2021 Featured Attendees — Stanford.Berkeley.UCSF Next Generation Faculty Symposium

Keynote Speakers

Featured

Head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language, Professor at The Rockefeller University and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

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Special Guest Speakers

Special Guests2021

Persis Drell, PhD

Provost, James and Anna Marie Spilker Professor of Engineering, of Material Science and Engineering, and of Physics at Stanford University

Catherine P. Koshland, PhD

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost (EVCP), Wood-Calvert Professor in the College of Engineering, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health, and a Professor in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley.

Dan Lowenstein, PhD

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), the Robert B. and Ellinor Aird Professor and Vice Chairman in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Director of Physician-Scientist and Education Training Programs for the UCSF School of Medicine.

Featured Speakers

Featured

Fayal Abderemane-Ali

Current Institution: University of California, San Francisco

Department: Cardiovascular Research Institute

PhD Institution: University of Nante

Talk Title: “How to survive in a toxic environment? Lessons from poisonous birds and frogs.”

After high school in Comoros (Africa), Abderemane-Ali attended the University of Nantes in France where he developed a passion for ion channels. As a Fulbright scholar, then a postdoc at UCSF, Abderemane-Ali have been studying how these ion channels work, using a combination of functional, biophysical, biochemical and structural approaches. In the future, he will continue studying these fascinating proteins with the goal of developing new drugs that can control their function in pathological conditions.

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Basem Al-Shayeb

Current and PhD Institution: University of California, Berkeley

Department: Plant and Microbial Biology

Talk Title: “The enigmatic world of extra-chromosomal genetic elements”

Basem Al-Shayeb is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow completing his doctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley, under the mentorship of Professors Jillian Banfield and Jennifer Doudna. Through a combination of bioinformatics, microbiology, and biochemistry, Basem discovered multiple new groups of giant prokaryotic viruses and extra-chromosomal elements, including the largest bacterial viruses to date, in addition to leading the discovery and development of novel virus-derived CRISPR enzymes. Moving forward, Basem is interested in establishing a research group furthering the discovery and characterization of cryptic genetic elements with an eye towards their applications in human health, agriculture, and the environment. Beyond the lab, he is passionate about improving the accessibility of science and inspiring Arab youths to pursue careers in research.

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Joel Babdor, PhD

Current Institution: University of California, San Francisco

Department: Microbiology and Immunology

PhD Institution: University of Paris

Talk Title: “High dimensional immune profiling of patients with kidney transplant unravels peripheral immune trajectories and states associated with organ rejection and tolerance”

Dr. Joel Babdor is a senior postdoctoral researcher in the Spitzer lab at UCSF. He uses high-dimensional profiling technologies and systems approach to study the human immune system. His research investigates the variation of response to therapeutic immunomodulation that exist across patients, with an interest that spans across clinical contexts where immunomodulators are used to either inhibit immune activity (immunosuppressants in organ transplantation autoimmunity and) or re/activate immune responses (immunotherapy in cancer and vaccination). Dr. Babdor interrogates the influence of the microbial exposome – the collection of exposures to external microbes and commensal microorganisms that constitute the human microbiome – as one of the factors that may condition immune configurations favorable or refractory to immunomodulation therapies.

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Mairin Balisi, PhD

Current Institution: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; University of California, Merced

Department: Life & Environmental Sciences

PhD Institution: University of California, Los Angeles

Talk Title: “Macroecological patterns and microevolutionary processes  in North American carnivore communities”

Dr. Mairin Balisi is a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, part of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, and a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Merced. An ecologist and evolutionary biologist, she uses the fossil record of mammals to understand the long-term impacts of global environmental change on ecosystems from thousands to millions of years. Her study species include extinct saber-tooth cats and dire wolves, on which she uses morphological, biogeochemical, and quantitative methods to resolve diet and behavior. Committed to broadening diversity in STEM, she has created programs to provide mentorship and research opportunities to students in Los Angeles from groups traditionally underrepresented in science.

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Arnaldo Carreira-Rosario, PhD

Current Institution: Stanford

Department: Neurobiology

PhD Institution: UTSouthwestern

Talk Title: “How does the brain turn ON?”

