Wednesday – 2026 GMB New Student Symposium
2026-05-27 09:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | G100 Bondurant, 321 S. Columnbia St., Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, United States
2026 GMB New Student Symposium Schedule:

9:30 AM Sophie Addi, Bob Duronio Lab
Mechanisms Regulating Histone Transcription in Drosophila Cell Cycle and Development

9:45 AM Alyssa Stoner, Laura Lee Lab
Utilizing light sheet live microscopy to study plant regeneration at the root tip

10:00 AM Calen Paleologos, Zack Nimchuk Lab
Investigating Interactions between the BAM/CLE signaling pathway and ABA in root stem cells

10:15 AM Kasey Linton, Sarah Linnstaedt Lab
Epigenetic Landscape of the X Chromosome in Chronic Post-Traumatic Pain

10:30 AM Break

10:45 AM Claire Olson, Jesse Raab Lab
Investigating the Interaction Between SWI/SNF Chromatin Remodelers and the Integrator Complex

11:00 AM Rhea Premanand, Qingyun Liu Lab
Establishing a Representative Collection of M. Abcessus Strains to Capture DCC Diversity

11:15 AM Zhihan Gao, Karen Mohlke Lab
Functional Validation of Cardiometabolic Disease-Associated Non-Coding Genetic Variants

11:30 AM Kathleen Embury, Karen Mohlke Lab
The Coordination of the ZZ and SANT Domains in Ada2 Histone Binding

11:45 AM Christopher Smith, Melissa Haendel Lab
From Ontologies to Mechanisms: Integrating Disease Knowledge for Rare Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Discovery

Additional New GMB Students Not Presenting:
Ana Cunningham, Ed Browne Lab
Niki Hamraei, Dale Ramsden Lab

Friday – 2026 BCB New Student Symposium
2026-05-29 10:30 - 12:00 | 1131 Bioinformatics Building, 125 Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, United States
BCB New Student Symposium

10:30 AM Alice Zhang
Tarek Zikry & Jessica Girault Labs
Neural Dynamics of Positional Memory Following Transient Whole-brain Inhibition in Zebrafish Larvae

10:45 AM Jordyn Homoki
Jessica Girault & Zachary Fisher Labs
Developmental trends in white matter connectivity underlying functional networks in infants with enriched genetic liability for neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric conditions

11:00 AM Andrew Antanasiu
Tim Elston Lab
EXPLORATION OF X-CHROMOSOME INACTIVATION MECHANISMS

11:15 AM Break

11:30 AM Jihae Lee
Charles Perou Lab
Cavebear-multi: Aligning on the Timeline with Supervised Cross-Species Mapping

11:45 AM Marisa Lange
Will Valdar Lab
Adjusting for Haplotype Uncertainty in Bayesian Mediation Analysis

Additional New BCB Students Not Presenting:
Damien Guilbaud
Brian Diekman & Doug Phanstiel Labs

Jazmin Sharp

12:15-2:00 PM New Student Luncheon
