Past Retreats: 2017 Speaker Profiles

Keynote Speakers

Peter Agre, MD

A native Minnesotan, Dr. Peter Agre studied chemistry at Augsburg College (B.A. 1970) and medicine at Johns Hopkins University (MD, 1974). He completed his residency at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and an Oncology Fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Agre joined the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine faculty in 1984 and rose to the rank of Professor of Biological Chemistry and Professor of Medicine. In 2005, Dr. Agre moved to the Duke University School of Medicine where he served as Vice Chancellor for Science and Technology and James B. Duke Professor of Cell Biology. He returned to Johns Hopkins University in January 2008, where he is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and Director of the Malaria Research Institute at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In 1992, Dr. Agre's lab became widely recognized for discovering the aquaporins, a family of water channel proteins found throughout nature and responsible for numerous physiological processes in humans—including kidney concentration, as well as secretion of spinal fluid, aqueous humor, tears, sweat, and release of glycerol from fat. Aquaporins have been implicated in multiple clinical disorders—including fluid retention, bedwetting, brain edema, cataracts, heat prostration, and obesity. Water transport in lower organisms, microbes, including the malaria parasite, and plants involve aquaporins. In 2003, Dr. Agre shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering aquaporins. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine for which he chaired the Committee on Human Rights. From 2009-2011, Dr. Agre also served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Adam Ruben, PhD

Dr. Adam Ruben is a writer, comedian, and molecular biologist. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, with minors in Engineering Biology, Creative Writing, and Theater & Dance (the theater part, not the dance part), and his PhD in Biology from Johns Hopkins University. By day, he is the Associate Director of Vaccine Stabilization & Logistics at Sanaria Inc., a Maryland-based biotech company developing whole-organism vaccines for malaria.

Outside the lab, Adam has been performing stand-up comedy for more than 15 years. He has been seen and heard on the Food Network's "Food Detectives," the Science Channel's "Head Rush," the Travel Channel's "Mysteries at the Kremlin," the Weather Channel's "Weather Gone Viral," Discovery International's "Superhuman Science," and NPR's "All Things Considered" and "The Moth Radio Hour." He currently co-hosts "Outrageous Acts of Science," the most popular show on the Science Channel, and he will soon appear on the Science Channel's "How Do They Do It?". He has performed at universities and scientific conferences in more than 25 states and five countries.

Adam is the author of the book "Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School" (Random House, 2010) and writes the humor column "Experimental Error" in the AAAS journal Science Careers. His new book, "Pinball Wizards: Jackpots and Drains in the Cult of the Silver Ball," will be published by Chicago Review Press this September.

Career Speakers

Sadie Bergeron, PhD

Dr. Sadie Bergeron received her BS in Biology in 2003 from Roger Williams University. It was there that she was first introduced to the zebrafish (Danio rerio) and its power as a vertebrate model for genetic disorders in humans by Dr. Kerri Warren, Associate Professor in Biology, and pioneer zebrafish researchers. In 2010, Dr. Bergeron earned her PhD in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for her thesis work performed in Dr. Rolf Karlstrom’s laboratory. There she genetically and phenotypically characterized a zebrafish mutant with early neural patterning deficits and contributed to a microarray study to uncover new molecular cues that regulate neurogenesis with a focus on the Hedgehog signaling pathway.

Dr. Bergeron joined Dr. Harold Burgess’ lab at the NICHD in 2010 to extend her research from the genetic control of neurodevelopment in zebrafish to monitoring and controlling the behavioral outputs that the nervous system regulates. Using tools developed and validated in Dr. Burgess’ lab, she was able to perform a genetically defined neuronal ablation screen in zebrafish to determine how disrupting specific populations of neurons in the brain affects the acoustic startle response and prepulse inhibition, an innate sensory motor gating phenomenon that is conserved across vertebrates and disrupted in patients with certain neurodevelopmental disorders. She has been a tenure-track Assistant Professor at West Virginia University since January 2016, where she has several undergraduate students performing research in her lab. She also teaches a vertebrate embryology course for undergraduates that incorporates zebrafish. Currently her research focus is to elucidate molecular pathways that are conserved from fish to humans, to direct the proper development of neural circuitry that processes and integrates sensory information from the environment.

Stephanie Cologna, PhD

Dr. Stephanie Cologna received her undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of Arizona. She then pursued graduate studies in the field of mass spectrometry at Texas A&M University under the direction of Professor David H. Russell. Her graduate studies focused on the utilization of state-of-the-art mass spectrometry and novel methods to improve proteome coverage in complex systems. In 2010, Stephanie moved to the NIH and worked as a postdoctoral fellow under the joint mentorship of Drs. Forbes (Denny) Porter and Alfred L. Yergey. During her time at NIH, she worked on protein biomarker studies by mass spectrometry in two genetic disorders: Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome and Niemann-Pick Disease, type C1. Dr. Cologna formally mentored two postbaccalaureate fellows and taught undergraduate biochemistry during her postdoctoral training. As an independent investigator, Dr. Cologna established her laboratory in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2015. Her research focuses on method development related to mass spectrometry technology, applied proteomics and lipidomics of human diseases, specifically neurodegeneration. As an Assistant Professor, Dr. Cologna mentors four doctoral graduate students, a joint masters’ student and three undergraduate researchers. She is strongly integrated in her department, university and field of expertise including co-developing the Chicago Mass Spectrometry Day, serving as the Chemistry Graduate Student Association advisor and serving on the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Digital Communications board.

