Scientific program and abstract submissions 

With a scientific program like no other, the organizers are excited to see this year’s abstract submissions. Todd Nystul shared that for him, must-see sessions are always Stem Cells, Regeneration, and Tissue Injury and Reproduction and Gametogenesis, but this year, he’s really looking forward to Physiology, Metabolism, and Aging as well as Cell Division and Cell Growth. His lab is working on projects in these areas so he’s thrilled to get the chance to delve into the current state of science that he may not study in his day to day. “That is one of the great things about this meeting,” he stressed, “You can learn about the latest developments in your own field but there are also tons of opportunities to check out other areas you might not have thought much about before.” Meanwhile, Amanda Crocker approached her can’t-miss sessions list from a different but also important perspective, “As a faculty member at a small liberal arts institute, I am always interested in the education component and thinking about how to bring cutting-edge science to the classroom,” she said. Amanda explained that flies are a great model system for undergraduate students, and to keep them engaged, she looks forward to learning about new techniques, cool assays, or new flies for them to study. Michelle Bland is looking forward to Physiology, Metabolism, and Aging due to the increased sophistication of the use of Drosophila to study metabolism year after year and excited for Models of Human Disease as well as Techniques and Technology. Leila Rieder, a chromatin biologist, is a self-described “evolution fan,” so she’s looking forward to those talks—“Drosophila is so well suited for evolutionary studies for exactly the same reasons it’s well suited for all other fields,” she emphasized. See what we mean? This is definitely your go-to meeting for all things Drosophila! 

To make this scientific program as enriching as possible, the organizers are urging scientists of all career stages to submit abstracts in the many topic areas available. Todd sees it as a useful growing experience at any career stage. “There’s nothing like an upcoming presentation deadline to motivate you to organize your thoughts and data into the best story possible,” he remarked. He has some special advice for early career scientists though, “Getting exposure at a meeting like this is one of the most important things you can do as an early career scientist!” Amanda echoed the sentiment, “It’s a great time to network with more senior faculty—for grad students or postdocs, it’s a great way to highlight skills you might bring to the next step of your career.” And Todd shared several reasons why this is the case—first, you can get really insightful and constructive feedback on your work. He explained, “Drosophila scientists are generally very supportive of each other and get excited about good science. There’s a huge range of perspectives and levels of experience among attendees so, whether you’re looking for advice on the details of your next experiment or ways to frame the broader significance of your project, there’s a good chance you’ll get a lot of excellent feedback.” He added that getting the word out about your research results helps build excitement in the community and gives reviewers of your next grant or paper more context for your work, plus presenting your work is a great way to make new connections with scientists and broaden your professional network.

Todd mentioned it’s not uncommon for a presentation at the fly meeting to open doors for other professional opportunities, including invitations to meetings or to give a seminar, job offers, and others. Amanda explained the impact the meeting has had on her students, “There are activities and events where my students were able to network. They also felt very respected by the community when presenting.” She added that those experiences have helped her prioritize the conference when considering her own attendance as well as bringing her undergraduate students. Leila and Michelle commented on the benefits of early feedback for your research and urged scientists not to stress about having a publication-ready story. Leila mentioned many people are shy about presenting research before they have enough data, “when do we ever?” she quipped, “… or before they know the punchline. Sure, it’s so fun to be able to tell the whole story, but the GSA meetings more than any I’ve ever been to are opportunities to get expert help planning your experiments,” she explained, adding that “Everyone loves a good mystery, especially Drosophilists!” so you may get a rather unexpected “out-of-the-box” idea that takes your research to new heights. 

Collaboration and making connections 

Now, yes, learning about cutting-edge science across a range of fields and getting the word out about your work is very important for a researcher as are opportunities to advance the next stage of your career and improve your next paper or grant submission, but there are other benefits to attending a fly meeting—making lifelong connections. Todd highlighted opportunities to meet up with old friends and make new ones, and find your next mentor or trainee, sharing a story that exemplifies the importance of the human aspect of this conference. “About 15 years ago, I was at the meeting talking with several other young PIs I met there and we decided to go out to dinner together,” he recounted. The meeting was in Chicago so they followed a local who was also attending to an Italian restaurant she recommended. Some people in the group knew each other well but most had only just met or knew each other in passing. “But the dinner was magical,” Todd said. The group stayed at the restaurant chatting for hours about their science and the challenges of starting up a new lab and life in general, and most importantly, they stayed in touch after that. Now, the group continues the tradition of going out to dinner at the fly meeting every year and as the years pass, the group gets bigger and changes, “…but it has still retained the same spirit,” he stressed. “It is one of the highlights for me every year,” Todd shared, adding that this and similar experiences have created in him a strong loyalty toward the fly meeting, which led to his interest in becoming an organizer. “I want to carry on the tradition of showcasing excellent science and building community that has been such an integral part of this meeting for many years,” he stated. Leila’s fondest memory draws a parallel between her experience and her trainees’ – she shared that last year, she connected an acquaintance of an acquaintance with one of her lab trainees, both first gen and applying to graduate school. They ended up chatting for some time, creating a connection that made them feel less alone during the conference but also in the field. “I find this connection happens to me—and likely others—at almost every GSA conference I attend. The Drosophila field are my people,” she explained, adding that she sees deep consideration for mentoring and student wellbeing, which enriches the community and strengthens research.

It’s no surprise then that when asked what he’s most looking forward to this year, Todd responded “Do I have to pick just one?” explaining he loves this meeting for both the excellent science and the wonderful community. “I think this is the single best meeting for hearing about the latest developments in my field so I make sure not to miss any important talks. Additionally, I have made so many good friends there over the years, and I love that we have a chance to catch up with each other every year. Those annual reunions really help me stay grounded,” he explained. Michelle added, “This meeting has been my favorite science meeting since I started attending about two decades ago. The people, the science, and the ingenuity are unmatched.” And Leila shared, “I can’t wait to laugh with my colleagues and complain about grant reviewers—they’re the same people!” 

So, what are you waiting for? 

There’s still a chance to apply for travel funding through the Undergraduate Travel Awards, and to nominate someone for the Larry Sandler Award and the new Hugo Bellen and Catherine Tasnier Drosophila Neurogenetics Lecture (self-nominations welcome for the latter!). Make sure you register by the advance registration deadline of January 21 for discounted pricing. 

