Jesús Dones-Monroig: Creating space for everyone in chemistry

Growing up on a large swath of land in Puerto Rico, Jesús Dones-Monroig was always playing in nature. He was encouraged to plant, build, and explore the environment around his home. His father even took him to the ocean to go spearfishing, where he developed a fascination for marine life. He credits a lot of his curiosity of nature to his parents, who encouraged Dones-Monroig and his siblings to play outdoors.

“[My parents] let us be free to do whatever we wanted out there. They gave us the freedom to have an idea and play with things outside to make it happen,” says Dones-Monroig.

Eventually, this affinity with the natural world would contribute to Dones-Monroig’s interest in biology and organic chemistry. He went on to study chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras and was particularly inspired by his organic chemistry professor, Ingrid Montes, to appreciate the world through a molecular level.

Now a fifth year PhD student in the Department of Chemistry, Dones-Monroig works in the lab of Ronald Raines, the Roger and Georges Firmenich Professor of Natural Product Chemistry, and studies collagen mimetic peptides, or “CMPs.” Dones-Monroig has developed a CMP that can selectively anneal with damaged collagen. At this stage, he is working on optimizing his newly developed CMP to help detect mammalian collagen that has suffered damage. In the future, he hopes to develop a system that selectively anneals to different types of damaged collagen.

As a chemical biologist, Dones-Monroig also works on synthetic chemistry projects, from developing synthetic peptides through organic chemistry to synthesizing faster and more selective organic molecules for “click chemistry.”  

“That’s why I love research in the Raines Lab,” Dones-Monroig says, “You’re not restricted to one area of chemistry.”

Promoting diversity and inclusion

Dones-Monroig is a family-driven, community-oriented person, and being so far from home has motivated him to create connections and support groups at MIT. He also feels strongly that without the right support, students can’t fully realize their potential in their academic and professional pursuits.

While pursuing his masters in chemical biology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Dones-Monroig was involved in programs that promote diversity and inclusion. Coming to MIT, he felt there was a lack of support for underrepresented and underserved graduate and undergraduate students at the Institute. With the help of professor and former head of the Department of Chemistry Tim Jamison, as well as individuals in the Women in Chemistry (WIC) group and the Chemistry Graduate Student Committee (CGSC), Dones-Monroig founded the Chemistry Alliance for Diversity and Inclusion (CADI).

Launched in 2018, CADI seeks to support the success of underrepresented and underserved graduate and undergraduate students in the chemistry department and to help ensure that the campus has safe, inclusive, and supportive environments for students. The group facilitates conversations regarding the state of diversity in the field of chemistry and provides students with professional and academic resources. Finding community in graduate school can be just as important as the classes one takes or the skills one acquires, Dones-Monroig says.

“If we are not given support at a personal level, our educational and professional potential is going to be directly affected. CADI is for anybody that doesn’t feel part of the chemistry department,” he says.

Dones-Monroig also serves as a pod leader for the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP), a program that aims to promote the value of graduate education and improve the research enterprise through increased diversity in MIT.

“The students that come to this program are astounding. They’re very intelligent and driven, but they may not have the same resources as MIT in their home universities. So we welcome them,” says Dones-Monroig.

Continuing with his penchant for mentorship, Dones-Monroig will serve as a graduate resident advisor (GRA) at the MIT Student House. He will be a mentor to the international undergraduate and graduate students that live there.

Healthy bodies, healthy minds

Outside of his research, Dones-Monroig stays quite active and enjoys sports. He plays on MIT’s intramural basketball team, and he also enjoys volleyball, tennis, and surfing. Perhaps most impressively, he participates in the Spartan Races, which are races that range in length and feature a variety of physical obstacles. Next month, he will be doing an Ultra-Spartan Race on Killington Peak in Vermont, where he will go through 60 obstacles over the course of 30 miles.

For Dones-Monroig, exercise allows him to reduce stress and focus on something other than his research. He attributes his good health, mentally and physically, to staying active. This mentality is from his 61-year-old father, who still tries to run races against him, Dones-Monroig jokes.

