Visitor of the Week: Kate Nesbit

Meet Katherine “Kate” Nesbit of San Diego State University! Kate is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Nicholas Shikuma’s lab and is taking part in the 2022 course of Advanced Bacterial Genetics. This is her first course at CSHL and the first in-person course since COVID-19 began in 2020. Here is what Kate has to say of her experience so far:

I would just like to commend the instructors and the course organizers from CSHL for all of the work they did to ensure the class ran as smoothly as possible. It was so refreshing to come together for an intensive science experience and I have really enjoyed the opportunity to be here and be inspired by everyone’s work.

Tell us about your research.
Bacteria in the ocean play essential roles in the lives of marine animals. I study how larvae (the babies) of marine animals can sense and respond to bacterial cues that drive major changes in development (like turning into an adult).

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
Life evolved in the worlds’ oceans, the epicenter for microbial life. The microbes around us play major roles in our biology. Relationships with bacteria, often thought of as “good” or “bad”, in reality, exist on a spectrum. At the end of my PhD, I was curious to learn more about the context surrounding microbes and their relationships with marine invertebrates. So many marine larvae rely on bacteria during their life cycles and have diverse interactions with bacteria. The opportunity to work with the Shikuma Group and our model system, the tube worm Hydroides and its microbes, was an exciting opportunity. This humble worm is actually a powerful model for understanding symbioses. Bacteria are required for the larva of the worm to undergo metamorphosis which is a process where they transition to the adult body plan. My interests in marine invertebrates, developmental biology, and how animals interact with bacteria all led me to build my research questions around this area.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I have been very fortunate to work with some fantastic mentors during my training, and of course my family has been immeasurably supportive. I also have been learning alongside some really amazing peers, and the summation of my interactions with all of these people have helped keep my excited and motivated to continue moving forward towards a career in science.

What impact do you hope to make through your work?
I hope that the work I do will encourage other minority women in science to embrace their curiosity and make new discoveries that help us understand fundamental processes of life. I also hope my work can impact others by encouraging them to protect our oceans and all of the amazing biology that happens within them. Finally, I hope to impact others by making some meaningful scientific discoveries, leaving behind a legacy of collaboration and of creating opportunities for others to be part of science.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
In five years, I would love to be starting up my own lab. I hope to establish an independent research program that works on answering questions at the interface of marine cell-, developmental-, and micro- biology.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
The thing that I love the most about being a researcher is that my days are always different. I never get bored doing the same thing because some days I am reading, some days I am writing papers or working on a presentation for a conference, and still other days I get to be at the bench doing experiments or imaging on the microscope. It never gets dull because there is always something new to do and learn. Also, I have a soft spot in my heart for all the squishy, crunchy, gooey critters of the ocean. There’s so much interesting biology going on in these critters that is understudied.

What drew you to apply to this course?
When I started in research as an undergraduate, I immediately fell in love with developmental biology, but it wasn’t until much later that I started learning about the ways that microbes influence development. The course on Advanced Bacterial Genetics is the ideal way to learn modern tools and techniques for understanding the relationships between bacteria and the animals that they interact with. Without tools for manipulating microbes, we can’t fully grasp the contributions they make at the molecular and genetic level to the biology of their symbionts and hosts. The reputation of CSHL as being an immersive and inspiring place, as well as the fact that I know colleagues who spoke highly of the course, were all contributing factors in my desire to attend this course.

What is your key takeaway from the Course; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
I think one of the most influential lessons that I have learned in the course is that bacterial genetics offers a multitude of approaches for answering big questions in biology, and these tools can be applied in various permutations to all sorts of different systems. This experience has helped me to brainstorm new ideas for experiments in my own work. For example, I would love to take the tools I’ve learned about here (like generating gDNA libraries, transposon libraries, CRISPRi, and RIVET) and apply them in marine bacteria – which currently lack a lot of the accessible tools that are available to more widely studied model microbes. This would help us to better understand what genes in diverse marine microbes contribute to their ability to induce developmental changes in the tube worm model (and maybe even other invertebrates too).

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this course?
My biggest piece of advice would be to come with an open mind. You will meet so many people with diverse scientific backgrounds and with diverse identities. You can learn so much from your peers and the instructors if you approach the experience with the goal of learning from everyone.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Course?
The most memorable moment of the course for me so far has been the unbridled enthusiasm of one of our instructors over their model microbe – it’s not uncommon to hear her shout “Staphylococcus!” and I think it’s so awesome that people can build their careers and still maintain that level of excitement for their work!

