Past Seminar Series
Our weekly seminar series features presentations by experts from across Johns Hopkins and other biomedical research institutions, and provides students with a view of current research in the topics across the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology and insight into experimental design and methods.
Seminar series from past years are listed below. The ongoing series can be found on the current year seminar series page.
2022–2023 Seminars
September 19, 2022
“Stress granules in pancreatic cancer: the phase that launched a thousand ships”
Elda Grabocka, PhD
Assistant Professor, Cancer Biology Department, Thomas Jefferson University
October 3, 2022
“When viral RNA met the cell: a story of protein-RNA interactions”
Alfredo Castello, PhD
Professor in Systems Virology, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research
October 10, 2022
“Epigenetics in health, disease, and aging”
Roza Selimyan, PhD
Executive Director for Academic Affairs and Education Programs, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Department, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
October 17, 2022
“New insights on Hippo signaling”
Duojia Pan, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Physiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute
October 24, 2022
“Patient-derived tumor organoids of rare cancers for precision medicine applications”
Alice Soragni, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA
October 31, 2022
“Barcoded cell line screens for cancer therapeutic discovery”
Steven Corsello, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
November 7, 2022
“A Programmable Landscape of Biomolecular Condensates”
Priya R. Banerjee, PhD, MS
Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, University at Buffalo, SUNY
November 14, 2022
"Targeting polyamine metabolism to treat a rare intellectual disability syndrome: lesson learned from cancer"
Tracy Murray Stewart, PhD
Senior Research Scientist, Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics Division, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
November 28, 2022
“Targeting P2 Purinergic Receptors in Aggressive Cancers”
Janielle Maynard, PhD
Assistant Professor, Pathology Department, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
December 5, 2022
“From Cells to Circuits: Transfer learning for multimodal data integration via latent spaces”
Genevieve Stein-O’Brien, PhD, MHS
Assistant Professor, Neuroscience Department, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
December 12, 2022
“Targeting cellular senescence in melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer”
Rolando Pérez-Lorenzo, PhD
Herbert and Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Dermatology, Department of Dermatology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
January 23, 2023
“Sensing oxygen through oxygen radicals: New roles for superoxide dismutases in the redox regulation of cell metabolism”
Amit R. Reddi, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology
January 30, 2023
“Cell polarity: From Molecules to Embryos”
Daniel J. Dickinson, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin
February 6, 2023
“HER2 Activating Mutations: Evaluating Tyrosine Kinase Domain Mutations and the C-terminal Tail”
Ron Bose, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Oncology Division, Medicine Department, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
February 13, 2023
"Mechanisms regulating copper dependent cell death"
Peter Tsvetkov, PhD
Group Leader, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
February 20, 2023
"Bridging transcription and co-transcriptional RNA processing with SPOC domain proteins"
Dea Slade, PhD, MSc
Associate Professor, Max Perutz Labs, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
February 27, 2023
"Structural and Regulatory Elements of Post-translational Arginylation"
Aaron T. Smith, PhD, MS
Associate Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
March 6, 2023
"Identifying Pathways to Interventions in ALS"
Aaron R. Haeusler, PhD
Associate Professor, Neuroscience Department, Thomas Jefferson University
March 14, 2023
"Genome Regulation Through R-loops"
Kavitha Sarma, PhD
Associate Professor, Gene Expression and Regulation Program, The Wistar Institute
March 20, 2023
"CAR-T Based Therapeutics: Driving Towards Efficacy in Solid Tumors"
Rimas Orentas, PhD
Scientific Director, Caring Cross
Professor, Pediatrics Department, University of Washington
March 27, 2023
"Exploring DNA Repair for Cancer Therapy"
Zhenkun Lou, PhD
Swanson/Schmucker Endowed Professor of Cancer Research and Chair, Division of Oncology Research, Mayo Clinic
March 28, 2023
"Investigating the Contribution of Neutrophils in Bone Metastatic Prostate Cancer"
Leah M. Cook, PhD, MS
Associate Professor, Pathology & Microbiology Department, University of Nebraska Medical Center
April 3, 2023
"Targeting BCL2 family proteins in melanoma to overcome intrinsic and acquired resistance to standard of care BRAF/MEK inhibitor treatments"
Vashisht Yennu Nanda, PhD
Associate Professor, Melanoma Medical Oncology Department, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
April 10, 2023
"Informing cancer therapy through mechanobiological insight"
Michael Samuel, PhD
Professor of Matrix Biology and Head, Tumour Microenvironment Laboratory, Centre for Cancer Biology (alliance between SA Pathology and the University of South Australia)
April 17, 2023
"Rare cell plasticity and therapy resistance in single cancer cells"
Yogesh Goyal, PhD
Assistant Professor,
Cell and Developmental Biology Department, Northwestern University
April 24, 2023
“Utilizing a mouse model of Yersinia infection to study antibiotic persistence”
