Department of Biology

Fall 2011

Thursday Afternoons
Reiss 112, 12:30-1:45pm

September 22, A novel function of BRCA1 E3 ligase in cell cycle regulation, Ronit Yarden, Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Science at Georgetown University (Host: Anne Rosenwald)

September 29, Life on the Edge: Actin Cytoskeletal Structure and Dynamics at the Cell Periphery, John Henson, Charles A. Dana Professor of Biology at Dickinson College (Host: Anne Rosenwald)

October 13, Composition and dynamic assembly of a bacterial cell division machine, Erin Goley, Johns Hopkins University (Host: Elena Casey)

October 20, A genomic view of honey bee declines, R. Scott Cornman, Postdoctoral Fellow at the United States Department of Agriculture (Host: Monica Poelchau)

October 27, Using mouse genetics to dissect the pathways that regulate morphogenesis of the mouse embryo, Irene Zohn, Principal Investigator, Children's Research Institute, Center for Neuroscience Research, Children's National Medical Center (Host: Elena Casey)

November 10, It's not the age, it's the mileage: Honey bee behavior, stress and aging, Michelle Elekonich, Program Director, Behavioral Systems Cluster, Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, Biology Directorate, National Science Foundation/ Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Host: Janet Mann)

November 17, Spatiotemporal population dynamics of the gypsy moth in North America, Kyle Haynes, Research Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the Blandy Experimental Farm, Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia (Host: Gina Wimp)

December 8, Neuroectoderm patterning along the anterior-posterior axis of the sea urchin embryo: A Wnt balancing act, Ryan Range, Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health (Part of the Neurobiology Faculty Search)

December 15, Close encounters of the glial kind, Jeffrey Huang, Research Associate in the MRC Centre for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge (Part of the Neurobiology Faculty Search)

Friday Afternoons
Reiss 264, 3:30-4:45pm

October 7, Understanding Giardia Iamblia antisense transcripts through molecular and bioinformatic approaches, Christopher Williams, Biology graduate student in Professor Heidi Elmendorf's lab

October 14, Endodermal patterning in the basal deuterostome, Saccoglossus kowalevskii, Andrew Verardo, Biology graduate student in Professor Elena Casey's lab

October 21, Characterization of the function of Sox21 during Xenopus laevis neural development, Niteace Whittington, Biology graduate student in Professor Elena Casey's lab

October 28, Investigation of A-to-I RNA editing in the honeybee (Apis mellifera) brain based on Illumina deep sequencing, Shu Tao, Biology graduate student in Professor Christine Elsik's lab

November 4, F-box ubiquitin ligases in neurogenesis, Banu Saritas-Yildirim, Biology graduate student in Professor Elena Casey's lab

November 11, Enhanced gene prediction in the honey bee, Apis mellifera, using cross-species similarity data from three informant bee genomes, Anna Bennett, Biology graduate student in Professor Christine Elsik's lab

November 18, The Five W's of Dolphin Tool Use, Eric Patterson, Biology graduate student in Professor Janet Mann's lab

Academic Year 2010-2011

September 2, Plant Invader Integration into Plant-Pollinator Networks, Montse Vila, Researcher in the Department of Integrative Ecology at Estacion Biologica de Donana (Host: Martha Weiss)

September 9, Longevity Pathways in the Budding Yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Jeffrey Smith, Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Virginia (Host: Ronda Rolfes)

September 16, The Developing Forebrain as a Classic Morphogen Gradient System (with a Few Twists), Ed Monuki, Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of California, Irvine (Host: Maria Donoghue)

September 30, Reprogramming Human Leukemia Cells, Mike Roberts, Associate Professor of Biology at Dickinson College (Host: Anne Rosenwald)

October 7, Modularity Enables Evolutionary Flexibility in Expression and Function of a Hox Transcription Factor, Leslie Pick, Associate Professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Maryland (Host: Elena Casey)

October 14, Species-Specific Adaptations of Insect Mushroom Bodies, Sarah Farris, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at West Virginia University (Host: Martha Weiss)

October 28, Location, Location, Location: Determining Stem Cell Identity in the Early Nervous System, Anthony LaMantia, Professor of Pharmacology & Physiology at The George Washington University School of Medicine (Host: Maria Donoghue)

