Day 1: Friday April 28th 2023

1:00-1:10 Opening Remarks (Karen Echeverri/Jennifer Fish)

1:10-1:20 Jeremy Nance, Northeast SDB representative

1:40 – 3:05pm Session I (Chair: Jeremy Nance, NYU Langone)

●  Dominique Alfandari, Professor, UMass Amherst, ADAM11 Controls Neural Crest Cell EMT by Modulating BMP and Wnt Signaling

●      Bryan Ballif, Professor, University of Vermont, Novel binding partners of the CRK family of signaling adaptors are critical for zebrafish retinal development

●      Favour Ononiwu, Graduate student, Syracuse University, Rab8, Rab11, and Rab35 coordinate lumen and cilia formation during Zebrafish Left-Right Organizer development

●      Juana De La O, Graduate Student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Changing apical actomyosin network architectures during cranial mouse neural tube closure are disrupted in SPCA1 mutants

●      Carrie Adler, Assistant Professor, Cornell University, Inhibition of the ATM kinase rescues planarian regeneration after radiation exposure

3:05 – 3:30pm Coffee Break

3:30 – 5:00pm Session II (Chair: Mustafa Khokha, Yale University)

●      Iain Drummond, Professor, MDI Biological Laboratory, Adult kidney progenitor cells and injury-induced new nephron formation in zebrafish

●  Catherine McCusker, Associate Professor, UMass Boston, The regulation of growth and size of the regenerating Axolotl limb

●      Kaitlyn Loubet-Senear, Graduate student, Harvard University, Rigorous comparisons of regeneration and development: assessing the cellular contexts and regulatory logic underlying shared genetic pathways

●  Kwantae Kim, Graduate student, Georgia Institute of Technology, Transcriptional regulation of neuronal polarity and neurite outgrowth in the ddNs of Ciona

●  Rico Amato, Graduate student, SUNY Albany, Tracing the Pioneer/Terminal Nerve Neurons in Rodents

●  Fast Track talks (5)

5:00 – 6:00pm Keynote I (Chair: Karen Echeverri, Marine Biological Laboratory)

Keynote I: Olivier Pourquié, Professor, Harvard University, Deconstructing human Musculo-skeletal development in vitro

6:00 – 7:00pm Dinner

7:30 – 9:30pm Posters and mixer

Day 2 Saturday April 29th

9:00am – 10:25am Session III (Chair: Craig Magie, Quinnipiac University)

●  Brady Weissbourd, Assistant Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mechanisms of robustness in jellyfish neural networks

●  Adrienne Roeder, Associate Professor, Cornell University, Robustness in Arabidopsis sepal primordium initiation

●  Shuonan He, Post-Doc, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, Spatial transcriptomics reveals a cnidarian segment polarity program in Nematostella vectensis

●  Zainab Afzal, Post-Doc, Marine Biological Laboratory, Eve-nts (nascent transcripts) during body segmentation and development of Parhyale hawaiensis

●  Curtis Boswell, Post-Doc, Yale University, Genetically Encoded Affinity Reagents (GEARs): A toolkit for visualizing and manipulating endogenous protein function in vivo

10:25 – 10:55am Coffee Break

10:55am – 12:00pm Session IV (Chair: Heidi Hehnly, Syracuse University)

●      Mandë Holford, Professor, CUNY Hunter College, Evolution, Development, and Function of Venoms

●      Alexandra MacColl Garfinkel, Post-Doc, Yale University, Mitochondrial leak metabolism regulates global patterning of the early embryo

●      Fjodor Merkuri, Graduate Student, Cornell University, Histone lactylation couples cellular metabolism to the activation of developmental gene regulatory networks

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12:00 – 2.00pm LUNCH and Optional tours

2:00pm – 3:10 Session V (Chair: Neva Meyer, Clark University)

●      Michelle Juarez, Assistant Director, Diversity and Research Readiness, DNA Learning Center NYC, Promoting STEAM access and engagement

●      Ekaterina Konshina, Undergraduate, Simmons University, Role of cereblon in vertebrate axial and neuronal development

●  Alvira Tyagi, Undergraduate, Harvard University, Investigating the Surprising Regulatory Role of GDF11 on Myelination in the Brain during Aging

●  Stephanie Robinson, Undergraduate, Boston College, Decoupling different geometric aspects of caudal fin form

●      Mandë Holford, Professor, CUNY Hunter College, Broadening our lens: Strategies for enhancing STEM culture in the lab, classroom, and boardroom 

3:10 – 3:40pm coffee break

3:40 – 5:00pm Session VI (Chair: Jens Rister, UMass Boston)

●      Teresa Lee, Assistant Professor, UMass Lowell, The transgenerational accumulation of repressive H3K9me2 affects health and lifespan in C. elegans

●      Amanda Amodeo, Assistant Professor, Dartmouth, Histone nuclear composition and cell cycle regulation during the Drosophila Mid-Blastula Transition

●      Arcadia Kratkiewicz, Graduate student, Yale University, Chromatin analysis of adult pluripotent stem cells reveals a unique stemness maintenance strategy

●      Arjuna Rajakumar, Post-Doc, McGill University, The DNA Damage Response gene chk2 regulates reproductive division of labor in ants

●      Fast track talks

5:00pm – 6:00pm Keynote II (Chair: Jennifer Fish, UMass Lowell)

Keynote II: Karla Neugebauer, Professor, Yale University, “ALL-OR-NONE” RNA processing: Tuning gene expression during development and in response to stress

6:00pm – 7:00pm Dinner

7:30pm – 9:30pm Posters

Day 3 Sunday April 30th

9:00am – 9:50am Session VII (Chair: Trista North, Harvard Medical School)

●  Andrew Gillis, Associate Professor, Marine Biological Laboratory, Patterning of skate gill arches and evolution of paired appendages

●  Amanda DelVichio, Graduate Student, University of Connecticut, Investigating Causal Cells of Heterotopic Ossification in Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva

●  Sumeda Nandadasa, Assistant Professor, UMass Chan Medical School, Extracellular matrix metalloproteinase modulation of the ciliary transition zone is crucial for normal development of the mammalian embryo by regulating primary and motile cilia biogenesis

9:50 – 10:20 Coffee Break

10:20 – 11:30am Session VIII (Chair: Alicia Ebert, University of Vermont)

●      Dustin Updike, Associate Professor, MDI Biological Laboratory, The conserved role of BYN-1/Bystin in cellular uptake and clearance in the Caenorhabditis elegans germline

●  Elissa Sorojsrisom, Graduate student, Columbia University, A TALE of Two Genes: Evolution of KNOX and BELL in Ferns and Lycophytes

●      Gwendolyn Beacham, Post-Doc, Boston University, Scavenger receptors in the transendothelial migration of blood stem cells

●      Heena Khurana, Graduate student, UMass Boston, An Unfolded Protein Response prevents the death of vitamin A deprived photoreceptors

11:30am- 12:00pm Business meeting and awards

Box Lunch and departure: 12:00-1:30