Kimberly Davis, PhD, MSc
Assistant Professor, Molecular Microbiology & Immunology Department, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
May 1, 2023
"Leveraging the Natural Cellular and Biomolecular Interactions in Blood for the Design of Targeted, Anti-Inflammatory Particle Therapeutics"
Omolola Eniola-Adefeso, PhD, MSE
Associate Dean for Graduate and Professional Education, and University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
May 8, 2023
“SARS-CoV-2 Biology and Countermeasure Development”
Pei-Yong Shi, PhD
John Sealy Distinguished Chair in Innovations in Molecular Biology, Director of Institute for Drug Discovery, Vice President for Research Innovation, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Department, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
2021–2022 Seminars
September 20, 2021
"Energy Homeostasis and Mitochondrial Complex Assembly: Implications in Neurodegeneration"
Tao Wang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Jiou Wang Lab
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
September 27, 2021
"Age against the Machine: how aging impacts tumor progression"
Ashani Weeraratna, PhD
E.V. McCollum Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
October 4, 2021
"The role of laboratory based basic research in the clinical and public health response to COVID-19"
Andrew Pekosz, PhD
Professor and Vice Chair
W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
October 11, 2021
"DNA Helicases as Synthetic Lethal Targets for Cancer Therapy: Targeting Replication Fork Stability in BRCA-Mutated Tumors"
Arindam Datta, PhD
Visiting Fellow
Translational Gerontology Branch, Helicases and Genome Integrity Section, National Institute on Aging, NIH
October 18, 2021
"The role of Drosophila Split Discs in the regulation of non-muscle myosin contractility"
Derek A. Applewhite, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Biology, Reed College
October 25, 2021
"From Ribosome Assembly to Cancer Progression: The Molecular Mechanisms and Physiological Functions of DEAD-box RNA Helicases."
Eda Koculi, PhD
Visiting Associate Scientist
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
November 1, 2021
"From soma to germ line: birth, growth and transformation of a novel gene"
Cassandra Extavour, PhD
Timken Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
November 15, 2021
"Therapy Induced Senescence and Polyploidy in the Complex Environment of an Evolving Tumor"
Michelle R. Dawson, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry, Brown University
November 29, 2021
Poly(ADP-ribose): A potent inducer of biomolecular condensates
Anthony Leung, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
December 6, 2021
"Imaging cytoskeletal dynamics in invading cancer cells"
Maddy Parsons, PhD
Professor of Cell Biology & Associate Dean for Impact and Innovation
Randall Centre, King’s College London
December 13, 2021
“The highs and lows of enteric infections”
Vanessa Sperandio, PhD
Jane and Bud Smith Distinguished Chair in Medicine & Professor of Microbiology and Biochemistry
Departments of Microbiology and Biochemistry, UT Southwestern
January 10, 2022
"Discovering the potency of embryonic cells and undergraduates: lessons learned from a scientific career at a liberals art institution"
Kristy L. Kenyon, PhD
Professor of Biology and Philip J. Moorad and Margaret N. Moorad Endowed Professorship in the Sciences
Department of Biology, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
January 24, 2022
"One ring to rule them all: RNF212 makes an impressive memory in oocytes"
Joe (Huanyu) Qiao, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Comparative Biosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
January 31, 2022
"Nuclease-deficient CRISPR-Cas systems direct RNA-guided DNA transposition"
Sam Sternberg, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University
February 7, 2022
"Glia-neuron interactions in frontotemporal dementia"
Eric Huang, MD, PhD
Professor & Vice Chair of Research
Department of Pathology, University of California San Francisco
February 14, 2022
"How flies get fat: from genes to neurons"
Tânia Reis, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
February 21, 2022
"Understanding RNA-protein interactions in gene regulation"
Taeyoung Hwang, PhD
Investigator and Assistant Professor
Lieber Institute of Brain Development and Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
February 28, 2022
"A novel phospho-tyrosine-based signaling module controlling Toll-like receptor biology"
Hans Haecker, MD, PhD
Professor
Department of Pathology, Division of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Utah
March 7, 2022
"Microbial small molecules in host energy metabolism"
Andrew S. Neish, MD
Professor and Vice Chair for Basic Sciences
Department of Pathology, Emory University School of Medicine
March 14, 2022
"The microbiota and gut homeostasis"
Andreas Baumler, PhD
Professor and Vice Chair of Research
Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of California Davis
March 16, 2022
"Determinants of B cell fate and function in cancer"
Yuliya Pylayeva-Gupta, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Genetics, UNC-Chapel Hill
March 21, 2022
"Biochemical Studies of Messenger RNA Degradation"
Eugene Valkov, PhD
NIH Stadtman Investigator
RNA Biology Laboratory, National Cancer Institute
March 28, 2022
"DNA repair pathway choice: an epigenetic balancing act to control (cancer) genome integrity"
Philipp Oberdoerffer, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Radiation Oncology & Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
April 4, 2022
"How do disordered proteins behave inside the cell?"