Rebecca Hammond, PhD

Dr. Rebecca S. Hammond is a neuroscientist with drug discovery experience in several areas of neuroscience research, including psychiatry, neurodevelopmental disorders, neurology and epilepsy. She first discovered her passion for neuroscience while volunteering as an undergraduate student in the lab of Dr. Robert Oakley at The George Washington University. There she completed a BS in Biological Science and a BA in Psychology. Through her work examining the role of potassium channels in cognition, she earned a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Stackman. In 2005, she joined Dr. Dax Hoffman’s laboratory at the NICHD, studying potassium channel trafficking in neurons, and became a NIGMS PRAT fellow in 2006. Rebecca left the NIH in 2007 to accept a research scientist position at Wyeth Neuroscience in Princeton, NJ. In 2009 she moved to Cambridge, MA to join a research group at Seaside Therapeutics, a small company focusing on treatments for Fragile X Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorders. In 2013 Rebecca joined the research team at a small start-up biopharmaceutical company, Sage Therapeutics. Rebecca is currently the Director of In Vivo Pharmacology at Sage Therapeutics, which is now a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapies for patients with CNS disorders.

Yolanda Mock Hawkins, PhD, MBA

Dr. Yolanda Hawkins is trained as a molecular biologist with experience in Technology Transfer, Business Development and Intellectual Property. Currently, she serves as a Technology Transfer Specialist at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, (CDER) at the FDA. Dr. Hawkins is responsible for preparing and negotiating various technology transfer agreements. The CDER Technology Transfer Program supports science and research objectives by helping their offices form partnerships with outside entities for the purpose of stimulating innovation to advance public health. Prior to joining the FDA, Dr. Hawkins served as a licensing and patenting manager at the NIH Office of Technology Transfer, and as a technology transfer specialist at the NIH National Cancer Institute. Dr. Hawkins received her PhD in biomedical sciences from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN, completed her postdoctoral training at the NIH, National Institute on Aging, obtained a certificate in Technology Transfer from NIH-FAES, and earned her MBA from the Johns Hopkins University, Carey Business School.

Anthony Hickey, PhD

Dr. Anthony Hickey completed most of his education and training in the state of New York, receiving his Master’s Degree in Genetics from SUNY Albany in 2005, and his PhD in Immunology and Microbial Disease from Albany Medical College in 2011. Following the completion of his graduate work, he took a postdoctoral position at the Trudeau Institute for Immunology in Saranac Lake, NY, where he worked on characterizing host innate-immune Reponses to Yersinia Pestis, the causative agent of Plague. After close to two years in the Adirondacks, Dr. Hickey decided to return to his roots in molecular biology, and took a second postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Dr. Henry Levin at the NIH. During his tenure in the Levin lab, Dr. Hickey worked with the yeast retrotransposon Tf1, a mobile genetic element that shares many similarities to relevant retroviruses, including HIV. His work primarily involved characterizing the mechanism by which Tf1 moves from place to place in the yeast genome, as well as the specific insertions sites that Tf1 targets “jumps” to each time. It was also during this time at NIH that Dr. Hickey served as a contributing writer to the monthly fellows’ newsletter, The NICHD Connection.

Dr. Hickey started his current position at the NASA Research Education and Support Services (NRESS) in 2015, as a contracted support scientist to the NASA Space Biology Program. His primary responsibilities are to assist the Space Biology Program Scientist (which is analogous to an NIH program officer) in 1) making programmatic decisions regarding what types of research the Space Biology Program plans to solicit proposals for, 2) writing NASA research announcements/solicitations, and 3) summarizing the highlights of peer-review and conducting the final selection of grant proposals.

John Reich, PhD

Dr. John Reich joined the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) in February 2016, as a Scientific Program Director. Dr. Reich came to FFAR because he strongly believes that advancements in agriculture will be key to maintaining our quality of life, and that the right investments at opportune moments will provide us with the necessary tools to overcome future challenges in agriculture.

Prior to his appointment at FFAR, Dr. Reich supported programs regarding food safety and nutrition at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, where he also helped build relationships between federal agencies regarding climate change, food security, and agriculture. Dr. Reich is also an active member in his community, working with multiple groups, including non-profits and city governments, to advance food security and sustainable agriculture efforts. Trained as a biomedical researcher and having completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the NIH, John’s background has and will continue to broadly apply to many of the FFAR’s mission areas.