GSA and the Dros organizers can’t wait to see you in March in San Diego! 

A formidable invader of freshwater bodies, duckweed’s ability to thrive in diverse environments is a remarkable display of resilience, especially considering its small genome size and lack of sexual reproduction. Duckweed—the common name for members of the Lemnaceae family of monocots—defies conventional reproductive norms through clonal propagation. New individuals sprout from a single parent, bypassing the need for sexual reproduction and allowing for the fast reproduction that underlies their invasiveness.

Research recently published in G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics delves into DNA methylation in the duckweed Spirodela polyrhiza, exploring its implications for clonal propagation and shedding light on the intricacies of plant biology.

Duckweed’s resilience hints at the intricate role epigenetic variation plays in shaping the plant kingdom’s evolution. Epigenetic modifications, particularly DNA marks like 5-methylcytosine (5mC), play pivotal roles in regulating gene expression and genome stability in plants. But duckweed deviates from the norm for plants, exhibiting notably low levels of 5mC.

Prompted by this intriguing anomaly, Harkess, Bewick, et al., set out to better understand the genetic and epigenetic impact that clonal propagation has on duckweed.

In plants, DNA methylation occurs in three sequence contexts: CG, CHG, and CHH (where H = A, C, T). It is initiated by the highly conserved RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway, which generates 24-nucleotide heterochromatic siRNAs via processing of double-stranded RNAs by DICER-LIKE 3 (DCL3). Subsequently, maintenance methyltransferases like MET1, CMT2, and CMT3 ensure the preservation of methylation during DNA replication.

However, key players of the RdDM pathway are notably absent in duckweed, as is the CMT2 maintenance methlytransferase. These absences have profound implications, particularly at CHH sites, where methylation is significantly reduced.

Interestingly, this phenomenon extends beyond duckweed, with related species Landoltia punctata, Lemna minor, and the aquatic seagrass Zostera marina exhibiting a similar absence of methylation machinery. The loss of these methylation players may represent a shared evolutionary adaptation among aquatic plants, potentially conferring advantages in varied climates and stresses.

The authors also report the absence of transposon proliferation in the S. polyrhiza genome, despite the loss of highly conserved genes involved in CHH methylation, prompting them to speculate on the role of CHH methylation in silencing transposons in asexual species. They suggest that clonally propagated species may rely more heavily on maintenance methylation mechanisms, rendering CHH methylation unnecessary for transposon suppression. Based on the research, it appears that losing CHH-type methylation and heterochromatic siRNAs may benefit duckweed by facilitating rapid asexual reproduction. The authors suggest that duckweed’s reproductive efficiency through quick clonal propagation might be enhanced by foregoing the RdDM and CMT2 pathway. Duckweed serves as a captivating case study in plant biology, offering invaluable insights into the intricate interplay between epigenetics, evolution, and environmental adaptation. As researchers continue to unravel its mysteries, the implications for agriculture, ecology, and beyond are boundless.

Falling in love with bacterial genetics

Marraffini was obsessed with space, astrophysics, and science fiction from a young age while growing up in Argentina. After reading about the advent and promise of recombinant DNA technology in a popular science magazine, his interest shifted toward biology. “During my undergraduate degree in biotechnology in Argentina, I did a lot of DNA manipulation and generated recombinant proteins. This experimental knowledge in molecular biology motivated me to follow a research path,” recollects Marraffini. Because the research opportunities were better in North America compared to Argentina, Marraffini uprooted his young family to pursue a PhD at the University of Chicago.

As part of the PhD curriculum, Marraffini recounts, “I took a class on bacterial pathogenesis and found molecular mechanisms by which bacteria cause diseases fascinating. I found bacteria a great experimental system because many tools were available to mutate and overexpress almost anything. There were also a lot of possibilities to purify proteins of interest using in vitro assays. This is why I fell in love with the bacterial experimental system and ended up joining the laboratory of the course teacher Olaf Schneewind for my PhD.” 

Dissecting CRISPR mechanisms in bacterial immunity

Bacteria are numerous but they are outnumbered by viruses that infect them. CRISPR-Cas is a major immune defense system that evolved in bacteria to fight viruses. Marraffini was interested in how bacteria employ CRISPR mechanisms to interact with and nullify infiltrating DNA and RNA. As a postdoc, Marraffini worked with Eric Sondheimer to experimentally demonstrate for the first time how CRISPR works against conjugative plasmids containing antibiotic resistance. “We showed that CRISPR can prevent the dissemination of antibiotic resistance among bacteria by directly targeting plasmid DNA,” explains Marraffini. This milestone in the CRISPR field was important later for gene editing technology development in mammalian cells. “I collaborated with Feng Zhang at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We transplanted a CRISPR-Cas9 system from Streptococcus pyogenes into human hepatocytes and showed that CRISPR cleaves DNA and can be repurposed for gene editing in cells,” shares Marraffini.

Over the years, Marraffini’s group gained mechanistic insights into how CRISPR systems contribute to bacterial immunity. When a phage or a plasmid invades bacteria, the CRISPR system captures a 30- to 40-nucleotides long sequence from the invader DNA called a spacer and incorporates it into the chromosome. This spacer DNA transcribed into the guide RNA gives Cas9—an enzyme that cuts DNA—the target specificity towards invading DNA. This is how bacteria acquire a memory of infection to then fight future infections.

Marraffini also discovered that phage DNA cleavage by Cas9 generates additional DNA fragments, resulting in the acquisition of new spacers for the CRISPR locus. More spacers and guide RNAs against the same-phage DNA are advantageous for bacteria as phages can escape Cas9 cleavage by mutating the target site, offering greater fitness to bacteria. According to Marraffini, “That’s one of our major contributions, showing how spacers acquisition determines infection memory. In addition, we also found that the CRISPR machinery uses free DNA ends, which is a way of diminishing autoimmunity since the bacterial chromosome is circular without a free end.”

Fostering curiosity and boldness

Joshua Modell, Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, describes his former postdoctoral mentor as “a rare scientist and an intellectual heavyweight who makes the laboratory a stimulating and fun place to do science.” Modell adds, “His ability to interact with and inspire scientists at any career stage, from the greenest summer intern to a long-tenured professor, is what makes him truly special. When I started my postdoc, he explained how much we still had to learn about CRISPR biology and how the work we do could end up in the textbooks. I still try to use that textbook standard with my trainees.”