Shahar Sukenik, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Merced
April 18, 2022
"Understanding the role of occluding junctions in intestinal homeostasis and aging"
Leanne Jones, PhD
Professor
Departments of Anatomy and Medicine, University of California-San Francisco
April 25, 2022
"‘Flying’ through the local and long-range functions of the intestine in health and disease"
Julia B. Cordero, PhD
Senior Research Fellow
Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow
April 28, 2022
"Bioengineering variables of the metastatic tumor microenvironment"
Shreya Raghavan, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Texas A&M University
May 2, 2022
"Regulation of gene expression and microenvironmental signaling in pancreatic cancer"
Michael Feigin, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
2020–2021 Seminars
September 21, 2020
"Microbiota metabolites regulation of host immune responses at the mucosal surface"
Yingzi Cong, PhD
Professor
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch
September 28, 2020
"How chromosome structure and recombination ensure homolog segregation in mammalian meiosis"
Francesca Cole, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
October 5, 2020
"Chemical Control of Gene Expression and Cell Fate"
Aseem Ansari, PhD
R. J. Ulrich Endowed Chair
Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
October 12, 2020
"Neutral circuit mechanisms and technologies for pain and social touch"
Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, PhD
Mitchell and Margo Blutt Presidential Assistant Professor
Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania
October 19, 2020
"RNA granules: a view from the RNA perspective"
Tatjana Trcek, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University
October 26, 2020
"K63 ubiquitin and translation control during oxidative stress"
Gustavo M. Silva, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology, Duke University
November 9, 2020
"Investigating the Role of Neutrophils in Bone Metastatic Prostate Cancer"
Leah M. Cook, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center
November 16, 2020
"Regulation of signaling and protein interactions by intrinsically disordered linkers"
Magnus Kjærgaard, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University
November 30, 2020
"New Sides for an Old Coin: Copper as an Intracellular Mediator of Kinase"
Donita Brady, PhD
Presidential Assistant Professor
Department of Cancer Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
December 7, 2020
"Modeling and visualizing RNA velocity of single cells in situ"
Jean Fan, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Center for Computational Biology, Johns Hopkins University
December 14, 2020
"On the Battlefront: Host PARPs vs the Coronavirus Macrodomain"
Anthony Fehr, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas
January 25, 2021
"Molecular basis for activation of receptor kinases"
Natalia Jura, PhD
Assistant Professor
Cardiovascular Research Institute and Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California San Francisco
February 1, 2021
"Mechanisms of host-pathogen coevolution in bacterial CRISPR-Cas immune systems"
Dipali Sashital, PhD
Associate Professor
Roy J. Carver Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology, Iowa State University
February 8, 2021
"Immune responses to SARS-CoV-2"
Akiko Iwasaki, PhD
Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor, Department of Immunology, Yale School of Medicine
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
February 22, 2021
"Unravelling the poly(ADP-ribose) code: How the structural diversity of the post-translational modification poly(ADP-ribose) affects biochemical and biological processes"
Aswin Mangerich, PhD
Professor
Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Germany
March 1, 2021
"Base Editing and Prime Editing: Genome Editing Without Double-Strand Breaks"
David R. Liu, PhD
Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard
March 8, 2021
"The Ubiquitin-like SUMO System: From Basic Mechanisms to Human Disorders"
Stefan Müller, PhD
Professor
Institute of Biochemistry II, Goethe University Frankfurt
March 22, 2021
"ADP-ribosylation signaling in regulation of DNA damage response"
Ivan Ahel, PhD
Professor, Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford
Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow
March 29, 2021
"Single cell analysis of human melanocyte development informs melanoma cell of origin, disease progression, and therapeutic approaches"
Robert Judson-Torres, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Dermatology, University of Utah School of Medicine
April 5, 2021
"RNA Binding Proteins, Mitochondria and Neurodegeneration"
Jane Wu, MD, PhD
Charles Louis Mix Professor of Neurology
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
April 12, 2021
"Chromatin Reader, Biomolecular Condensates, and Cancer"
Liling Wan, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Cancer Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
April 19, 2021
"Deep Mutagenesis of a DNA Polymerase Clamp Loader System"
John Kuriyan, PhD
Professor
Departments of Chemistry and Molecular & Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley
May 3, 2021
"Regulatory drivers in cancer"
Esther Rheinbay, PhD
Assistant Professor
Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School
2019–2020 Seminars
September 23, 2019
Wei Guo, PhD
"The exosomes in immune suppression and tumor progression"
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Biology
September 30, 2019
Ethan Greenblatt, PhD
"Insights into reproductive and neural disorders from developmentally quiescent oocytes"
