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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has elected Carmen Williams, M.D., Ph.D., to its newest class of fellows. The lifetime honor is one of the highest distinctions in the scientific community. AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.

Williams was recognized for her distinguished contributions to reproductive and developmental biology, particularly elucidating the mechanisms underlying fertilization and early mammalian development.

“I was incredibly honored to discover that my body of research on fertilization mechanisms was considered important enough for a nomination as an AAAS Fellow, and I am grateful to the nominators and selection committee,” said Williams. “Moving forward, I hope to help outstanding reproductive biologists be recognized for their accomplishments in a similar way.”

Williams came to NIEHS, where she leads the Reproductive Medicine Group, in 2007 and became Deputy Chief of the Reproductive and Developmental Biology Laboratory in 2017.

Seminal contributions

The focus of Williams’s research is on the basic reproductive biology of embryo development and how the environment impacts reproduction. Among Williams’s most important research accomplishments to date is the discovery of mechanisms that control how well calcium signaling works in very early embryos just after fertilization. This process is important because calcium signals, which are responsible for changing an egg into a developing embryo at the time of fertilization, not only control how well embryos develop but also influence the long-term health of the offspring.

Williams attributes much of her success to the highly collaborative research environment and outstanding community of scientists at NIEHS.

“My interactions with other NIEHS investigators raised my level of understanding of their research areas and encouraged me to pursue questions that were somewhat outside of my comfort zone,” said Williams. “This ultimately improved the depth and breadth of my own studies and led me to ask and answer more complex and important questions.”

Driven by curiosity

Williams said she fell in love with the process of fertilization even before she learned how to do basic research, while she was still a medical student. She obtained her medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine and completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Pennsylvania Hospital, and a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Pennsylvania. She subsequently completed a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology and postdoctoral training at Penn.

“I love to figure out how things work, and ideally how things work that are relevant to human fertility,” said Williams. “Fertilization takes two cells, the sperm and egg, which are on a trajectory towards death in just a few hours, and merges them into a one-cell embryo that can form a whole new individual. How does that happen? Why does it go wrong? How does the environment affect how well it works and as a result, influence offspring health?”

Citations:

Savy V, Stein P, Shi M, Williams CJ. 2022. PMCA1 depletion in mouse eggs amplifies calcium signaling and impacts offspring growth. Biol Reprod 107(6):1439-1451.

Gambini A, Stein P, Savy V, Grow EJ, Papas BN, Zhang Y, Kenan AC, Padilla-Banks E, Cairns BR, Williams CJ. 2020. Developmentally programmed tankyrase activity regulates β-catenin and licenses progression of embryonic genome activation. Dev Cell 53(5):545-560e7.

Bernhardt ML, Stein P, Carvacho I, Krapp C, Ardestani G, Mehregan A, Umbach DM, Bartolomei MS, Fissore RA, Williams CJ. 2018. TRPM7 and CaV3.2 channels mediate Ca2+ influx required for egg activation at fertilization. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115(44):E10370-E10378.

Miao YL, Gambini A, Zhang Y, Padilla-Banks E, Jefferson WN, Bernhardt ML, Huang W, Li L, Williams CJ. 2018. Mediator complex component MED13 regulates zygotic genome activation and is required for postimplantation development in the mouse. Biol Reprod. 98(4):449-464.

Jefferson WN, Kinyamu HK, Wang T, Miranda AX, Padilla-Banks E, Suen AA, Williams CJ. 2018. Widespread enhancer activation via ERα mediates estrogen response in vivo during uterine development. Nucleic Acids Res. 46(11)5487-5503.

Winuthayanon W, Bernhardt ML, Padilla-Banks E, Myers PH, Edin ML, Lih FB, Hewitt SC, Korach KS, Williams CJ. 2015. Oviductal estrogen receptor α signaling prevents protease-mediated embryo death. Elife 4:e10453.

(Marla Broadfoot, Ph.D., is a contract writer for the NIEHS Office of Communications and Public Liaison.)

Cory Smith | The News

Cory Smith | The News

Cory Smith | The News

Surry Central led Surry County with six state qualifiers for the 2A Wrestling State Tournament, and four of those finished in the top six of their respective brackets.

Jacob and Jeremiah Price each won state titles, and a full article on the Price boys’ victories can be found in the Feb. 21 print edition of the News or online at mountairynews.com/sports.

Junior Xavier Salazar qualified for his second state tournament and placed for the first time, taking fifth in the 2A 120 bracket.

