Visitor of the Week: Mohamed "Mo" Gatie

Meet Mohamed “Mo” Gatie of the Sloan Kettering Institute. Mo is a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis’ lab. He took part in our 2021 Mouse Engineering Virtual Minicourse and returned last month to train, in-person, at the Mouse Development, Stem Cells & Cancer course last month.

Tell us about your research.
How cells differentiate and acquire specific identities, organize in an orchestrated manner to generate an anatomical, fully functional organ remains an elusive mystery in developmental biology. To understand the mechanisms that govern the formation of endodermal organs, I use high resolution imaging with single-cell genomic technologies, coupled with precision mouse genetics approaches to further our understanding of normal endodermal organ development; a cornerstone for improving the understanding and treatment of congenital birth defects.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
During my graduate training, I focused on trying to understand the role metabolism plays in lineage decision using in vitro systems. However, for my postdoctoral work, I wanted to switch gears and study later stages of development and use the mouse as a model organism. I was fortunate enough to be accepted into the lab of Dr. Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis who is an expert in mammalian embryo development, with a longstanding interest in the endoderm, the tissue which gives rise to the respiratory and digestive tracts and associated organs.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
My earliest childhood inspiration would have to be my uncle. I was always amazed by his ability to take things apart, fix them, and put them back together. This really resonated with me, as in developmental biology, we follow a similar process when we’re trying to understand normal development and/or disease.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
In addition to advancing the field of developmental biology, I would like to provide increased opportunities to marginalized groups, minorities and women in science to remove the barriers these groups face and make science more inclusive and accessible to all.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
I hope to have a paper or two published from my postdoctoral work and focus on my career path towards an independent research program to do science and mentor the next generation of scientists.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
The scientific freedom to explore the unknown. The most satisfying aspect of research is when you first make a discovery--big or small--and for that moment in time you are the only person who knows about it.

What drew you to apply to this course?
The CSHL Mouse Development, Stem Cells and Cancer course is an intensive, 3-week course that brings together world-class researchers, instructors and students to learn and exchange their unique knowledge and expertise. Coming into this with little mouse experience, this course was exactly what I needed to enhance my competence in this area of science. The instructors and TAs were extremely knowledgeable and approachable, and truly made this experience unforgettable.

What is your key takeaway from the course; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
The course was designed in a way to expose us to many different techniques. The point is not to be an expert, but perhaps learn and develop valuable skills that we can take back to our own labs and implement into our individual research projects.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this course?
JUST DO IT! The lectures and the technical knowledge and various topics you will learn about during this course are invaluable.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the course?
The most memorable aspect is easily the collaboration I established with the CSHL Metabolomics course. I wanted to expand my knowledge and was lucky enough to interact with the students and instructors from the Metabolomics course, which was taking place at the same time as the mouse course. We were able to work on a project together and present the data to the class. Collaboration is exactly what science is all about, and CSHL is the perfect place for this.

Is this your first in-person course/workshop since the pandemic? If so, any thoughts you’d like to share?
Yes, this is my very first workshop ever. To many around the world, this pandemic has been very difficult. We in science thrive on collaboration, networking, discussing ideas as well as going to conferences to learn and present our work. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to attend the CSHL Mouse Development, Stem Cells and Cancer course to learn from experts in the field and learn from amazing individuals.   

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
Without a doubt, it is the people I met in the course. I really enjoyed being able to thoroughly plan experiments, talk about science and just spend time at the bar relaxing after a long day with all the wonderful folks. The friendships that I have gained from this course will be everlasting.

Mohamed received a scholarship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to cover a portion of his course tuition. On behalf of Mo, thank you to HHMI for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Thank you to Mo 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 Mohamed Gatie

Visitor of the Week: Judith Cristobal

Meet Judith Cristobal of the State University of New York at Buffalo! The Filipino citizen is postdoctoral associate in John Richard’s lab and is with us at 2022 course of Expression, Purification & Analysis of Proteins and Protein Complexes. This is second course Judith has taken through our program (the first one was X-Ray Methods in Structural Biology in 2017) and the first she’s taken since the pandemic. She shares that “[although] the advancements in technology greatly helped in making distance learning more accessible during the pandemic, in-person training is still invaluable in providing more hands-on experience on carrying out experiments and more collaborative work with instructors and peers in my field.”

Tell us about your research.
My research focuses on determining the role of a global, substrate-driven enzyme conformational change, in enabling the large rate acceleration of enzymes (GPDH and OMPDC) in catalyzing their respective reactions. My research aims to examine the protein–substrate interactions in enzymes by studying the effect of mutations on the critical amino acid residues that interact with the substrate. We also aim to provide insights into the mechanism for small molecule activation of enzyme activity that is analogous to allosteric activation, while enabling practical uses of chemical rescue in the activation of enzymes for catalysis.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
I have always been interested and fascinated by how enzymes carry out their respective biochemical reactions and how enzyme mutations or misregulations lead to disorders. Deeper understanding of the enzyme’s structure, properties, and mechanism is vital for drug discovery and development to treat diseases.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
My high school teacher inspired me to pursue a chemistry degree in college. Since then, I have the eagerness and motivation to be a part of the scientific community that works on projects with real-world implications for human health.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
I see myself being a part of a research and development (R&D) team of an industrial/pharmaceutical company that aims to search and develop small drug-like molecules for disease treatment.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
What I love about being a researcher is the chance for the endless pursuit of scientific knowledge. There are always new scientific areas to discover, new fundamental questions to answer, and new open doors to explore.

