Visitor of the Week: Vasiliki Liaki

Meet Vasiliki Liaki, a graduate student at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) in Spain! Vasiliki is a Greek national working in the Experimental Oncology Group led by Mariano Barbacid, and this week, she took part in her first meeting at CSHL – JAK-STAT Pathways in Health & Disease.

Tell us about your research.
In our group, we focus on identifying viable therapeutic strategies against KRAS mutant pancreatic and lung tumors. I am specifically interested in identifying and targeting the tumorigenic KRAS signaling of advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) using genetically engineered mouse tumor models and patient-derived organoids.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
My background had been in Molecular Genetics in Cancer and Aging. For my PhD studies, I wanted to focus in translational research in cancer; therefore, I chose this group, since the research work in Mariano’s lab is pioneering in the field of tumor mouse models and KRAS biology.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I have been interested in the STEM fields since a young age, but biology was my favourite. During my BSc and MSc studies, I visited different labs involved in cancer genetics, and I had mentors whose research work and laboratory skills were inspiring. I am currently drawn to the Molecular Oncology field, so I would say investigating the oncogenic signalling of PDAC is fascinating and is basically what keeps me motivated.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
The pancreatic cancer research field is in urgent need of new findings, not only on molecular diagnostics but therapeutic strategies as well. In our group, including Dr. Carmen Guerra, we are hoping our studies contribute to the fight against pancreatic cancer and, ultimately, improve the clinical outcome of this highly aggressive and lethal disease.  

What do you love most about being a researcher?
As a researcher, you never have a dull day. We explore so many different areas. Working collaboratively with our colleagues, bench work, animal experiments, results analysis, writing, presentations, teaching, scientific communication. It is admittedly not easy and we constantly face challenging problems but it is never boring!

What drew you to attend this meeting?
My supervisor informed me about this meeting and I thought it would be a great opportunity to stay updated with recent developments in the field of JAK-STAT pathways and Interferon responses and the application in different areas, including COVID-19. The CSHL meetings have cutting edge research with scientists presenting both interesting topics as well as new and exciting techniques. It is also encouraging to talk with leaders in the field, so it was something I didn’t want to miss.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
The meeting offered new insight regarding the STATs and their function in the regulation of DNA methylation as well as the crosstalk of their signaling pathways with others in various diseases. I plan to use the new information to reevaluate some of my own data and design new experiments.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
It was my first CSHL meeting and even though it was virtual, it was quite interesting and fun. The Slack app helped a lot to interact with the rest of the attendants and the speakers. I really enjoyed the Meet the Speakers session. I would strongly recommend attending this meeting and encourage the participants to get familiar with the available tools and engage as much as possible.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
The meeting is not over yet, but I would definitely single out the cancer-related talks of Michael Farrar, Veronica Sexl and Daniel Gough. I found it particularly funny, when during the Q&A after his presentation Michael Farrar indignantly answered “I know right?? We looked at it SO MANY TIMES but we never found it increased!”

Thank you to Vasiliki 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 Vasiliki Liaki

Visitor of the Week: Brooke N. Dulka

Meet Brooke N. Dulka from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee! Brooke is a postdoctoral research fellow in Fred Helmstetter’s lab. She joined us this week at the virtual edition of our Scientific Writing Retreat and shared sage advice applicable to almost any virtual professional function: Even though “it’s not an in-person event…that doesn’t mean that you won’t have meaningful interactions with people that have the potential to shape the course of your future.”

Tell us about your research.
My research is focused on the molecular mechanisms of memory. Specifically, I am interested in the plasticity that occurs at synapses during the destabilization of a memory.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
I studied stress in graduate school, but I have been interested in memory for a long time. This particular project is interesting because strategies that modulate memory destabilization processes (or reconsolidation) hold the promise of weakening the fear memories that underlie traumatic stress disorders.

Immunofluorescence picture of GFP labeling of prelimbic cortex terminals in the periaqueductal gray. Credit: Brooke N. Dulka

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I have always been interested in science, but for a long time I thought I would be a clinician. I even worked in a few clinical psychology labs as an undergrad and volunteered on a 24-hour crisis hotline. But the more I interacted with people who had experienced trauma, the more I realized that I wanted to understand the biology of these experiences and how disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder could be treated more effectively. After I graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Kent State University, I joined the neuroscience lab of Dr. Aaron Jasnow, and it was there that I fell in love with brain research and really began my scientific journey.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
Science is incremental, not everyone is going to make a big discovery, but that’s okay! It is my hope that my research will lay a solid foundation of knowledge which future scientists will use to answer even more critical questions.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
I love that being a researcher lets me be both curious and creative.

