Department Seminars
If you would like to speak with any of these people during their visit, or need additional information, please contact Stephanie Scoville.
Student Seminar Series: "SIRT6 K316 drives phase separation and spatial partitioning of DNA and RNA to enable dsDNA break repair"
Eric Hillpot - Graduate Student
Sirtuin6 (SIRT6) is an anti-aging enzyme that silences genes, represses transposable elements, and promotes DNA damage response and repair. In mice, SIRT6 overexpression extends lifespan while SIRT6 KO mice die within 30 days after birth. SIRT6 functions as a chromatin-associated histone deacetylase (HDAc) and a protein mono-ADP-ribosyltransferase (mADPr); yet the dynamics of its interactions with chromatin and other substrates remains unknown. Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation (LLPS), or biomolecular condensation, manifests as membrane-less organelles that allow cells to regulate complex processes spatially and temporally such as in the nucleolus, stress granules, and heterochromatin regions. Due to its flexible C-terminal tail, we hypothesize that SIRT6 undergoes liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) to modulate interactions critical for DNA repair, gene expression including LINE1 suppression, stress granule biogenesis, and heterochromatin maintenance. SIRT6 undergoes phase separation with nucleic acids and partitions DNA from RNA in multiphasic condensates. Stimulated emission depletion (STED) super-resolution immunofluorescence microscopy reveals SIRT6 condensates in cells that are sensitive to nucleases. SIRT6 condensates purified from cells analyzed by mass spectrometry reveal chromatin and RNA-related proteins. A screen for SIRT6 phase separation knockout mutants yielded a point mutation, K316A, that can no longer phase separate with RNA, loses its DNA and RNA partitioning function, and has impaired DNA break repair while maintaining LINE1 suppression in cells. Future work includes multiomic comparison of SIRT6 WT to K316A CRISPR cell line
Sep 08, 2026 @ 1:00 p.m.
Medical Center | Upper S-Wing Auditorium (3-7619)
"Integrative Experimental and Computational Transcriptomics for SF3B1 cancer mutations and Genome-wide Pseudouridylation" - Thesis Defense
“Metabolic Plasticity as a Driver of Development and Disease” - DBB Seminar
Matthew Sieber, PhD - Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX
Sep 16, 2026 @ 2:00 p.m.
Medical Center | K307 (3-6408)
“Mechanisms of Transcription and Replication Through Chromatin” - DBB Seminar
Lucas Farnung, PhD - HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar; Assistant Professor, Department of Cell Biology, Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Sep 23, 2026 @ 2:00 p.m.
Medical Center | K307 (3-6408)
“Control of mRNA Translation by RNA Sequences and Structures” - DBB Seminar
Joel McManus, PhD - Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Melon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Sep 30, 2026 @ 2:00 p.m.
Medical Center | K307 (3-6408)
“Correction of Disease - Causing Splicing Mutations Using Engineered U1 snRNA” - DBB Seminar
Hua Lou, PhD - Associate Professor, Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
Oct 07, 2026 @ 2:00 p.m.
Medical Center | K307 (3-6408)
“Mechanism and Manipulation of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 5 Allostery” - DBB Seminar
Kaavya Krishna Kumar, PhD - Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY
Oct 14, 2026 @ 2:00 p.m.
Medical Center | K307 (3-6408)
“Optimizing Protein Synthesis with tRNA Modifications” - DBB Seminar
Ute Kothe, PhD - Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Oct 21, 2026 @ 2:00 p.m.
Medical Center | K307 (3-6408)
“Metalloproteins in Action: Coupling Diffraction and Spectroscopy for Structural Studies” - DBB Seminar
Sarah E. J. Bowman, PhD - Associate Professor and Director of the National Crystallization Center, Department of Biochemistry, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
Oct 28, 2026 @ 2:00 p.m.
Medical Center | k307 (3-6408)
“Simulating Large-Scale Conformational Dynamics in Biological Assemblies” - DBB Seminar
Paul Whitford, PhD - Professor, Department of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Nov 04, 2026 @ 2:00 p.m.
Medical Center | K307 (3-6408)
“Biochemical Ecology in Host/Microbiome Interactions” - DBB Seminar
Michael Neugent, PhD - Assistant Professor, Departments of Urology and of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Nov 11, 2026 @ 2:00 p.m.
Medical Center | K307 (3-6408)
“The Early Finish: How Premature Transcription Termination Fine-Tunes Gene Expression” - DBB Seminar
Isaac Fianu, PhD - Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, Caltech, Pasadena, CA
Nov 18, 2026 @ 2:00 p.m.
Medical Center | k307 (3-6408)
University of Rochester Genetics Day 2027
Harmit Malik, Ph.D. - Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Professor and Associate Director, Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Dr. Harmit Malik studies genetic conflict, the competition between genes and proteins with opposing functions that drives evolutionary change. His research could have implications for a range of diseases, from HIV to cancer. As part of this work, his team developed an approach for identifying genes that divide one species from another, which could help solve the riddle of how new species evolve. Dr. Malik also studies the evolutionary processes that drive our body’s interactions with viruses, including contemporary scourges like HIV as well as ancient viruses whose fossils litter our genome. With Hutch colleagues, he has characterized the rapidly evolving interface between proteins on human cells and viruses that make us sick. This work has highlighted surprising deviations from “textbook” models of these interactions, and it is revealing gene variants that could influence our susceptibility to infection. — https://www.fredhutch.org/en/people/m/harmit-malik.html
Apr 12, 2027 @ 9:00 a.m.
Kornberg Medical Research Building | Class of '62 Aud. and Flaum Atrium