“My mentors were extremely supportive of my interest in CRISPR despite CRISPR being unknown when I started my academic career,” says Marraffini. He champions the same generosity in his mentorship style, supporting projects his trainees want to pursue. 

“I wanted to investigate a new type of CRISPR that targeted RNA exclusively. No one understood how it worked. While everyone in the laboratory worked on Staphylococcus, I worked on a Listeria strain that naturally carried this RNA-targeting CRISPR system and developed it into a model system,” says Alex Meeske, Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Washington, who did his postdoctoral training with Marraffini. “He encouraged me to be bold and try new methodologies, even if they were outside his expertise. He taught me to focus, keep my eyes on the prize, and investigate the most significant and testable questions.”

Join us in congratulating Luciano Marraffini, who received the Genetics Society of America Medal at The Allied Genetics Conference 2024 in Metro Washington, DC.

2024 GSA Awards Seminar Series

On September 9, at 1:00 p.m. EDT, Luciano Marraffini will join us to discuss CRISPR-CARF immunity and sacrificing the host for the benefit of the population. Save the date and register here!

Sejal Davla, PhD, is a neuroscientist, science writer, and data scientist with expertise in research in a variety of life sciences. She has more than a decade of experience studying the brain by using cutting-edge methodologies in microscopy, molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, and is a motivated storyteller and science communicator.

Parental chromosomes separate during meiosis and segregate into sex cells, like sperm or egg, transferring genetic information to the next generation. For successful inheritance to occur, chromosomes must communicate with each other to ensure they remain intact throughout the process. Ofer Rog, who is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah, employed cutting-edge genetics and high-resolution microscopy to probe local and chromosome-wide physical changes during meiosis to understand their function in chromosome inheritance.

Unraveling chromosome biology  

Rog considers himself privileged to be doing science. Since he started college, he was surrounded by people who were doing research, allowing him to envision a career in academia. “I had crucial connections that helped me land a PhD position in a top-notch research institute in the UK,” says Rog. Since then, Rog has been dedicated to understanding chromosome biology. 

As a PhD student in Julie Cooper’s laboratory at the University College London, Rog showed that a DNA-binding protein is required for replication forks to pass through telomeres. This was a dogma-shattering observation since the prevailing view was that DNA-binding proteins are barriers to replication. Continuing his work in chromosome biology as a postdoc with Abby Dernburg at the University of California, Berkeley, Rog embraced cell biological approaches and dissected molecular mechanisms of chromosome interactions. He first developed tools for high-resolution live imaging of chromosome dynamics in C. elegans and visualized the structure-function relationship between protein complexes that latch onto chromosomes. He provided the first direct observation of a protein network assembly onto parental chromosomes, where many proteins form a railroad-like zipper structure between parental (homologous) chromosomes to regulate exchanges during sexual reproduction. He further discovered that this structure is not static and rigid, as was widely assumed based on electron microscopy images, but rather a liquid-like dynamic compartment.

“Rog developed a cytological method to measure exchanges between sister chromatids in meiosis using pulse-chase experiments. Before his work, exchanges between sister chromatids were effectively invisible since sister chromatids are genetically identical,” explains Lisa Kursel, a Research Assistant Professor working in Rog’s laboratory at the University of Utah.

Launching his independent research group on the back of these remarkable discoveries, Rog now investigates the broader implications of the liquid-like state of the chromosomal-protein complex structure on genetic exchanges during meiosis and on cellular health. “We are interested in why the structure of the protein-chromosome complex behaves as a liquid. We hypothesize that the structure allows communication between different molecules in a very controlled way where the molecular signal diffuses inside a compartment instead of spreading to all directions at once. We are also interested in how this liquid structure can bring and hold chromosomes together to exert force on the genome and shape it into chromosomes,” says Rog. He is now combining powerful stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy and cryogenic electron tomography to look at molecular structures and how they manifest in the complex organization of chromosomes.

A terrific role model with a passion for science communication

Rog is the first openly gay faculty in the College of Science at the University of Utah, and he deeply values inclusion. “It is important to have visibility and have everyone’s voices heard. I have made sure to provide space for members of the LGBTQ community,” he shares. Rog used his position and influence to create changes within his research community, founding an LGBTQ+ STEM group at the University of Utah where he invites LGBTQ+ speakers to campus and discusses their inspiring research journey with students. Rog is also advocating for diversifying science along other axes as an early career researcher. “I think we currently have a lot of walls, such as people coming into a biology PhD from a non-R01 university or non-western countries. We want to hear how people in leadership positions can make science inclusive and bring down walls in the scientific community,” says Rog.

Lisa Kursel describes Rog as an excellent teacher and mentor. “His teaching and mentoring style is welcoming and inclusive. He manages to get undergraduate students excited about genetics. My undergrad mentee told me his dream is to become a genetics professor because of Rog’s influence,” says Kursel. Rog is also deeply involved in the graduate program, where he serves as an advisor on the graduate program committee.

Another of Rog’s passions is to improve science communication. As far as his research is concerned, he believes that the tools to communicate the dynamic chromosome movement are limited. “Anything you draw will look like two separate things and will not convey the dynamic nature. Static images also fail to convey that the molecules are constantly rearranging during sexual reproduction,” he explains. In coordination with Janet Iwasa, a molecular animator and Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Utah, Rog organized a conference bringing together scientists and experts in visualization technologies, such as animators, illustrators, and developers to build virtual reality platforms that communicate his work on dynamic chromosome biology. He also created an intensive fellowship writing course for graduate students to address an unmet need in formal training for science writing.

Join us in congratulating Ofer Rog, who received the Genetics Society of America Early Career Medal at The Allied Genetics Conference 2024 in Metro Washington, DC.

2024 GSA Awards Seminar Series

In a recent seminar, Ofer Rog joined us to discuss two unpublished stories from his lab–the first documenting the unexpected de-mixing of sister chromatids during meiotic prophase and the mechanisms that mediate it, and the second describing a new genomic technique his lab developed to characterize large-scale chromatin organization and its application to meiotic chromosomes. Watch the recording here!

Sejal Davla, PhD, is a neuroscientist, science writer, and data scientist with expertise in research in a variety of life sciences. She has more than a decade of experience studying the brain by using cutting-edge methodologies in microscopy, molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, and is a motivated storyteller and science communicator.

