Visitor of the Week: Annie Yao

Meet Annie Yao of the University of Connecticut Health Center. Annie is a MD/PhD Candidate in Dr. Riqiang Yan’s lab and recently trained at last month’s Ion Channels in Synaptic and Neural Circuit Physiology course.

Tell us about your research.
My lab studies the pathophysiological underpinnings of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia worldwide. I’m interested in how beta-secretase, an essential enzyme in the development of AD, regulates neuronal excitability and synaptic plasticity.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
Since high school, I’ve been interested in combining translational research with helping patients. While working at the Broad Institute/MIT after college in Dr. Guoping Feng’s lab, which studies synapse and brain circuitry dysfunction in neuropsychiatric disorders like autism and schizophrenia, I was inspired to pursue a dual MD/PhD degree with the goal of studying and treating brain disorders. I chose my project after rotating in a couple of labs and being inspired by electrophysiology as a way to study neuronal (dys)function.  

Annie patch-clamp recording of a dendrite in the hippocampal CA1 region.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
My parents are first-generation immigrants that moved to the U.S. to pursue their own graduate education in science. The strength and resilience they possessed to make that sort of leap… they have always been an inspiration to me.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
I hope that my current and future research and clinical training will be able to directly shape patient wellbeing and improve therapeutics.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
One of my favorite parts of being a researcher is that there’s always something more to learn, a new skill to develop, a new perspective to explore.

What drew you to apply to this course?
I have heard amazing things about the Ion Channels course for many years, from both my mentors in previous labs and peers who have taken the course. I knew that this experience would be formative in my growth as a training electrophysiologist. 

What is your key takeaway from the Course; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
My key takeaway is to be persistent in your troubleshooting of the rig, and as one of our instructors emphasized at the end of our time here, to be rigorous in our practice of electrophysiology and critical about our data.

Patch clamp of a hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neuron while measuring evoked activity.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this course?
You get out of an experience what you put in! When applying for the course, be sure to emphasize how your specific project would benefit from this immersive experience. When at the course, make use of the expertise that surrounds you every day – you have access to incredible teachers/scientists/electrophysiologists who can help you answer any question you have about your project design or execution. And finally, make time for yourself - 3 weeks of nonstop ephys is gratifying but intense!

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Course?
After the last day of hands-on lab work, our cohort went on a sunset sailboat trip together. It felt amazing to be on the water, with beautiful weather and in the company of new friends.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
Being surrounded by beautiful nature the second you step outside your cabin or the lab. Cold Spring Harbor is truly such a scenic place to learn in.

Thank you to Annie for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Images provided by Annie Yao

Visitor of the Week: Philip Salu

Meet Philip Salu of the North Dakota State University! The Ghanaian citizen is a Ph.D. Candidate and member of Prof. Katie Reindl’s lab. He attended the 2022 course on Metabolomics last month; his first in-person course since the pandemic that he found “frankly refreshing”.

Tell us about your research.
The focus of my research is on drug-resistance development in pancreatic cancer. Our main goal is to better understand the underlying mechanisms using appropriately developed cell line models.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
Drug resistance in cancers is a complex phenomenon that is commonly talked about, yet the root cause is not fully understood. There were earlier attempts in my lab at developing specific drug resistance models and so it was a natural thing for me to pick up this project since there is still a lot of discovery to be made.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
My scientific journey began with the desire to work in a field where a lot of exciting discoveries have been made knowing that there are even greater prospects ahead. This is of course fueled by my curiosity and open-minded attitude to solving problems.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
I hope to contribute to scientific knowledge regarding the mechanism of drug resistance development in pancreatic cancer. The disease condition has an abysmal survival rate, therefore, any knowledge that contributes to increased disease susceptibility to therapy will have significant implications for patient survival.  

Where do you see yourself in five years?
Soon, I see myself starting a post-doctoral training to further understand the metabolic needs of cancers and their resistant phenotypes. I would also like to work in a lab that is into biomarker discovery before starting independent research of my own.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
Being a researcher gives me the ability to be open-minded and inquisitive. I derive joy from the successes and channel the failures into an energy of motivation.

What drew you to apply to this course?
I have always wanted to determine changes in metabolic signatures of the cells I work with. So, when I found this course on the CSHL website, I knew I had to take it. 

