Visitor of the Week: Christian Harris

Meet Christian Harris! The Ph.D. Candidate is a member in the lab headed by Dr. Mary-Louise Risher, Ph.D., and is co-affiliated with Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University and the Hershel Woody Williams Veteran Affairs Medical Center. She took part in last week’s virtual Glia in Health & Disease meeting – her first meeting at CSHL.

Tell us about your research.
My project is investigating the intersection of adolescent binge ethanol exposure and traumatic brain injury (TBI). I am particularly interested in understanding how binge drinking impacts the severity of traumatic brain injury and changes the propensity to consume alcohol later in life.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
In part because of the multiple TBIs that I sustained during my soccer career, brain injury has always been of interest to me  and I was looking to study the cellular mechanisms of TBI. Similarly, my PI Dr. Mary-Louise Risher was looking to add a TBI component to her model of adolescent binge drinking and this turned out to be a great opportunity for me to join her lab. Following several conversations, we agreed an alcohol-TBI project would be an innovative new direction that would provide valuable insight into how astrocytes respond to a variety of insults.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
My family is a huge inspiration to me: My mother (a physician) and my father (a mathematics educator) introduced me to STEM fields at a young age. Throughout my life my family has always encouraged me to think outside the box, to be innovative, and to remain diligent and steadfast in all that I do. My family is always there for me with words of encouragement. I am beyond thankful for such an amazing support system.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
TBI is a major cause of death and disability in the United States. I hope to find a therapeutic target to aid in TBI recovery and limit acute and long-term brain damage. I believe that this work could change the trajectory of TBI treatments.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
In five years I hope to be conducting both clinical (studying the effects of TBI in athletes or veterans) and translational research. I want to investigate the intersection of TBI, individual response to treatment, and age of insult. I’m also interested in repetitive TBI exposure. I would also like to continue animal studies where I can further explore the role astrocytes on neuronal recovery following TBI. Understanding the changes in astrocyte function may be the key in limiting acute and long-term brain damage and developing targeted treatments.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
Research stimulates my imagination and creativity. Being a researcher gives me limitless opportunities and the freedom to formulate, develop and test new ideas.  I particularly enjoy the investigative process as it allows me to turn my ideas into reality. Being a researcher is exciting and humbling yet so valuable and rewarding.

What drew you to attend this meeting?
I am relatively new to the field of glia, so this meeting is a great opportunity to expand my knowledge of the field as well as learn from some of the best researchers in the world. Also, my PI Dr. Risher and labmate Christopher Walker had a really interesting poster during the meeting on the impact of adolescent binge ethanol exposure on astrocyte structure and function.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
The key takeaway from this meeting is that glial cells may hold the key to unlocking many of the mysteries surrounding the mechanisms of disease and injury. There were multiple talks and posters on astrocyte reactivity, traumatic brain injury, and alcohol that are directly related to my research. I am hoping to apply a few of the presented genetic, imaging, and data acquisition techniques to my work.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
Meetings can be overwhelming, I recommend going through the meeting program a few days before the meeting starts. Find talks and posters that are of interest to you, read the abstracts, and develop a schedule. Make sure to factor in some free time for networking, come with an open mind, and most of all have fun and enjoy the meeting!

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
There are so many! Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with so many fellow researchers from various labs, research backgrounds, and countries. Being able to exchange various thoughts and ideas while making lasting connections is invaluable. I have learned

Thank you to Christian 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 Christian Harris

Visitor of the Week: Sejin Chung

Meet Sejin “Sej” Chung of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies! The postdoctoral fellow in Dannielle Engle’s lab is taking part in the virtual Workshop in Pancreatic Cancer. This is her first course at CSHL, and she will soon be among the 130+ researchers who have trained at this workshop since it the first class in 2011.