Carnegie Institution for Science, Department of Embryology
October 7, 2019
Carl Wu, PhD
"Single-molecule dynamics and chromatin accessibility of transcription proteins and epigenomic factors in living yeast"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
October 21, 2019
The 29th Annual Larry L. Ewing Distinguished Lecture
Robert E. Braun, PhD
“Mammalian germline stem cells"
The Jackson Laboratory, Department of Mammalian Genetics
October 28, 2019
Kimberly Davis, PhD
"Heterogeneity and community behavior in pathogenic bacterial populations"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology
November 11, 2019
Fengtian Xue, PhD
"Small molecule therapeutics for diffuse large B-cell lymphomas"
University of Maryland Baltimore, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
November 18, 2019
Immanuel Rasool
"Organ and tissue donation overview"
Organ & Tissue Recovery Washington Regional Transplant Community
December 9, 2019
Vicki Losick, PhD
"Wound-induced polyploidization: an adaptive healing strategy"
Boston College, Department of Biology
January 6, 2020
Adrian Ferré-D'Amaré, PhD
"RNA analogs of GFP: structurally complex aptamers activate small molecule fluorophores"
NIH, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
January 13, 2020
Shuo Gu, PhD
"A tale of tails: How 3’ uridylation alters miRNA function and stability"
National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research
January 29, 2020
Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD
"MYC: clocking in cancer metabolism"
The Wistar Institute, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
February 24, 2020
Elana Fertig, PhD
"Transfer learning for cross-study, cross-species, and spatial single cell analysis"
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Oncology and Biomedical Engineering
March 2, 2020
Xiaolu Yang, PhD
"A novel protein quality control system and its role in neurodegeneration and cancer"
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Cancer Biology
March 9, 2020
Alissa Armstrong, PhD
"The influence of adipose tissue nutrient sensing on organismal physiology"
University of South Carolina, Department of Biological Sciences
May 4, 2020
Diane Barber, PhD
"Intracellular pH regulation of protein dynamics for cancer and stem cell behaviors"
University of California, San Francisco, Department of Cell and Tissue Biology
2018 - 2019 Seminars
October 15, 2018
The 28th Annual Larry L. Ewing Distinguished Lecture
Kenneth J. Pienta, MD
"Solving complex problems: Utilizing multidisciplinary teams to foster creative tension"
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute
November 12, 2018
Elizabeth A. Platz, ScD, MPH
"Collaborating across disciplines for cancer discovery and translation"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology
December 10, 2018
Pushpa Pandiyan, PhD, MS
"Short chain fatty acids regulate mucosal immunity"
Case Western Reserve University, Department of Biological Sciences
January 28, 2019
Soni Lacefield, PhD
"Commit or exit: Maintaining genome stability during meiosis"
Indiana University, Department of Biology
February 4, 2019
David Andes, MD
"Candida biofilm persistence"
University of Wisconsin, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology
March 4, 2019
Raymond Stevens, PhD
"Towards the high resolution structure determination of the pancreatic beta cell"
University of Southern California, Department of Medicine, Bridge Institute
April 1, 2019
Amer Riazuddin, PhD
"Investigating the genetic basis of inherited ocular dystrophies and beyond"
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, The Wilmer Eye Institute
April 8, 2019
Allan Weissman, MD
"Ubiquitination at the endoplasmic reticulum: Insights into metastasis and ubiquitin ligase function"
NIH, National Cancer Institute, Laboratory of Protein Dynamics and Signaling
April 22, 2019
Shao-En Ong, PhD
"Kinome analyses of drug response in cancer cell lines"
University of Washington, Department of Pharmacology
April 29, 2019
Rosa Puertollano, PhD, MS
"Mechanisms of lysosomal response to stress"
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Cell and Developmental Biology Center
May 13, 2019
Cecile M. Pickart Distinguished Lecture
Rachel E. Klevit, PhD
“Twenty years of ubiquitin: Mysteries revealed, mysteries remain"
University of Washington School of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry
May 11, 2020
Monica Mugnier, PhD
"Using high-throughput sequencing to understand the Trypanosoma brucei host-pathogen interface"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
May 18, 2020
Kun-Liang Guan, PhD
"The Hippo pathway in cell growth, organ size, and cancer"
University of California, San Diego, Department of Pharmacology
2017–2018 Seminars
September 11, 2017
Steven S. An, PhD
"Defining the mechanical phenotype of asthma in airway smooth muscle through the lens of physics"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering
September 18, 2017
Vassilios Papadopoulos, DPharm, PhD, DSc (Hon)
"Regulation of steroidogenesis by hormones, drugs and the environment"
School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California
September 25, 2017
Antony Rosen, MBChB, MS
"Cancer in rheumatic diseases: Lessons from drifting continents"
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Medicine
October 2, 2017
The 27th Annual Larry L. Ewing Distinguished Lecture
Patricia Hunt, PhD
"The environment and the germ cell: a career odyssey"
Washington State University, School of Molecular Biosciences and Center for Reproductive Biology
October 16, 2017
Hiromi Sesaki, PhD
"Freezing mitochondrial dynamics"
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Cell Biology
