FUSION Seminar: Anna Beeson (Caron Lab), Kimberly Lukasik (Gupton Lab), and Pierre N’Guetta (O’Brien Lab)
2024-04-29 12:30 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill

FUSION Seminar: Mark Hazelbaker (Bear Lab), Anna Kim (Heinzen Lab), and Vickie Williams (Cohen Lab)
2024-05-06 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill

FUSION Seminar: Anca Frasineanu (Gupton Lab), Nicole Hondrogiannis (Deshmukh Lab), and Caden Sweet (Magness Lab)
2024-05-13 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill

FUSION Seminar: Samantha Ryken (Gupton Lab), Jennifer Nwako (McCauley Lab), and Frankie Marchan (Bear Lab)
2024-05-20 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill

FUSION Seminar: Gabby Bais (Giudice Lab), David Rocco (Bergmeier Lab), and Joceyln Alvardo (Campbell Lab)
2024-06-03 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill

FUSION Seminar: Emily Bulik-Sullivan (Randell Lab), Matt Zimmerman (Miller Lab), and Gabby Williams (Falk and Ciavatta Labs)
2024-06-10 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill

Monday - FUSION: Sam Ryken & Frankie Marchan
2024-10-14 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Sam Ryken

(Gupton lab)

Frankie Marchan

(Bear lab)

Monday - FUSION: Amber Gomez & Kayla Mason
2024-10-21 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Amber Gomez (Milner and Baldwin labs)

Understanding the molecular regulators of CD8 T cell exhaustion

Kayla Mason (Conlon lab)

Ddx3x is required in female cardiomyocytes of mice for cardiac development
Identifying DDX3X translationally dependent cardiomyocyte specific mRNA targets underlying sex differential congenital heart disease

Monday - FUSION: Garrett Sessions & Anca Frasineanu
2024-10-28 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Garrett Sessions (Purvis & Diekman labs)

Aggregate analysis of cellular senescence fails to identify the effect of key subpopulations
Senescence induction is heterogeneous over time, making time point selection critical for designing future experiments

Anca Frasineanu (Gupton lab)

TRIM9 deletion decreases mitochondrial translation and increases nuclear speckle proteins in the PSD proteome of 6-month-old PS19 mice
Cultured cortical neurons from TRIM9 KO embryos undergo slight changes in mitochondrial morphology

Monday - FUSION: Jocelyn Alvarado & Max Hockenberry
2024-11-04 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Jocelyn Alvarado (Campbell lab)

Characterizing the effect of increasing levels of metavinculin on force transmission in MEFs at the general cellular level and at local focal adhesions

Max Hockenberry (Bear and Legant labs)

Developing a method to quantitatively measure the traction forces produced by cells migrating in any arbitrary 3D geometry
Applying this methodology to understand how cells physically propel their nucleus through tight confinements

Fall 2024 Seminar Series - Kristy Welshhans, PhD
2024-11-18 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Kristy Welshhans, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences

University of South Carolina

Research focus

Axonal protein synthesis in neurodevelopment and Down syndrome

Faculty host

Stephanie Gupton, PhD

More information on speaker
Kristy Welshhans received her Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Agnes Scott College and her PhD in neurobiology and behavior from Georgia State University. She received a National Institute of Health postdoctoral fellowship for work examining the role of mRNA binding proteins during axon guidance while in the laboratory of Gary Bassell at Emory University School of Medicine. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina and a Center Affiliate of the University of South Carolina Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Center of Excellence. Her research team focuses on understanding how appropriate connectivity within the nervous system is established during development, with a focus on Down syndrome.

Fall 2024 Seminar Series - Francisco Laurindo, MD, PhD
2024-11-19 12:30 - 13:30 | 6002 Marsico Hall
Francisco Laurindo, MD, PhD

Professor, Heart Institute (Incor) & Director, Vascular Biology Laboratory

University of São Paulo

President, Society for Redox Biology and Medicine

Research focus

An endoplasmic reticulum-centered model for redox-dependent intercellular communication

Faculty hosts

Edward Bahnson, PhD and Sharon Campbell, PhD

More information on speaker
Francisco Laurindo is pioneer in redox signaling and cardiovascular biology. He earned his medical degree from the University of São Paulo School of Medicine in 1978 and completed his residence training in internal medicine and cardiology at the University of São Paulo School of Medicine’s Heart Institute (Incor). He trained in physiology and pharmacology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences under the mentorship of Robert Goldstein from 1984 to 1987. In 1992, he returned to the University of São Paulo School of Medicine, where he earned his PhD investigating the mechanisms of redox signaling in the vascular system under the supervision of Protásio da Luz. In 2001, with da Luz, Laurindo started the Vascular Biology Laboratory at the Heart Institute (Incor) and became its director in 2008. He investigates the mechanisms and regulatory processes underlying oxidant species production in vascular cells and tissues and their physiological implications for vessel remodeling in disease. His research group uncovered the shear stress-dependent generation of superoxide radical from the endothelium, characterized the redox response to vascular injury, and discovered how the endoplasmic reticulum chaperone protein, disulfide isomerase, interacts functionally and physically with oxidant-generating NADPH oxidase complexes. These findings have led to a better understanding of endoplasmic reticulum pathophysiology on NADPH oxidase function and how redox processes regulate cell migration and vascular remodeling.

