting-edge technique that can detect many proteins at once within a cell, “now we are going to target multiple signaling pathways at the same time, so that we can understand the complete picture of the regulatory map for purine metabolism.” That knowledge could provide more new insights into the causes of metastasis and how to prevent it.

Image: Songon An and Danielle Schmidt in the lab. Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Sociology 204:  Diversity and Pluralism:  An analysis of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual orientation in society.

Dr. Bryan Ellis
Summer Session 1:  May 29- July 6

See attached flyer!

Abraar is a Biological Sciences major who will graduate in May 2018.

How did you find the research opportunity? I became extremely interested in the topic of regenerative medicine after having taken Molecular Biology and Genetics. I decided to check out the different research labs available on campus and found that Dr. Lobo’s lab very closely fit my interests. From there I decided to contact and meet with Dr. Lobo, to discuss any opportunities available to work in his lab, and luckily enough I was granted a position in the lab.

Do you get course credit for this work? Paid? How much time do you put into it? This semester, I am fortunate enough to be receiving credit for my work. That said, I currently put in about 10-12 hours a week in the lab.

What academic background did you have before you started? Honestly, not much. I began working in Dr. Lobo’s lab in the summer after Sophomore year, at which point the only upper level biology course I had under my belt was Genetics. Fortunately, I was still able to attain the position, and as a result have learned an extensive amount of knowledge in my area of interest. 

How did you learn what you needed to know to be successful in this project? I would say the biggest thing was having the help of my PI, Dr. Lobo, as well as my fellow research colleagues. I had to learn a good bit of knowledge with how things worked with the software used in the lab, but I always knew that I could go to Dr. Lobo for whatever questions I had. One thing that I really like about my PI, Dr. Lobo, is he holds weekly one on one meetings, where I can ask him any questions or concerns with any of the research tasks. From my experience, Dr. Lobo certainly does an exceptional job of making sure that his researchers are comfortable with their respective projects.

What was the hardest part about your research? The hardest part about my research was most certainly the fact that the lab was a bioinformatics lab. I had little to no experience with coding, so I was limited in what I could do in the lab. That said, I had to learn a lot about the software, Planform, before being able to do any work in the lab. Fortunately, I was able to catch on quick and help out the best I could.  Luckily enough, I am able to work on the current project with a fellow colleague of mine, Junaid, making the whole learning process that much easier. Currently, I am excited about working with a new type of software, called Plangex, that the lab is near finished in completing.

What was the most unexpected thing? The most unexpected thing was the level at which I was able to interact and work with my PI, Dr. Lobo. I had always heard from my friends, who worked in other labs, how they wouldn’t get to work with their PI’s directly, but rather work with graduate students. That fact that I could directly go to my mentor, Dr. Lobo, and get help or advice so easily, was certainly a blessing. I think its agreeable amongst all the researchers in the lab that Dr. Lobo is the best mentor that we could have ever asked for.

How does this research experience relate to your work in other classes? My research in the lab closely relates to the topics of regenerative medicine and stem cells, topics that constantly appears time after time in upper level biology classes. Having conducted research on the matter, I have been able to develop a firm grasp of the topics, making the subject matter a breeze in class. Additionally, my research has required me to read a vast amount of academic literature. This, in turn, has taught the very important skill of being detail oriented. A skill that has proven to be invaluable in all my classes.

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research? Don’t be afraid to get out there and get involved early on!! I remember when I initially started looking for research in my field interest, I was afraid of being rejected. Looking back, I see how unwise it was to think that way. Just because a PI may not have a spot for you in their lab doesn’t mean you should stop searching. If you really want to get involved in a specific area of study, you should stay proactive. No doubt, working in the lab has taught me skills that I wouldn’t have learned elsewhere. I couldn’t be happier that I decided to contact Dr. Lobo and move forward with research in his lab.

What are your career goals? I aspire to go to medical school, and hopefully help out as many people as possible in the future. If given the chance to do so, I hope to continue researching regenerative medicine down the road after earning a medical degree. 

What else are you involved in on campus?I was an LA for CHEM 351, CHEM 101, and 102, I was a TA for BIOL 302 and BIOL 300L. I am a former tutor at the Learning Resource Center and Chem Tutorial Center. I am a former President of Beyond Relief student service organization at UMBC. And I am currently Vice President, Events Coordinator, and Publicity Director for different clubs at UMBC.