Arnaldo Carreira-Rosario is a postdoctoral fellow in Tom Clandinin’s lab at Stanford University, co-mentored by Chris Doe at the University of Oregon. Dr. Carreira-Rosario obtained his bachelor’s degree at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, and his Ph.D. in Genetics and Development from UTSouthwestern in Michael Buszczak’s lab. During his postdoctoral work, he established the Drosophila embryo as a system to study early spontaneous activity during motor circuit formation, identified a mechanism for how this activity is regulated, and demonstrated that this activity shapes motor behavior. Dr. Carreira-Rosario’s research program aims to reveal the underlying logic of how brains become active, and how early activity influences circuit formation to sculpt mature behaviors.

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Valerie Darcey, PhD, MS, RD

Current Institution: NIH NIDDK (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)

Department: Laboratory of Biological Modeling

PhD Institution: Georgetown University

Talk Title: “Is your diet influencing your habits?”

Dr. Valerie Darcey is a neuroscientist and Registered Dietitian interested in bridging the gaps between these two largely siloed fields to study how nutritional status might influence the neurochemistry of our habit-driven and reward-driven behaviors.

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Maria Maldonado, PhD

Current Institution: University of California, Davis

Department: Molecular and Cellular Biology

PhD Institution: Rockefeller University

Talk Title: “Structural insights into plant respiration”

Dr María Maldonado is a postdoctoral researcher in the Letts lab at the University of California-Davis, where she studies the structure and function of plant respiratory complexes. As a graduate student, María studied the regulation of chromosomal segregation with Dr Tarun Kapoor at the Rockefeller University. María’s goal as an independent investigator is to understand how the respiratory chain of photosynthetic organisms works at the molecular scale. To do this, she will leverage her expertise in bioenergetics, membrane-protein biochemistry as well as molecular and structural biology to examine the function and structure of respiratory complexes of ecologically, evolutionary and agriculturally relevant organisms.

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Natoya Peart, PhD

Current Institution: University of Pennsylvania

Department: Department of Medicine; Biochemistry and Biophysics

PhD Institution: The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Talk Title: “RBPs and posttranscriptional regulation – another lens at biological coherence”

Natoya Peart is an RNA biologist. Dr. Peart has an interest in understanding the molecular mechanisms by which mRNA processing impacts cell, tissue and organismal function. She is an advocate scientist and a member of an underrepresented group within the sciences. Dr. Peart believes that mentorship, representation, and advocacy are vital to our commitment for change toward creating a more equitable and inclusive academic community.

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Juliane Sempionatto Moreto, PhD

Current Institution: California Institute of Technology

Department: Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering

PhD Institution: University of California San Diego

Talk Title: “Wearable electrochemical sensors for non-invasive health monitoring”

Dr. Juliane R. Sempionatto has expertise in developing wearable electrochemical sensors to monitor medical relevant biomarkers in sweat, saliva, tears, and interstitial fluid. Her research interests include soft and stretchable electronics, high-performance electrochemical biosensors, and biofuel cells. Dr. Sempionatto is current a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech in Prof Wei Gao’s group. She received her Ph.D. in Nanoengineering at UCSD, working with Prof Joseph Wang. Dr. Sempionatto has published over 32 peer-reviewed papers in renowned international journals such as Nature Biomedical Engineering, Adv. Science, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, and ACS sensors and have five patents based on her research. She is the recipient of the prestigious Siebel Scholar award (class of 2021).

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Jaimie Marie Stewart, PhD

Current Institution: California Institute of Technology

Department: Computing & Mathematical Sciences

PhD Institution: University of California, Riverside

Talk Title: “Towards programmable RNA materials”

Dr. Jaimie Marie Stewart is a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology in Dr. Paul W.K. Rothemund's group focusing on the design, synthesis, and characterization of DNA and RNA structures for the detection of biomolecules. She is a NSF-AGEP Scholar, KNI Prize Postdoctoral Fellow, Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, and a LSRF Fellow sponsored by Merck Research Laboratories. She received her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Riverside, where she studied the self-assembly principles of RNA molecules and her B.S. in Bioengineering with a concentration in cell and tissue engineering and a minor in Italian from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Through her research, teaching, and mentoring, Dr. Stewart has been recognized as one of 100 Inspiring Black Scientists in America by Cell Mentor. Her future goals are to lead an independent research group that will develop programmable RNA materials capable of detecting molecules and directing cell fate.