Tell us about your research.
My research focuses on finding early detection markers to improve current pancreatic cancer survival rates. I am also interested in understanding how bacteria can influence the immune system and affect pancreatic disease progression.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
I studied pancreatic cancer therapies during my graduate school, and wanted to continue to tackle this aggressive cancer. Part of the big issue is that pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect until it is late stage. Figuring out a way to detect the disease is thus a critical unmet need and I wanted to work on a project that would directly address this. I was also interested in stepping out of my comfort zone, and wanted to dive into the microbiome and immune system to better understand this disease.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
My mom has been an inspiration behind my scientific journey. We moved to the US when I was young, and she raised my sister and me while she simultaneously learned English and obtained an education. Through her example, I have always been motivated to be compassionate to others and to give back to my community. She is a constant motivation in my scientific aspirations.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
I really just want to be able to help move the field forward in any way. Whether that be through new models or new mechanisms, I want to be able to increase this current momentum that we are seeing in the pancreatic field. There is a lot to be done, and working together will allow us to help the patients.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
I love that there is always more to learn and that there are many ways to find a solution. Research can be difficult but the satisfaction of learning new things and being able to contribute to the community makes it all worth it!

What drew you to apply to this workshop?
I wanted to learn more about pancreatic cancer in various aspects. It is easy to fall into and stay in your own research field, but it is important to learn about the other research that is going on within it. I knew leading experts in the pancreatic cancer field would be lecturing during the workshop, and I wanted to have a chance to meet them and learn about their work.

What is your key takeaway from the Workshop; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
There is so much awesome science going on! This workshop opened my eyes to new avenues of collaboration and new ways to answer my research questions. I hope to keep making collaborations with the people I met in the workshop. I also feel inspired to include in my upcoming experiments the lessons I learned here. 

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this workshop?
I’m not sure if I was the only one who felt this way, but I was nervous to meet the instructors in the course because I had read so much about their work. However after meeting them, I realized they are very down to earth and here to help the next generation of scientists move forward. I would like to advise the next participants to feel free to ask any questions because everyone is there to help you!

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Workshop?
I really enjoyed the student presentations because of the feedback that we got. It was great to be able to present some of my ideas and get constructive feedback and suggestions. I also loved seeing everyone’s pets and backyards on Zoom.

Thank you to Sej 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 Sej Chung.

Visitor of the Week: Pascal Röderer

Meet Pascal Röderer of the University of Bonn (Germany)! Pascal is a PhD student in the Institute of Reconstructive Neurobiology directed by Prof. Dr. Oliver Brüstle. He took part in our virtual course on Ion Channels in Synaptic and Neural Circuit Physiology which “was great and helped [him] to expand [his] knowledge and understanding of neural physiology and electrophysiological measurements.” And though a virtual course comes with certain limitations (e.g. hands-on training in a lab setting), the “lecturers and instructors…did an amazing job [offsetting the limitations] by answering a lot of questions around practical aspects and giving hands on tips and tricks on problems that might come up during experiments.”

Tell us about your research.
Our group employs human induced pluripotent stem cells to generate all kinds of neural and non-neural cell types of the nervous system. I am specifically interested in generating models of the peripheral nervous system, including e.g. sensory neurons, as a platform for pain research.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
After finishing my master, where I was working with a mouse model of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, I wanted to further concentrate on human in vitro systems and stem cell research. Following this, I became very interest in chronic neuropathic pain and other disorders of the peripheral nervous system, as they are affecting a lot of people while treatment options are often limited. It is very exciting and interesting trying to better understand these conditions based on human in vitro models, as translation from rodent models to human patients seems to be very challenging.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
During high school my chemistry teacher fostered my interest in science and inspired me to study biochemistry. During my studies I learned how exciting it is when solving a problem with a series of experiments. Additionally, I always find inspiration in the scientific passion and determination of other scientists.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
I want to contribute to neuropathic pain research and hope to offer new angles of research to the community.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
I hope to having finished not only my PhD, but also an international postdoc position and being on my way to becoming an independent researcher with my own lab.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
What I really love is the adventure of learning and trying new things everyday as well as the international and collaborative spirit I experience.