“How do genes control physical, behavioral, and disease traits?” is a perennial question for geneticist Elaine Ostrander, Chief and Distinguished Senior Investigator of the Cancer Genetics and Comparative Genomics Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health and Section Head of Comparative Genetics. Ostrander, who is known for her seminal discoveries in trait heritability in dogs and humans, tracked the history of dog breeds to address questions in morphology, behavior, and disease variation. She also mapped important cancer genes in canines and humans, advancing the knowledge of how complex diseases are inherited. 

Developing a canine genetic model from scratch

Ostrander started her scientific journey by investigating the relationship between the DNA structure and transcription in yeast during her PhD and postdoctoral years. Learning about the discovery of microsatellites steered her into mammalian research. “It became immediately clear that microsatellites were polymorphic in a population that they were useful for studying variation, but they were also stable enough to track inheritance of sections of DNA within a family. Suddenly, it became possible to make a genetic map of any mammal you cared about,” she recalls.

For Ostrander and Jasper Rine, that choice of mammal was a dog. While other scientists studying genetics were mapping genes in flies, worms, yeast, and humans, Ostrander, working in Jasper Rine’s research group at the University of California, Berkeley, began to construct a genetic map of the dog genome, with a long-term goal of using the map to find genes that distinguish breed appearance and behavior as well as genes associated with disease susceptibility. Continuing this work in her own research group at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Ostrander created the first linkage maps in dogs in the early 90s. A decade later, her foundational work snowballed into a modern canine genetics project establishing dogs as a genetic model system. “Ostrander’s work built the stage and collected, in collaboration with several institutions, the first whole genome sequence of a domestic dog, the Boxer, in 2005. The subsequent decade was populated by an explosion of publications and genome developments led by her research group and collaborators,” says Bridgett vonHoldt, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University and a long-time collaborator of Ostrander.

According to Leonid Kruglyak, Professor of Human Genetics and Biological Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator who nominated Ostrander for this honor, “Ostrander is without a doubt the leader in the field of canine genetics and genomics.” Leading an international consortium, Ostrander helped generate a global public repository consisting of genomes from 2,000 individual canids—including 1,611 dogs of known breeds (321 breeds), 309 village dogs, 63 wolves, and 4 coyotes—to address questions surrounding domestication, behavior, morphology, and disease susceptibility.

“Dogs were an obvious choice because the dog breed structure makes it easier to find genes responsible for traits. To be a member of a breed, parents and grandparents must be members of the same breed, making each breed a closed population,” explains Ostrander. Tapping into breed structure, where breed appearance and behavior remain intact generation after generation, Ostrander’s group identified genes responsible for the remarkable differences in size and shape between breeds. Her work showed that a single allele of IGF-1 is a major determinant of size in small breeds and that coat variation is determined by variants in just three genes. By identifying the time when variants first showed up in ancient DNA, her work takes a holistic view of morphology and behavior across different canid species.

Studying man’s best friend to understand humans

In addition to genes in dogs, Ostrander extensively studied human cancer genes in her laboratory at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, focusing on human breast and prostate cancer. Her group was one of the first to describe a role for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in women from the general population at risk for breast and ovarian cancer. Her expertise in dog genetics dovetailed well with this work, as she ended up discovering cancer-causing DNA variants in both humans and dogs. “Most things that dogs get, humans also get—they get the same cancers and diabetes; they also get many of the same neuromuscular, kidney and heart diseases. Some breeds are at an extraordinary risk for certain types of cancer. For instance, a Scottish Terrier is at 20-fold higher risk of getting bladder cancer than any mixed breed dog. Therefore, the underlying genetics must be really strong and profound,” explains Ostrander.

In an effort to explore the history between the dog and cancer genomes, her group used a multi-omics approach that was largely unexplored in the canine model to create the largest catalog of canine whole-genome, transcriptome, and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing. Such resources allow scientists today to identify common cancer-causing alleles in dog breeds and link them to human malignancies. For example, Ostrander identified two regions in the canine genome that explain a risk for developing a lethal histiocytic sarcoma, which also occurs in humans. By understanding genes in these risk regions in cancer-related pathways, her work empowered new diagnostics and therapeutic strategies for human cancers.

Ostrander’s group also studies aging and survival-related genes. “Big dogs do not live as long as little dogs. We would like to know why that happens,” she says. To solve this puzzle, Ostrander collaborated with international researchers looking for dog samples in the most unlikely places. “We are studying DNA samples from over 400 dogs, sampled by collaborators, from the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. We are looking for changes in DNA that dogs have accumulated over 15 generations which allows them to survive in this radioactive environment,” says Ostrander.  

A champion in all walks of life

Ostrander has contributed greatly to the scientific community through making her cutting-edge research in dog genetics accessible to the general public. A big proponent of community outreach, she takes pride in regularly engaging with dog groups, breed clubs, professional dog trainers’ associations, and families to help answer questions about behavior and diseases.

In addition to being a pioneer in science, Ostrander is also at the top of her game in powerlifting. She is a nationally ranked powerlifter, competing as a Masters lifter for five years. With a growing accumulation of first- and second-place medals, Ostrander looks forward to a time when she trains Masters lifters herself.  

Join us in congratulating Elaine Ostrander, who received the Edward Novitski Prize at The Allied Genetics Conference 2024 in Metro Washington, DC.

2024 GSA Awards Seminar Series

In a recent seminar, Elaine Ostrander discussed how domestic dogs are among the most variable mammalian land-based species on earth and the genetic underpinnings of that variation, including breed-associated morphology, behavior, and disease susceptibility. Watch the recording here.

Sejal Davla, PhD, is a neuroscientist, science writer, and data scientist with expertise in research in a variety of life sciences. She has more than a decade of experience studying the brain by using cutting-edge methodologies in microscopy, molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, and is a motivated storyteller and science communicator.

Build-a-Genome (BAG) course 

Boeke studied transposable elements in yeast and mammalian cells. Along the way, he decided to synthesize transposon DNA from scratch. “I was impressed with the power of being able to do that, which led me to synthesize first a synthetic chromosome arm and eventually the entire yeast genome with people around the world,” he describes. Using this first synthetic eukaryotic genome project, Boeke developed a unique laboratory component for his class that allowed students to contribute to this mammoth research endeavor.