Megan Bohn, PhD

Dr. Megan Bohn is a native Tennessean, receiving her BS degree in Biology from Middle Tennessee State University and obtaining her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Kentucky, College of Medicine. As a researcher of the molecular mechanisms of gene transcription, Dr. Bohn conducted her postdoctoral research at the NIH in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). During her time as a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow, she became interested in science education and training programs of young scientists for the biomedical workforce of the future. During her postdoctoral training, Dr. Bohn worked as an adjunct professor at Bluegrass Community and Technical College and Georgetown University. She was also a teaching fellow at the University of Maryland, where she studied and implemented uses of active learning and the “flipped classroom” to instruct honors students about cell biology. In January 2016, she joined the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as the Program Manager for the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, where she works to design and implement policies and training programs that meet the needs of their postdoctoral fellows.

Prasanna Satpute-Krishnan, PhD

Dr. Prasanna Satpute-Krishnan recently became a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD. Her lab studies how cells destroy misfolded proteins.

Dr. Satpute-Krishnan began her studies with misfolded proteins and prions during graduate school in the lab of Dr. Tricia Serio at Brown University. Prions are proteins that can misfold into infectious shapes that drive protein misfolding across cells, tissues, organisms, and in some cases, across species. Prions and prion-like misfolded proteins cause notorious diseases such as Fatal Familial Insomnia, “mad cow disease” and Alzheimer’s disease. For her PhD thesis, she addressed fundamental questions of how prion misfolding propagates through cells. This naturally enhance her interest in how cells get rid of the toxic misfolded proteins. During her postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz at the NICHD, she uncovered an unexpected pathway that cells use to clear misfolded proteins including prion protein. Now, as an independent investigator, Dr. Satpute-Krishnan continues to dissect protein quality control pathways that target misfolded proteins for destruction.

Susmeeta Sharma, MD

Dr. Susmeeta Sharma is the Director of Pituitary Endocrinology at the MedStar Pituitary Center. She has extensive experience in evaluating and treating patients with pituitary and adrenal disorders. Before joining the MedStar Pituitary Center, Dr. Sharma completed a fellowship in adult and reproductive endocrinology with focus on pituitary and adrenal disorders at the NIH. During her fellowship, she also completed the NIH-Duke Masters in Science in Clinical Research and Training. She then stayed on as a junior faculty member and the Chief of outpatient endocrinology at NIH. Dr. Sharma enjoys mentoring young physicians along their path to clinical endocrinology and patient care, and she was honored with the Dr. Phillip Gorden Distinguished Clinical Teacher Award by the NIH Endocrinology fellowship program. She is a special volunteer and associate investigator on several research studies being conducted at NIH, in collaboration with Dr. Lynnette Nieman. Dr. Sharma is a member of Endocrine Society, AACE and the Pituitary Society, and she serves as a reviewer for major endocrine journals including JCEM, Endocrine Practice and Pituitary.

Fellow Speakers

Răzvan Chereji, PhD

Dr. Răzvan Chereji received his PhD degree in Physics from Rutgers University and is currently a Research Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. David Clark, Division of Developmental Biology, NICHD. Dr. Chereji’s research interests lie at the intersection of theoretical physics and quantitative biology. He develops theoretical models that describe chromatin organization, its dynamics, and the interactions between DNA and DNA-binding proteins, including histones, transcription factors, polymerases, and chromatin remodelers. His ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between traditional biology and rigorous computational techniques acquired throughout his physics training, in order to explain gene expression regulation and chromatin organization in a quantitative way.

Jing Pu, PhD

Dr. Jing Pu received her PhD degree from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China, where she studied the mechanisms of fatty acid-induced insulin resistance and lipid droplet biology. She began her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Juan S. Bonifacino in NICHD, working on the mechanisms of lysosome movement after identifying a protein complex promoting lysosome anterograde transport. Currently she is a Research Fellow in Dr. Bonifacino’s group with the study aim of understanding how lysosome positioning cooperating with other cellular events.

Quira Zeidan, PhD

Dr. Quira Zeidan completed a BS in Biology at the Central University of Venezuela where she studied the effects of the amino acid derivative L-carnitine on preventing liver and heart toxicity by the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin. She then earned her PhD in Biological Chemistry from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the laboratory of Dr. Gerald W. Hart, investigating the role of the O-GlcNAc post-translational modification on ribosome function and biogenesis. In her graduate work Quira showed that numerous mammalian ribosomal proteins from both the small and large subunit are chemically and dynamically modified by glycosylation, and that the two enzymes responsible for the cycling of O-GlcNAc, O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) and O-GlcNAcase (OGA) strongly associate with ribosomes at different stages of their biogenesis. In 2013, Quira joined the NICHD as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Alan Hinnebusch where her research focuses on the mechanism by which the conserved mRNA-granule component Scd6 targets Dhh1 to repress translation initiation and activates Dcp2-mediated mRNA decay in vivo.