What is your key takeaway from the Course; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
The field is very diverse and what you do including procedures and equipment are very relevant in obtaining accurate data. I have come to appreciate the importance in finding ways to use instruments that are available to me in answering basic questions. Also, this course has given me insight into things I should consider when preparing my samples and running them to get consistent data that truly answers my questions.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this course?
I will highly recommend this course to anyone interested. But more importantly, make connections, friends and share knowledge. The prospects are just boundless.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Course?
The most memorable moment of the course for me was our “Beeromics” experiment. How we sampled different beer brands each night and the effort it took our instructors to run about 200 samples while making sure all other student projects are taken care of amidst instrument breakdowns.

Is this your first in-person course/workshop since the pandemic? If so, any thoughts you’d like to share?
Yes, this is my first in-person course since the pandemic and it was frankly refreshing to have face-to-face interactions again. It's very interesting how in-person meetings are more fruitful compared to online interactions.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
My favorite thing was our sailing trip on the 138-year-old Oyster Sloop, Christeen. I really did enjoy how the vessel’s history was told by one of the captains.

Philip received a scholarship from Regeneron to cover a portion of his course tuition. On behalf of Philip, thank you to Regeneron for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Thank you to Philip for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Image provided by Philip Salu

Visitor of the Week: Kyle McAndrews

Meet Kyle McAndrews of the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC)! Kyle is a 4th year doctoral student in the Cancer Research Graduate Program and a member of Tony Hollingsworth’s lab. He attended our 2022 workshop on Pancreatic Cancer.  

Tell us about your research.
My project is focused on the pancreatic ductal glands, which are a progenitor niche of the main pancreatic duct. We are interested in determining their contribution to pancreatic cancer initiation and progression.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
My undergraduate degree was in Wildlife Ecology and Biology and I actually did not plan to become a lab rat, but I was hired as a lab technician in Dr. Sarah Thayer’s laboratory at UNMC, which is where my project began and I became excited about pancreatic cancer research, especially how and where in the pancreas it is initiated.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I first became interested in science when I was a child through my father’s (and later my own) aquarium hobby. I found myself wanting to learn more and more about the natural world. I also had a lot of great science teachers and professors throughout my education that were truly excited about science and encouraged me to continue learning.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
I hope that my work can help us understand some of the earliest events in the initiating processes of pancreatic cancer. Any knowledge gained surrounding the earliest stages of disease will have important implications for detecting the disease and intervening sooner.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
Being on the cutting edge of what we know is extremely exciting, the seemingly infinite complexity of Biology is mind boggling and being a part of advancing human knowledge is both fulfilling and important.

What drew you to apply to this course?
Some of my lab mates had attended previously and had an amazing experience.

Kyle sectioning frozen tissue sections of mouse pancreas.

What is your key takeaway from the Course; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
That all of the models which we use to study disease have limitations and that we always need to keep this in mind when making conclusions about data. There are seemingly infinite cell to cell interactions happening at all stages of pancreatic cancer, many of which we are just beginning to scratch the surface. This course has helped broaden my perspective and allowed me to look at my own project from angles that I had never previously considered.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this course?
Ask questions, make friends and connections to everyone here! There is so much knowledge and experience and having such an intimate setting with leaders in the field is truly priceless.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Course?
Honestly the fact that everything was so casual was a relief. I definitely packed too many polos and pants. Seeing experts in the field from around the country just be who they are and not in their normal professional setting was awesome.

Is this your first in-person course/workshop since the pandemic? If so, any thoughts you’d like to share?
This is my second in-person course/workshop since the pandemic. It was nice to interact with people from outside of my normal routine and setting, which has at times been hard or impossible in the last couple of years.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
Playing card games with other attendees after our long days and going for a run down to Lloyd Harbor Road when I could fit it in before dinner was great. As a native Nebraskan I appreciate any second I can spend near salt-water.

Kyle received a scholarship from the Helmsley Charitable Trust to cover a portion of his course tuition. On behalf of Kyle, thank you to the Helmsley Charitable Trust for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Thank you to Kyle for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured scientists - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Images provided by Kyle McAndrews

Visitor of the Week: Adrian Padron

Meet Adrian Padron of the Meharry Medical College School of Graduate Studies and Research! The doctoral candidate is conducting his work in the lab of CV Dash which utilizes biochemical approaches to understanding the early events of the HIV-1 replication process. Adrian is at Retroviruses, his first in-person meeting since the pandemic, where he had the opportunity to give his first talk titled “Cyclophilin A Promotes HIV-1 Preintegration Complex Function.” It was warmly received by his fellow researchers and he received some direct and “quite invaluable” feedback. But despite this career milestone, being able to meet people from different parts of the world and learning of their work in virology has been what Adrian enjoyed most from his time at CSHL.

