Fall 2024 Seminar Series - Danielle Schmitt, PhD
2024-12-02 12:30 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | 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!

Monday - FUSION:Keith Breau & Pierre N’Guetta
2025-08-18 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Keith Breau (Magness and Elston labs)

Using a reaction-diffusion model to simulate planar cell polarity in an epithelial cell layer
Demonstrating a role for planar cell polarity in regulating intestinal epithelial migration

Pierre N’Guetta (O’Brien lab)

Total renal denervation in mice leads to a decrease in number of nephron developed
Denervated kidneys exhibit impaired balance between self-renewal and differentiation of progenitor populations

Monday - FUSION: Max Hockenberry & Christina So
2025-08-25 12:30 - 13:30 | G202 MBRB, 111 Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill
Max Hockenberry (Bear and Legant labs)

We have developed an imaging based approach to directly visualize the motion of single molecules of actin and the arp2/3 complex in living cells.
We have used this approach and preliminary data to assess how molecules of these proteins get to the front of the cell for incorporation in polymerizing actin networks at the leading edge.

Christina So (Neher lab)

ANGPTL3 and ANGPTL8 are both lipoprotein inhibitors that form a complex in the cell prior to secretion. When not in complex, ANGPTL8 gets trafficked to lysosomes, and it is unknown how ANGPTL3 diverts ANGPTL8 from lysosomes.
