Department Research Retreat

A department research retreat was held on April 29, 2004, at the Rochester Museum and Science Center, for faculty, research faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Bertil Hille, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle. The title of his seminar was "How do G Protein-coupled Receptors Rule the Mind?"

Research talks were given by the following postdoctoral fellows:

Dr. Sundeep Malik, "BetaGamma Subunit Dependent Activation of Heterotrimeric G Proteins in Intact Cells"

Dr. Gisela Beutner, "The Ryanodine Receptor in Cardiac Mitochondria: A Transducer of Excitation-Metabolism Coupling"

Dr. Qing Cheng, "BDNF-GABA Interaction in the Cerebellum: Crossing Signals"

Student "Mock" Thesis Proposal Presentations were given by:

Stephen V. Straub, Ph.D. (Moderator)
Tabetha M. Bonacci (Presenter), "Delineation of Novel Effector Regulation Sites on G-Protein bg Subunits"

Jennifer A. Straub (Moderator)
Sanjeewa A. Goonasekera (Presenter), "Altered Excitation-Contraction Coupling Resulting from Arrhythmogenic Mutations in the Cardiac Ryanodine Receptor"

Lin Lin, Ph.D. (Moderator)
Matthew C. Schoell (Presenter), "The Function of SM-20 Catalyzed Prolyl Hydroxylation in Neuronal Cell Death"

John D. Lueck (Moderator)
Joel C. Wojciechowski (Presenter), "Proposal for the Study of Leukocyte Diapedesis Across the Endothelial Layer In Vivo"

Frontiers in Research Talks were given by department faculty:

Dr. Robert S. Freeman, "Interfering with Death using RNA Interference"

Dr. Alan V. Smrcka, "Phospholipase C epsilon Knockout Mice"

Joel Wojciechowski (graduate student in the lab of Dr. Ingrid H. Sarelius)

Sanjeewa Goonasekera (graduate student in the lab of Dr. Robert T. Dirksen)

Tabetha Bonacci (graduate student in the lab of Dr. Alan V. Smrcka)

Matthew Schoell (graduate student in the lab of Dr. Robert S. Freeman)

Dr. Ted B. Begenisich