Tell us about your research.
My project entails determining the role of the host factor, Cyclophilin A (CypA), on HIV-1 pre-integration complex function. The overarching aim of this study is to determine if CypA has a role in the critical step of vDNA integration.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
Although I studied animal physiology as an undergrad, I have always had an interest in microbiology and virology. I spent several years working in various research labs in California and Maryland which gave me an opportunity to explore my research options. When I began my graduate work at Meharry, I was fortunate to be able to further explore my interests rotating in molecular virology research labs.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I was inspired to go on my scientific journey after completing my undergraduate studies as I reflected on my early experiences in life including witnessing the onset of the HIV pandemic when I was young and seeing many people, including my uncle, become infected and lose their life to HIV/AIDS.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
In five years, I hope to continue research and pass on knowledge to others as a university level researcher/instructor.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
One of the things I love most about being a researcher is being able to learn something new and ultimately being able to share it with others.

What drew you to attend this meeting?

The opportunity to be exposed to research from investigators from all over the world is one of the key aspects that drew me to attend this meeting. 

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?

One of the main takeaways from this meeting is that there is still so much to learn about virology which is very exciting! 

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?

I would most certainly advise anyone considering participating in this meeting to network with other researchers.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?

There were two wonderful and inspiring keynote talks—Carol Carter and Thomas J. Hope—which were one of the most memorable aspects of this meeting.

Thank you to Adrian for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured researchers - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Image provided by Adrian Padron

Visitor of the Week: Nicholas Hiers

Meet Nicholas Hiers of the University of Florida! The second year PhD student from Dr. Mingyi Xie’s lab joined us at this week’s Regulatory & Non-Coding RNAs. This not only is his first meeting at CSHL but his first one as a researcher and he made his debut with a bag; presenting a poster titled “The target-directed miRNA degradation interactome in cancer.” Here is Nicholas on his poster presentation experience: “This was my first in-person poster, and I think it went very well. I got to talk about our lab’s science to a bunch of big names and fresh faces, and I also got some nice feedback and a couple new ideas from it as well.”

Tell us about your research.
My research primarily relates to dysregulated small non-coding RNAs (microRNAs) as it relates to cancer progression and severity. I specifically study the mechanisms that determine microRNA birth/biogenesis and death/degradation to better understand altered microRNA-mediated gene expression in cancers.   

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
The degradation of microRNAs recently became a hot topic in the non-coding RNA field, so I was eager to take on a project related to that area. My PI described this subject as a sort of black box, and the prospect of discovering something both novel and impactful was too good to pass up.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I can confidently say that the inspiration for my scientific journey is personal curiosity. I desperately want to better understand how life “works” and this curiosity is generally what fuels my investigations.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
This is difficult to choose, I personally really enjoy research as a creative outlet, but I also get a lot of personal fulfillment and pride from the work that I do.

What drew you to attend this meeting?
It is not everyday that there is a conference for almost exclusively non-coding RNAs, how could I pass up that? That, and the stacked lineup of talks from many of the big names in the field.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
My main takeaway is that this field is full of such great and diverse science, much of which is of such quality that it is personally motivating for me to reach that standard.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
Just come! Everyone is friendly, the campus is gorgeous, and you will get so many fresh ideas and perspectives from all the talks/posters.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
That’s a tough one, but probably getting to see my coworker Tianqi give a talk on her research. It was really exciting to see her explain her science to all of the bigshots in the field, and she ended up nailing the talk!

Is this your first in-person meeting since the pandemic? If so, any thoughts you’d like to share?
It was, it was also my first conference in general. I feel like the pandemic has made everyone far too used to isolation, and it was really nice to just be around a lot of like-minded people in my field now that the pandemic has settled down.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
Without a doubt, the best thing about this meeting has been the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of friends and colleagues from around the world. I have not experienced anything like this since becoming a researcher, and it has been such a positive experience that I will 100% be returning to CSHL.

Thank you to Nicholas for being this week's featured visitor. To meet other featured researchers - and discover the wide range of science that takes part in a CSHL meeting or course - go here.

Image provided by NIcholas Hiers