What drew you to apply to this course?
I applied to this course because I love writing, and I want to be the best writer that I can be. It is only by improving our communication skills that we, as scientists, can better reach the people who need science the most – the public.

What is your key takeaway from the Course; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
“There is no good ‘scientific writing’ – there is only good writing.” I think it is important to remember that scientific writing, at its core, is no different than any other type of writing.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this course?
Do it! This course is a great way to sharpen your writing tools and meet some really cool people.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Course?
One of most memorable moments for me was when Quincey Justman said, “Science communication draws the line between what is known and what is unknown.”

Thank you to Brooke 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 Brooke N. Dulka

Visitor of the Week: Dan Smethurst

Meet Dan Smethurst of the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine! The United Kingdom national is a postdoctoral research fellow in Natalia Shcherbik and Dimitri Pestov’s lab. He spent the latter half of this week at this second virtual CSHL meeting in 2020: Protein Homeostasis in Health & Disease. He again presented a poster and the one he presented this week is titled “Iron-mediated degradation of ribosomes under oxidative stress is attenuated by manganese”  

Tell us about your research.
In our lab we are interested in what causes damage to ribosomes, and the impact it has on their ability to accurately and efficiently synthesize proteins. My research looks into factors that affect the stability of the ribosome, and how this can cause it to malfunction and contribute to pathological states such as neurodegeneration.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
My work has focused on several different ways that cells respond to chemical and environmental stresses, and I became interested in how stresses affect translation as so many processes depend upon it. Previous studies from our lab demonstrated a fascinating interaction between metal ions, oxidants, and the ribosome, which connects the evolution of life on earth right through to major diseases of current clinical significance.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
Helping even to solve a small part of a puzzle can be incredibly gratifying, and there is no shortage of difficult questions to be asked in biology. The motivation in basic research is trying to uncover and explain something that has never been understood before.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
I am glad to just contribute to the advancement of the field, and if something I have worked on ends up helping other scientists or clinicians that is even better.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
I enjoy the freedom to pursue the questions that interest me, and the colleagues and the community who support that and are so enthusiastic about seeing progress.

What drew you to attend this meeting?
There are so many great scientists presenting their work at the meeting and as my work is becoming more focused on the links between translation and disease, I thought this would be a good way to get a current picture of the state of this field.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
I’m really impressed with the excellent research that has been presented so far. Perhaps the biggest lesson I am taking from it is how well-structured projects can enable impactful answers to be found through incremental experimentation. It has been making me think a lot about how to approach my research questions.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
I would absolutely recommend it, and I know everyone says this but I would encourage participants to ask a lot of questions and engage as much as possible.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
We are only halfway through the meeting, but I was fascinated by Ursula Jakob’s presentation in the first session showing that stochastic redox states of nematodes in their early life stages has a dramatic effect on their longevity and stress resistance later in life.

Thank you to Dan 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: Monica Nair

Meet Monica Nair who is a first-year medical student at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine while also pursuing a master’s degree in bioinformatics at Case Western Reserve University! At the 2020 Biological Data Science meeting, she represented the Tae Hyun Hwang’s lab at Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Quantitative Health Sciences with a poster presentation on “Single cell trajectory analysis to predict biomarkers of sustained CAR T cell response in non-Hodgkin lymphoma.” This meeting represents Monica’s first one at CSHL as well as her first-ever poster presentation at a scientific question.

Tell us about your research.
My research is involved with looking at the transcriptional changes CAR T cells undergo post-infusion. I am interested in discovering how these transcriptional changes can present early clinical indicators of treatment success or failure and how these changes can inform us of potential combination therapies.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
My interest in cancer genetics and background in computational biology fit in naturally with analyzing single cell RNA sequencing data from CAR T cells and their target cell population. The current dilemma of CAR T cell therapy being a promising yet expensive treatment option led me to want to study how we could better predict individuals that would have a favorable response to this therapy and better understand how we can improve upon current CAR T cell therapy.  