November 4, Theoretical Perspectives on Community Ecology, Andrew Noble, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Fagan Lab, Department of Biology at the University of Maryland (Host: Matt Hamilton)

November 11, Inbreeding Effects on Plant-Insect Interactions, Dave Carr, Research Associate Professor & Director in the Blandy Experimental Farm at the University of Virginia (Host: Gina Wimp)

December 2, Gypsy moths, their virus, and red oak leaves: old wine in new bottles?, Brian Rehill, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the United States Naval Academy (Host: Gina Wimp)

January 20, The cancer detectives of Linxian, China, Neal Freedman, National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (Host: Elena Casey)

January 27, High-througput approaches to investigate the type II secretion system in Vibrio cholerae, Aleksandra Sikora, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan Medical School

February 3, Computer-aided discovery of drugs against infectious diseases, Stefano Costanzi

February 10, The dynamics and control of rotavirus: Bridging the gap between biology and policy, Virginia Pitzer, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University

February 17, When the individual matters: the prediction and containment of infectious diseases with network modeling, Shweta Bansal, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fogarty International Center, NIH

February 24, Defining the role of Src-family tyrosine kinases in chlamydial pathogenesis, Jeffrey Mital, Postdoctoral IRTA at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH

March 24, Nuclear architecture: when bad things happen to good nuclei, Orna Cohen-Fix, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health (Host: Anne Rosenwald)

March 31, Ecological Developmental Biology: How we co-develop with other organisms, Scott Gilbert, Professor in the Department of Biology at Swarthmore College (Host: Biology Graduate Students)

April 14, Developing in a changing ocean: Effects of ocean acidification on Stronglycocentrotus purpuratus sea urchin embryos, LaTisha Hammond, Biology Post-Doctoral Fellow at Georgetown University (Host: Dean Ali Whitmer)

Academic Year 2009-2010

September 3, Welcome to the Start of the Year

September 10, The nuclear pore complex mediates binding of the repressor Mig1 to its target promoters, Kristine Willis, Adjunct Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Biology at Georgetown University

September 24, The Impact of an Escape Mutation on the Genetic Diversity of HIV, Sivan Leviyang, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Georgetown University (Host: Matt Hamilton)

October 1, Genetically controlled yeast cell death in a new model of human tumorigenesis, J. Marie Hardwick, Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (Host: Ronda Rolfes)

October 15, A Different View: Polarization Signaling in Mantis Shrimp, Tom Cronin, Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Unveristy of Maryland, Baltimore County (Host: Martha Weiss)

October 22, Herbivory, plant invasion, and plant defense, John Parker, Terrestrial Ecology Principal Investigator for the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) (Host: Gina Wimp)

October 29, Understanding the persistence of deleterious polymorphisms in natural populations, Kirk Lohmueller, Graduate Student in the Department of Genetics and Development at Cornerll University (Host: Matthew Hamilton)

November 5, Metabolic Mechanisms Mediate the Miserable Months: physiological and evolutionary mechanisms of seasonal adaptation, Dan Hahn, Professor in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida (Host: Peter Armbruster)

November 19, Adventures of an Expeditionary Biologist: A Physio-ethological Approach to Sensors and Sensing, Peter Narins, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA (Host: Heather Mallory)

December 3, Title TBA, Mary Ann Wilson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University (Host: Maria Donoghue)
 

Academic Year 2008-2009

September 4, HPV and cancer: new approaches for prevention and treatment, Dr. Richard Schlegel, Georgetown Univ. Medical School (Host: Anne Rosenwald)

September 11, Evolution of regulatory genetic networks: adaptation drives cryptic network reorganization, hybrid dysfunction, and speciation, Dr. Adam Porter UMASS-Amherst (Host: Dr. Matt Hamilton)

September 25, Statistical marker geography: assessing congruence in genetic structure of Sonoran desert megaflora, Dr. Rodney Dyer VCU (Host: Dr. Matt Hamilton)

October 2, How do honey bees win and lose battles with their parasites?, Dr. Jay Evans, USDA (Host: Peter Armbruster)

October 9, Regulation of neural crest migration in the avian embryo, Dr. Lisa Taneyhill, University of Maryland (Host: Elena Casey)