“If you have a mindset of keeping your body as healthy as your mind, you’ll be more productive. I train my mind in the lab and come out and train my body outside,” says Dones-Monroig.

While Dones-Monroig clearly works hard, he plays hard too, and loves to dance salsa on the weekends. With friends that he has made in the local Puerto Rican community, Dones-Monroig goes out to dance and socialize at La Fábrica in Central Square.

“I think I’m decent at salsa,” Dones-Monroig laughs, adding, “When compared to non-salsa dancers, then I’m good!”

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The Engine expands, responding to rapid growth of “tough tech”

The Engine announced today that it will create an additional 200,000 square feet of shared office, fabrication, and lab space in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to further foster “tough tech” — transformative technology that takes the long view, solving the world’s important challenges through the convergence of breakthrough science, engineering, and leadership.

The Engine, built by MIT, invests in early-stage tough-tech companies. These companies have long been underserved by the traditional investment ecosystem, leaving many breakthrough ideas stuck in the lab. A new model of venture capital firm, The Engine has provided dozens of forward-looking entrepreneurs with critical access to capital, industry know-how, and specialized equipment through its 28,000-square-foot location at 501 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square, Cambridge.

The expansion, in collaboration with MIT, will extend and amplify the progress of the thriving innovation ecosystem in Cambridge and the greater Boston region. Central to the effort will be the renovation of the existing building at 750 Main Street to serve as a new hub for tough-tech growth, with the capacity to accommodate approximately 100 companies and 800 entrepreneurs. The initiative will accelerate the development of next-generation technology by providing the vital infrastructure and resources necessary to accommodate fast-growing startups throughout the region.

This new hub will provide a place for companies to put their ideas into action — helping them build transformative technologies as efficiently, economically, and effectively as possible. It will have a natural proximity to academic institutions; access to talent; flexible and affordable lab and fabrication facilities; and a network that will foster relationships for market readiness. It aims to connect the diverse tough-tech ecosystem — entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, leaders in academia and business, investors, and policymakers. The space will be specifically designed for companies at the convergence of technology disciplines across engineering and physical sciences, where access to diverse space and tools are essential for success. This expansion demonstrates MIT’s ongoing commitment to investing in and anchoring the evolving innovation ecosystem in and around Kendall Square.

The Engine launched its portfolio in 2017 with investments in seven tough-tech companies. It has since invested in 12 additional tough-tech founding teams, bringing its current portfolio to 19 companies. Together, those companies have raised approximately $285 million in capital and employ more than 200 people. 

“We have a rare opportunity to help cultivate the next generation of leaders tackling the world’s most urgent, challenging problems,” says Katie Rae, CEO and managing partner of The Engine. “We also have the chance to forge a foundational infrastructure that can potentially change the geography of innovation. A thriving hub can propel the Boston region into the future as a magnet for world-changing companies in tough tech.”

Since its founding in 2016, The Engine has pioneered a new framework for investing in and supporting tough tech startups working on transformative technologies — ranging from commercial fusion power and ultra-efficient semiconductors to next-generation cell therapies and new manufacturing methods for metals, among others. This framework clears a path to commercialization for companies by providing capital, infrastructure (labs, equipment, office space, and more), and a support network. In October 2018, hundreds of members of The Engine’s network of companies and supporters joined forces in the Boston area at the first annual Tough Tech Summit.

“It’s thrilling to witness the revolutionary work coming out of The Engine,” says Israel Ruiz, executive vice president and treasurer at MIT. “The model appears to be working just as we had hoped: The direct access to key infrastructure, enabling investment, and support services is helping game-changing innovators to accelerate their work in order to more rapidly address consequential and challenging pursuits. The new expanded space will allow The Engine, and its companies, to significantly increase its local and global impact.”

The design for the 750 Main Street building renovation is slated to be finalized in 2019, with construction scheduled to begin later this year. The Engine’s new space will be complemented by active ground floor uses that will contribute to a more animated streetscape.