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
My favorite thing about my time at CSHL so far has been the campus. It’s just beautiful and it has been a real treat to see this part of the state, especially since I have never been to New York before!

Kate received a scholarship from the Regeneron to cover a portion of her course tuition. On behalf of Kate, thank you to Regeneron for supporting and enabling our young scientists to attend a CSHL course where they expand their skills, knowledge, and network.

Thank you to Kate 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.

Images provided by Kate Nesbit

Visitor of the Week: Amy Ikui

Meet Amy Ikui of Brooklyn College. Amy is a professor in the Biology department and returns to CSHL for her second Symposium, the 65th CSHL Symposium focusing on Genome Stability & Integrity. This meeting also happens to be her 21st meeting at the Lab.   

Tell us about your research.
We study DNA replication and origin licensing mechanisms in yeast and green algae. Our research is focused on understating how cyclin dependent kinase and phosphatase control DNA replication.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
DNA replication is fundamental to all living cells that duplicate the genome. My passion is to understand how DNA is accurately replicated to maintain genome integrity in eukaryotes. My post-doctoral training in Dr. Fred Cross’ lab at The Rockefeller University led me to establish my own research lab where we continue to investigate the molecular mechanisms of origin licensing using eukaryotic unicellular model organisms.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
All of my mentors starting from my elementary to graduate school inspired me to start my scientific journey. The most important turning point is when I joined the lab for the first time as an undergraduate student. I was fascinated by molecular biology and cell biology techniques, western blot and DNA sequencing, which can be used to understand how cells function. I decided to pursue my career in the educational setting to inspire future scientists.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
Continue doing my research as a PI if funding is secured, and teach and supervise students and post-docs in my lab.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
To be the first person to discover something important. To meet and discuss our research with my colleague. To setup collaborations.

What drew you to attend this meeting?
I have been attending CSHL meetings since I was a Ph.D. student, almost 20 years ago. I am very excited to attend in-person meeting after 2 years.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in a future CSHL Symposium?
Don’t be shy to ask questions to attendees even if they are established scientists.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
Blackford Bar is usually involved.

Thank you to Amy 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 Amy Ikui

Visitor of the Week: Adrian Padron

Meet Adrian Padron of the Meharry Medical College School of Graduate Studies and Research! The doctoral candidate is conducting his work in the lab of CV Dash which utilizes biochemical approaches to understanding the early events of the HIV-1 replication process. Adrian is at Retroviruses, his first in-person meeting since the pandemic, where he had the opportunity to give his first talk titled “Cyclophilin A Promotes HIV-1 Preintegration Complex Function.” It was warmly received by his fellow researchers and he received some direct and “quite invaluable” feedback. But despite this career milestone, being able to meet people from different parts of the world and learning of their work in virology has been what Adrian enjoyed most from his time at CSHL.

Tell us about your research.
My project entails determining the role of the host factor, Cyclophilin A (CypA), on HIV-1 pre-integration complex function. The overarching aim of this study is to determine if CypA has a role in the critical step of vDNA integration.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
Although I studied animal physiology as an undergrad, I have always had an interest in microbiology and virology. I spent several years working in various research labs in California and Maryland which gave me an opportunity to explore my research options. When I began my graduate work at Meharry, I was fortunate to be able to further explore my interests rotating in molecular virology research labs.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I was inspired to go on my scientific journey after completing my undergraduate studies as I reflected on my early experiences in life including witnessing the onset of the HIV pandemic when I was young and seeing many people, including my uncle, become infected and lose their life to HIV/AIDS.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
In five years, I hope to continue research and pass on knowledge to others as a university level researcher/instructor.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
One of the things I love most about being a researcher is being able to learn something new and ultimately being able to share it with others.

What drew you to attend this meeting?

The opportunity to be exposed to research from investigators from all over the world is one of the key aspects that drew me to attend this meeting. 

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?

One of the main takeaways from this meeting is that there is still so much to learn about virology which is very exciting! 

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?

I would most certainly advise anyone considering participating in this meeting to network with other researchers.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?

There were two wonderful and inspiring keynote talks—Carol Carter and Thomas J. Hope—which were one of the most memorable aspects of this meeting.

Thank you to Adrian 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 Adrian Padron

Visitor of the Week: Nicholas Hiers

Meet Nicholas Hiers of the University of Florida! The second year PhD student from Dr. Mingyi Xie’s lab joined us at this week’s Regulatory & Non-Coding RNAs. This not only is his first meeting at CSHL but his first one as a researcher and he made his debut with a bag; presenting a poster titled “The target-directed miRNA degradation interactome in cancer.” Here is Nicholas on his poster presentation experience: “This was my first in-person poster, and I think it went very well. I got to talk about our lab’s science to a bunch of big names and fresh faces, and I also got some nice feedback and a couple new ideas from it as well.”