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I am motivated to continue along my scientific journey by all of my previous research mentors who have believed in my ability to build upon my background while incorporating new skills, such as supplementing my basic science techniques with computational analysis. My current education as a medical student also inspires me to always consider the clinical implication of every research project.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
Five years from now, I hope to be immersed in the field of oncology as a physician and as a researcher. I hope to be using information from sequencing techniques to better guide care for my patients.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
I love being able to solve problems from different angles. As a wet biologist and computationalist, I enjoy thinking about answering and asking biological questions from multiple points of views and then having conversations with other researchers in these respective areas of research.

What drew you to attend this meeting?
A bioinformatician in my previous lab had attended this conference in the past and highly recommended it! I was excited to have single cell RNA sequencing data to share with this group.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
This meeting showed me how advanced single cell technology is becoming, and how tools are now focused on integrating these different approaches (multi-omics). This meeting also highlighted how new technology is being applied to the fields of personalized medicine, image analysis, and COVID-19 research. I hope to use these new tools for integration, such as from the Satija lab, in my own research.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
I was nervous about how interactive this meeting would be, since the conference was held entirely online. But I was amazed by the numerous thoughtful questions people added to the chat after each presentation. The Slack channel also provided an easy way to network with people with similar research interests. My advice would be to engage in whatever format you can!

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
I actually really enjoyed the virtual format of the poster presentations. It gave me time to look at each poster and then ask questions to the authors through Slack. I also enjoyed the single cell and personalized medicine sessions, and walked away feeling inspired by all of the thoughtful research being conducted in these fields.

Thank you to Monica 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 Monica Nair

Visitor of the Week: Tinaye Chiyaka

Meet Tinaye Leon Chiyaka of Stellenbosch University (South Africa)! The Zimbabwe national is a PhD Student in the Clinical Mycobacteriology and Epidemiology (CLIME) led by Prof. Grant Theron. Tinaye is also among the 700+ international researchers who make up the 2020 Microbiome – a virtual meeting attended represented by 50+ countries. This is Tinaye’s first meeting at CSHL and, based on his feedback, we doubt it’ll be his last.

Tell us about your research.
My research is investigating the pre- and post-treatment lung microbiome, metabolome, and immune signatures at the site of disease in patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
My master’s research gave me a strong background in microbial genomics. For my PhD studies I was looking to apply my expertise in microbial genomics to infectious diseases (especially TB which is a public health crisis in both my home country Zimbabwe and here in South Africa). After a productive conversation with my current supervisor Prof. Grant Theron I decided to take up the challenge to study the association of the microbiome with metabolites and immune signatures at the site of disease in TB.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I have always been passionate about science, but I have also learnt from the best notably my masters mentor Prof. Idah Sithole-Niang and my current supervisor Prof. Grant Theron.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
Through my study, I hope to describe -- for the first time in the South African population -- the lung microbiome at the site of disease in TB and how it correlates with metabolic and immunological biomarkers at the site of disease in TB. This will hopefully lay a foundation for clinical trials on host directed therapies (HDT) or adjunct treatments to maintain specific microbes at the site of disease in TB for better clinical outcomes during, and after TB treatment.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
I hope to have concluded my PhD studies by then and doing a Post Doc preferably doing follow up research on my PhD research.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
As a researcher, it is never a dull day as you learn every day. I get to meet so many people who see the world in a different way. It also gives me great joy to know that my work can be instrumental in dealing with TB.

What drew you to attend this meeting?
Great minds give talks at the CSHL meetings; just a quick look at the speakers who presented their work during the CSHL Microbiome meeting tells you why I wanted to be here.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
The microbiome is key player in human health and disease, and we are still learning so much about the microbiome in disease states. I was also encouraged by the number of researchers looking into the gut microbiomes and the high level of understanding of the gut microbiome their findings represented. This gives me hope that in the near future we will see more work on different anatomical sites. I intend to incorporate new analytical approaches I have learnt here into my PhD research.  

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
I recommend my fellow scientists to attend at least one CSHL meeting in your respective disciplines. Research presented during the CSHL meetings is cutting edge and you get to network and meet so many people with similar research interest as yours. It is also worthwhile to mention that Slack makes the virtual experience memorable.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
I have so many memorable moments from this meeting but if am to choose one, the talk by Suzanne Devkota on “creeping fat” was mind blowing.  

Thank you to Tinaye 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 Tinaye Chiyaka.