Congratulations to Drs. Takis Benos, Chakra Chennubhotla, and Jianhua Xing on their promotions!

	Dr. Benos has been with the department since April 2002, where he has served at an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Joint CMU-Pitt Ph.D. Program in Computational Biology. He now serves as the Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs and has been promoted to Professor of Computational and Systems Biology.
	Dr. Chennubhotla joined the department in June 2004 as a Research Associate in the Bahar Lab and has been an Associate Program Director for the department’s TECBio REU program. He has been promoted to Associate Professor of Computational and Systems Biology.
	Dr. Jianhua Xing was welcomed to the department in January 2015 from Virginia Tech and was a mentor for our TECBio REU program that summer. He has been promoted to Associate Professor of Computational and Systems Biology.

Please join us in congratulating these professors!

Drs. Jianhua Xing and Robin E.C. Lee were featured in the October 6 edition of Science Signaling. They wrote an invited focus story titled, “Putting it all on pigmentation: Heuristics of a bold and stochastic cell fate decision“.

Abstract:

Gradients of transmembrane potential coordinate cell-fate decisions and patterning during embryogenesis and wound-healing. Bioelectrical signaling may also be more important for adult pathologies than currently recognized. In this issue of Science Signaling, Lobikin et al. describe a role for bioelectric signals during the development of Xenopus leavis embryos to instruct an organism-level response reminiscent of neoplastic progression in melanoma.

Xing J, Lee REC (2015) Putting it all on pigmentation: Heuristics of a bold and stochastic cell fate decision Science Signaling Vol. 8, Issue 397, pp. fs17.