Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Consortium


Description

Mission: The mission of the interdisciplinary life science consortium (ILSC) is to foster a culture of interdisciplinary research in life sciences and to act as a catalyst for promoting interaction, exchanging of ideas and collaboration among life science researchers in Swenson College of Science and Engineering, College of Pharmacy, and School of Medicine in the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Objectives: To achieve our interdisciplinary mission, the ILSC strategy is threefold:

  • First, ILSC organizes a monthly interdisciplinary seminar series in life sciences to promote a culture of interdisciplinary research and collaboration to consolidate our intellectual capital here at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Participation in the ILSC monthly seminar is required by the Integrated Biosciences (IBS) graduate program.
  • Second, ILSC established an annual symposium for interdisciplinary research in life sciences where researchers will be invited to present their work, exchange ideas, and foster new collaboration opportunities to advance their research program.
  • Third, ILSC has created a dedicated webpage to both disseminate the scientific research activities as well as to highlight ongoing scientific seminars via a weekly seminar listing. This weekly seminar listing reaches all UMD faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral associates and instructors to enhance their awareness of ongoing life science seminars and to facilitate their participation.

Anticipated Outcomes: The outlined ILSC activities expose our faculty and students to an interdisciplinary culture of research and teaching that involves a wide range of scientific, engineering, pharmaceutical and medical problems. This interdisciplinary initiative prepares our students to succeed in the global job market and to function in interdisciplinary teams to solve challenging problems in life sciences, nanobiotechnology, drug discovery & delivery, medicine and health. ILSC also helps our researchers to develop their research programs via interdisciplinary collaborations. Finally, these initiatives help our faculty in their teaching by enhancing their awareness of contemporary scientific issues, which can be incorporated within the context of basic principles being taught in the classroom.

Leadership

The primary contact for this group is Ahmed A. Heikal (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry- UMD).  Additional members of the leadership team are Jean Regal (DMED Biomedical Sciences) and Jennifer Lang (Biology - UMD).

Membership

Last Name

 First Name

Department

Email
Andrews Matthew Biology mandrews@d.umn.edu
Drewes Lester R. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology ldrewes@d.umn.edu
Trachte George Integrated Biosciences, Duluth Medical School gtracht1@d.umn.edu
Heikal Ahmed Chemistry and Biochemistry aaheikal@d.umn.edu
Nordehn Glenn  Duluth Medical School gnordeh1@d.umn.edu
Hinderliter Anne Chemistry and Biochemistry ahinderl@d.umn.edu
Frocek Dalibor Mathematics and Statistics dfroncek@d.umn.edu
Katsev Sergei  Physics skatsev@d.umn.edu
Zhdankin Viktor  Chemistry and Biochemistry vzhdanki@d.umn.edu
Sheets Erin D  College of Pharmacy edsheets@d.umn.edu