October 23, 2017
Mark Howarth, PhD
"Superglues from bacteria, protein dream-teams, and nanoassemblies to tickle the immune system"
University of Oxford UK, Department of Biochemistry
October 30, 2017
Jian-Ying Wang, MD, PhD
"Posttranscriptional regulation of intestinal epithelial homeostasis and barrier function by long noncoding RNAs"
University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Surgery
November 13, 2017
Michael J. Wolfgang, PhD
"Tissue specific roles of fatty acid oxidation in obesity and diabetes"
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Biological Chemistry
December 7, 2017
Xiaoxia Li, PhD
"TLR-IL-1R signaling in Meta-inflammation"
Cleveland Clinic, Department of Immunology
December 11, 2017
Thomas Everett Kehl-Fie, PhD
"You are what you don’t eat: Bacterial adaptation to host-imposed nutrient starvation"
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Microbiology
January 8, 2018
Stavroula Mili, PhD
"Mechanical Regulation of RNA Localization Contributes to Cell Migration"
NIH, NCI, Center for Cancer Research, Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology
January 22, 2018
Don Conrad, PhD
"Genetic analysis of human sperm production"
Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Genetics
January 29, 2018
Mark J. Kohr, PhD, FAHA
"S-nitrosation and ischemia-reperfusion injury: New insights from the female heart"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering
February 5, 2018
Tomás R. Guilarte, PhD
"TSPO: A biomarker of neuroinflammation and brain injury looking for a function"
Florida International University, Department of Environmental Health Sciences
February 8 2018
Lawrence Grossman Memorial Lecture
Myron F. Goodman, PhD
"Better living with hyper-mutation"
University of Southern California, Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Head Molecular & Computational Biology
February 12, 2018
Deborah Morrison, PhD
"Divide and Conquer: New approaches to disrupt Raf kinase signaling"
National Cancer Institute, Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Signaling
February 26, 2018
Ranjan Sen, PhD
"Transcriptional consequences of NF-kB activation; patterns to mechanisms"
National Institute of Aging, Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Immunology
March 5, 2018
Daniel Kearns, PhD
"Surface motility and the regulation of flagellar number in Bacillus subtilis"
Indiana University, Department of Biology
March 19, 2018
Paula Cohen, PhD
"The Role of CNTD1 in mammalian meiosis: chasing a red herring and the lessons I learned"
Cornell University, Department of Biomedical Sciences
March 26, 2018
Don Fox, PhD
"Polyploidy in organ development and repair"
Duke University Medical Center, Department of Pharmacology & Cancer Biology
April 2, 2018
Sue Hammound, PhD
"The power of one: Novel perspectives from single cell sequencing of the testis"
University of Michigan, Department of Human Genetics
April 9, 2018
Benjamin Turk, PhD
"Deciphering mechanisms of substrate targeting by protein kinases"
Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology
April 16, 2018
Conor McMeniman, PhD
"Decoding mosquito attraction to humans using genome-engineering"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology
April 23, 2018
Cecile M. Pickart Distinguished Lecture
James Shorter, PhD, MA
“Reversing aberrant phase transitions connected to ALS/FTD"
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics
April 30, 2018
Gutian Xiao, PhD
"NF-kB in cancer immunology and immunotherapy: the legend returns"
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Hillman Cancer Center
May 10, 2018
Suzanne Noble, MD, PhD
"Tales of Candida albicans, a fungal commensal-pathogen of the mammalian gut"
University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology & Immunology
May 14, 2018
Ed Luk, PhD
"The ins and outs of histone dynamics at yeast promoters"
Stony Brook University, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
May 21, 2018
Xin Chen, PhD
"Breaking symmetry: asymmetric epigenetic inheritance"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biology
2016–2017 Seminars
September 19, 2016
Yumi Kim, PhD
"Molecular control of meiotic chromosome dynamics"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biology
September 26, 2016
Scott Keeney, PhD
"Breaking and chewing DNA in meiosis"
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
October 3, 2016
Martin Schmeing, PhD
"Structural insight into nonribosomal peptide synthetase megaenzymes"
McGill University, Department of Biochemistry
October 10, 2016
Anne Brady, PhD
"Organellar control of programmed cell death and inflammatory signaling"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
October 17, 2016
Lawrence Grossman Memorial Lecture
Thomas J. Kelly, MD, PhD
"DNA replication, mutation and cancer"
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Sloan Kettering Institute of Cancer Research
October 24, 2016
Jun (Jay) Zhu, PhD
"Vibrio cholerae genetic retooling at the intestinal interface"
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Microbiology
November 7, 2016
Karen M. Berkowitz, MD
"CHTF18: novel roles in mammalian meiosis"
Drexel University College of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
November 14, 2016
The 26th Annual Larry L. Ewing Distinguished Lecture
William Wright, PhD
"The spermatogonial stem cell niche in the fertile and infertile testis"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
November 28, 2016
Keith W. Caldecott, MD, PhD
"DNA strand breaks and neurological disease"
University of Sussex, Genome Damage and Stability Centre
December 5, 2016
Dennis Thiele, PhD
"The role of copper at the Cryptococcus neoformans–host axis"