Once situated in its expanded location, The Engine will continue to invest in areas such as advanced manufacturing, advanced materials, energy, food and agriculture, space, semiconductors, the internet of things, quantum computing, biotech, artificial intelligence, robotics, and the intersection of new technologies.

MIT continues to play a leading role in fostering innovation and research in and around the MIT campus through its Kendall Square Initiative, which will create a vibrant multiuse district with new buildings, open space, and gathering spaces, and will be home to innovative companies, retail, and restaurants. This tough-tech hub will be a new center for The Engine, and a focal point of the innovation ecosystem inspired and cultivated by MIT.

For more information about The Engine, please see its first report for the period 2016 -2018.

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FBI investigating altered racist photo calling for ‘No Black people’ at Rio Americano High School

A California high school has “found no evidence” that a racist online bulletin targeting Black people originated from its website.

An altered screenshot from the Rio Americano High School website has prompted an investigation by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI, sacbee.com reports. The image titled, “District-wide High School No Black people policy,” is circulating on Facebook and Snapchat and reportedly contains a slew of pearl-clutching racist slurs in the message. The post also warns that the Ku Klux Klan would be patrolling the hallways.

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But according to San Juan Unified School District officials, the photo is fake and was never on Rio Americano’s site.

“After our initial review, we have found no evidence that a website with this message ever existed on the Rio Americano High School website,” said district community relations director Trent Allen.

Rio Americano is a public high school in Arden-Arcade, California, just outside Sacramento. According to Atlanta Black Star, “white students account for 67 percent of Rio’s population, while 15 percent of students identify as Latino and 4 percent as Black.”

District officials first learned of the offending image Thursday, calling it “incredibly hurtful.”

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“The message does not represent Rio Americano High School, its staff, students or community,” said Allen. “Already, the student body is coming together add messages of inclusion and acceptance to a planned rally.”

The Sacramento Sheriff’s Department and FBI have launched an investigation to track down the culprit responsible for the altered racist message. Officials admit the memo was never published online — only shared via text and social media.

“It is not acceptable to make any individual feel intimidated, harassed or otherwise discriminated against,” said Rio Americano Principal Brian T. Ginter, and the students agree with him. Many have reportedly vowed to come together and “add messages of inclusion and acceptance to a planned rally,” said Allen.

 

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China Trade Spillover, LA’s Pollution by Block, and More News

Catch up on the most important news from today in two minutes or less.

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The Kenyan school that was once a British detention camp

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See How LA Belches Emissions, Block by Block

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Woman blasts NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio at CNN town hall over Eric Garner case

A heckler took NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s to task on live TV Sunday pressing the presidential contender about consequences for the other cops who were on hand when Eric Garner was choked to death by NYPD officer Daniel Panteleo.

—NYPD Commissioner fires Officer Daniel Pantaleo involved in 2014 Eric Garner death—

“What about Lieutenant [Christopher] Bannon? What about Officer [Mark]Ramos? What about other officers?” yelled a woman who was later identified as Julianne Hoffenberg a member of the Justice League NYC.

The cops she mentioned were reportedly officer Pantaleo when he wrapped his arm about Garner’s neck and applied a banned chokehold outside a Staten Island store, killing him.

After a five year investigation Pantaleo was finally fired by the NYPD earlier this month, although he dodged getting charged for Garner’s killing.

De Blasio said the federal government fell short when holding Pantaleo accountable.

“The United States Department of Justice failed here miserably,” de Blasio said.

The department he said went “five years without even deciding they were going to act and telling the city of New York not to act.”

“I think we need a law in this country — federal law — that says in these dynamics, there has to be a mandate that the Justice Department must act,” de Blasio said.

“It could be one year, two years, whatever standard we set, they must make a decision, they must act.”

—GoFundMe for fired officer who fatally choked Eric Garner raises over $100K in 48hrs—

De Blasio was also challenged about how he plans to deal with mental health issues within his rank given that nine police officers reportedly committed suicide this year.

De Blasio agreed we’ve “got to do a lot more for our officers.”