Salazar (35-10) won his opening match via fall in the second period after taking a 3-0 advantage, then wrestled close matches for the remainder of the tournament. This included two matches decided in sudden victory periods.

Salazar met Seaforth’s Layne Armstrong in the quarterfinals and went back and forth all match.

“Xavier for the most part was winning, but near the end gave up some back points,” said Central coach Stephen Priddy. “He made a mistake, and at that level it’s going to cost you.”

Armstrong, who went on to finish fourth in the bracket, scored a late takedown to tie the score at 7-7, then pinned Salazar in the sudden victory period.

Salazar won his first consolation match via fall after taking a 4-3 lead, then found himself in another sudden victory period against Louisburg’s Braulio Nolasco-Rayo. The pair were tied at 2-2 at the end of three periods, but this time is was Salazar that got the takedown to advance.

Salazar then faced two familiar opponents from the Foothills 2A Conference. Salazar fell to West Wilkes’ Carter Minton, who went on to finish third, via fall in the consolation semifinals, then defeated North Surry’s Will Brickell 5-2 in the fifth-place match.

“Xavier really picked things up about three weeks before regionals,” Priddy said. “He peaked at the right time and wrestled some of his best matches at regionals and states.”

Sophomore Ayden Norman (37-10) finished sixth at 106 in his first state championship appearance.

“Ayden decided early on that he was going to be the 106 for the year,” Priddy said. “He made that choice and really had to watch what he ate, and it was a full time job to maintain weight and keep himself in the best shape. He had an outstanding year, and I think all of his losses came against state qualifiers or placers.

“He definitely had the toughest draw of any of our guys at states.”

After dropping his first-round match to the eventual state runner-up, who came into the tournament 34-1, Norman picked up three consecutive wins. The first came via forfeit, the second was a 3-2 decision and the third was a win via fall.

Priddy called Norman’s 3-2 win over Hendersonville’s Alexander May, “the biggest match of the year for Norman.”

“The kid from Hendersonville came into states 48-1,” Priddy said. “His only losses at states came against the guy that got third and then Ayden.”

Norman eventually fell to Forbush’s Jose Pina-Velasquez via 4-2 decision in the consolation finals, then dropped a 3-0 decision to R-S Central’s Sam Gosnell, the 2A West Regional Champion, in the fifth-place match.

While Norman had the toughest overall draw for the Eagles, Priddy said Jose Trejo (35-9) had the most difficult first-round match by far against Newton-Conover’s Isaiah Pittman.

“Drawing Pittman was really bad luck for Trejo,” Priddy said. “That’s a really talented wrestler that came into states with 50 wins this season, and I hate Jose ran into him so early.”

Trejo fought back to win his first consolation match via fall, then dropped his second consolation match.

“Him reaching states a freshman is a really big deal,” Priddy said. “Yeah, it may not have ended like he wanted to, but he’s had a great year. He, Ayden and Xavier have really pushed each other all year and I think it made them all a lot better.”

Trejo is the fifth freshman to qualify for states during Priddy’s tenure as coach, joining: West Brown, Kaleb Dunn, Jeremiah Price and Jacob Price.

“All four of those guys went on to compete in a state championship, so statistically that bodes well for Trejo,” Priddy said. “Brown and both Prices won state titles, and Dunn finished second.”

Senior Enoc Lopez (29-9), competing in his second state tournament, won his first match in the 195 bracket. Lopez went up 13-4 before picking up the pin in the third period.

Lopez then went scoreless for two periods against Morehead’s Xavier Roberts in the quarterfinals. An escape and takedown from Roberts put him up 3-0, and an escape from Lopez wasn’t enough to come back. Lopez then dropped his first consolation match via 10-6 decision.

“That consolation match was a one-point match with like 15 seconds to go, but then the Manteo guy put up five late and Enoc only added one,” Priddy said.

The competitors that defeated Lopez at states went on to finish fifth and sixth in the bracket.

Lopez joins Jeremiah Price as Central’s two senior state qualifiers.

“Especially over the past two years, Enoc has covered every class from 195 to heavyweight,” Priddy said. “He’s been a key piece to our team during this great run the past few years. He’s contributed a lot to the success we’ve had as a team because we could count on him to wrestler anything. Ultimate team guy.”

Reach Cory on Twitter @MaNewsSports

CHARLESTON S.C. (WCIV) — Wonderful things can happen when a community comes together.

