Visitor of the Week: Phoolwanti Rani

Meet Phoolwanti Rani of the San Diego Biomedical Research Institute. Rani is a postdoctoral fellow and member of Prof. David Gilbert’s lab. She spent last week with us at the Eukaryotic and DNA Replication & Genome Maintenance meeting – her first meeting at CSHL —- and “[she] enjoyed connecting with brilliant scientist from all over the world. The poster sessions and speaking with colleagues on Slack were really amazing.”

Tell us about your research.
I am working on developing the technique to generate better map of the factors important for replication and maintaining proper replication timing. MCM is one the challenging origin licensing factor during replication. I am trying to map MCM in a single cell (mammalian) with better resolution.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
During my Ph.D., I worked on Topoisomerases and got introduced to transcription-replication conflicts. I got attracted to replication and finally landed in the laboratory which works on replication timing.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, aerospace scientist who served as the 11th president of India. I read his autobiography in school and got inspired to become scientist. I was also interested in biology, and so chose to pursue my career in the same field.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
Research is limitless. Finding an answer to one question always leads to another puzzle to solve.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
I was very much interested by the discussion session, and learnt the importance of continuing the discussion in science. Amazing ideas and collaborations come up during discussions.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering participating in this meeting?
It is an amazing platform to share knowledge, build collaborations and look for career opportunities.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
My PI mentioned in the meeting that I am going to be working on a very important unresolved problem.

Thank you to Phoolwanti 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 Phoolwanti Rani

Visitor of the Week: Dagmawi "Dag" Mamo

Meet Dagmawi “Dag” Mamo of James Madison University! The first-year graduate assistant is a member of Dr. Casonya Johnson’s lab and spent the past week with us at the Mechanisms of Eukaryotic Transcription virtual meeting – his first CSHL meeting.

Tell us about your research.
My research is currently focused on defining the regulatory context in which the HES protein HLH-25 regulates transcription. I will be correlating data obtained from RNA-Sequencing and ChIP-Seq to elucidate the location, sequence, and topography of DNA elements required for HLH-25 mediated transcription repression.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
As an undergraduate student, I did my Honors thesis on developing transgenic constructs as part of our laboratory’s large-scale project. As a master’s student, I wanted to continue the journey of trying to understand the mechanisms of HES transcription factors’ mediation of transcription repression. This is because characterization of HLH-25 could serve as a model for studying the role of HES-1 in human cancers and could lead to the development of new treatments. 

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
My introduction to doing research and subsequent growth as a scientist could not have been possible without the incredible support and nurturing of my advisor Dr. Casonya Johnson, my mentor Caylin Murray, and several other advisors.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
I love being part of a broad project that uses a systems approach to understand a molecular event and in doing so contributes to the discovery of new knowledge—knowledge that can be used for improvements in human health.

What drew you to attend this meeting?
The opportunity to learn from and network with scientists from across the world doing studies under the umbrella of “mechanisms of eukaryotic transcription”.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
I am walking away with an immense appreciation of the breadth and intricacy of eukaryotic transcription mechanisms. Seeing the collaboration and discussions among different labs and experts has encouraged me to invite more feedback and critique in the work that I am doing in order to create more learning opportunities and avenues for myself so that I may produce high-quality work.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
I would encourage anyone considering to do go through with attending this meeting. My advice would also be to attend as many sessions as possible because, although certain sessions may be out of your  circle of interest, being able to see different presentation formats and communication styles of scientific information are added bonuses to the vast well of information that’s presented.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
It was very fascinating to learn that chromatin confirmation signatures (CCS) can now be accurately used as biomarkers of human diseases going as far as being able to predict patients’ responses to treatments. It was exciting overall to see the extensive work that gets done, the new applications that are used, and the interdisciplinary collaborations made to produce these works of scientific literature.  