“But this is part of a bigger reality,” de Blasio said. “I just want to say this election may be the first election in American history where mental health is front and center as an issue.”

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When they go low? Dems navigating nasty race against Trump

President Donald Trump told American congresswomen of color to “go back” to where they came from. He vowed to revive a racial slur to tear down Elizabeth Warren, promoted a wild conspiracy theory linking a past political opponent to the death of a high-profile sex offender and blamed Friday’s stock market slide on a low-polling former presidential candidate.

And that was just over the past six weeks.

With 435 days until the next presidential election, the Democrats seeking to oust Trump are bracing for the nastiest contest in the modern era, one that will almost certainly tear at the moral and cultural fabric of a deeply divided nation.

Knowing what lies ahead once their own divisive primary is decided, Democrats are confronting a critical question: Just how low should they go to push back against Trump?
Political strategists and recent history suggest there may be more risk than reward for candidates wishing to fight Trump on his terms. But Democratic primary voters, energized and enraged by Trump’s turbulent presidency, are increasingly calling for the candidates to fight fire with fire.

“The high road isn’t going to win this time,” Blake Caldwell, a 71-year-old retired physician, said at a recent event hosted by candidate Pete Buttigieg in rural South Carolina. “If we go high when they go low, we will lose.”

Several White House hopefuls opened their campaigns with a firm plan to focus on substance and rise above the Republican president’s personal attacks. But as primary voting approaches, many candidates are embracing a more aggressive posture as they work to convince primary voters they have what it takes to stand up to Trump.
Most of the leading candidates have called for Trump’s impeachment. Virtually all of them have openly called him a racist.

Joe Biden is the notable exception on both. The former vice president and early Democratic front-runner has sidestepped both questions as he works to maintain an optimistic outlook while highlighting the gravity of Trump’s leadership.

Others, like Warren and Kamala Harris, generally lean into charged language against Trump only when asked. Bernie Sanders, however, seizes on Trump’s behavior in his standard stump speech.

“The United States cannot continue to have a president who is a racist, who is a sexist, who is a homophobe, who is a religious bigot, who is a xenophobe, and who is also a pathological liar,” Sanders declared at a recent town hall meeting in northern New Hampshire.

Sanders’ chief strategist, Jeff Weaver, said the senator would not shy away from aggressive criticism of Trump when necessary. Especially on issues of race and immigration, he said, calling Trump a racist shouldn’t be something candidates are afraid of.

“You can’t give into the bully. You gotta lean in and tell it like it is,” Weaver said. “That’s what people appreciate about Bernie.”

Jef Pollock, a pollster for New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s campaign, concedes that “there’s a lot of nervousness about how you attack Donald Trump.”

While primary voters may want toughness, persuadable general election voters are more likely to say they want bipartisanship and civility. Yet it’s not so simple, Pollock said.
“I think it would be a mistake for a candidate to think they could just go high. We’re not in the age of Barack Obama anymore,” he said. “It’d be a mistake to think you can just rise above it all and not engage him at his level.”

There are obvious risks. Just ask Marco Rubio.

Alex Conant advised the Florida senator’s 2016 presidential primary campaign against Trump, which took a nasty turn near the end. Among other personal attacks, Rubio seized on Trump’s hand size.

Conant believes that nothing matters so much as authenticity when going up against the brash billionaire.

“If you’re not the kind of person who makes personal attacks on other people, don’t try it for the first time against Trump,” Conant said. “You feel so much pressure from your supporters, from your donors, from the media to punch back. The key is to find ways to do it that are authentic and consistent with your image.”

Some Democratic allies are urging candidates to stay away from attacks against Trump’s character and temperament altogether. That was a pillar of Hillary Clinton’s message against Trump in 2016, and it ultimately failed.

The pro-Democrat super PAC Priorities USA, which backed Clinton, instead wants the 2020 candidates to focus on the policies enacted under Trump and their effect on voters’ lives.
“Our strategy is not to go nasty,” said Josh Schwerin, the super PAC’s senior strategist. “It’s much more effective to say you’re paying more for your medicine every month and Donald Trump gave drug companies a massive tax cuts than to say Donald Trump is a jerk.”

