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33rd Annual Genetics Day

Monday, May 16, 2022
9:30am to 4:00 p.m.
Class of '62 Auditorium and Sarah Flaum Atrium

19th Annual Fred Sherman Lecture

Li-Xing Man, MSc, MD, MPA photo

Peter Walter, Ph.D.

Featuring Keynote Speaker: Peter Walter, Ph.D., SVP & Institute Director Altos Labs - Bay Area Institute of Science, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of California, San Francisco Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics.

His talk is entitled “Targeting the Cell’s Stress Pathways for Therapeutic Benefit.” 

Dr. Walter's Lab Webpage

Poster Prizes

At this year’s Genetics Day the following poster prizes will be awarded: two $250 prizes will be award to Graduate Students and two additional $250 prizes will be awarded to Postdocs. Another $250 prize will be awarded to poster entries from others, including undergraduates, staff, and faculty.

To be eligible for the award competition and included in the poster session, abstracts must be submitted at  our Poster Registration link by 5pm on Monday, May 2nd.

Also for this year: Two of the submitted abstracts will be selected for a 10 minute oral presentation to be delivered in the morning session of the Genetics Day program. The presenters of these short talks will receive a special prize of $500 each. Please indicate on your abstract submission whether you would be like to be considered for the short talk competition.

Genetics Day Schedule

33rd ANNUAL GENETICS DAY
Monday, May16th, 2022
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Class of '62 Auditorium & Sarah Flaum Atrium

Genetics Day Zoom Link

 

Michael Welte, Ph.D. – Department of Biology
Welcome
Patrick Murphy, Ph.D. - Morning Session Chair

 

9:40 – 10:05 a.m.
Sina Ghaemmaghami, Ph.D.

Department of Biology
The influence of the ribosome on co-translational protein folding

 

10:05 – 10:30 a.m.
Anne Meyer, Ph.D.

Department of Biology
Opticoli: Self-assembled bacterial microlenses for optical applications

 

10:30 – 10:45 a.m.
Fabio Hecht Castro Medeiros, Ph.D.

Postdoc, Department of Biomedical Genetics
“Extracellular glutathione catabolism as an alternative cyst(e)ine source in cancer”

 

10:45 – 11:00 a.m.
Frances Tolibzoda Zakusilo

Graduate Student, Department of Biology, NGP
“Comparative study of oxidative stress restance in naked mole rat, mouse, degu, and human astroglia”

 

11:00 – 11:30 a.m.
Coffee Break

 

11:30 – 11:55 a.m.
Ruth Serra-Moreno, Ph.D.

Department of Microbiology and Immunology
How does SARS-CoV-2 generate replication organelles?”

 

11:55 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
Thu Le, M.D.

Department of Medicine
“GSTM1 in kidney disease:  from the bench to the clinic and dining table”

 

12:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Poster Session, Flaum Atrium

 

3:004:00 p.m.
19th Annual Fred Sherman Lecture
Welcome by Dirk Bohmann, Ph.D.
Department of Biomedical Genetics
Introduction from David Goldfarb, Ph.D. Department of Biology
Featuring: Peter Walter, Ph.D.
SVP & Institute Director, Altos Labs - Bay Area Institute of Science
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
University of California, San Francisco
Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics
Targeting the Cell’s Stress Pathways for Therapeutic Benefit”

 

4:15 p.m.
Poster Award Ceremony

Poster Submissions


GRADUATE STUDENTS
 
1.

INVESTIGATING DIFFERENTIAL INTRON SENSITIVITY TO CORE SPLICEOSOME FACTORS THAT ARE AMPLIFIED OR DELETED IN DEVELOPMENTAL SYNDROMES AND CANCER
Mohammed Ali, Paul Boutz
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics

2. THE ROLE OF GLUTATHIONE IN LIPID METABOLISM
Gloria Asantewaa, Pyo Kang, Emily Tuttle, Leonid Smorodintsev-Schiller, Matt Ingalls, David Brown, Hayley Chang, Zachary Smith, Katherine Rodriguez, Sarah Whelan, Xenia Schafer, Ying Chen, Vasilis Vasiliou, Joan Brugge, Calvin Cole, Dirk Brenner, Catherine Ovitt, Joshua Munger, Alessandro Rufini, Gina DeNicola, Isaac Harris
Department of Biochemistry, Department of Biomedical Genetics
3. INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF NEAT1 IN RESTRICTING THE FORMATION OF PANCREATIC CANCER
Emily Berry
, Zamira Guerra Soares, Stephano Mello.
Department of Biomedical Genetics
4. MECHANICAL BASIS FOR EPITHELIALIZATION
Christian Cammarota
, Mimi Jung, Nicole Dawney, Alexander G. Fletcher, Dan Bergstralh
Department of Physics and Astronomy
5. EPIGENETIC REGULATION OF THE 7SK SNRNP IN POLYMERASE PAUSE CONTROL
Eric Cefaloni
, Christina Davidson, Ching-Hua Shih, Priya Kapoor-Vazirani, Paula Vertino
Department of Biology, Department of Biomedical Genetics
6. HUMAN CYTOMEGALOVIRUS UL26 PROTEIN INTERACTS WITH HOST INNATE IMMUNE FACTORS TO SUPPORT VIRAL REPLICATION
Jessica Ciesla
, Joshua C. Munger
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
7. THE REPLICA SET METHOD: A ROBUST, ACCURATE AND HIGH-THROUGHPUT APPROACH TO QUANTITATIVELY MEASURE CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS LIFESPAN
Adam Cornwell
, Jesse R. Llop, Peter Salzman, Juilee Thakar, Andrew V. Samuelson
Department of Biomedical Genetics
8. CHARACTERIZING EPITHELIAL MONOLAYER DEVELOPMENT IN VITRO
Nicole Dawney
, Christian Cammarota, Qingyuan Jia, Alicia Shipley, Joseph Glickowski, Dan Bergstralh
Department of Biology
9. NVESTIGATION OF NEAT1'S MECHANISM OF SPLICING FACTOR REGULATION VIA DETAINED INTRON LEVELS
Dakarai Esgdaille
, Paul Boutz, Stephano Mello
Department of Biomedical Genetics
10. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN H2AZ, H3K4ME3, AND KDM5B CORRELATES WITH TRANSCRIPTIONAL DIRECTIONALITY
McKayla Ford
, Zachary Smith, Ching-hua Shih, Christina Davidson, Patrick Murphy, Paula Vertino
Department of Biomedical Genetics
11. INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF RNA HELICASES IN SPLICING CHANGES CAUSED BY CANCER ASSOCIATED SF3B1 MUTATIONS
Leon Harvey
, Mohammed Ali, Paul Boutz
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
12. IDENTIFICATION AND STRUCTURAL BASIS OF A NOVEL CELLULAR INHIBITOR OF THE INTEGRATOR CLEAVAGE MODULE
Madeline Jensen
, Min-Han Lin, Nathan D. Elrod, Liang Tong, Eric J. Wagner
Department of Biochemistry
13. mRNA TRANSLATION-REGULATORY FUNCTION OF RNA-BINDING PROTEIN PRRC2B
Feng Jiang
, Omar Hedaya, Peng Yao
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
14. INSIGHTS INTO THE ROLE OF POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL MECHANISMS FOR EFFECTOR FUNCTION REGULATION AND HOMEOSTASIS IN MEMORY CD8+ T CELLS
Ashwin B.R. Kumar
, Adam Geber, Kris Lambert, Emma Reilly, Ciaran Daly, Jessica West, Juilee Thakar, Paul Boutz, Andrew Grimson, David Topham
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
15. HEXIM1 AND GATA1 COOPERATE TO REGULATE ERYTHROID GENE EXPRESSION AND FUNCTION
Xiurui Lv
, Zachary Murphy, Kristin Murphy, Michael Getman, Laurie Steiner
Department of Biomedical Genetics
16. LEVERAGING TARGETED PROTEOMICS TO ELUCIDATE CONSERVED MECHANISMS OF SIRT6 REGULATION AND DEVELOP NOVEL THERAPEUTICS FOR AGE-RELATED DISEASE
Michael E. Meadow
, Joseph Irvin, J. Yuyang Lu, Kyle Swovick, Kevin Welle, Jonathan Gigas, Eric Hillpot, Gregory Tombline, Ruiyue Tan, Ali Biashad, Yuliya Ablaeva, Jennifer Hryhorenko, Nimish Mohile, Andrei Seluanov, Vera Gorbunova, Sina Ghaemmaghami
