Visitor of the Week: Edwin G. Peña-Martínez

Meet Edwin G. Peña-Martínez of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Río Piedras Campus. The third-year PhD Candidate at Dr. José A. Rodríguez-Martínez’s laboratory (The JARM Lab) is at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory participating in Systems Biology: Global Regulation of Gene Expression—his first meeting as a graduate student and his first in-person meeting since the pandemic. Edwin presented his first in-person poster titled ‘Elucidating the Molecular Mechanism of Non-Coding Variants in NKX2-5 Binding Sites on Congenital Heart Disease.’

Tell us about your research, and how you decided to focus on this area/project.
I work with cardiac transcription factors (TFs) involved in heart development. Specifically, I research the molecular mechanisms of regulatory variants in Congenital Heart Defects (CHDs). I got involved in this project after meeting my mentor, Dr. Jose A. Rodríguez-Martínez, in my first graduate course. I have always been fascinated by Molecular Biology, and this course got me interested in understanding protein-DNA interactions.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I was inspired to become a scientist thanks to Dr. Elsie Rivera. I had no idea doing research was a career option until she approached me to work in her lab. It was working with Dr. Rivera that I discovered that I wanted to pursue a PhD.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
Five years from now I see myself finishing a post-doc and starting my career in academia. I wish to provide research opportunities while inspiring undergraduate students to pursue a career in STEM.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
What I love most about being a scientist is discovering something new in my field. In a way it’s like being the first to learn a secret, but one I am allowed to share.

What drew you to attend this meeting?
Being a scientist is a constant learning curve. Leading researchers in my field attend this meeting; as a result, CSHL Systems Biology is the best platform to learn the latest methods and discoveries in my field.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
The best takeaway from this experience is the perspective and feedback I received from the countless researchers I met. This will allow me to approach my research with new methods and techniques that I previously did not consider.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
I would tell them to stop considering it and come to CSHL. I was extremely nervous and thought that I was not ready to participate. However, it was an amazing opportunity and I learned more than I could imagine. I can’t wait to come back for the next meeting!

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
Probably one of the most memorable experiences is meeting some the scientist I most admire. For example, I had the honor of meeting Dr. Polly Fordyce after reading most of her publications.

Is this your first in-person meeting since the pandemic? If so, any thoughts you’d like to share?
I started my PhD in the same year the pandemic started, and I have not been able to attend an in-person meeting. Participating in CSHL Systems Biology was exciting and fun. I’ve been missing this kind of networking experience.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
CSHL is such a welcoming and cozy place. It is by far one of the friendliest environments I have had the privilege of joining. Not to mention the place is beautiful.

Thank you to Edwin 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 Edwin G. Peña-Martínez

Visitor of the Week: Shreeta Chakraborty

Meet Shreeta Chakraborty of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The postdoctoral fellow in the Unit on Genome Structure and Regulation led by Pedro Rocha. Shreeta took part in her first CSHL meeting: Systems Biology: Global Regulation of Gene Expression which was, a few weeks before its scheduled start date transformed into, a virtual conference. The first-ever virtual CSHL meeting was attended by 170+ participants and Shreeta shares her experience of the Systems Biology meeting.

Tell us about your research.
My research explores how specific transcription factors, enhancers and promoters interact in the three-dimensional nucleus and coordinate cell fate based upon changes in chromatin architecture during early mammalian development. More specifically my goal is to investigate the functional significance of disruption of CTCF binding in mediating chromatin looping in knock-out mouse models and embryonic stem cells established from them.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
One research question that has always astonished me: How does dynamic gene regulation execute a diverse repertoire of high-fidelity response during cell fate decisions at the critical stages of development and differentiation? In my Ph.D., I explored the development of the placenta using molecular biology tools and keeping my research interests in developmental biology aligned I wanted to get trained in the area of genomics and high throughput sequencing. In my postdoc, I am focusing on nuclear organization during embryonic development.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I would say science itself has been my biggest inspiration. The fact that I enjoy every bit of it, understanding and learning new things everyday keeps inspiring me and driving me in this scientific journey.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
Although doing core research does not have an immediate impact like clinical research, the area of genomics with developing tools in computational technologies is an emerging field that would help us answer long-standing questions in cell fate determination. Despite so much information on complex signaling pathways, there is still a wide gap in our understanding of how cells decide their fate based on stochastic regulation of transcription factors. Evaluation at the level of chromatin remodeling at very early stages of mammalian development will shed some light and bridge this gap.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
I love solving problems! And as a researcher, I face new challenges – both simple and complex – every day, explore and learn new things, bring up ideas, apply my creativity, and discuss my science with the most amazing people. It is not only exciting, but I have a sense of satisfaction in making scientific contributions, however small it may be!