Gottschalk Lecture (2024) - Samir Parikh, MD
2024-11-25 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Samir Parikh, MD

Ruth W. and Milton P. Levy, Sr. Chair in Molecular Nephrology

Robert Tucker Hayes Distinguished Chair in Nephrology

Professor & Chief of the Division of Nephrology, Dept. of Internal Medicine

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Research focus

Turning back kidney frailty by targeting metabolism

Faculty host

Lori O’Brien, PhD

More information on speaker
Samir Parikh earned his medical degree at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in nephrology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in nephrology, he joined the University of Texas at Southwestern faculty in 2021. He specializes in acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, and his research team investigates the mechanisms of aging and resilience to stress in the kidney. His research discoveries have earned him numerous awards, including the Sir William Osler Award from the Interurban Clinical Club in 2018, the Donald Seldin Award from the American Society of Nephrology and the American Heart Association in 2019, and a faculty STARs Award from UT Southwestern in 2021. Original research from the group has appeared in Nature, Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, Cell Metabolism, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and PNAS, among other leading journals.

Fall 2024 Seminar Series - Danielle Schmitt, PhD
2024-12-02 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Danielle Schmitt PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

University of California, Los Angeles

Research focus

Illuminating compartmentalized metabolic regulation in single cells

Faculty host

Whitney Edwards, PhD

More information on speaker
Danielle Schmitt obtained her Bachelor of Science in chemistry and biochemistry from Ball State University, where she was a Lewis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation Scholar. She earned her PhD in biochemistry from the University of Maryland Baltimore County under the mentorship of Songon An, where she identified the mechanisms for forming multienzyme complexes produced by metabolic enzymes. She completed her postdoctoral training as a California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California San Diego with Jin Zhang. There, she used genetically encoded reporters for kinase activity to study subcellular regulation of cellular signal transduction. Schmitt joined the University of California, Los Angeles faculty in 2022. Her research team investigates how cells organize essential processes like metabolism and signaling to coordinate cell function and fate. They take a multidisciplinary approach to identify mechanisms for subcellular compartmentation of metabolic processes, including signaling networks regulating metabolism and metabolites, and develop new genetically encoded tools to study metabolic events in single cells.

Monday - FUSION: Matt Zimmerman & Nicole Hondrogiannis
2024-12-09 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Matt Zimmerman (Miller lab)

FRb inhibits macrophage survival and suppresses anti-tumor functions in vitro
FRb ablation decreases tumor growth in preliminary experiments

Nicole Hondrogiannis (Deshmukh lab)

Neurons are long-lived post mitotic cells
Exploring if the apoptotic pathway in neurons becomes activated in response to sublethal DNA damage

Monday – FUSION: Juliet King & Alex Powers
2025-01-13 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Juliet King (Williams lab)

Alex Powers (Cohen lab)

Monday – FUSION: Ian McCabe & Mark Hazelbaker
2025-01-27 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Ian McCabe (Yeh lab)

Identifying two clinically relevant populations of CAFs in PDAC: tumor promoting (proCAF) and tumor restrictive (restCAF)
These CAF subtypes are distributed spatially and may play distinct functional roles

Mark Hazelbaker (Bear lab)

The Arp2/3 complex is required for the turnover of clathrin plaques
ACK regulates the recruitment of the Arp2/3 complex via tyrosine phosphorylation

Monday – FUSION: David Rocco & Andrew Kennedy
2025-02-03 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
David Rocco (Bergmeier lab)

Elucidating a novel pathway for platelet activation
Understanding how this pathway contributes to platelet adhesion under arterial shear stress

Andrew Kennedy (Thaxton lab)

ER sheet dynamics are distended in T cells in solid cancers
Balancing ER sheets and tubules may protect T cells from disturbed ER dynamics in solid tumors

Monday – FUSION: Kimberly Lukasik & Emily Bulik-Sullivan
2025-02-17 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Kimberly Lukasik (Gupton lab)

TRIM9 modulates focal adhesion dynamics to regulate cell motility in melanoma

Emily Bulik-Sullivan (Randell lab)