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Maxine Umeh Garcia, PhD, MSc

Current Institution: Stanford University

Department: Neurosurgery

PhD Institution: University of California, Davis

Talk Title: “Tumor-immune interactions in triple negative breast cancer brain metastases”

Maxine Umeh Garcia’s long-term research objective is to take a cancer systems biology approach to uncover novel molecular mechanisms that underlie: 1) systemic metastasis/disease recurrence and 2) the observed disproportions of specific cancer types in Black/minority populations. Dr. Garcia has built an outstanding foundation of training in both in vitro and in vivo models of breast cancer, and she is currently deepening her computational biology training. Dr. Garcia has a record of obtaining competitive funding; and peer-reviewed first author publications. As a highly diverse candidate, she has extensive experience in working with diverse student populations, and a strong track record of diversity-promoting activities. Her goal is that through her core values of research, mentorship, and community engagement she can help close the gap for women and minorities in STEM, and increase scientific benefit to Black and minority populations.

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Claudia Vasquez, PhD

Current Institution: Stanford University

Department: Chemical Engineering

PhD Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Talk Title: “From cells to organs: Uncovering the architectural rules of organogenesis”

Claudia Vasquez wants to identify the molecular and physical rules cells utilize to build complex three-dimensional tissue structures. Dr. Vasquez received her PhD from MIT in Adam Martin’s group, where she studied the regulation of the contractile machinery required for tissue folding. During her postdoc in Alex Dunn’s group at Stanford University, Dr. Vasquez worked to understand how cells construct a hollow opening, or lumen, in a formerly solid mass of cells. Together, these projects form the basis for her future independent research aimed at understanding how living tissues are constructed from molecular- to organ-scales.

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Yvon Woappi, PhD

Current Institution: Brigham and Women's - Harvard Medical School

Department: Dermatology

PhD Institution: University of South Carolina, Columbia

Talk Title: “Orchestrating synthetic regeneration of the mammalian epithelium”

Yvon Woappi’s work is thematically focused on engineering state-of-the-art technologies to closely investigate how complex mammalian tissue regenerates. Dr. Woappi employs the skin as his model system, as it is the most complex organ structure in the living world, and it is evolutionarily evolved to heal. In his studies, Dr. Woappi leverages 3D skin organoid models and lineage-specific gene-editing systems to define the contribution of distinct skin cells in the healing process.

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Honorable Mentions

Hoda Abdel Magid (Stanford University) (CV) Leveraging spatial epidemiology to reduce health disparities.

Hoda Abdel Magid, PhD, MHS is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology & Population Health and the Center for Population Health Sciences. She is also a fellow in the Big Data-Scientist Training Enhancement Program (BD-STEP) at the Palo Alto VA. Her graduate career research promoted the understanding of new and emerging tobacco products use among adolescents and young adults. She received her Masters of Health Science in Environmental Epidemiology from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2015 and her Doctorate in Epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2018 with a focus in Social Epidemiology. Dr. Abdel Magid’s current research builds upon her previous training to further understand chronic disease risk behaviors and leverages spatial epidemiology to examine health disparities among socially-marginalized populations.

Juan Angueyra (National Institutes of Health ) (CV) Understanding cellular identity through fate decisions in photoreceptor development.

Juan Angueyra is a vision neuroscientist interested in how decisions of fate and identity in photoreceptors determine retinal computations. An avid microscopist, Dr. Angueyra is in search of capturing beauty in biological images.

Daniel Bayless (Stanford University) (CV) Sexually differentiated neural circuits and social behaviors.