Duke University, Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology
December 12, 2016
Donita C. Brady, PhD
"Leveraging copper utilization by kinases as a novel vulnerability in cancer"
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Cancer Biology
January 9, 2017
Daniele Fallin, PhD
"DNA methylation in blood: Hope or hype for public health"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health
January 30, 2017
Christian Kaiser, PhD
"Studying protein biogenesis at the single-molecule level"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biology
February 6, 2017
Jordan L. Meier, PhD
"New insights into protein acetylation from chemoproteomics"
National Cancer Institute, Chemical Biology Laboratory
February 27, 2017
Andrew L. Snow, PhD
"Consequences of Imbalanced CARD11 Signaling"
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacology & Molecular Therapeutics
March 13, 2017
Fernando Camargo, PhD
"Hippo/YAP Signaling in somatic stem cells and cancer"
Harvard University, Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology
March 20, 2017
John Pascal, PhD
"Structural mechanisms regulating Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerase (PARP) enzymes"
Université de Montréal, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
April 10, 2017
Victoria D'Souza, PhD
"Unraveling viral RNA genomes: One segment at a time"
Harvard University, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
April 17, 2017
Angel Byrd, PhD
"Casting a wider NET: The role of the host immune response in hidradenitis suppurativa"
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Dermatology
April 24, 2017
Tomas Guilarte, PhD
Florida International University, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health
May 1, 2017
Tom Misteli, PhD
"Deep Imaging of Genomes"
National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research
May 15, 2017
Seth Margolis, PhD
"A membrane-bound 20S proteasome generates extracellular signaling peptides in the nervous system"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biological Chemistry
May 22, 2017
John Cave, PhD
"Regulation of adult neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation through nucleic acid secondary structures"
Weill Cornell Medicine, Brain and Mind Research Institute
2015–2016 Seminars
September 14, 2015
Anthony Leung, PhD
"Poly(ADP-ribose) regulates microRNA activity and stress responses in the cytoplasm"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
September 21, 2015
Michael Lampson, PhD
"Violation of Mendel’s First Law: cell biological mechanisms of meiotic drive"
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Biology
September 28, 2015
Sua Myong, PhD
"Single molecule investigation of protein-nucleic acid interaction"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biophysics
October 5, 2015
Antony Jose, PhD
"Destiny and Chance in RNA silencing"
University of Maryland, Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics
October 12, 2015
Rong Li, PhD
"Dosage imbalance to phenotypic leap: how aneuploidy drives rapid cellular adaptation"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Cell Biology
October 19, 2015
Ian MacRae, PhD
"Mechanisms of gene-regulation by microRNAs"
The Scripps Research Institute, Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology
October 26, 2015
Patricia Guerry, PhD
"Campylobacter capsules: virulence and vaccines"
Naval Medical Research Center, Department of Enteric Diseases
November 2, 2015
The 25th Annual Larry L. Ewing Distinguished Lecture
David C. Page, MD
"Chromosomes at war: What super-resolution sequencing has taught us about X and Y"
Professor of Biology, MIT
Whitehead Institute/Howard Hughes Medical Institute
November 9, 2015
Michael Cohen, PhD
"Decoding protein ADP-ribosylation networks in cells using chemical and chemical genetic approaches"
Oregon Health and Science University, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology
November 16, 2015
Valentina Greco, PhD
"Capturing skin regeneration and cancer in live mice by two photon imaging"
Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Genetics
December 1, 2015
Lawrence Grossman Memorial Lecture
Paul Miller, PhD
"Helix distortion affects DNA interstrand cross-link repair"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
December 14, 2015
David Zappulla, PhD
"Telomerase RNA: architecture, new essential elements, and senescence of cells that don’t have it"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biology
January 4, 2016
Kyle Orwig, PhD
"Stem cell therapies for male infertility"
University of Pittsburgh, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility
January 11, 2016
John Dinman, PhD
"Ribosomes and disease: Why translational fidelity matters"
University of Maryland, Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics
January 25, 2016
Scott Keeney, PhD
"A dangerous game: DNA breaks and meiotic chromosome dynamics"
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
February 1, 2016
Cecile M. Pickart Distinguished Lecture
Judith Frydman, PhD
“Molecular origami: Protein folding and misfolding in health and disease"
Stanford University, Department of Biology
February 8, 2016
George Cotsarelis, MD
"Skin regeneration from the top down"
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Dermatology
February 29, 2016
Centennial Kick-Off Lecture
Roger McMacken, PhD
"Reflections on the history and impact of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Bloomberg School of Public Health during the 'DNA Era'"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
March 7, 2016
Mary Dasso, PhD
"Yin and yang: The complementary relationship of the nuclear pore and the spindle"