“We built the genome from scratch, starting with oligonucleotides to entire genomes worth of synthetic chromosomes, piece by piece. In the early phases, we involved a lot of undergraduate students,” he explains. For Boeke, the course had two essential components. “One was to use the manpower needed to build such an enormous genome. The other was that it’s a fantastic way to teach molecular biology and genetics to undergraduate students, for whom it was new. They were doing original research as part of a course, learning about how to do a PCR reaction,” he shares. Because students were synthesizing genome fragments that were never created before, they faced several setbacks and performed extensive troubleshooting. This integral component of the course provided an authentic research experience to students.

Eventually, the course evolved as the technologies advanced. In the early years, students would generate 750 base pairs (bp) of synthetic fragments using PCR reactions on overlapping oligos. They would run gels to get clean bands and regularly present their observations in lab meetings. However, as the cost of synthesizing synthetic DNA fragments rapidly decreased, the course shifted from fundamental molecular biology in E. coli to yeast genetics. “The students started assembling medium-sized DNA pieces into bigger pieces using homologous recombination in yeast. After successfully running the course for 20 years and using work from undergraduate students, they are now helping combine sixteen fully man-made synthetic chromosomes and put them into a single strain,” says Boeke.

“Running the course wasn’t always easy,” describes Patrick Cai, Professor of Synthetic Genomics at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology and former course instructor. “Boeke was running the course on a very limited budget, so we did a lot of work ourselves. One night, he drove his pickup truck and two of us moved all the chairs across the campus to a new course location. He was that dedicated and serious about the course,” says Cai.

With Boeke’s steadfast commitment and exceptional planning, the course eventually culminated in a global research and teaching consortium. Researchers from across the globe came to Boeke’s laboratory and learned teaching modules to build their parallel courses. “For example, Yingjin Yuan, Professor of Biochemical Engineering at Tianjin University, came to us and we helped him set up this course in China. He and colleagues focused on turning the course into a production machine and developed a landmark project by finishing one whole synthetic yeast chromosome in just a year,” says Boeke.

Teaching how to teach

Boeke involved his graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in teaching the course. According to Lisa Scheifele, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Loyola University Maryland, “The number of postdoctoral fellows and graduate students who have been empowered to learn the art of teaching, mentoring students, and developing course structure and content is notable and impressive.” She adds, “Boeke has been incredibly supportive of trainees who wanted to include a significant teaching aspect in their future careers. The Build-a-Genome course was my first teaching experience that ‘lit the fire’ for a future career where I’ve been able to blend teaching and cutting-edge research as we have done in Build-a-Genome.” Plus, the fact that this course inspired several of Boeke’s trainees in pivoting to a teaching career is something he’s quite proud of.

Harnessing the power of designer yeast

The synthetic yeast genome built through this innovative laboratory course offered a major paradigm shift in genetics and biotechnology, showcasing how to design and assemble synthetic DNA at scale. These synthetic chromosomes further facilitate testing genome fundamentals traditionally difficult to dissect in laboratory yeast strains. “Our knowledge about yeast genetics is largely based on our observation of the natural yeast genomes, which sometimes can be difficult to study. The synthetic yeast genome allows us to engineer the genomes to address societal challenges,” explains Cai. For example, Boeke made a bold choice to remove all the tRNA genes from the synthetic chromosomes and put them all on a new chromosome, allowing researchers to engineer it independently of all the other chromosomes. Now, Cai is testing yeast strains with tRNAs adapted to human codon usage to better express human proteins that can in turn be used in therapeutic applications to increase product yield.

Join us in congratulating Jef Boeke, who received the Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education, on behalf of Build-A-Genome, at The Allied Genetics Conference 2024 in Metro Washington, DC. And congratulations to the Build-a-Genome team whose members include Jessica Dymond of In-Q-Tel; Lisa Z. Scheifele of Loyola University Maryland; Eric Cooper of Hartwick College; Robert Newman of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University; Franziska Sandmeier of Colorado State University, Pueblo; Yu (Jeremy) Zhao of NYU Langone Health; Stephanie Lauer of St. Thomas Aquinas College; and Raquel Ordoñez of NYU Langone Health.

2024 GSA Awards Seminar Series

In a recent seminar, Jef Boeke, who received this award on behalf of Build-a-Genome, described how the course teaches students fundamental principles of genetics and how to perform, interpret, and troubleshoot an experiment when the outcome is unknown. He also touched on the history of the course and the resultant Network of Build-a-Genome courses, how it has affected students and instructors, and the course’s impact on the overarching International Sc2.0 project. Watch the recording here.

Sejal Davla, PhD, is a neuroscientist, science writer, and data scientist with expertise in research in a variety of life sciences. She has more than a decade of experience studying the brain by using cutting-edge methodologies in microscopy, molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, and is a motivated storyteller and science communicator.

Just like Thomas Hunt Morgan, Paul Sternberg’s scientific legacy dominates many fields of biology, including embryology, evolution, genetics, neuroscience, and systems biology. Sternberg, who is Professor of Biology at California Institute of Technology and Investigator Emeriti at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, studied parasitic nematode worms to make important discoveries in comparative development across different worm species and their behavior. 

Unraveling fundamentals of worm biology

During his undergraduate studies, Sternberg wasn’t particularly interested in science, but classes in quantum mechanics and microbiology attracted him to logic and exploration. He enrolled in mathematics and economics with the hope of applying relevant lessons to complex systems, but “…then I realized you can’t really do experiments in economics. I thought there is an interesting complexity in biology too, so I chose biology,” says Sternberg. As an undergraduate, Sternberg was looking at cell cycle control in slime molds. “By the time I was a graduate student, the worm appealed to me, and I wanted to understand everything about the organism. That is the goal,” he shares enthusiastically.

During his PhD, Sternberg contributed to groundbreaking work in the evolution of cellular lineages and developmental mechanisms for the induction and patterning of worm vulva. “When he was a student, his interest in the evolution of development was way ahead of his time. In the cell lineage paper by John Sulston and colleagues that reported the first comprehensive embryonic lineage analysis in 1983, they cited papers from Sternberg as a student in the Horvitz laboratory, identifying evolutionary changes in nematode cell lineages and cell fate. While Horvitz and Sulston received the Nobel Prize for their lineage work, Sternberg was also dissecting lineages in another genus and investigating how lineages would evolve. In that sense, he was prescient and visionary,” says Ryan Baugh who did his Postdoctoral training with Sternberg and is now a Professor of Biology at Duke University. 