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
I really enjoyed the talks closest or nearest to the kind of research I am doing -- it is always extremely pleasing to hear from experts in your field. Apart from that, there were many other topics covered in the talks that I was not aware of before. I learnt new arenas that can be applied to my research in near future.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
I would advise all my fellow researchers to consider this meeting, and I am sure a physical visit to CSHL and an opportunity to meet the eminent speakers would have been more rewarding.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
I was a bit upset when the meeting was cancelled at the last moment due to the coronavirus outbreak, but I would like to thank the organizers for doing a wonderful job with the virtual meeting! Listening to the talks and enjoying them from the comfort of the lab bench was a different experience altogether.

Thank you to Shreeta 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 Shreeta Chakraborty.

Visitor of the Week: Rafael Campos Martin

Meet Rafael "Rafa" Campos Martin of the Max Planck Institute of Plant Breeding. Rafa is a PhD student and member of Achim Tresch’s lab which is affiliated with the Max Planck Institute and the Medical Statistics and Computational Biology Department of Uniklinik Koln (Germany). The Spanish national is a CSHL first-timer and is on campus for the 2018 Systems Biology: Global Regulation of Gene Expression meeting where he presented a poster title “Linking chromatin states to gene expression with bidrectional Hidden Markov Models” during the first poster session. 

What are your research interests? What are you working on?
My main project is related to finding new candidate proteins that can bind to histone marks in highly transcribed genes. Our lab developed new machine learning models that we apply to different kinds of ‘omics data.

How did you decide to make this the focus of your research?
As an undergrad, I majored in chemistry and biochemistry and have always been amazed by how cells are able to organize molecules and repair themselves. From a chemist’s point-of–view, the reactions happening inside the cells are really fascinating. In order to better understand these connections, I decided to pursue a PhD in ‘omics data analysis where the cross-talks - or connections - can be explained via mathematical models.

How did your scientific journey begin? 
I have been fortunate to have had great teachers during my studies but my first, and most important, teacher would have to be my sister, Samantha. I credit her for sparking my curiosity because growing up she took me for walks in the forests and taught me about plants, insects, and how everything is connected.

Was there something specific about the Systems Biology: Global Regulation of Gene Expression meeting that drew you to attend?
I came because the topic of the meeting compliments my main project. Also, since I will soon be finishing my PhD, this meeting is a great opportunity to meet scientists from other labs and develop my next steps.

What is your key takeaway from the meeting?
From the talks to the people you will meet, there is always something interesting so pay attention and meet as many people as you can. For instance, I had fruitful discussions with people working with Neural Networks and learned of different ways they apply it, and the pros and cons of such modelling. In the process, I have become interested in Neural Networks and would like to incorporate it into my career. 

Did you pick up or learn something new from the meeting that you plan to apply to your work?  
Definitely! This meeting was attended by great scientists and it was really easy to engage them in a conversation. A few interesting ideas worth a try came up during these discussions; including finding a different application for an algorithm our lab has been working on. I spoke with people working to find new putative TF-binding and there is a strong possibility that our algorithm can be applied to their work to help answer their questions.

If someone curious in attending a future iteration of this meeting asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her?
Go for it. The location is great, the people are really interesting, and the food is tasty. But, if possible, try to come during a warmer month or you may experience a snowstorm.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
I experienced a nor’easter and the snow made CSHL even more beautiful.

Thank you to Rafa 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.