Republican pollster Frank Luntz has studied the art of negative campaigning extensively over the last 18 months. He insists there’s far more risk than reward for candidates who go negative — especially against Trump.

It’s all about context and subtlety.

“Do they appear pained as they deliver the body blow? Do they look and feel like they don’t want to be there, like they’ve been forced into it? It’s one of the most subtle arts at a time when politics feel so much like championship wrestling,” Luntz said. “Most candidates don’t know the difference.”

But back in South Carolina, Caldwell says she isn’t interested in a cautious candidate. She wants the ultimate Democratic nominee to be someone who can confront Trump with force.
“We’ve been too meek,” she said. “This is going to be the most vicious campaign in history.”

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Family of first enslaved Africans in America marks 400 years

A family that traces its bloodline to America’s first enslaved Africans said Friday that their ancestors endured unimaginable toil and hardship — but they also helped forge the nation.

“Four hundred years ago, our family started building America, can I get an Amen?” Wanda Tucker said before a crowd in the Tucker Family Cemetery in Hampton, Virginia.

“They loved,” she continued. “They experienced loss. They worked. They created. They made a way out of no way, determined that their labor would not be in vain.”
Tucker, a college professor in Arizona, spoke at one of several events in Virginia this weekend that will mark the arrival of more than 30 enslaved Africans at a spot on the Chesapeake Bay in August 1619.

The men and women who came from what is now Angola arrived on two ships and were traded for food and supplies from English colonists. The landing is considered a pivotal moment in American history, setting the stage for a system of race-based slavery that continues to haunt the nation.

Many of the first Africans are known today by only their first names. They included Antony and Isabella, who became servants for a Captain William Tucker.

They had a son named William Tucker who many believe was the first documented African child born in English-occupied North America.

“We’re still here,” Tucker shouted in her family’s shaded cemetery, which included many worn gravestones, as well as white crosses where ground penetrating radar had recently found unmarked graves.

The Africans came just 12 years after the founding of Jamestown, England’s first permanent colony, and weeks after the first English-style legislature was convened there.
American slavery and democratic self-rule were born almost simultaneously in 1619. But the commemoration of the Africans’ arrival comes at a time of growing debate over American identity and mounting racial tension.

During his remarks, Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax rebuked President Donald Trump’s racist tweets. One had called on four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to their home countries, even though three were born in the U.S.

“You do not tell us to go back to where we came from,” said Fairfax, who is black. “We built where you came from.”

Fairfax, who is facing allegations of sexual assault from two women, said he met Trump in July when they marked the 400th anniversary of the legislature in Jamestown.
“The president had to bow down to the descendant of an enslaved African,” Fairfax said.
People at the ceremony also said the Tucker family’s story symbolizes those of all African Americans.

“I think our family history is like some many other peoples,” said Carolita Jones Cope, 60, before the ceremony. Cope is a retired U.S. Department of Labor attorney who lives in Springfield, Virginia, and is among the descendants.

“Our descendants arrived here not by choice but in a bound status,” she said. “But they became landholders, business owners and farmers. And they supported each other through the struggle.”

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Kanye hosts service honoring Ohio mass shooting victims

Kanye West hosted a Sunday Service in Ohio in support of those affected by the recent mass shooting.

A large crowd gathered at the musician’s service in a park in Dayton. The event featured choir singers and was also attended by comedian Dave Chappelle.

Chappelle, who resides in nearby Yellow Springs, was scheduled to host a special block party and benefit concert later Sunday in Dayton for those affected by the shooting. That event was expected to feature national and local entertainers.

Organizers of Sunday night’s “Gem City Shine” event say it would be an effort to “reclaim” the entertainment district where 24-year-old Connor Betts’ 32-second rampage killed nine people and left dozens injured on Aug. 4.

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What Sci-Fi Can Teach Computer Science About Ethics

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Brazil's Plans for Gene-Edited Cows Got Scrapped—Here's Why

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