Department of Biology
17. CONTROLLING GENE EXPRESSION THROUGH RNA STRUCTURES OR ANTISENSE OLIGONUCLEOTIDES
Omar M. Hedaya
, Feng Jiang, Kadiam Venkata Subbaiah, Li Xie, Jiangbin Wu, Darren Khor, Peng Yao
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
18. UNDERSTANDING GUIDE-RNA DESIGN RULES FOR EFFICIENT AND SPECIFIC CAS13 RNA-TARGETING
Adrian M. Molina Vargas
, Souvik Sinha, Pablo R. Arantes, Giulia Palermo, Mitchell R. O'Connell
Department of Biomedical Genetics, Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics
19. LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF AUDITORY DYSFUNCTION IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE MICE 5xFAD
Daxiang Na
, Patricia White
Department of Biomedical Genetics
20. DISCS LARGE LICENSES PINS TO ORIENT MITOTIC SPINDLES
Kathryn Neville
, Anne Benraiss, Tara Finegan, Dan Bergstralh
Department of Biology
21. ENDURANCE EXERCISE ATTENUATES JUVENILE IRRADIATION-INDUCED SKELETAL MUSCLE FUNCTIONAL DECLINE AND MITOCHONDRIAL STRESS
Thomas N. O'Connor
, Jacob G. Kallenbach, Haley M. Orciuoli, Nicole D. Paris, John F. Bachman, Carl J. Johnston, Eric Hernady, Jacqueline P. Williams, Robert T. Dirksen, Joe V. Chakkalakal
Department of Biomedical Genetics
22. Sox100B & SMOOTH MUSCLE MORPHOGENESIS IN DROSOPHILA
Rachel Piselli
, Benoit Biteau
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Department of Biomedical Genetics
23. NEUROGENETIC MECHANISMS UNDERLYING SEXUALLY DIMORPHIC BEHAVIORAL STATES IN C. ELEGANS
Gregory Reilly, Douglas S. Portman
Department of Neuroscience
24. OPTICOLI: SELF-ASSEMBLED BACTERIAL MICROLENSES FOR OPTICAL APPLICATIONS
Lynn M. Sidor
, Anne S. Meyer
Department of Biology
25. REGULATION OF TRANSCRIPTION BY HISTONE DEMETHYLASE KDM5B IN BREAST CANCER
Zachary Smith
, McKayla Ford, Christina Davidson, Paula Vertino
Department of Biochemistry
26. FLUXIMPLIED: A NOVEL BIOINFORMATIC METHOD INTEGRATES RATE LIMITING STEPS AND DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION FOR PATHWAY ANALYSIS
Mike Sportiello
, Adam Geber, Rohith Palli, A. Karim Embong, Nathan G. Laniewski, David J. Topham
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
27. CRITICAL ROLE OF MTORC1 IN ENDOTHELIAL BARRIER REGULATION
Imran Tahir
, Arshad Rahman
Department of Pediatrics (Neonatology)
28. THE EFFECT OF THE RIBOSOME ON THE THERMODYNAMIC STABILITY OF NASCENT PROTEINS
Ruiyue Tan
, Ethan Walker, John Bettinger, Michael Meadow, Sina Ghaemmaghami
Department of Biology
29. INHIBITION OF PRECANCEROUS TRANSFORMATION VIA DRUG-INDUCED P53 ACTIVATION
Jennifer Twardowski
, Thomas Heist, Stephano Spano Mello
Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics
30. THE SUMO PEPTIDASE ULP-4 IS ESSENTIAL FOR ORSAY VIRUS INFECTION IN CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS
Yun Zang, Zachary Ward, Andrew Samuelson
Department of Biomedical Genetics
31. REDUCTION OF SATELLITE DNA TRANSCRIPTION ENHANCES DRIVE IN SEGREGATION DISTORTION
Xiaolu Wei
, Amanda Larracuente
Department of Biomedical Genetics
32. FATTY ACID TRAFFICKING DURING DROSOPHILA OOGENESIS
Roger White
, Michael Welte
Department of Biology
33. SUV420H2 REGULATION OF COLLECTIVE INVASION IN TRIPLE-NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER
Emily C. Whitt
, Paula M. Vertino
Department of Pathology
34. DECIPHERING EIF2B5 DEFICIENCY IN VANISHING WHITE MATTER DISEASE
LI XIE
, Sun Yu, Garrick Salois, Kelsey Williams, Chris Pröschel
Department of Biomedical Genetics
35. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF OXIDATIVE STRESS RESTANCE IN NAKED MOLE RAT, MOUSE, DEGU, AND HUMAN ASTROGLIA
Frances Tolibzoda Zakusilo