What drew you to apply to this course?
I am working on the molecular basis of pain, where neural activity is often affected and increased in neuropathic pain patients, thus I wanted to learn more about the techniques to measure and analyze these effects.

What is your key takeaway from the Course; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
The Course has offered me a new insight into electrophysiological techniques and a wider set of tools to analyze and present this kind of data. I will integrate some of these techniques into the planning of new experiments, and will reevaluate the information that I gained in previous experiments and look at it from a different angle.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this course?
I would definitely recommend in participating in this course, it is a unique possibility to connect with experts in this field and get an impression of the incredible variety of possible applications.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Course?
Having participated in this course during the Covid-19 pandemic, I am sure this was not the full or usual course experience but overall it was a really great experience! The talks and lectures as well as the presentation of student data was really amazing and inspiring. It was also amazing to virtually connect with junior researchers and the instructors and to see how scientific research can be shared -- even during times like this -- and how we all can overcome borders and barriers that might arise in our ways.

Now that you’ve taken part in a virtual CSHL course, would you like to share feedback and or advice with those also be participating in an upcoming virtual CSHL course?
Interact as much as possible with instructors, lecturers and students and use the chance to ask as many questions as you can. Above all discuss your own technical challenges and questions posed by your own research with your instructors and peers.

Thank you to Pascal 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 Pascal Röderer

Visitor of the Week: Dung Nguyen

Meet Dung Nguyen of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences! The Vietnamese national is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Marzena Pazgier’s lab who recently took part in his first CSHL meeting: Retroviruses. At this year’s virtual meeting, he also presented a poster entitled “Structure-based design of antibody conjugates sensitizing HIV-infected cells to Fc-effector mechanism”. Before we jump into the Q&A, here is what Dung had to say of his experience:

First of all, this is my first virtual meeting! It exceeded my expectation, really well-organized and professional. I got to check out more posters on my own time which I couldn’t do with the in-person format. I want to thank all the organizers for a successful virtual meeting and I hope that we will be able to meet next year so I can check out the beautiful Cold Spring Harbor campus.     

Tell us about your research.
Our group has multiple projects that focus on HIV-1 prevention and treatment through development of new vaccines and anti-HIV-1 therapeutics. Specifically, my research focuses on the structure-based development of antibody-small compound/peptide mimic conjugate therapeutics that will be capable of eliminating HIV-infected cells in HIV-infected individuals through antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) response.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
In my PhD, I have prepared and assessed immunogenicity of multiple protein-glycopeptide conjugates as HIV vaccine candidates. I have learned and become increasingly interested in HIV vaccine and protein conjugation. Moving on to my postdoc, I continue working on HIV research developing bifunctional, site-specific antibody conjugates, while getting trained in structural biology methods such as X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I am thrilled to have an opportunity to work on exciting projects in Dr. Pazgier’s lab. My postdoc projects are aligned perfectly with my interest and it’s also helpful that Dr. Pazgier is an amazing mentor, friendly and knowledgeable. She gives me great advice and always encourages me to ask more questions and is not afraid to let me explore new ideas. I am learning so much from her and all of my wonderful colleagues in our lab.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
Through my work, I hope to gain a better understanding of the molecular basis of the function of anti-HIV-1 Env antibodies, particularly, those new antibody conjugates that are involved in Fc-mediated effector functions.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
During this unprecedented time, it is hard to predict where I will be. Nonetheless, in five years time, I see myself becoming a well-trained professional in protein engineering, structural biology and structure-based therapeutic design. 

What do you love most about being a researcher?
What I love most about being a researcher is flexibility and creativity. I love that, when facing a problem, we are able to come up with a hypothesis, then design experiments to test the hypothesis in order to figure out the solution. I think, in science, there is no visible boundary and the process of knowledge flowing from one field to another field always amazes me. As a scientist, we are able to obtain new ideas from one field and apply them to another field. There is still so much to learn.