Daniel Bayless is a postdoc in Dr. Nirao Shah's lab at Stanford University. He was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma and pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of Oklahoma. After graduation Dr. Bayless went to graduate school at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he received his PhD in Neuroscience while working in Dr. Jill Daniel’s behavioral neuroendocrinology lab. During his PhD, Dr. Bayless established that a sex difference in impulse control, that is observed in humans (females have better impulse control than males, on average), is also present in rats and it is mediated by neonatal sex hormones. After graduate school, his academic journey moved out west, to the Bay Area where he joined Dr. Nirao Shah’s lab, first at UCSF and now at Stanford. In the Nirao lab, Dr. Bayless has been immersed in molecular and genetic techniques while studying sexually differentiated social behaviors in mice. Using these techniques, he recently identified for the first time in the vertebrate brain, a neural locus that innately encodes mate recognition in male but not female mice. Daniel is currently seeking a faculty position and is very excited about starting his own research lab.

Fatima Enam (Stanford University) (CV) Precision reprogramming the gut microbiome.

Fatima Enam is a postdoctoral fellow in the Sonnenburg Lab at Stanford University School of Medicine. Her research interests lie at the intersection of synthetic biology, glycobiology, and the microbiome, aiming to address one central challenge: Can we create an optimized microbiome to treat or prevent specific diseases? The ability to engineer the microbiome, consisting of rationally designed units, will pave the way for novel treatment options for patients. She is also very passionate about promoting diversity in academia, with the ultimate goal to make the scientific community a better place in equity, environment, and experience.

Diego Fernandez (National Institutes of Health (NIH) (CV) Retina-brain circuits that process daily changes in ambient light to modulate animal behavior.

Diego Fernandez is an Argentine neuroscientist investigating how neuronal circuits process environmental stimuli to modulate animal behavior. After obtaining his Ph.D. from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dr. Fernandez started his postdoc at Johns Hopkins University with the support of the Pew Latin American fellowship. During this stage, he characterized parallel retina-brain circuits that drive ambient light signals to affect learning and mood in mice. Dr. Fernandez then joined the NIMH, where he has been studying the impact of retinal innervation over circuits that timely modulate metabolism and behavior. Collectively, these findings have important implications for the study of retina-brain connectivity, circadian rhythms, and affective behavior, offering new conceptual approaches to study sensory perception.

Leah Guthrie (Stanford University) (CV) Decoding microbial polyphenolic metabolism and impact on uremic illness.

Leah Guthrie is a Hanna Gray fellow and postdoc in Justin Sonnenburg’s lab in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University. Dr. Guthrie uses metagenomics, metabolomics and cheminformatics to gain enzyme level insight into microbial metabolism of foods and drugs and the functions of microbial metabolites. She is interested in a diverse range of questions relevant to the role of microbes in human health and disease: how gut microbes shape food and drug metabolism, how microbial metabolites shape human biology, and how the microbiome can be manipulated to benefit human health.

Shuo Han (Stanford University School of Medicine) (CV) Regulation of host aging and physiology by the intestinal microbiota.

Shuo Han is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Justin Sonnenburg at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Han’s research focuses on developing metabolomics tools to identify and study the universe of metabolites produced in the human gut microbiota, leveraging mass spectrometry, bioinformatics, bacteriology, and gnotobiotic mouse models. Previously she conducted her graduate research with Dr. Anne Brunet at Stanford studying mechanisms of aging, and identified a bioactive lipid linking chromatin biology to lifespan extension in C. elegans. Leveraging her expertise in the gut microbiome and aging, Dr. Han plans to lead an interdisciplinary program to define the regulation of host aging and physiology by the gut microbiota. Her long-term goal is to develop gut microbiota-targeted interventions to ameliorate age-associated health decline in the mammalian host. Building on her personal journey as an immigrant, scientist, and mother, Dr. Han aspires to continue her quest to promote DEI through active recruitment, community outreach, and mentoring the next generation of scientists.

Colwyn Headley (Stanford University) (CV) Extacellular delivery of functional mitochondria to reverse dysfunctions in aging.

Colwyn Headley says that, “In the simplest sense, I’m looking for the fountain of youth.” During Dr. Headley’s Ph.D. studies, he became fascinated with aging biology, and whether transplanting young, healthy mitochondria into older immune cells could boost immunity in the elderly. As a Post-Doctoral scholar at Stanford, Dr. Headley is applying knowledge from his prior science adventures to understand how aging in the immune compartment contributes to cardiovascular complications.