NIH/NICHD, Division of Molecular and Cellular Biology
March 14, 2016
Lee Kraus, PhD
"Nuclear PARPs and the regulation of gene expression"
University of Texas Southwestern, Division of Basic Reproductive Biology
March 21, 2016
Aaron P Mitchell, PhD
"Ironing out Candida albicans biofilms"
Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Biological Sciences
March 28, 2016
Renee Nicholas
"Stand Up to Cancer: Impatient patients"
Stand Up to Cancer, VP of Advocacy and Strategic Collaborations
April 11, 2016
Helen Su, MD, PhD
"New insights into lymphocyte regulation by studying combined immunodeficiencies in humans"
NIH/NIAID, Human Immunological Diseases Unit
April 18, 2016
Susan Buchanan, PhD
"Structural insight into the biogenesis of beta barrel membrane proteins"
NIDDK, NIH, Laboratory of Molecular Biology
April 25, 2016
Tomás R. Guilarte, PhD
"TSPO: A biomarker of brain inflammation looking for a function"
Florida International University, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health
May 2, 2016
Steve DiNardo, PhD
"Action at a stem cell niche"
University of Pennsylvania, Department of the Developmental, Stem Cell & Regenerative Biology
May 9, 2016
Anne-Claude Gingras, PhD
"A physical map of a human cell using proteomics approaches"
Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Centre for Systems Biology
May 16, 2016
Angelika Amon, PhD
"The causes and consequences of aneuploidy"
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
May 23, 2016
Vinod Ranganathan, PhD
"A CRISPR View to the Clinic; Eyeing Gene-Editing Therapeutics"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Ophthalmology
2014–2015 Seminars
September 15, 2014
The 24th Annual Larry L. Ewing Distinguished Lecture
Allan C. Spradling, PhD
"Role of somatic genome instability during oogenesis"
Carnegie Institution / Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Embryology
September 29, 2014
Jeremy Nathans, PhD
“Frizzled signaling in development and disease”
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics
October 6, 2014
Alan K. Meeker, PhD
“Telomere ALTercations in cancer”
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Pathology, Oncology and Urology
October 13, 2014
Duojia Pan, PhD
“Hippo signaling in development and disease”
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
October 27, 2014
Photini Sinnis, PhD
"The establishment of malaria infection in the mammalian host"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
November 3, 2014
Alex Bortvin, PhD
"Hopes and fears - Transposon activity in the mouse germline"
Carnegie Institution for Science, Department of Embryology
November 10, 2014
George Dimopoulos, PhD
"New and unexpected players in innate immunity"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
November 14, 2014
Margaret T. Fuller, PhD
"Regulation of proliferation and differentiation in the male gem line adult stem cell lineage"
Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Developmental Biology and Genetics
November 19, 2014
Milos Pekny, MD, PhD
"Reactive astrocytes in CNS regeneration – a novel therapeutic target"
Professor, Director of the Laboratory of Astrocyte Biology and CNS Regeneration
University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation
December 8, 2014
Mary Lilly, PhD
"The GATOR complex: Integrating metabolic and developmental signals during oogenesis"
NICHD, Department of Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch
December 15, 2014
Anne Gocke, PhD
"Antigenic stimulation of Kv1.3-deficient helper T cells gives rise to a novel population of Foxp3-independent regulatory T cells"
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Neurology
January 5, 2015
Lillie Shockney, RN, MAS
"The role of patient advocacy in laboratory research-- Impacting metastatic breast cancer treatment"
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Surgery and Oncology
January 12, 2015
Mark Donowitz, MD
"NHE3 signaling complexes in GI physiology and drug development"
Johns Hopkins University, Hopkins Center for Epithelial Disorders
January 26, 2015
Kenneth Pienta, MD
"The miasma of cancer: how tumor ecosystems kill the patient"
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Urology
February 2, 2015
Kyung S. Lee, PhD
“Polo-like kinases 4 and 1: From centriole duplication to mitotic control”
National Cancer Institute, Laboratory of Metabolism
February 9, 2015
Svetlana Lutsenko, PhD
"The role of copper transport in human physiology"
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Physiology
February 23, 2015
Jennifer Kavran, PhD
"TMs together: How ligands activate the insulin family of receptors"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry
March 9, 2015
Jeremy Wilusz, PhD
"RNAs of all shapes and sizes"
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
March 23, 2015
Gino Cingolani, PhD
"A new class of NLSs that target membrane proteins to the nucleus"
Thomas Jefferson University, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
March 25, 2015
Xiaomin Bao, PhD
"Gene regulation of stem cell maintenance and differentiation"
University of Stanford, Department of Dermatology
March 30, 2015
Michael P. Terns, PhD
"CRISPR-Cas: Small RNA-mediated prokaryotic immune systems"
University of Georgia, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Genetics and Microbiology
April 6, 2015
David Fushman, PhD
"Towards understanding ubiquitin signaling: unexpected ubiquitin binders and non-canonical polyubiquitin chains"
University of Maryland, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
April 13, 2015
Erika Matunis, PhD
"Stem cell regeneration in the Drosophila testis"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Cell Biology