Department of Biology, Neuroscience Graduate Program
36. U2 SNRNA PSEUDOURIDYLATION IN THE RECOGNITION OF BRANCH-SITE SEQUENCE DURING PRE-MRNA SPLICING
Rui Zhang
, Yi-Tao Yu
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
37. INTERPLAY BETWEEN HMGB PROTEIN HMO1 AND HISTONE H3 IN DNA DAMAGE RESPONSE IN BUDDING YEAST
Jiarui Zhang
, Xin Bi
Department of Biology
38. GLUTATHIONE CATABOLISM MAY BE A CRITICAL AMINO ACID SOURCE FOR CANCER CELL SURVIVAL
Marco Zocchi,
Fabian Hecht, Leonid Smorodintsev-Schiller, Emily Tuttle, Katherine Rodriguez, Gloria Asantewaa, YP. Kang, Y. Chen, JJ. Zoeller, JS. Brugge, V. Vasiliou, A. Muir, GM. DeNicola, Isaac Harris
Department of Biomedical Genetics

POSTDOC STUDENTS
 
39.

SEX DIFFERENCES IN NUTRIENT-DEPENDENT BEHAVIOR IN C. ELEGANS
Chance Bainbridge
, Douglas S. Portman
Department of Biomedical Genetics

40. ALR-1/ARX REGULATES SYNAPTOGENESIS AND GABAERGIC NEURONAL DIFFERENTIATION BY DISTINCT TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATORY PATHWAYS
Carlos A. Diaz-Balzac
, María I. Lázaro-Peña, Douglas S. Portman
Department Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, Department of Biomedical Genetics
41. EIF4G2 MEDIATES SPECIFIC MRNA TRANSLATIONAL CONTROL OF CARDIAC FIBROSIS
Khor (Darren) Eng-Soon
, Feng Jiang, Omar Hedaya, Peng Yao
Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute
42. EXTRACELLULAR GLUTATHIONE CATABOLISM AS AN ALTERNATIVE CYST(E)INE SOURCE IN CANCER
Fabio Hecht
, Marco Zocchi, Leonid Schiller, Isaac Harris
Department of Biomedical Genetics
43. PNPT1 MEDIATES NLRP3 INFLAMMASOME ACTIVATION BY MAVS AND METABOLIC REPROGRAMMING IN MACROPHAGES
Chia George Hsu
, Wenjia Li, Mark Sowden, Camila Lage Chávez, Bradford C. Berk
Department of Medicine, Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute
44. NEUROENDOCRINE CONTROL OF THE PROTEOSTATIC NETWORK BY HPK-1 DELAYS AGING
Maria I. Lazaro-Pena, Carlos A. Diaz-Balzac, Ritika Das, Andrew V. Samuelson
Department of Biomedical Genetics
45. COMPETITION FOR H2A.Z BETWEEN GENES AND REPETITIVE ELEMENTS ESTABLISHES RESPONSE TO ANTI-VIRAL IMMUNE ACTIVATION
Fanju Meng
, Kristin Murphy, Claire Makowski, Patrick Murphy
Department of Biomedical Genetics
46. MTOR MAINTAINS VASCULAR INTEGRITY IN THE LUNG
Michelle Warren Millar
, Spencer A. Slavin, Mohammad Shadab, Rauf Najar, Zahra Mohammad, David A. Dean, Fabeha Fazal, Arshad Rahman
Department of Pediatrics (Neonatology), Lung Biology and Disease Program
47. ESSENTIAL ROLE OF MIRO1 IN MAINTAINING ENDOTHELIAL CELL INTEGRITY
Rauf Ahmad Najar
, Michelle Millar, Mohammad Shadab, Fabeha Fazal, Arshad Rahman
Departments of Pediatrics, Lung Biology and Disease Program
48. SPLEEN TYROSINE KINASE PHOSPHORYLATES VE-CADHERIN TO CAUSE ENDOTHELIAL BARRIER DISRUPTION IN ACUTE LUNG INJURY
Mohammad Shadab
, Spencer A. Slavin, Zahra Mahamed, Michelle W. Millar, Rauf A. Najar, Antony Leonard, Anthony Pietropaoli, David A. Dean, Fabeha Fazal, Arshad Rahman
Departments of Pediatrics, Department of Medicine, Lung Biology and Disease Program
49. THE ROLE OF SLC6A6 IN ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIA
Benjamin J Rodems, Sonali Sharma, Erika Davidson, Jeevisha Bajaj
James P. Wilmot
Cancer Center