Continuing the vulva development paradigm in his independent research group, Sternberg cloned and mapped numerous receptors and ligands, determining their functions in the signal transduction pathway. This pioneering work is taught today in introductory genetics and developmental biology courses to illustrate intercellular signaling, transcriptional regulation, and genetic epistasis mechanisms in coordinated organ development. Additionally, his students showed the importance of vulva development genes in the male mating structure called hook formation, further demonstrating conserved gene function in different organ patterning.

Sternberg also solved the mystery of the chemotaxis of males to the hermaphrodites, which many believed had no specificity. “People would say, male worms mate with chunks of agar. We looked at different species and found specificity. Hermaphrodites in a conditioned media would give pheromone signals that the males would respond to,” explains Sternberg. He collaborated with chemists to assess the chemical nature of purified mating attractants and discovered nematode-specific chemicals called ascarosides. Over the years, he made discoveries surrounding how males sensed ascarosides and nutrients in their environment to determine whether they should reproduce or wait. Using transcriptomics and CRISPR to knock out multiple genes, he continues to identify neuronal signaling in the pheromone sensing process.

In his quest to understand the worm, Sternberg studied multiple nematode species. His major interest is identifying lineage differences in species different from C. elegans, a commonly studied worm species. “We collected a lot of nematodes from soil and worked with a professional taxonomist, who figured out whether they are a diverse set of worms. Over the years, my students performed numerous comparative developmental analyses and started their research programs,” says Sternberg. 

Behavioral genetics is another field where Sternberg has made a huge impact. “What is the most complicated thing the worm does in the neuroscience sphere? The male mating behavior seemed pretty complicated to me,” shares Sternberg on how he focused his research. Sternberg’s student ablated each male-specific neuron using the knowledge from lineage maps and identified neuron-specific mating behavior defects. Observations from male mating behavior led him to investigate complex behavior like sleep, where he discovered several neuropeptides and signaling molecules controlling sleep in worms. To further strengthen the idea of sleep in invertebrate model organisms, Sternberg says, “I thought to push the defensive perimeter out in phylogenetic evolution in some primitive organisms. We studied jellyfish and found sleep-like states in them.”

According to Baugh, “It is really impressive that he went into neuroscience and behavior in addition to the evolution and development and trained important leaders in that field. I am seeing whole swaths of biology that are monumental as most people would hope to accomplish in their careers. He has just done it many times over.”

A community builder and a problem solver

Sternberg is also a visionary when it comes to building a scientific community and solving problems related to resource sharing and knowledge dissemination as well as developing new tools. “He sees a problem, and he fixes it,” says Maureen Barr, Professor in the Department of Genetics at Rutgers University, who did her postdoctoral research with Sternberg. “The C. elegans genome database was difficult and frustrating to navigate. Sternberg wanted to fix it, so he made WormBase. There are just too many papers – it’s not humanly possible to read them all, so he made Textpresso, which provides detailed information based on a few keywords. There are negative results in science that others might be interested in knowing, so he created microPublication where researchers can publish brief, novel findings and negative results that may not fit a traditional research article,” says Barr. Sternberg actively runs and supports these irreplaceable tools that make science accessible.  

Join us in congratulating Paul Sternberg, who received the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal at The Allied Genetics Conference 2024 in Metro Washington, DC.

2024 GSA Awards Seminar Series

On July 30, at 1:00 p.m. EDT, Paul Sternberg will join us to describe how C. elegans as an extensively-studied research organism holds out the promise of achieving comprehensive understanding of an organism. He will also discuss the status of our knowledge of how a genome sequence specifies the properties of an organism in the context of state-of-the-art technology and cool biology. Save the date and register here!

Sejal Davla, PhD, is a neuroscientist, science writer, and data scientist with expertise in research in a variety of life sciences. She has more than a decade of experience studying the brain by using cutting-edge methodologies in microscopy, molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, and is a motivated storyteller and science communicator.

We are thrilled to announce that the Genetics Society of America (GSA) is collaborating with the Personal Genetics Education & Dialogue (PGED)¹ based in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and the Reclaiming STEM Institute (RSI) on a Leading Culture Change Through Professional Societies of Biology (BIO-LEAPS) grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The two-year Design grant awarded to PGED’s home institution, Harvard Medical School, supports “Culture Change–Building a Relational and Inclusive Discipline through Genetics Engagement (CC-BRIDGE),” a capacity-building initiative that seeks to explore public engagement with science as a path for transformative culture change in the field of genetics. 

“As part of GSA’s mission to cultivate a community that creates and communicates the excitement and implications of discovery, CC-BRIDGE will help us better understand and develop ways to address issues our field faces surrounding public perception and a lack of trust in science and scientists. Through public engagement driven by this project, our members will be able to dialogue with each other and with the public more effectively, making our genetics community more inclusive, inviting, and better equipped to serve all,” says GSA President Mariana Federica Wolfner.   

Since 2020, GSA has collaborated with PGED to develop genetics-and-society programming through webinars, workshops, and other events. This grant will fund the development of a program that better equips scientists to effectively engage with their communities on topics of interest and relevance to genetics. Director of Programs at PGED Marnie Gelbart shares her enthusiasm, “PGED is thrilled to embark on this journey with GSA, RSI, and project advisors as we bring our collective expertise to explore the role of public engagement in cultivating a more inclusive and welcoming genetics culture.”  

Design Track projects funded by this grant support researchers in developing evidence-based approaches to culture change. Through webinars, workshops, and a symposium focused on historical and current social impacts of genetics research, CC-BRIDGE will pilot a reciprocal and inclusive public engagement program for scientists. Increasing evidence suggests that participation in science communication and outreach positively impacts the professional development and identity of scientists—which can in turn benefit scientific institutions and culture—while also building public understanding and positive perceptions of science. 

RSI Co-Executive Directors Evelyn Valdez-Ward and Robert Ulrich emphasize the importance of cultural transformation in genetics and its implications for those in STEM as well as broader societal impacts, saying, “Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are shaped by the values of the dominant U.S. cultural norms… [and] success in STEM fields privileges these [norms]. Public engagement is an undervalued way to change these conventions. CC-BRIDGE could be a critical first step in helping change the culture of genetics as a whole.” 

