Pharmacology Holds Research Retreat 2016 – Seven Postdocs and Grad Students Receive Awards

The Department of Pharmacology held its annual research retreat at the Friday Center, April 1, 2016. The research retreat allows the members of the department to learn about the research other members of the department are doing through oral and poster presentations.

There were three invited speakers, six postdoctoral and graduate student oral presentations and thirty-nine poster presentations. Thanks to all who participated and helped organizationally to make this another successful research retreat!

Invited Speakers

1. The Keynote speaker, Marc G. Caron, PhD, James B. Duke Professor, Department of Cell Biology, Duke University
   “Implications for GPCR Functional Selectivity/Biased Signaling in the Actions of Dopamine”
2. John Allen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology, UTMB
   “A Career Transition to Industry: Learning from a Recent Adventure”
3. Mauro Calabrese, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, UNC-CH
   “Functional anatomy of the long noncoding RNA2”

Poster and Oral Presentation Awards

Seven awards were given out for graduate student and postdoctoral presentations: two for best oral presentations and five for best poster presentations. The award recipients will receive a gift from the department. Our congratulations to all the award recipients!

Oral Presentation Award Recipients

1. Catherine Marcinkiewcz, PhD, Postdoc in Tom Kash’s Lab, “Dissecting Neural Circuits Underlying the Acute Aversive Actions of SSRIs using Connectivity-based Chemogenetic Approaches”
2. Daniel Wacker, PhD, Postdoc in Bryan Roth’s Lab, “Crystal Structure of an LSD Bound Human Serotonin Receptor”

Poster Presentation Award Recipients

1. Justin English, Postdoc, Roth Lab, “Viral Evolution of Genetically Actuating Systems (VEGAS)”
2. Andrew Hardaway, Postdoc, Kash Lab, “Central amygdala nociceptin neurons inhibit high fat food consumption”
3. Kate Lansu, Graduate Student, Roth Lab, “Discovery of MRGPRX2 agonists and identification of MRGPRX2 as an atypical opioid receptor”
4. Kate Newns, Graduate Student, Nicholas Lab, “Analysis of a codon deletion within the mleN gene and its role in growth and fitness in spontaneous compensatory mutants of Neisseria gonorrhoeae”
5. Tim Stuhlmiller, Postdoc, Johnson Lab, “Combined inhibition of HER2 and BET family bromodomains synergistically destabilizes the epigenetic environment”