Lowcountry non-profit, Metanoia SC, is listening to the people who live in North Charleston's Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood.

Over the past 20 years, Metanoia has been implementing programs to meet residents' needs to generate positive changes.

Shawn Saulsberry is the Board Chair of Metanoia.

"It's a huge responsibility because Metanoia is literally serving the area that I grew up in," Saulsberry said.

Saulsberry remembers growing up in what's known as "Charleston Heights," or the "Heights" in North Charleston.

The community played an important part in his childhood.

"I didn't have the organization that we have today, but somehow I ran across those metanoia-type people who saw me, and they invested in me."

His grandfather taught him the importance of entrepreneurship.

"My grandfather taught us to work hard at an early age. He would let us rent the lawnmower from him, and we would go and cut grass in the community, and we would get to keep the profits," Saulsberry said.

Now, as a Senior Manager at the accounting firm Ernst & Young, Saulsberry uses his background of a strong work ethic to encourage the youth in the neighborhood.

Metanoia serves as a youth leadership pipeline.

"I'm not the smartest or the brightest, but I do know how to work hard, and I also know how to have endurance and not stop and just encourage them. If you do those things eventually, you're gonna find what you love. You're gonna find what you want to do in life, and it's gonna work well for you," said Saulsberry.

Metanoia was launched in 2002 by a coalition of churches across South Carolina.

By definition, Metanoia certainly works well with the community it serves.

"It means to make a positive transformation, kind of take upon a positive change of direction," explained Metanoia CEO Reverend Bill Stanfield.

Rev. Stanfield and his wife Evelyn live in the Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood with their two teenage sons.

Before Metanoia's founding, the couple spent one year getting to know their neighbors and listening to their concerns.

"We really do believe people closest to communities know the solutions to their own problems," said Stanfield.

Stanfield saw this as an opportunity to build on the positive community members saw in their neighborhood.

And Metanoia did just that.

In addition to building leaders, it's the non-profit's mission to also establish quality housing within Chicora-Cherokee.

"We build new homes for some home buyers. We also build new homes for affordable rental, all within the community where prices are going up, and people are finding it hard to afford a place to live," said Stanfield.

The organization also invests in neighborhood assets. They support black businesses on Reynolds Avenue and have a partnership with a local manufacturing company to create jobs in the community.

"There's a systematic way of listening to the community and understanding what the community needs and then coming alongside the needs of the community and becoming an advocate for what the community wants to do," said Saulsberry.

If you'd like to nominate an individual or organization for a prestigious 'Jefferson Award, email your nomination to ABC News 4's Tessa Spencer.

A previous version of this article misspelled the name of Thomas Jefferson High parent Shawnna Yashar. The article has been corrected.

A group of Virginia parents is calling for leaders at one of the nation’s top-ranked high schools to be fired after officials delayed informing students that they had qualified for a national award.

Some students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County were not told until late this fall they had been named “commended students” by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation — a distinction that helps students compete for academic scholarships, honors programs and college admissions. Students who applied for colleges ahead of early deadlines were not able to mark the distinction on their applications, parents said.

“It’s really important to be able to say, ‘Hey, I just want you to know I am among the top academic performers in our nation,’” said Asra Nomani, parent of a former Thomas Jefferson student and education advocate who wrote an op-ed about the school withholding the notifications. “Checking that little box on the application becomes your ticket into all kinds of opportunities.”

Now, parents plan to deliver a letter to state and county education leaders demanding that Ann Bonitatibus, the principal at Thomas Jefferson, and Brandon Kosatka, director of student services, be terminated from their posts. The parents also want a consistent policy across schools and school districts that mandates how students should be informed about awards.

Each year, roughly 1.5 million students compete in the National Merit Scholarship Program, according to its website. Students enter by taking the PSAT/NMSQT, a nationwide standardized test, usually during their junior year.

This year, just 50,000 of the highest scorers qualified for recognition. The top scorers are named finalists or semifinalists, meaning they can compete for a Merit Scholarship award. Fairfax County students who earned that status were acknowledged publicly early this year.

With the Commended Students, Fairfax County Public Schools called the delay a “one-time human error” and denied allegations that Thomas Jefferson officials deliberately withheld information from the 261 students receiving that distinction. School counselors have sent emails and made phone calls to colleges where affected students had applied to inform them of students’ commendations, said Julie Moult, a schools spokeswoman.