Maia Kinnebrew (Stanford University) (CV) Cholesterol as a second messenger: a new concept in membrane biology.

Maia Kinnebrew is interested in understanding the role of lipids in cell signaling. Dr. Kinnebrew received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in Rajat Rohatgi’s group where she showed how the accessibility of cholesterol in a membrane compartment controls the Hedgehog signaling pathway. Dr. Kinnebrew’s work revealed how cholesterol can function as an instructive signal to regulate protein activity, a discovery with implications for diverse events ranging from pathogen entry to neurodegeneration. In her postdoctoral research she is probing the function of cholesterol in other cell signaling events and using genetic screens to uncover lipid homeostatic mechanisms. Beyond the lab, Dr. Kinnebrew is dedicated to increasing the retention of women and minorities in science.

Huong Kratochvil (University of California, San Francisco) (CV) De novo protein design of proton-selective ion channels tests hypothesis of transient water wires in proton channel selectivity.

Huong Kratochvil got her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2016, under the supervision of Prof. Martin T. Zanni, she got her PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her graduate research focused on applying ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy to address complex biophysical questions concerning mechanisms of ion conduction in potassium ion channels. She continued her research on ion channel biophysics in the lab of Prof. William F. DeGrado at the University of California-San Francisco. Here, she is studying the fundamental roles of hydrophobic gaskets and water networks in proton channel function through the study of a natural proton channel from the influenza A virus and design of novel proton channels from scratch. Her work in her postdoc on proton channels has led to several fellowships including the NIH F32 and the K99 awards. In her future work, she will use protein design to: 1) test mechanistic hypotheses in membrane protein structure and function, and 2) define new protein–protein interactions for engineering novel protein-based materials and therapeutics.

Shan Meltzer (Harvard University) (CV) The molecular mechanisms of mammalian touch circuit assembly.

Shan Meltzer has a long-standing research interest in developmental neurobiology and its implications for neurological diseases. As a Hanna Gray Fellow in Dr. David Ginty's lab at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Meltzer aims to elucidate how touch sensory neurons develop in mammals. Using a powerful combination of anatomy, sequencing, behavior, and electrophysiology, she is revealing the roles of new molecules that regulate the assembly of somatosensory circuits. Dr. Meltzer’s research could lead to new therapies for restoring touch in people with sensory disorders or nerve injuries.

Rachel Niederer (Yale University) (CV) What determines the translational output of an mRNA?

Fundamentally, Rachel Niederer is interested in how RNA features affect biological processes. As an undergraduate Dr. Niederer studied how rRNA modifications impacted translational fidelity. During her PhD she investigated the fascinating telomerase RNP complex. Dr. Niederer’s current and future work aims to answer the question: What determines the translational output of an mRNA? Her research focuses on regulatory features found within 5'-untranslated regions (5'-UTRs), which are sufficient to cause thousand-fold differences in protein output per mRNA.

Jasmine Nirody (Rockefeller University / University of Oxford) (CV) Mechanics as a lens into phenotypic flexibility and evolution.

Jasmine Nirody is an integrative biologist, and her research sits at the interface of biophysics and evolution. Dr. Nirody studies the physical interactions between organisms and their environments, and how these interactions in turn shape organismal form and behavior. Currently, she is an Independent Postdoctoral Fellow at Rockefeller University and All Souls College, University of Oxford. Previously, Dr. Nirody received her BA in Mathematics and Biology from New York University and a PhD in Biophysics (with a Designated Emphasis in Computational and Genomic Biology) from UC Berkeley.

Agostina Palmigiano (Columbia University) Mechanisms underlying the integration of visual and behavioral signals in mouse V1.

Agostina Palmigiano is a Swartz Fellow at the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Columbia University, working in the lab of Dr. Ken Miller. Her research involves the development of mathematically tractable models with biological fidelity to investigate the mechanisms underlying sensory representations and how they are shaped by and in conjunction with behavior.

Candice Price (University of California, Davis) (CV) Investigating the role of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption in the mechanisms of cardiometabolic disease development in Black women.