What drew you to attend this meeting?
What drew me to the Retroviruses meeting was the diversity of all the amazing research presented here. In my PhD and postdoc research, most of my work focuses on the HIV envelope gp120 trimer. Thus, this meeting provides an amazing platform that I can listen to all the experts in the field presenting their works and learn from them.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
Participating in the meeting has expanded my knowledge beyond my own field of expertise. I am excited to come back next year and see everybody’s progress.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
Don’t be afraid to reach out, ask questions and connect with other experts in the fields.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
The most memorable thing that happened during the meeting was that I got to listen to many great talks especially the 2 keynote speakers: Dr. Dennis Burton and Dr. Anna Marie Skalka whose scientific journeys and contributions have inspired not just me but all the participants.

Thank you to Dung 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.

Visitor of the Week: Lina Abou Zeid

Meet Lina Abou Zeid of the University of Guelph (Canada)! The PhD student in Dr. Richard Mosser’s lab is taking part in this week’s Regulatory & Non-Coding RNAs meeting. This meeting represents many firsts for Lina: 1) It is her first virtual meeting; 2) It is her first CSHL meeting; and 3) It is where she first virtually presented her poster entitled “Effect of hyperthermia and HSP70 overexpression on miRNA biogenesis”. Lina “was happy to share [her] work with fellow scientists [at this virtual meeting]…but it made [her] appreciate having the opportunity to discuss [her] work with them in person [because] nothing beats the genuine looks of curiosity and the rewarding smiles at the end of each talk.”

Tell us about your research.
I am investigating how microRNA biogenesis is affected by conditions of cellular stress (such as hyperthermia) that ultimately lead to cell death.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
The astonishing involvement of microRNA mediated gene silencing in almost all eukaryotic cellular processes intrigued my curiosity into learning about how their biogenesis is regulated.  I wasn’t surprised to learn of the involvement of the dysregulation of microRNA biogenesis in the progression of various diseases such as cancer, and what led to my journey of investigating how stressed cells manage microRNA biogenesis in order to efficiently undergo cell death, which various tumor cells cleverly avoid.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
The opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the knowledge of human molecular biology excites and inspires me to keep asking questions. The more questions I ask, the more I realize that there is still a lot to learn. In addition, with all that modern molecular and cellular techniques have to offer today makes now a better time than ever to pursue science.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
I am hoping to add to the understanding of the regulation of non-coding and regulatory RNA. Through my work, I aim to fill some of the present gaps in knowledge that may result in the development of therapeutics for diseases where regulatory non-coding RNAs play a major role.  

What do you love most about being a researcher?
Ever since I can remember, I have loved solving puzzles and watching mysteries. The idea of filling in missing pieces of the puzzle has always appealed to me. I love the process of finding out what questions to ask, exploring possible experimental designs, persevering through failed attempts and finally the rewarding gain of insight (even from negative data).  

What drew you to attend this meeting?
I loved the diversity of the sessions and panelists. This meeting presented a great opportunity for me to learn about a wide range of new topics in RNA biology and hear about exciting advances in my field. I was also very excited to get the opportunity to listen to and connect with several of the important experts in my field.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
I’ve learned about new technologies and advancements in microRNA biology that can benefit me in planning experiments for the remainder of my degree. I also realized the importance of diversifying my knowledge beyond my own field of expertise and learning from approaches employed in different fields.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
Explore topics outside of your own, you never now where the next helpful idea comes from! Also don’t miss out on making meaningful connections and brainstorming with the brilliant minds present in this meeting; it is a wonderful opportunity. I would love to attend this meeting again in the upcoming years.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
Since it was my first virtual meeting, I was truly touched at how resilient and accommodating all the speakers and organizers were. Their love for sharing new ideas and discussing science was evident throughout the meeting.  I especially loved the fun Zoom backgrounds a lot of the speakers shared.  

Thank you to Lina 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 Lina Abou Zeid