April 23, 2015
Guy Poirier, PhD
"Writers and readers of poly(ADP-ribose) during DNA repair and cell death”
University of Laval
April 27, 2015
Neil Hunter, PhD
"Local and global regulation of meiotic prophase by post-translational protein modification"
University of California, Davis and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
May 4, 2015
Katherine Wilson, PhD
"Emerin, intrinsic disorder and pathogenic bacterial targeting of the nuclear envelope"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Cell Biology
May 11, 2015
Jacquetta Trasler, MD, PhD
"Intergenerational consequences of environmental and intrinsic factors that shape the male germ cell epigenome"
McGill University and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics
May 18, 2015
Fengyi Wan, PhD
"Dissecting cellular signaling in response to DNA damage"
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
June 1, 2015
Charles J. Bieberich, PhD
"Engineering urologic pathologies in mice: new models of lethal prostate cancer and chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome"
University of Maryland Baltimore County, Department of Biological Sciences
2014–2015 Seminars
June 30, 2014
Shao-Cong Sun, PhD
"Regulation of T-cell receptor signaling by ubiquitination and a metabolic pathway"
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Immunology
June 16, 2014
Gideon Dreyfuss, PhD
"Beyond transcription and splicing: Global gene expression control by U1 snRNP"
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
June 2, 2014
Beverly Wendland, PhD
"Formin' new ways to look at endocytosis"
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biology
May 19, 2014
Carl Thummel, PhD
“Studies of metabolism and diabetes in Drosophila”
University of Utah School of Medicine, Department of Human Genetics
May 12, 2014
Cassandra Extavour, PhD
"From egg to immortality: The evolution of reproductive capacity"
Harvard University, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
May 5, 2014
Shyam Biswal, PhD
“The dark side of Nrf2: Antioxidants to cancer”
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
April 21, 2014
James Berger, PhD
“Running rings (and spirals) around DNA: Molecular mechanisms for initiating and controlling replication”
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
March 31, 2014
Laura Banaszynski, PhD
“Modifying the epigenetic landscape with histone variants"
Rockefeller University, Laboratory of Chromatin Biology & Epigenetics
March 26, 2014
David Long, PhD
“The role of homologous recombination and BRCA1 in DNA crosslink repair"
Harvard Medical School, Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
March 24, 2014
Jacqueline Barlow, PhD
"A novel class of early replicating fragile sites contribute to genome instability in B cell lymphoma"
National Cancer Institute, Laboratory of Genome Integrity
March 10, 2014
Steven Roberts, PhD
“Dissecting sources of genome instability in cancer”
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics
February 24, 2014
Andre Catic, PhD
“Transcriptional dynamics: How nuclear proteolysis adapts cell function”
Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Department of Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine, Center for Regenerative Medicine
February 17, 2014
Karen Schindler, PhD
“Determining the roles of the Aurora Kinases during meiosis”
Rutgers University
February 10, 2014
Songon An, PhD
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
February 3, 2014
Gideon Dreyfuss, PhD
“Beyond transcription and splicing: a new U1 snRNP-controlled gene expression mechanism”
University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine
January 27, 2014
Se-Jin Lee, PhD
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
January 13, 2014
Tung-Tien Sun, PhD
"Membrane specialization during urothelial differentiation: 2D crystal formation, structure, and function"
New York University, Langone Medical Center
January 6, 2014
Erin Goley, PhD
"Cytokinesis in bacteria: cytoskeletal regulation of cell wall remodeling"
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
December 9, 2013
Marisa Bartolomei, PhD
"Genomic imprinting: ART and science"
University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine
December 2, 2013
Steven Rokita, PhD
"Reversible alkylation and crosslinking of DNA by quinone methide intermediates"
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
November 25, 2013
Paul Chang, PhD
"PARPs as regulators of protein and mRNA homeostasis"
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
November 18, 2013
Herschel Wade, PhD
"Dissecting the connections between signal recognition and signal control"
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
November 11, 2013
Radhika Atit, PhD
"Wnt signaling in skin development and disease"
Case Western Reserve University
November 4, 2013
Phil Cole, PhD
"Chemical approaches to understanding and modulating cell signaling"
Johns Hopkins
October 28, 2013
Stuart Yuspa, MD
"CLIC4, TGFbeta and cancer: surprising connections"
National Institutes of Health
October 14, 2013
Cynthia Sears, PhD
"The microbial induction of human colorectal cancer"
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
September 30, 2013
Eddy Arnold, PhD
"Structure-based drug design targeting HIV and influenza: overcoming resistance via strategic flexibility"
Rutgers University
September 23, 2013
Monica Driscoll, PhD
"C. elegans secrets for healthy aging: Elaborating cellular and molecular mechanisms of longevity and healthspan"
Rutgers University
September 16, 2013
Paul Roepe, PhD
"Drug Resistance in P. falciparum Malaria: Insight Into New Therapy"
Georgetown University