Dr. Candice Price is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Davis in the Department of Molecular Biosciences. She is a cardiometabolic researcher focused on understanding the physiological and molecular mechanisms of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease development in Black women. Her primary research investigates the impact of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption on cardiometabolic health in Black women. In addition to examining physiological outcomes, Dr. Price is also exploring the potential effects of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption on blood epigenetic biomarkers, microRNA and DNA methylation, plus the gut microbiome in women. She is a co-investigator on the NHLBI National Growth and Health Study to examine the potential associations of gut microbiome and epigenetic biomarkers with health outcomes in Black and white women. Recently, Dr. Price has expanded her research portfolio to include examining the impact of sugar-sweetened beverage on the recent growth of type 2 diabetes prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa with pilot studies and collaborations in Kenya and Ghana. She is also involved in community partner studies aiming to improve nutrition, maternal health, and breastfeeding disparities amongst Black women.

Nuttida Rungratsameetaweemana (The Salk Institute for Biological Studies) (CV) Neural dynamics of adaptive information processing across species.

Nuttida Rungratsameetaweemana is a postdoctoral fellow in the computational neurobiology laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. She received her Ph.D. in neurosciences from the University of California, San Diego, where she investigated the neural dynamics of decision making under uncertainty. Her current projects combine computational techniques with psychophysical experimental paradigms and various types of neural recordings to probe the neural computations that underlie complex cognitive functions in both health and disease.

Shelbi Russell (University of California, Santa Cruz) (CV) Cellular mechanisms and evolutionary outcomes of microbial symbiont transmission.

The natural world is full of symbiotic associations between diverse organisms that enable innovative solutions to ecological and environmental pressures. Shelbi Russell’s research uses model and non-model systems to understand how these associations are maintained from generation-to-generation. Using computational approaches that Dr. Russell developed in her PhD work, and in vitro and in vivo experimental systems that she developed in her postdoctoral studies, she intends that her future lab will reveal the functional genetic underpinnings and evolutionary implications of symbiont transmission. Long-term, Dr. Russell aims to apply these findings to biological control applications that use symbionts to control host populations (e.g., Wolbachia bacteria in mosquitoes). Her multidisciplinary research program in a rapidly developing field in academia and industry she hopes will provide excellent career opportunities to her future trainees.

Trevor Sorrells (Rockefeller University) (CV) A persistent behavioural state enables sustained predation of humans by mosquitoes.

Trevor Sorrells studies mosquito behavior in the lab of Leslie Vosshall at Rockefeller University. Using optogenetics to activate neurons with light, Dr. Sorrells found that mosquitoes are highly persistent, searching for humans for more than 10 minutes after a brief sensation of human breath. His lab will identify the neural circuits controlling blood feeding and determine how this behavior arose in evolution.

Jacob Steenwyk (Vanderbilt University) (CV) The evolution and function of fungi.

Jacob Steenwyk aims to make education more accessible, promote diversity, equity and inclusion, and build a bridge between scientists and the public. To this end, Dr. Steenwyk is an instructor of an international workshop on phylogenomics, serves on committees across Vanderbilt University that aim to enhance diversity and inclusion, and organizes/participates in science-based community engagement events. His research interests integrate the fields of computer science, evolution, and genomics. More specifically, current research objectives leverage the diversity of budding yeasts and filamentous fungi to study the principles and pace of evolution. Dr. Steenwyk also develops computational tools to facilitate these studies.

Valerie Tornini (Yale School of Medicine) (CV) Big roles for tiny peptides in vertebrate development.

Valerie Tornini is a developmental biologist interested in understanding cell specification mechanisms in development and regeneration. Dr. Tornini’s current research uses genetics/genomics, genome engineering, behavioral and pharmacological assays, and zebrafish as animal models, to investigate the roles of chromatin modifiers micropeptides in establishing and maintaining cell identities, and how these are dysregulated in neurodevelopmental disorders. Previously, her doctoral work used adult zebrafish tissues and organs, primarily the fin, as genetic models to understand how cells in a complex adult tissue coordinately regenerate a patterned structure after injury. For more information, please visit: valerietornini.com.