Thank you to Dag 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 Dag Mamo

Visitor of the Week: Maddie Jensen

Meet Maddie Jensen of University of Rochester! The second-year graduate student in Eric Wagner’s lab joined us at this week’s Eukaryotic mRNA Processing virtual meeting. This is Maddie’s first meeting at CSHL, and she’ll join us again at next week’s Mechanisms of Eukaryotic Transcription. She presented a poster titled ‘Identification and structural basis of a novel cellular inhibitor of the Integrator complex’. Her first virtual poster presented was “overall…a great experience! [She] enjoyed connecting with colleagues over Slack and setting up Zoom meetings to [further] discuss their both of their works.”

Tell us about your research.
My project aims to better understand the role of the metazoan Integrator complex in concert with its binding partners such as CG7044/Brat1. Integrator was initially found to regulate snRNA 3’-end processing but has now been shown to be more of a broad transcriptional regulator.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
I went to graduate school knowing that I had an interest in molecular biology, specifically RNA and its various roles. I wanted to be a part of better understanding the fine details of our cells.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I had several scientific mentors throughout my high school and college careers that saw qualities in me, such as curiosity and a desire to learn, that caused them to encourage me to pursue research. Their expertise and encouragement throughout the different stages of my academic career had a profound impact on me. Getting to experience the passion they had for science and for their students inspires me to want to do the same for others.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
I hope that my research will push our understanding of transcriptional regulation forward to one day be applied to human health intervention.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
I really love being able to dig into a specific topic. As a kid, I always loved all kinds of puzzles. That was something my family and I enjoyed doing together. Now, I kind of see my research as uncovering the puzzle of cellular regulation. It is exciting to discover and I enjoy being able to constantly learn new things!

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
This meeting highlighted the breadth and depth of mRNA processing research. It is also encouraging to be able to see colleague’s hard work pay off in new discoveries. These two things highlighted the importance of having a network of researchers to discuss, challenge and encourage each other. I hope to apply this collaborative way of thinking to the way that I conduct my own research.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
I would highly recommend attending this meeting! My advice would be to interact with as many people as possible. Even though it was virtual, there are plenty of opportunities to connect. I learned so much from hearing about other’s research and getting their feedback on my own.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
I really enjoyed the PI Chats ancillary event on Wednesday evening. The PIs and more experienced students all provided unique points of view. I definitely plan to implement some of the advice they gave about daily life in the lab, time management and communication with colleagues. 

Thank you to Maddie 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 Maddie Jensen

Visitor of the Week: Alex Moon

Meet Alex Moon of New Mexico State University! The third year PhD graduate student in Dr. Jiannong Xu’s Mosquito Genomics lab participated in this week’s Genome Engineering: CRISPR Frontiers virtual meeting. This is his first meeting at CSHL and he presented a poster entitled “CRISPR-Cas13a mediated RNA interference in Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.”

Tell us about your research.
I study the immunometabolism of the malaria mosquito.  By inhibiting the metabolic infrastructure, we are able to prevent the immune system from working correctly, thus killing the mosquito and preventing malaria.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
During my undergraduate studies, I was an Emergency Medical Technician and worked in local hospital Emergency rooms and on the county EMS as a “street-medic.”  I found a passion in helping fix and care for patients, and it set a precedence to my love for medicine.  I obtained a master’s in biomedical sciences from a medical school, and then transitioned to a researcher instead of a medical doctor.  New Mexico State University has an interest in mosquitoes and prevention of mosquito-borne diseases.  Each year, billions of people throughout the world are at risk for diseases carried by the mosquito, and millions succumb to mosquito-borne disease.  The mortality rate has begun to trend upwards, desperately requiring new methods for mosquito control and prevention of disease transmission.  I became interested in the genetics of the mosquito, and it ultimately led me to my current PI and dissertation topic of inhibiting the immunometabolism of malaria mosquitoes.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
As a child, I grew up watching Bill Nye the Science Guy, and he started my interest in science.  I would watch documentaries and read about researchers and doctors who helped prevent and eradicate diseases and use biomedical technologies to prevent mortality, and I wanted to be just like them.  My time as a medic showed me my interests lie in infectious disease research leading me to study mosquito-borne disease.  As my scientific journey progresses, my inspiration continues to be the people I helped and will help in their time of illness.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
It is my hope to prevent infectious diseases from inflicting great harm to humans.  We are in a constant arms race to kill the disease before it kills us, and I want to be in the fight.  My hope is to help heal and prevent diseases to large populations of people, and I believe vaccines are the vehicle in driving the prevention of disease progression and mortality.  In the next five years I hope to be researching and developing new, cutting-edge vaccines.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
I most love the traveling and talking aspect of research.  More specifically, I love the fact research allows me the opportunity to meet new people while traveling.  What other profession allows you to travel to new places, see friends (or people that might become your new friends), and talk about what you do every day? 