October 23, Neural Substrate of Spectral Preference and Motion Detection in Drosophila, Dr. Chi-Hon Lee, NIH (Host: Ronda Rolfes)

October 30, Using Candida glabrata to examine evolution of the PHO transcription factors, Dr. Dennis Wykoff, Villanova (Host: Ronda Rolfes)

November 6, TBA, Danny Lewis, University of Maryland (Host: Gina Wimp)

November 13, TBA, Dr. Bettina Winckler, UVa (Host: Maria Donoghue)

December 4, TBA, Dr. Heather Cameron, NIH (Host: Maria Donoghue)

Academic Year 2007-2008

August 31 - Welcome Back

September 7 - Evolution of pathogenesis in Toxoplasma gondii, Michael Grigg (host: Steve Singer)

September 14 - Notch signaling and the Genetic Regulatory Network that establishes Wnt signaling centers at hindbrain compartment boundaries, Ajay Chitnis, NIH (host: Elena Casey) 

September 21 - open

September 28 - Seasonal interactions and the relevance of understanding migratory connectivity, Peter Marra, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, National Zoological Park (host: Peter Armbruster)

October 5 - Genetic turbulence – hybridization as a challenge to conserving fish biodiversity, John Epifanio, Illinios Natural History Survey (host: Matt Hamilton)

October 12 - Good Genes Sexual Selection without Ornaments, John Byers, National Science Foundation (host: Janet Mann)

October 19 - Paths to the Dark Side – the Biogenesis of Melanosomes, Alex Theos, School of Nursing and Health Sciences (host: Anne Rosenwald)

October 26 - Human disease and the functional architecture of the nuclear envelope, Kathy Wilson, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (host: Anne Rosenwald)

November 2 - Catching the early worm: immune evasion, regulation and exploitation during schistosome infection, Stephen Davies (host: Steve Singer)

November 9 - Evolution of anti-viral eIF2a kinases - a lost race against viral inhibitors? Stefan Rothenburg, National Institutes of Health (host: Ronda Rolfes)

November 16 - Continental trends in North American butterfly populations from the July 4th Butterfly Counts, Leslie Ries, (host: Gina Wimp)

November 23 -- Thanksgiving

November 30 - A host shift by swallowtail butterflies within the Papilio machaon species group: Evidence for the roles of chemical facilitation and enemy-free space, Shannon Murphy, George Washington University (host: Gina Wimp)

December 5 (Special Seminar) - Undergraduate Research Opens Genomics Curriculum, Malcolm Cambell, Davidson College (host: Anne Rosenwald),  Seminar Location: St. Mary's Hall

Jan. 18 - Structure-function Studies of the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha-Mating Factor Pheromone Receptor Ste2p. Ayca Akal-Strader, Georgetown University

Jan. 25 - The genetics of color adaptation: from mice to molecules. Hopi Hoekstra, Harvard University (host: graduate students, Deb O'Donnell)

Feb. 1 - Mult-trophic interactions across variable landscapes: consequences of predator subsidies for food-web dynamics. Bob Denno, University of Maryland (host: Gina Wimp)

Feb. 8 - The brawn behind brain cells. Rachel Brewster, University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus (host: Maria Donoghue)

Feb. 15 - Chemosensory regulation of development in bacteria. John Kirby, U of Iowa (host: Elena Casey)

Feb. 22 - Inca, a transcriptionally controlled modulator of signaling in neural crest and mesoderm development; Thomas Sargent, NIH (host: Elena Casey)

Feb. 28 (Special Day and Time: Thursday, 12:15) A tale of two nuclei: cell division and automixis in Giardia lamblia. Zac Cande, University of California, Berkeley (host: Heidi Elmendorf)

Mar. 7 Spring Break, no seminar

Mar. 14 - Ploughshares to swords: how plants retaliate against herbivores by converting sugars to bitter toxins. Tom Arnold, Dickenson College (host: Anne Rosenwald)

Mar. 21 Easter Break

Mar. 28 Host-microbe interactions and plant cancer. Lois Banta, Williams College (host: Heidi Elmendorf)

Apr. 4 (no seminar here)
Apr. 11 (no seminar here)
Apr. 18 Senior Week (Sigma Xi, Senior Thesis Symposium)