Elucidating the mechanism of ENaC activity reduction by CC-90009
This mechanism, and CC-90009’s capacity to promote ribosomal readthrough of PTC-CFTR variants is of therapeutic interest for cystic fibrosis

Monday - FUSION: Gabby Bais & Sherry Hsu
2025-03-03 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Gabby Bais (Giudice lab)

FXR1 may regulate the translation of many cardiomyocyte-specific proteins
Expression of muscle-specific splice isoforms of FXR1 may impact the contractility of the adult heart

Sherry Hsu (Cohen lab)

Tubulin acetylation and polyglutamylation increase early in neuronal differentiation, exhibit distinct distributions, and are important for maintaining neuronal morphology
Tubulin acetylation regulates lysosome morphology and its contacts with the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria, highlighting its role in lysosomal function during neuronal differentiation

Monday - FUSION: Henry Uchenna, Meghan Anderman, & Ashlyn Laidman
2025-03-24 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Henry Uchenna (Maddox lab)

Capping Protein depletion accelerates furrowing and cytokinesis, likely due to increased F-actin in the contractile ring
It also disrupts spindle dynamics, potentially through effects on the dynein-dynactin complex

Meghan Anderman (McCauley lab)

Using human intestinal organoids to model gastrointestinal (GI) pathophysiology in cystic fibrosis
Assessing the general role of CFTR in GI development and function

Ashlyn Laidman (Bressan lab)

Testing different hypotheses to figure out what cues are directing the stereotyped collective cell migration of the epicardium across the myocardium during development

Monday - FUSION: Leo Bondel, Katie Holmes, & Jake Roetcisoender
2025-03-31 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Leo Bondel (Zylka lab)

Our goal is to identify guide RNAs targeting the UBE3A-ATS in human neurons, which allow for installation of a Poly(A) signal with cytosine base editors
These edits have the potential to restore UBE3A expression, making this an attractive therapeutic strategy for Angelman Syndrome

Katie Holmes (Baldwin lab)

White matter astrocytes maintain key astrocytic features like tiling and endfeet but their morphological characteristics are quantifiably distinct
White matter astrocytes take longer to mature than other astrocytes

Jake Roetcisoender (O’Brien lab)

Vascular smooth muscle cells impact nerve development in the kidney

Spring 2025 Seminar Series – Cocoa T. Dixon, PhD
2025-04-07 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Cocoa T. Dixon, PhD

Associate Department Head, Life Sciences

Wake Technical Community College

Talk focus

Beyond the lecture hall: shaping a career in community college teaching

Faculty host

Natasha Snider, PhD

More about the speaker
Dr. Dixon is a passionate and innovative educator deeply committed to promoting and enhancing student success in higher education. With nearly two decades of teaching and training experience across diverse educational settings, she has a proven track record in leading curriculum development, instructional enhancement, and fostering holistic student success.
Currently, serving as the Associate Department Head of Life Sciences at Wake Technical Community College, Dr. Dixon oversees a wide range of responsibilities including faculty recruitment, development, and performance management. In addition to her administrative responsibilities, she plays a pivotal role in fostering professional growth across the institution, driving strategic initiatives that contribute to the holistic development of both students and faculty.
Dr. Dixon holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Shaw University, a Master of Science in Biology from North Carolina Central University, a post-graduate certificate in Public Health Concepts from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development from North Carolina State University.

Spring 2025 Seminar Series – Sergiu Pasca, MD
2025-04-14 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Sergiu Pasca, MD

Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences

Stanford University

Research focus

Understanding human brain assembly and the molecular mechanisms that lead to neuropsychiatric disease using neural organoids

Faculty host

Grégory Scherrer, PharmD, PhD

More about the speaker
Trained as a physician in Romania, Dr. Sergiu Pasca, came for postdoctoral training at Stanford in 2009 where he developed some of the initial in vitro models of disease by deriving neurons from skin cells taken from patients with genetic brain disorders. His lab has afterwards introduced the use of instructive signals for reproducibly deriving self-organizing 3D cellular structures known as regionalized neural organoids or spheroids. To gain access to complex cellular interactions in the human brain, his research group also pioneered a modular system to study human neural circuits in preparations named assembloids.

