2018 Retreat
The Biology department headed north to Portsmouth, NH for its 2018 annual scientific retreat. This year, the program featured two guest speakers. On the first day, featured guest speaker was Walther H. Mothes, Ph.D., Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Mothes' laboratory is interested in various aspects of viral spread and pathogenesis of HIV-1 and other retroviruses. A current interest of the laboratory is to monitor viral spread and aspects of retroviral pathogenesis directly in living animals using multi-photon laser scanning microscopy. The laboratory is also applying single molecule imaging to understand how conformational events in the HIV-1 envelope protein lead to fusion between viral and cellular membranes. A detailed understanding of these processes will permit the rational design of vaccines and antiviral therapies that prevent virus spreading and the infection of new cells.
After scientific talks sessions and a poster session, the first day’s activities wrapped up with the department splitting into small groups for dinners around Portsmouth.
During the second day, we welcomed alumni guest speaker, Ozge Ceyhan Birsoy, Phd. Dr. Birsoy is Assistant Attending Molecular Geneticist, Memorial Hospital Assistant Member, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In addition to her clinical role in screening and diagnosing patients with genetic disorders, she is involved in projects that aim to understand the impact of genomic technologies in healthcare, including both the MedSeq and the BabySeq Project.
The day concluded with Matt Crum receiving the Donald J. Plocke, SJ Award for his talk titled "Divergence of the Glycine Riboswitch Across Bacterial Species". Matt is a 3rd year graduate student in Michelle Meyer's Lab.
This year, there was a tie for best poster; both Suyen Espinoza M., a graduate student in the van Opijnen Lab and Indu Warrier, Post Doc in the Meyer Lab were recognized.
August 20-21, 2018
Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel in Portsmouth, NH