What drew you to apply to this course?
I have done experiments using traditional methods (IEC; SEC) for purification of GPDH using bacterial system (E. coli). I believe that this program will provide more insights on key approaches such as: a) protein expression in insect cells and mammalian cells; b) protein purification via various affinity methods; and c) protein characterization and analysis such as binding assays and post-translational modifications.

What is your key takeaway from the Course; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
I learned a lot about protein purification techniques especially on proteins with Tags which I will be applying to purify His-Tag TIM and His-Tag AdK in our lab. The course also invited speakers who discussed cryo-EM and mass spectrometry which are powerful tools that provide valuable structural information for analysis of proteins and protein complexes.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this course?
I highly recommend this course. There’s a vast array of proteins that needs to be studied and characterized and so taking this course provides course participants with a better understanding of purification protocols and strategies best suited to express and purify their protein of interest.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Course?
The most memorable experience I had in the course is the “chalk-talk“ sessions. Each participant had a chance to discuss his/her research project and ask particular research problem(s) on which they need input. During each session, the instructors and the participants have collaborative conversations to provide the researcher new perspective and approaches on how to deal with his/her respective research challenges.

Is this your first in-person course/workshop since the pandemic? If so, any thoughts you’d like to share?
This is my first in-person course/workshop since the pandemic. Although the advancements in technology greatly helped in making distance learning more accessible during the pandemic, in-person training is still invaluable in providing more hands-on experience on carrying out experiments and more collaborative work with instructors and peers in my field.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
I like the quality time spent with the instructors, assistants, and fellow participants during the course breaks. I also enjoyed taking walks at the campus trails and beach front as well as seeing the rich historic architectures all around the campus.

Thank you to Judith 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.

Images provided by Judith Cristobal

Visitor of the Week: Sunil Kumar Kenchanmane Raju

Meet Sunil Kumar Kenchanmane Raju of Michigan State University! A research associate in Chad Niederhuth’s lab within the Department of Plant Biology, Sunil returns to CSHL for another plant science-centric course. In 2015, Sunil trained at the annual summer course on Frontiers & Techniques in Plant Science. This year, he is back for the week-long Workshop on Cereal Genomics where he is picking up techniques he’ll use to help analyze his ATAC-seq data. Sunil has also been a CSHL course ambassador of sorts, informing his fellow workshop trainees that the course goes beyond the lecture room: Speak with everyone in the course and build your network – including the instructors and lecturers. 

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
My research focuses on how plants adapt to changing climates and how genomic interactions with the environment shape complex trait evolution. Currently, I’m working on utilizing comparative epigenomics to understand variations in low temperature tolerance in maize and its close relative, temperate-adapted Tripsacum dactyloides.

How did you decide to make this the focus of your research?
Temperatures in my native South India typically range between 70 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. When I first arrived to Lincoln, Nebraska for my grad school, it was a cold December night. I was immediately cold stressed and that frigid experience became the motivation behind my want to study cold stress. <Fun emoji> Jokes aside, the changing climate is threatening our ability to produce enough food for the growing population. Food security depends on the ability of plant scientists to develop climate-resilient crops that withstand the challenges of the changing climates. We don’t have to re-invent the wheel: some crop-wild relatives are naturally adept to stressful environments. My motivation is to understand stress adaptation of crop-wild relatives at the genomic and epigenomic levels, and translate stress-resilience into major crops.

How did your scientific journey begin?
When I was a kid, my pediatrician used to tell my parents that I will grow up to be a politician or a scientist (I used to ask her a lot of questions!). Those careers have always been in the back of my mind and I chose the scientist path. I guess, in addition to the amazing scientific mentors I have had throughout my career, my father was my biggest inspiration. Even though he didn’t specifically want me to become a scientist, he always instilled in me the philosophy that ‘education/learning never ends, new knowledge always creates a way for more learning.’ That has been my life’s philosophy and what better profession to practice it than as a scientist exploring new – to create newer – things.

Was there something specific about the Workshop on Cereal Genomics that drew you to apply?
As I am switching my model system from soybean to maize, now is an ideal time for me to attend this workshop as it’ll allow me to more fully capitalize on its contents to help address the questions remaining in my research program. My research focuses on an emerging area of plant biology, and so I will benefit greatly from interacting with scientists from various backgrounds working on advanced techniques in cereals and comparative genomics.

What and/or how will you apply what you’ve learned from the course to your work?
It’s been just a few days into the course and already I feel like we (students) are speaking the cereal community’s lingo! The lectures and hands-on exercises on high-throughput transcriptomics and phenomics data analysis were very informative and will be something I will apply in my research. Also, the informal discussions with instructors and fellow coursemates have been invaluable. Learning from people with diverse research interests has been the biggest highlight.

