News

MSI PI Kathleen Thomas to be ICD Director
MSI PI Kathleen Thomas (professor, Institute for Child Development) has been named to be the next director of the Institute. She will assume this new post on July 1, 2020. An article appears on the ICD website: Thomas named new ICD director.
COVID-19 Model Guides Public Policy
MSI PI Eva Enns (associate professor, Health Policy and Management) was one of the leaders, along with Shalini Kulasingam (associate professor, Epidemiology), of the modeling team that provided information to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and state leadership in their decision to enact a “stay at home” order. News stories about this model:
Developing a SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Test
Researchers at the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic are developing tests that can be used to determine whether someone has been previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that caused COVID-19. Having this test would help determine whether the population has achieved herd immunity.
MSI PI Publishes Research About Features of Novel Coronavirus
MSI PI Fang Li (associate professor, Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences) led a team that has published a study in the journal Nature that shows how mutations in the structure of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, allow it to attach more securely to human cells than the SARS coronavirus that appeared in 2002-03. The mutations allow the novel coronavirus to spread more quickly between humans.
April 2020 Maintenance
On Wednesday, April 1, 2020, MSI staff will perform scheduled maintenance and upgrade to various MSI systems. Primary Storage, Mesabi, and Mangi will be unavailable throughout much of the day. A global system reservation will start at 5:00 a.m. on April 1. Jobs that cannot be completed before 5:00 a.m. on April 1 will be held until after maintenance and then started once the system returns to production status. April maintenance will include:
OVPR Providing COVID-19 Rapid Response Grants
The Office of the Vice President for Research has instituted a grants program to fund research that informs near real-time decision making for professionals tasked with making operational response decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic. This grant is intended for researchers outside the Medical School. Grants will be for $5,000 - $10,000 for 12 months. These grants are available to full-time faculty and P&A researchers.
MSI PI Marc Jenkins to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award
MSI PI Marc Jenkins (professor, Microbiology and Immunology) is receiving the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Lifetime Achievement Award for 2020. The award is the highest honor given by the AAI and recognizes a career of scientific achievement and contributions to the AAI and the field of immunology. The award will be presented at the AAI’s annual meeting in May.
BSCL Closure
On April 1, 2020, the Basic Sciences Computing Lab (BSCL) in 1-280 Nils Hasselmo Hall will be closed. The Linux workstations in the BSCL are old and at the end of life. MSI is repurposing the space for a new protected data compute cluster (HIPAA Cluster) and will begin retrofitting the room for this cluster in mid-April 2020. On April 1, users’ U Card access to this space will be terminated.
Geospatial Computing
MSI PI Eric Shook (assistant professor, Geography, Environment, and Society) was interviewed in a story by the College of Liberal Arts (CLA). Professor Shook is using geospatial computing to develop a map of all farm fields in the state of Minnesota. This information can then be used by researchers and policy-makers to improve agricultural practices and develop partnerships. Professor Shook is also developing a geospatial programming language.
Ginger and Colorectal Cancer
Research by MSI PI Anna Prizment (associate professor, Medicine) is featured in the Winter 2020 issue of the University of Minnesota Foundation’s publication Legacy. Professor Prizment is studying whether ginger, which has anti-inflammatory properties, might reduce the chance of colorectal cancer by impacting gut bacteria. An upcoming study will involve participants from throughout the state of Minnesota.
March 2020 Maintenance
On Wednesday, March 4, 2020, MSI staff will perform scheduled maintenance and upgrade to various MSI systems. Primary Storage, Mesabi, and Mangi will be unavailable throughout much of the day. A global system reservation will start at 5:00 a.m. on March 4. Jobs that cannot be completed before 5:00 a.m. on March 4 will be held until after maintenance and then started once the system returns to production status.March maintenance will include:
MSI PI Daniel Harki Awarded Northrop Professorship
MSI PI Daniel Harki (associate professor, Medicinal Chemistry) has been awarded a Northrop Professorship. This award is made in recognition of “field-shaping faculty who have made significant advances in their careers and whose national and international work has helped define the trajectory of one or more academic fields” (from the Provost’s letter of appointment).
MSI PIs Receive Distinguished Teaching Awards for 2019-20
Each year, the University of Minnesota presents the Morse-Alumni and Graduate and Professional teaching awards to recognize faculty who are committed to ongoing improvement of teaching and learning. Morse-Alumni awards recognize outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. The Graduate and Professional teaching awards recognize faculty in graduate and/or professional education. Five MSI PIs have received awards for 2019-20. Horace A. Morse – University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education
Candler Elected to National Academy of Engineering
MSI PI Graham Candler (professor, Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics) has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering. This is one of the highest honors that can be awarded to an engineer. This year’s honorees will be inducted into the Academy at their annual meeting in October.
Developing Magnetic Nanodevice Arrays to Treat Neurological Diseases
Two MSI PIs are investigators on a project that has received a grant from the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics. The project will develop an implantable magnetic nanodevice array that will generate magnetic fields to treat a variety of neurological disorders. MSI PI Jian-Ping Wang (professor, Electric and Computer Engineering) is a co-PI on the project; the other co-PI is Professor Kendall Lee of the Mayo Clinic.
MSI PIs Receive 2020-22 McKnight Land-Grant Professorships
Six MSI PIs are among the ten faculty members who have been named as the 2020-22 McKnight Land-Grant Professors. Recipients hold the designation “McKnight Land-Grant Professor” for two years, and receive $25,000 each year to support their research/scholarly work. The goal of the program is to advance the careers of assistant professors at a crucial point in their professional lives. The MSI PIs who have been honored with this award are:
MSI PI Georgios Giannakis Named NAI Fellow
MSI PI Georgios Giannakis (professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering; director, Digital Technology Center (DTC)) has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
February 2020 Maintenance
On Wednesday, February 5, 2020, MSI staff will perform scheduled maintenance and upgrade to various MSI systems. Primary Storage, Mesabi, and Mangi will be unavailable throughout much of the day. A global system reservation will start at 5:00 a.m. on February 5. Jobs that cannot be completed before 5:00 a.m. on February 5 will be held until after maintenance and then started once the system returns to production status. February maintenance will include:
LabQi Cluster Decommissioning
MSI's LabQi Cluster will be shut down and decommissioned during February Maintenance (February 5, 2020). Several months ago, MSI released the Mesabi Interactive Queue as a replacement for the LabQi Cluster (ssh lab). The Mesabi Interactive Queue can be used in real-time for tasks such as interactive data exploration, creating plots or images, visualizations, or testing sections of code that will be used on other MSI queues. Here are several examples of how you can request an interactive HPC job on the new Mesabi Interactive Queue.
MSI PI George Weiblen Profiled by Bell Museum
The Bell Museum has published a profile of Professor George Weiblen (science director and curator of plants, Bell Museum; Plant and Microbial Biology). Professor Weiblen is an expert in plants in Papua New Guinea, and co-founded a research center there. He uses MSI for phylogenetic analyses of plants using next-generation sequencing data.

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