Monday - FUSION: Jack Bennett, Lauren Griffith, & Shenice Harrison
2025-04-21 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Jack Bennett (Cook lab)

Intracellular pH can be manipulated by inhibiting ion transporters, and these changes can be measured by flow cytometry
pH manipulations may alter cell cycle progression, arresting cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle

Lauren Griffith (Williams lab)

Explore how integrin-β1 and its adaptor protein Talin loss-of function affects oriented cell divisions and telophase correction in fixed tissue and live imaging
Explore how integrin-β1 and its adaptor protein Talin loss-of function impacts basal cell delamination

Shenice Harrison (Edwards lab)

Impaired myristoylation disrupts sarcomere organization and reduces sarcomere length in embryonic cardiomyocytes
Optimizing a metabolic labeling strategy to identify the myristoylated cardiac proteins required for proper sarcomere assembly

Monday – FUSION: Michelle LaBella & Mady Chlebowski
2025-04-28 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Michelle LaBella (Yeh lab)

TNIK is required to restrain tumor invasion in PDAC

Clear difference in mechanism when compared to colorectal/lung cancer

TNIK is a newly identified regulator of PLAT, tPA expression and ECM modulation through fibrin degradation
New mechanism for PDAC invasion and metastasis, may be what restrains classical tumors

Mady Chlebowski (Shiau & Chen labs)

Distinct neuroimmune and other cell-cell interactions may serve as early signatures of neurodegeneration prior to overt morphological cell death
This holds promise for early detection or intervention of neurodegenerative diseases

Monday: FUSION - Anna Beeson & Vickie Williams
2025-05-05 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Anna Beeson (Caron lab)

Adrenomedullin robustly increases both mouse fertility and pinopode formation
Alternative model systems are allowing us to interrogate pinopode formation in novel ways

Vickie Williams (Cohen lab)

Dimerization fluorescent proteins are a useful tool that can show increased ER-LD contacts under conditions of lipid droplet biogenesis
Dimerization-dependent fluorescent proteins can modulate LD size when used to induce ER-LD contact sites

Rising Stars Program Seminar - Kendall Lough, PhD
2025-05-27 12:00 - 13:00
Kendall Lough, PhD

CGIBD Postdoctoral Fellow

Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Talk title

Exciting contact: gut-brain circuits in early physiology and behavior

This seminar will be held virtually over Zoom. Link below
https://zoom.us/j/95576307638?pwd=[REDACTED]
About the speaker
Dr. Kendall Lough is a CGIBD Basic Science Fellow with a background in cell and developmental biology in various tissue systems, including the embryonic epidermal, oral, and gastrointestinal epithelia. His research focuses on understanding how molecular pathways drive cell identity and behavior, tissue morphogenesis, and organ function. He has made research discoveries at the intersection of cell fate specification and epidermal differentiation, the genetics of palate formation, and the developmental origins of the gut-brain axis. Currently, he seeks to define the mechanisms governing early gut-brain communication and its contribution to animal physiology and disease. He is particularly interested in the interface between sensory enteroendocrine cells and their neural or glial partners and defining the molecular and cellular mechanisms that coordinate communication between cells in the gut and brain.
About the Rising Stars Program
The UNC SOM’s Rising Stars Program’s main goal is to broaden participation among faculty members in the basic sciences. This professional development workshop series provides training to postdoctoral fellows to help them excel during the faculty interview process by exposing admitted fellows to the same components that they will experience during the faculty job interview process. This includes mock job talks, chalk talks, and multiple one-on-one faculty interviews. Participants will also attend workshops on the faculty environment and negotiating hiring packages. This program is sponsored by the Vice Dean for Research at UNC SOM, the Office of Faculty Affairs and Leadership Development, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Awards.
Please note, applications to the Rising Stars Program are neither an application for employment at UNC nor an interview for a faculty position. Learn more about the program here.

Spring 2025 Seminar Series – I. Robert Nabi, PhD
2025-06-02 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
I. Robert Nabi, PhD

Professor

Cellular & Physiological Sciences

The University of British Columbia

Talk Title

Nanoscopy powered by machine learning: novel insight into subcellular structure

About the speaker
Dr. Ivan Robert Nabi earned his PhD in cancer metastasis from the Weizman Institute of Science. He is currently a professor in cellular and physiological sciences at The University of British Columbia. His research team investigates the cell biology of cancer. The expression of cellular domains, ranging from cell polarity to organelle biogenesis to membrane microdomain organization, play important roles in cell function. Dr. Nabi’s research team has elucidated the significance of various cellular domains in receptor function and cell motility. Some of their key discoveries include developing network analysis of dSTORM super-resolution microscopy to define the molecular architecture of caveolae and scaffolds and defining the role of Gp78 (also known as autocrine motility factor receptor (AMFR)), a cancer-associated receptor and E3 ubiquitin ligase in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) associated degradation, in ER-mitochondria interaction and mitophagy.

CBPalooza
2025-08-14 15:00 - 17:00 | Genetic Medicine Building Lawn, 120 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
Kick off the Fall semester with the Cell Biology and Physiology (CBP) Department! Join us in welcoming the incoming BBSP PhD students and CBP biomedical master’s students on August 14th. This event is open to the broad CBP community and begins at 3:00 pm on the lawn outside the Genetic Medicine Building. Thank you to the CBP Student Executive Committee for organizing this event!