What is your key takeaway from the Course?
First, I want to thank the instructors for putting together such an amazing list of speakers for the course. Also kudos to them for selecting such a diverse group of students; not just in gender balance but also geographic representation and, most importantly, diversity in research interests. An important take away from this course is that meaningful progress happens through great collaboration within the community, and the cereal genomics community is one of the best examples with everyone being supportive of each other’s work. 

If someone curious in attending this course asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
I highly recommend this and any other course at CSHL. There’s something special about the atmosphere at these courses that is very conducive for participants at all levels to take in and bring home a lot. I would recommend the CSHL Cereal Genomics Workshop to early career plant scientists who are or wish to work on cereals. It isn’t just about knowing the latest science but also getting to know the scientists at the forefront of cereal genomics.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
The environment here is so serene and inspiring. As a matter of fact, the first thing I did when I arrived at CSHL was take a walk along the beach! If I were to work here, I would always start my day with a walk along the beach, maybe read a couple of research papers there, get inspired, come up with ideas and run to the lab and turn ideas into reality!

Sunil received a travel award from The Michigan State University Plant Resilience Institute (PRI). On behalf of Sunil, thank you to PRI for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Thank you to Sunil 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.

Visitor of the Week: Yi-Jyun Luo

Meet Yi-Jyun Luo of Harvard University. Having recently graduated from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (Japan), Yi-Jyun joined Mansi Srivastava's lab this past September as a postdoctoral fellow. He is affiliated with the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and returns to CSHL to attend his second CSHL course in two years. This year, Yi-Jyun is training at the 2017 Scientific Writing Retreat which is held annually in the Banbury Conference Center. 

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
I am interested in evolutionary developmental biology, and my research interests are in animal body patterning and cell fate regulation during evolution. I am working on stem cell regulation in a new regeneration model: acoel Hofstenia miamia.

Was there something specific about the Scientific Writing Retreat course that drew you to apply?
Writing is an essential aspect of doing science in terms of getting publications and grants. As a non-native English speaker, I am always working to improve my English writing and to better communicate my ideas and research. From my past experience of attending CHSL meetings and courses, I knew this course would be an excellent opportunity for me to learn scientific communication skills.

What is your key takeaway from the Course?
The diversity in the attendees, and the encouraging environment fostered by the Course to share and speak with those from different fields, are awesome. I have picked up a lot of new ideas on how to deliver my work to a target audience and to lay people. 

How many CSHL courses and meetings have you attended?
This is my third time at CSHL but this is my first time at the Banbury Center. I attended the Biology of Genomes meeting in 2015 and the Programming for Biology course in 2016.

If someone curious in attending a future iteration of the Scientific Writing Retreat course asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
I highly recommend this course as it is very rewarding in terms of scientific and personal experiences. The course is exceptional for learning written communication know-how from the best, and it is also an excellent networking opportunity to meet editors face-to-face. Also, the Banbury Center is a lovely setting for this course.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
I really enjoy the unique and inspiring atmosphere at CSHL. Both the Banbury Center and Main Campus are full of natural scenery and academic history, and are all about cutting-edge technology and science communication. Also, people are friendly and there are plenty of opportunities to interact with fellow scientists and journal editors.

Yi-Jyun received a stipend from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to cover a portion of his course tuition. On behalf of Yi-Jyun, thank you to NIGMS for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Thank you to Yi-Jun 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. 

Visitor of the Week: Ilse Eidhof

Meet Ilse Eidhof of The Radboudumc (Netherlands). The PhD student is part of the Drosophila Models of Brain Disorders Research Group led by Annette Schenck. A 2016 Drosophila Neurobiology course alumna, Ilse returns to campus for the 2017 Neurobiology of Drosophila meeting where she presented a poster.

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
I am interested in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, and use the fruit fly as the model to understand the mechanisms underlying these disorders. 

Was there something specific about the Neurobiology of Drosophila meeting that drew you to attend?
I have a number of reasons for attending this meeting. For one, I believe this meeting to be one of the greatest in Drosophila neurobiology and its long list of speakers consists of those who are absolutely the best in the field. In addition, this meeting provides a platform to interact with other Drosophila scientists; and I am particularly interested in new technological innovations that are presented and discussed here.  

What is your key takeaway from the meeting?
Mainly the current state of today's Drosophila research and which new tools and techniques I can incorporate into my own work.

How many CSHL meetings have you attended? How about CSHL courses?
This is the second meeting at CSHL I am attending; and in 2016 I was part of the Drosophila Neurobiology: Genes, Circuits & Behaviors course. 

If someone curious in attending a future iteration of Neurobiology of Drosophila meeting asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
I would definitely recommend those interested in this meeting to attend because I believe it to be one of the biggest and greatest in the field. It covers a broad range of topics - from basic neurobiological questions to technological innovations and disease modeling - that there is basically a topic of interest for everyone. Plus, the overall quality of the research presented is quite amazing. 

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
I really like the open atmosphere at CSHL; and there are numerous opportunities to meet and interact with fellow scientists in the field. 

Thank you to Ilse 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.