What drew you to attend this meeting?
I listen to at least one audiobook a week while driving to lab or performing bench work.  I was able to listen to “The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race” by Walter Isaacson, and it references this gene editing conference multiple times.  I heard it, quickly looked it up on the CSHL website, and submitted an abstract.  Also, if Walter Isaacson is reading this, thanks for the inspiration to attend this meeting, and your book was fantastic!

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
A key takeaway from the Meeting was the vast amount of CRISPR work currently being performed in many new Cas systems.  I originally used Cas13a for gene knock-downs, and this meeting gave me new ideas for different Cas systems for knock-outs or knock-ins.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
Plain and simple: DO IT.  There is no conference available that has specific CRISPR work encompassing multiple areas of the field.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
The most memorable aspect of this Meeting is the ability to represent the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma at a renowned CRISPR Meeting.  I would like to give a “Yakoke” (Choctaw for “Thank you”) to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Chahta Foundation for the academic support – truly, I wouldn’t be able to present and attend world-renowned meetings without the assistance. 

Thank you to Alex 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 Alex Moon

Visitor of the Week: Modesta Akoth

Meet Modesta Akoth of Egerton University (Kenya)! She is a graduate student in the Protozoology and Molecular Biology labs within the Biotechnology Research Institute, KALRO (KARLO-BioRI). Modesta spent last week with us at the Proteomics virtual course, her first course at CSHL, the format to which she found “convenient in reaching out to a wider audience globally.”

Tell us about your research.
My research entails using proteomic approaches to identify the mechanism(s) of drug resistance in African trypanosome, the hematophagous parasite that causes sleeping sickness in man and Nagana in animals.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
From the reported records on upsurge of drug resistance in African trypanosomiasis by other researchers as well as a gap identified from a related study by one of the students in our labs led to this area of study.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
The inspiration has been self-driven since I have always been enthusiastic about research. Dr. Paul Mireji, a senior research scientist at KALRO-BioRI has also been instrumental in my scientific journey.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
I am hopeful that my work will identify potential target sites which will provide insight into the development of novel drugs. This will improve disease management hence, better quality of life among the affected marginalized population. 

What do you love most about being a researcher?
The ability to explore and discover something that can be beneficial if implemented is very fulfilling to me.

What is your key takeaway from the Course; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
My key takeaway from the course is to work with what works best for me because there will always be working environment factors to consider like the possible limitation in the equipment available. Also, ensure credibility and reproducibility of the generated results.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this course?
The course is very informative and has competent facilitators with vast knowledge in the area of proteomics, therefore, s/he should not be hesitant to apply if the opportunity avails.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Course?
The prompt elaborate responses by the lecturers towards the questions raised as well as being able to cover almost all aspects of proteomics within four days was remarkable.

Modesta received financial support from Regeneron to cover her course tuition. On behalf of Modesta, thank you to Regeneron for supporting and enabling our young scientists to participate in training courses where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Thank you to Modesta 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 Modesta Akoth