This pilot program will draw on input from a multidisciplinary advisory group comprising experts in genetics and the broader life sciences with vast knowledge in inclusive public engagement, science communication, pedagogy, and professional development. The group represents various career stages, sectors, identities, and lived experiences, and includes representatives from other organizations like AAAG, AABA, ASTC, Alliance for Genomic Justice, Black In Genetics, CienciaPR, Gallaudet University, and SACNAS.² PGED Public Engagement Associate Rob O’Malley shares, “I’m particularly excited to co-develop new programming with GSA to support members in how they approach conversations on emerging issues in genetics with the public and with each other, and to highlight a wide range of voices and perspectives from beyond the discipline.”

We are excited to collaborate with our partners in these endeavors and we extend our gratitude to NSF for their generous support. GSA Executive Director Tracey DePellegrin underscores the importance of scientific societies like ours taking a leadership role in creating culture change in the sciences, “Given our broad impact and reach, it is incumbent upon GSA to provide a platform for members to share their lived experiences. Because these experiences actively shape how scientists conduct research and engage with others, by fostering an environment that amplifies their unique perspectives, we fuel progress both within and outside of our field.”

NSF awarded this grant under the BIO-LEAPS program, which leverages the reach of professional societies like GSA to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the biological sciences. CC-BRIDGE program activities started in April 2024.

1.  Formerly Personal Genetics Education Project ︎
2.  AAAG: American Association of Anthropological Genetics; AABA: American Association of Biological Anthropologists; ASTC: Association of Science and Technology Centers; CienciaPR: Ciencia Puerto Rico; SACNAS: Society for the Advancement Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. ︎

Deborah Andrew’s journey from a first-generation college student to a leader in fruit fly genetics is nothing short of inspiring. She began her undergraduate studies in freshwater ecology; during that time, she took a genetics class taught by fruit fly geneticist David Kuhn that changed the course of her career. She worked in fruit fly genetics laboratories throughout her academic training to understand the role of homeotic genes in organ formation. Andrew, now the Bayard Halsted Professor of Cell Biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is still dedicated to studying organogenesis, particularly in uncovering genetic mechanisms governing tubular structures in Drosophila.

Mapping tubular structures from birth to morphogenesis

“I have always been interested in the questions about how a relatively nondescript fertilized egg turns into the multitude of specialized cell types found in the mature organism. Interested in organ formation, I began addressing the following questions: How is organ fate specified? How do organs specialize? How do they achieve their normal morphologies?” explains Andrew. Harnessing the power of genetic tractability in Drosophila, her pioneering work addressed fundamental mysteries in the salivary gland (digestive system) and trachea (respiratory system) development.

Andrew’s group made considerable strides toward understanding how an organ develops in its primordial state and achieves a final functional morphology by identifying the major transcription factors that control these processes at different stages of embryonic development. The major regulators of organ specification and function are known for only a small handful of organs in even fewer organisms. Remarkably, Andrew’s work identified major regulatory genes for salivary gland and trachea development and their interactions with downstream target genes. 

The salivary gland contains specialized cells with very high levels of secretion. The discovery of a conserved bZip-family transcription factor CrebA as the major regulator of increased secretory capacity is one of the most important findings from Andrew’s research group. “CrebA upregulates nearly all secretory pathway component genes, including genes encoding the protein components of the ER, Golgi, and secretory vesicles, as well as the genes that encode the proteins that transport nascent polypeptides to secretory organelles. This single transcription factor—CrebA—upregulates all of those,” emphasizes Andrew.

From fundamental biology to a direct impact on human health

Discovering conserved positive regulators of tube formation and secretion processes, Andrew’s work showed tremendous potential in developing artificial salivary glands and conferring secretory abilities to non-secretory cells. Her lab showed that each of the five human orthologues of CrebA could also induce the expression of secretory pathway component genes in fly embryos, highlighting the functional conservation of this gene family. Indeed, by expressing the closest mammalian ortholog of CrebA in HeLa cells, her group showed a similar upregulation in human secretory pathway gene expression. Such strategies could help ramp up the production of secretory products in biotherapeutic applications.

Andrew used her expertise in the Drosophila salivary gland to study the orthologous structure in Anopheles mosquitoes. The malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium migrates to the salivary gland ready to be injected into the vertebrate host at the time of feeding. Her group identified another transcription factor Sage that expresses only in the salivary gland. When knocked out from the Drosophila salivary gland cells, cells die massively via apoptosis. Now, her lab is using CRISPR technology to knockdown Sage from mosquito salivary glands in the hope of achieving cell death. “Moreover, Andrew has shown that the polarized architecture of the salivary gland acts as a natural barrier for parasite transmission. This line of investigation is likely to generate new targets for transmission-blocking strategies,” says Geraldine Seydoux, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University and long-time colleague and collaborator of Andrew.

A beloved mentor and community leader

Throughout her career at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Andrew considered herself privileged to work with young scientists, and her trainees returned the feeling. Andrew’s former trainee Caitlin Hanlon described her as an incredible mentor who always showed confidence in what her trainees could achieve. “Her dedication to helping train people and showing up for them created a wonderful and meaningful work culture not just in the laboratory but also in the department,” says Hanlon, who is now an Associate Professor at Quinnipiac University. Andrew also contributed to teaching efforts at Johns Hopkins. She dedicated countless hours teaching medical and graduate students the fundamentals of cell biology and physiology, keenly elucidating how things really work at the basic level in any cell. 

In addition to being a leader in her research field, Andrew generously offered her time and expertise to build fly genetics and development biology communities. She served as a representative to the Drosophila Board (“Fly Board”) from 1996 to 1999, as treasurer from 2013 to 2016, and president in 2017. She has organized major conferences over the years, including the Annual Drosophila Research Conference, the Santa Cruz Developmental Biology Meeting, and a Gordon Research Conference. She has been a long-term member of the Drosophila Genetics Resource Center Advisory Board.

Beyond her exemplary research and community work, Andrew is a fierce advocate of fundamental research and the fruit fly model system. “I would like more people to enter the Drosophila field. While we can do so many things in other systems, such as humans and mice, I strongly believe you get more bang for your buck in fly research,” emphasizes Andrew for scientists in training, encouraging them with a firm belief that what can be discovered in flies cannot easily be discovered anywhere else.