Tell us about your research.
My research primarily relates to dysregulated small non-coding RNAs (microRNAs) as it relates to cancer progression and severity. I specifically study the mechanisms that determine microRNA birth/biogenesis and death/degradation to better understand altered microRNA-mediated gene expression in cancers.   

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
The degradation of microRNAs recently became a hot topic in the non-coding RNA field, so I was eager to take on a project related to that area. My PI described this subject as a sort of black box, and the prospect of discovering something both novel and impactful was too good to pass up.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I can confidently say that the inspiration for my scientific journey is personal curiosity. I desperately want to better understand how life “works” and this curiosity is generally what fuels my investigations.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
This is difficult to choose, I personally really enjoy research as a creative outlet, but I also get a lot of personal fulfillment and pride from the work that I do.

What drew you to attend this meeting?
It is not everyday that there is a conference for almost exclusively non-coding RNAs, how could I pass up that? That, and the stacked lineup of talks from many of the big names in the field.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
My main takeaway is that this field is full of such great and diverse science, much of which is of such quality that it is personally motivating for me to reach that standard.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
Just come! Everyone is friendly, the campus is gorgeous, and you will get so many fresh ideas and perspectives from all the talks/posters.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
That’s a tough one, but probably getting to see my coworker Tianqi give a talk on her research. It was really exciting to see her explain her science to all of the bigshots in the field, and she ended up nailing the talk!

Is this your first in-person meeting since the pandemic? If so, any thoughts you’d like to share?
It was, it was also my first conference in general. I feel like the pandemic has made everyone far too used to isolation, and it was really nice to just be around a lot of like-minded people in my field now that the pandemic has settled down.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
Without a doubt, the best thing about this meeting has been the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of friends and colleagues from around the world. I have not experienced anything like this since becoming a researcher, and it has been such a positive experience that I will 100% be returning to CSHL.

Thank you to Nicholas 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 NIcholas Hiers

Visitor of the Week: María Jose Gomez Hughes

Meet María Jose Gomez Hughes who is affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin and Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). At the University of Texas, María Jose is a scientist associate in the Genomic Sequencing and Analysis Facility (GSAF) while she is a collaborator in Andrew J. Crawford’s lab in the Universidad de los Andes. The Colombian national is at CSHL this week attending her first meeting: The Biology of Genomes.  

Tell us about your research.
At the GSAF, I work with researchers through preparing NGS libraries and doing quality control of said libraries. And at the Crawford Lab, I use genomics to understand the conservation status of capybaras and frogs as well as study frog evolution and adaptation to environmental variables.

How did you decide to focus on this area/project?
I have always found evolution fascinating and have been drawn to understand it, including the role conservation status plays in it. At the same time, I greatly enjoy being in the lab and helping other people.

What and/or who is the inspiration behind your scientific journey?
I am inspired by all the great women and non-binary people in science, both by their work and by their resilience. I am also inspired by the world around me, by its beauty and intricacy. 

Where do you see yourself in five years?
I see myself in the same place I am right now. I greatly enjoy my work and wouldn’t want to change it.

What do you love most about being a researcher?
I enjoy solving problems and being able to feed my curiosity.

What drew you to attend this meeting?
I thought the Biology of Genomes to be a great place to learn about all the genomics research taking place all around the world.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting; and how do you plan to apply it to your work?
There is way more innovative research going on in genomics, both in wet and dry lab, than I previously thought. I plan to apply some of the things I learned in my research and see what new things I can find.

What feedback or advice would you share with someone considering to participate in this meeting?
I would advise them to take it slow. There are a lot of things going on and it can become a bit hectic so try to enjoy not only the meeting and the great science, but also all the natural surroundings.

What’s the most memorable thing that happened during the Meeting?
There are a lot of memorable things that happened during the meeting and it’s hard to choose one, but being able to engage with other researchers and discuss with them in person was definitely a great change.

Is this your first in-person meeting since the pandemic? If so, any thoughts you’d like to share?
Yes, it’s great to be able to talk to people about their research in person, in particular at the poster sessions. Having presented online before, I know how hard it can be so it’s great to have in-person meetings again; though online meetings are still great for accessibility and to engage with a broader audience.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL?
How beautiful it is around here. There’s so much nature going on in and around campus. I was very pleasantly surprised by it.

Thank you to Maria Jose 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 Maria Jose Gomez Hughes