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

50.

MACHINE LEARNING APPROACHES UNMASK CHROMATIN STATE REPROGRAMMING EVENTS IN TUNE WITH NEURAL CREST SPECIFICATION ACROSS EARLY ZEBRAFISH DEVELOPMENT
Fabian Halblander
Department of Biomedical Genetics

51. MODELING SATELLITE DNA ORGANIZATION
Sherif Negm
, Amanda Larracuente
Department of Biology
52. MAKING OUT-OF-SAMPLE PREDICTIONS FROM UNSUPERVISED CLUSTERING OF SINGLE CELL RNASeq
Lan Zhang
, Andrew McDavid
Department of Mathematics

STAFF
 
53.

A CENTENARIAN VARIANT OF SIRT6 ENHANCES GENOME MAINTENANCE ACTIVITY
Matthew Simon
, Jiping Yang, Eric, Early, Maria Zagorulya, Greg Tombline, Michael Van Meter, Stephan Emmrich, Paul D. Robbins, Jan Vijg, Andrei Seluanov, Yousin Suh, Vera Gorbunova
Department of Biology


FACULTY
 
54.

ASSESSMENT OF PATIENT REPORTED NEEDS, PREFERENCES, AND EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES AFTER ATTENDING AN ONLINE SUPPORT GROUP FOR PERSONS WITH LYNCH SYNDROME
Meghan Underhill-Blazey
, Ashley Hendershot, Carol Lustig, Laura Kent, Mysti Geiger, Art DeCross
James P. Wilmot Cancer Center

55. AGE ASSOCIATED INDUCTION OF SENESCENT TRANSCRIPTIONAL PROGRAMS IN HUMAN GLIAL PROGENITOR CELLS
John N. Mariani
, Pernille Madsen, Benjamin Mansky, Nguyen Huynh, Nicholas J. Kuypers, Erin R. Kesel, Devin Chandler-Militello, Abdellatif Benraiss, Steven A. Goldman
Department of Neurology
56. BIALLELIC LOSS-OF-FUNCTION MUTATIONS IN THUMPD1 AFFECT TRNA ACETYLATION AND CAUSE A SYNDROMIC NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER
Bogdan Polevoda, Kamel Awayda, Ning Tong, Jenna Lentini, Dragony Fu, Mitchell R. O'Connell
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Center for RNA Biology, Department of Biology
57. PGC-1α SENSES THE CBC OF PRE-MRNA TO DICTATE THE FATE OF PROMOTER-PROXIMALLY PAUSED RNAPII
Xavier Rambout
, Hana Cho, Romeo Blanc, Qing Lyu, Joseph M. Miano, Joe V. Chakkalakal, Geoffrey M. Nelson, Hari K. Yalamanchili, Karen Adelman, Lynne E. Maquat
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
58. TRANSGLUTAMINASE 2 INHIBITION PROMOTES RECOVERY AFTER SPINAL CORD INJURY: MODULATING THE ASTROGLIAL RESPONSE TO CNS INJURY
Anissa Elahi, Jacen Emerson, Jacob Rudlong, Jeffrey W. Keillor, Garrick Salois, Adam Visca, Peter Girardi, Kelsey Williams, Gail V.W. Johnson, Chris Pröschel
Department of Biomedical Genetics
59.

4-AMINOPYRIDINE PROVIDES RAPID AND SUSTAINED IMPROVEMENTS IN A MODEL OF THORACIC SPINAL CORD INJURY
Heather Natola, Li Xie, Derick Peterson, Lu Wang, Susan Messing, Anissa Elahi, and Mark Noble, Chris Pröschel
Department of Biomedical Genetics

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