Join us in congratulating Deborah Andrew, who received the George W. Beadle Award at The Allied Genetics Conference 2024 in Metro Washington, DC.

2024 GSA Awards Seminar Series

In the first installment of the 2024 GSA Awards seminar series, Deborah Andrew described her lab’s findings on how the Drosophila salivary gland is first specified and maintained, and how early and continuously expressed transcription factors control both secretory capacity and specificity. She also shared recent efforts using genome-wide approaches to discover how functional enhancers of downstream target genes are organized. Watch the recording here!

Sejal Davla, PhD, is a neuroscientist, science writer, and data scientist with expertise in research in a variety of life sciences. She has more than a decade of experience studying the brain by using cutting-edge methodologies in microscopy, molecular biology, genetics, and biochemistry, and is a motivated storyteller and science communicator.

We’re taking time to get to know the members of the GSA’s Early Career Scientist Committees. Join us to learn more about our early career scientist advocates.

Caroline Muirhead
Communication and Outreach Subcommittee
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Research Interest

I didn’t always know I wanted to make science my career. In fact, I started college as an engineering major. And while I still have a love of math, I realized in my junior year of college that my main interest was in science. I added biology as a double major and dipped my feet into biology research. Between junior and senior year of college I worked in the Weathers lab at Worcester Polytechnic Insitute studying Artemisia annua, a plant that produces the antimalarial drug artemisinin. After college, I worked at a small biotech company before deciding I wanted to attend graduate school.

Since joining graduate school, I’ve become a C. elegans researcher. I work in a systems neuroscience lab where I research how worms respond to sensory cues. Worms secrete chemicals called ascarosides to communicate. We use these ascarosides to study sensation in worms. We ask questions like, why do some worms respond in different ways to the same ascaroside? Or which neurons and receptors are sensing this chemical? My project is about how worms make behavioral decisions in response to ascarosides. Put simply, if I expose the worms to a positive and a negative stimulus at the same time, how will they respond? Either the negative or positive cue will need to take precedent. I want to know what the neurons are doing when the worms make this choice. I think this is a really interesting question because it’s something that we encounter all the time! Think about how often you sense more than one thing at the same time and your brain is able to make a choice about how to respond. The interesting part about studying this with worms is that we can figure out what is going on at the cellular level – a task that would be impossible in a complex organism.  

As a PhD-trained scientist, you have many career options. What interests you the most?

While I’ve really been enjoying conducting research, my main interest is teaching. This past year, I had the opportunity to participate in the ASPIRE fellowship program. This fellowship pairs graduate students with community college professors at a local community college. I was mentored by a professor at Quinsigamond Community College. I was able to work with one of the introductory biology classes during lab sections and complete a few guest lectures. I had a lot of fun, and I really liked the students! Additionally, I got to talk to my mentor about what it was like being a professor at a community college. I had a very positive experience in the ASPIRE fellowship program, and it made me interested in teaching at a community college.    

I’m also open to other opportunities! In college, I volunteered at the EcoTarium, a science and nature museum in Worcester. I’ve always had a love for nature and science museums, so I could always see myself working at a science museum.

Finally, I’ve been enjoying my research and worms. So you never know, I may stay in research for some time after graduating and complete a post doc position. Careers are long, and I hope to enjoy many things over the course of mine.

In addition to your research, how do you want to advance the scientific enterprise?

I hope to interest new minds in science and STEM. I’m passionate about this because young students are the next generation of scientists.

This summer, I ran the Frontier’s summer camp at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. This is a two week long camp for high school students interested in science. We spent the first week of camp learning about neuroscience and working with C. elegans in the lab. During the second week of camp, students conducted their own experiments. It was a lot of fun, and I loved seeing the creativity of the students! In past summers, I’ve run other science summer camps for slightly younger students. I even got to run a camp over Zoom during the pandemic. It was a challenge—we had to ship student lab materials so that they could do lab stuff at home—but overall, it was great that we were still able to teach students science skills remotely. When I was in high school, I participated in science summer camps, and it sparked my interest in STEM. These camps are important for students to start exploring different scientific areas. I hope to continue participating in summer camps that drive students towards STEM fields.

I’ve also served as a mentor for the Women’s Research and Mentorship Program (WRAMP) at my university. I worked in a group with an undergraduate student and two high schoolers on a small research project in the lab. Although this project involved research, the main purpose of the program was to mentor the students and teach them about how research works. I think this project was a success because after WRAMP, one of the high school students was awarded funding to work in our lab through the Massachusetts Life Science Center. She accomplished a lot through the summer and continued as a volunteer in our lab during the school year. Now, she’s continuing scientific research in college. I’m so proud of her, and I’m really happy that I was her WRAMP mentor! I love seeing a student enjoy research enough to continue it. I hope that I am able to mentor more students in a lab setting.

As a leader within the Genetics Society of America, what do you hope to accomplish?

As part of my work with communications and outreach subcommittee, I’m really hoping to do outreach to high school students about scientific research during the school year. I think back to myself as a high schooler, and I realize I had no idea about all of the different model organisms researchers use. I understood why people worked with mice, but I had no idea about all of important research people do in flies, worms, yeast, and beyond. And now, as a worm researcher, I realize how important non-mouse model organisms are too. This year, I plan to talk to high school students about the different types of research that is possible in these models. This way, when these high school students start college and want to join a lab, they’ll have a better understanding of what these labs might be doing.

Other members of my subcommittee have participated in similar types of outreach where they talk to students about model organisms. They’ve offered to help make slides and review my materials to make sure it’s understandable to high school students. They’ve also helped with avenues of connecting to high school teachers that might be interested in having a scientist come speak in their school.  

I also hope to gain more presentation and conference experience through GSA. The first GSA conference I attended was a virtual conference hosted during the first summer of the pandemic. It was nice to still hear other research virtually. Last summer, I attended the International C. elegans Conference in Scotland. I had the opportunity to meet other enthusiastic and creative scientists. I especially enjoyed the poster sessions where I can talk to people one-on-one about their research. Overall, attending the GSA conference was an enriching experience, and I hope to continue honing my presentation skills at them!

Previous leadership experience

• Graduate Student Government – Biology and biotechnology student senator (current)
• Women’s Research and Mentorship Program mentor (2022)
• Smith College Ice Hockey Captain (2015-2017)