“FCPS understands the hard work and dedication of each and every student who competes for college acceptance and scholarship opportunities,” Moult said in a statement. “We are continuing to look into this matter and will take any necessary steps to ensure consistency in appropriate and timely notification of National Merit recognitions going forward.”

About 34,000 students nationwide qualified as commended students. Those students do not compete for Merit Scholarships but are eligible for other awards. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which oversees the competition, advises high schools to notify students of this distinction — a process that did not happen until late this fall at Thomas Jefferson, parents said. Fairfax Schools officials did not answer a question about whether other high schools in the system have had issues notifying commended students.

The issue at Thomas Jefferson came to light after parent Shawnna Yashar discovered in mid-November her son had been awarded a letter of commendation by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, Nomani said. Students are typically notified of their commended-student status in September so they can mark the distinction on college applications, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Yashar’s son said he and other students received the letters on Nov. 14 during their homeroom period. Yashar said she contacted Bonitatibus about the delay, and eventually spoke on the phone with Kosatka.

“There’s not a lot of kids who didn’t get either award, and we didn’t want them to feel bad about it,” Yashar recalled Kosatka saying. School system officials said they could not verify that conversation took place.

“I was just really upset that they didn’t provide this information to students,” Yashar said in an interview with The Post on Thursday.

Other parents have since come forward to share similar experiences or criticize the school for the delay. Harry Jackson, whose son is a junior, said the issue could have “catastrophic” effects for the student body at Thomas Jefferson — the majority of which are students of color.

Nomani said her son, who graduated from Thomas Jefferson in 2021, likely missed out on opportunities because he was not notified about his Commended Student status in 2020. (A school spokeswoman said the district’s digital records show commended students from the Class of 2021 were notified by email in September 2020.)

“We were not able to put on his application that he had this honor, to have him then identified for scholarship programs,” Nomani said. She is now planning to contact her son’s school and asked to have his application reconsidered.

Arkansas’ KJ Jefferson won the quarterback battle, outdueling South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, but it was a dominating offensive line that lifted the Razorbacks to a 44-30 victory over the Gamecocks on Saturday afternoon at Razorback Stadium in the SEC opener for both teams.

The No. 16 Razorbacks (2-0, 1-0) won the line of scrimmage and also got outstanding defensive play led by linebackers Drew Sanders, the Alabama transfer, and veteran Bumper Pool, to turn back the upset-minded Gamecocks (1-1, 0-1).

Rattler rallied South Carolina from an early 21-3 deficit. His 62-yard touchdown pass to Antwane Wells, Jr. got the Gamecocks to within 21-16 midway through the 3rd quarter.

But Jefferson answered with a 2-yard touchdown run on the 1st play of the 4th quarter, completing another long and methodical drive. This one covered 59 yards in 14 plays. Moments later, a costly turnover put the ball back in Jefferson’s hands and the Razorbacks’ leader came through once again, firing a 23-yard touchdown pass to Warren Thompson to extend the lead to 35-16.

Rattler was picked off in the end zone by Dwight McGlothern and the Razorbacks bled the clock on the strength of its offensive line. It was the LSU transfer’s 2nd interception in 2 games for Arkansas.

The Razorbacks established their dominance early at the line of scrimmage, scoring touchdowns on their first 3 possessions with demoralizing drives of 13, 12 and 12 plays covering 63, 75, and 61 yards respectively, to take a commanding 21-3 lead.

Rocket Sanders completed the first 2 marches with touchdown runs of 1 and 11 yards. He led the Hogs with 156 yards rushing.

In 11 plays of Arkansas’ opening possession, Jefferson or Sanders ran behind a forceful offensive line, covering 43 yards. The Razorbacks were a little more balanced on the 2nd drive with Jefferson completing all 6 pass attempts, for 49 yards, setting up Sanders’ 2nd scoring run.

The Gamecocks were able to answer in between the first 2 Arkansas scores with a field goal, catching the pursuing Razorbacks defense with a couple of big-play screen passes. A 43-yarder from Rattler to MarShawn Lloyd put South Carolina in range for a 28-yard field goal from Mitch Jeter.

Loyd got South Carolina in the end zone late in the 2nd quarter, capping an 11-play, 70-yard drive on a 7-yard run, but the PAT kick attempt failed and Arkansas took a 21-9 lead into halftime.

Arkansas’ victory stopped a 3-game losing streak to South Carolina and the Razorbacks improved to 6-2 all-time against the Gamecocks in games played in Fayetteville.