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2023 Agenda

Friday, October 27, 2023
The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (RRB) Atrium Hall
9:00–9:30 a.m. Welcome & Opening Remarks
Thien Nguyen, Ph.D.
Chair, 2023 Retreat Steering Committee

Chris McBain, Ph.D.
Scientific Director, NICHD Division of Intramural Research
Housekeeping Items for Enjoying Retreat Day
Erin Walsh, Ph.D.
Office of Education Director, NICHD Division of Intramural Research
9:30–10:00 a.m. Keynote Address
Moderator: Thien Nguyen, Ph.D.
Guoyang Luo, M.D., Ph.D.
Obstetrics and Gynecology, INOVA Healthcare
“Life is Not a Straight Line”
10:00–10:45 a.m. Career Speaker Introductions
Three-Minute Introductions of Our Career Speakers
Moderator: Sanjana Sundararajan, Ph.D.
  • Research Programs in Academia and Government
    • Carlos Guardia, Ph.D., Tenure-Track Investigator, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
    • Natalie Porat-Shliom, Ph.D., Stadtman Investigator, National Cancer Institute
    • Cassie Glenn, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology, Old Dominion University
  • Jobs in Industry
    • Kyle A. O’Connell, Ph.D., Bioinformatics Data Scientist, Senior Consultant, Deloitte Consulting
    • Brian Rost, Ph.D., Staff Scientist, Booz Allen Hamilton
  • Science Administration
    • Erika Barr, Ph.D., Program Officer & Intramural Division Liaison, NICHD Office of Health Equity
    • Shilpy Dixit, Ph.D., Program Director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
  • Teaching Programs
    • Kate Monzo, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Montgomery College
    • Collins Jones, Ph.D., Biotechnology Program Coordinator, Montgomery College
    • Morgan Merriman, M.S., Senior Instructional Designer, Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences
10:45–11:00 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Career Round Table Discussions
Moderators: Kathryn Wagner, Ph.D., Allison Saul, & Abhishek Mukherjee, Ph.D.
12:30–1:45 p.m. Lunch Break and Career Networking
RRB Food Court
1:45–2:15 p.m. NICHD Office of Health Equity Presentation
Moderator: Sakshi Chauhan, Ph.D.
Erika Barr, PhD
Program Officer & Intramural Division Liaison, Office of Health Equity, NICHD
“Health Equity: What Role Can You Play?”
2:15–3:15 p.m. Five-Minute Talk Presentations
Moderator: Muthulakshmi Sellamani, Ph.D.
  1. Anna Dorothea Senft, Ph.D. (Postdoc, Macfarlan lab)
    Does widespread derepression of endogenous retroviruses kill post-implantation mouse embryos?
  2. Audrey Heffner (Graduate Student, Rouault lab)
    Understanding the biology and replication of deadly respiratory syndrome coronaviruses by studying HCoV-OC43, an endemic coronavirus that causes the seasonal cold
  3. Diana Elizondo, Ph.D. (Postdoc, Yanovski lab)
    Adipose Tissue Macrophage (ATM) Modulation of Adipose Tissue Inflammatory Status
  4. Andrew Beaven, Ph.D. (Postdoc, Sodt lab)
    Sterol chemistries, mechanical properties, and relationships with endo-/exocytosis
  5. Zhaoyi Peng (Graduate Student, Shi lab)
    Protein arginine methyltransferase 1 regulates adult intestinal cell proliferation and enteroendocrine cell differentiation
  6. Adam Caccavano, Ph.D. (Postdoc, McBain lab)
    Opioid Suppression of Inhibition across Regions, Species, and Development
  7. Avani Modak (Postbac, Farrell lab)
    “Hybrid” cell fate in the zebrafish axial mesoderm
  8. Wan-Chun Su, Ph.D. (Postdoc, Gandjbakhche lab)
    Simultaneous multimodal fNIRS-EEG recordings during motor execution, observation, and imagery and its applications in tracking neurodevelopmental trajectories
  9. Abhishek Anand, Ph.D. (Postdoc, Levin lab)
    How are Active Transposons Truncated in Human Cells?
  10. Allison Saul (Postbac, Rogers lab)
    Quantifying Dynamics of Optogenetic Signaling Activators in Zebrafish
  11. Sean Lee (Postbac, Farrell lab)
    A Tissue Type Biased DNA Damage Response in Early Zebrafish Development
3:15–3:30 p.m. Break
Booth Exhibits Available
  • Ryan Dale, Ph.D. (Senior Scientist, NICHD Bioinformatics and Scientific Programming Core)
  • Shana Spindler, Ph.D. (Editor-in-Chief, The NICHD Connection)
  • Morgan Merriman, M.S. (Senior Instructional Designer, Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences)
  • Laleh Omaraie-Hamedani (Instructional Designer, Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences)
  • Hannah Schneider ((Instructional Designer, Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences)
3:30–4:15 p.m. Poster, Booth Exhibits & Lab Showcase Session 1
Odd Numbered Posters Will Present
Moderator: Erin Walsh, Ph.D., Office of Education Director
4:15–5:00 p.m. Poster, Booth Exhibits & Lab Showcase Session 2
Even Numbered Posters Will Present
Moderator: Erin Walsh, Ph.D., Office of Education Director
5:00 p.m. Concluding Remarks
Erin Walsh, Ph.D., Office of Education Director