The department of Biochemistry and Biophysics 2022 research retreat was held at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham on October 21 which included departmental talks, posters, and other fun activities which made for an engaging and exciting day at the museum.
Our Keynote speaker was Dr. Mary Munson, who was recently appointed assistant vice provost for health equity! In her new role, Dr. Munson will support the mission of the Office of Health Equity under the direction of Milagros Rosal, PhD, the Imoigele P. Aisiku, MD’97 Chair in Health Equity and Diversity and vice provost for health equity at UMass Chan Medical School.
Her research focuses on understanding the regulation of the spatial and temporal specificity of membrane trafficking. Talk title: “Activation of the Exocyst Tethering Complex for SNARE Complex Regulation and Membrane Fusion”
We held a DEI/Career Panel with the goal of exposing trainees to both academic and non-academic career paths and providing context from diverse experiences in professional scientific careers. Dr. Munson was one of our panelists together with two local alumnae from our department: Dr. Stephani Page (Founder of #BLACKandSTEM & Director of Strategic Initiatives, WEPAN) & Dr. Brooke Heidenfelder (Project Leader at Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute).
Six trainees were selected to give short talks at our department’s research retreat. This year we had over 50 submissions of amazing abstracts and excellent posters that represented research from our labs all across campus.
See our news about our presentation winners at this link, “Congratulations 2022 Retreat Presentation Winners.”
We would like to thank all our committee members for the planning, our students, and all our other volunteers! Thank you to Holly Shepherd for ordering our T-shirts for the retreat.
2022 Research Retreat Committee:
Laura Lindsey-Boltz, PhD
Richard Baker, PhD
Kanishk Jain, PhD
Darex Javier Vera Rodríguez
Jean Marie Mwiza
Rhonda Strickland
Marsha Lynn Ray
2023 Research Retreat is tentatively scheduled for October 19th 9 am-5 pm at The Cookery in Durham.