A Word From: Vinay Pathak & Stefan Sarafianos

This week, we hosted the CSHL meeting on Retroviruses. Started in 1975, this is one of only a handful of CSHL meetings that occur annually as opposed to every other year. This year’s organizers – Vinay Pathak and Stefan Sarafianos – are veterans of the meeting but new to organizing it. We checked in with them for a quick discussion about the meeting and major updates they’ve made to it. Among the changes they made are “five-minute poster pitches,” where select poster presenters summarize their projects in short talks in the Auditorium to entice more people to stop by during the poster sessions. Here’s what Vinay and Stefan had to say:

Stefan: Vinay and I increased the base number of scientists directly involved in the meeting in terms of participation in talks, sharing their art by displaying their science on the abstract book cover, and even chairing the sessions. This year, there are more session chairs and more talks because we introduced 5-minute talks. This is new for this meeting and we’re very happy so far.

Vinay: The people I’ve spoken with who gave a 5-minute talk have been appreciative of the opportunity. All of them presented the highlights of their work, uniformly stayed on time, and what this does is it gives people the opportunity to go to their posters and discuss the details of their works. I think they’ve all been very happy about it so far. We’ve heard no complaints about it so I hope that this will become a regular feature of the meeting in the future.

Stefan: Presenting a talk makes a difference for those who are still in the early stages of their career – including PI’s.

Regarding the session chairs that Vinay and Stefan chose:

Vinay: The idea is to give more junior faculty the opportunity to chair a session so they know what it’s like to stand in front of a crowd, direct the discussion and guide it.

Stefan: Chairing a session is an indication of accomplishment and recognition in your field. It’s something you can take to your department chairperson and include in your annual report. It is important.

Vinay: We were looking more for people who would benefit from chairing a session. There are a lot of senior people here who have done it before – it’s not a big deal to them. For someone who’s in their first, second or third year of an independent career, it’s a good opportunity for them to have this experience and, as Stefan said, they can take this to their department chair as an indication that they’re being recognized internationally.

Stefan: And among their colleagues. We made sure to pair the younger chairs with the more experienced ones so the meeting still runs smooth. They’ve all been very fantastic...they all deserve credit.

Another meeting feature the organizers updated this year is how the poster sessions were arranged. Rather than ordering the 151 poster presenters by name, they grouped them into research areas like Virus Entry and IFITMs, Uncoating, and Tetherin/Bst-2: 

Vinay: We organized this year’s poster sessions according to the subject. The last several years it’s been done alphabetically, which is a much more random way of doing it. We’ve gotten good feedback and people like the fact that it has been organized by topics this year.

For those who are on the fence about attending this longstanding meeting, we asked Vinay and Stefan for their advice and thoughts:

Vinay: This is the best meeting for basic science relating to HIV and retroviral replication throughout the entire year. So, I think for everyone who’s working in this field – molecular biology, cell biology, HIV replication – it is absolutely essential they come here and learn what’s going on in the field and to keep up-to-date.

Stefan: It’s a one-stop catch-up with everything that’s happening in the field. It’s a holistic kind of thing. You look at every step of the viral life cycle.

Thank you to both Stefan and Vinay for taking the time to chat with us. For more conversations with our other meeting organizers and course instructors, go here. Also, to gain a meeting-goer's perspective on this meeting, read our Q&A with Shaima Akhlaq. 

Lastly, Retroviruses will be back on campus May 21 – 26, 2018. 

Visitor of the Week: Shaima Akhlaq

Meet Shaima Akhlaq of the UAE University (United Arab Emirates). The graduate student, who defends her thesis this upcoming fall semester, works with Farah Mustafa in the Department of Biochemistry in close collaboration with Tahir Rizvi's research group within the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. She is on campus for the Retroviruses meeting where she presented a poster and a short talk. Read on for more on the CSHL first-timer's experience at the annual meeting.

What are you working on?
We are studying viral gRNA export from nucleus to cytoplasm, stability, translation and their interplay during retroviral replication. My current research interest lies in answering some of the basic aspects about the life cycle of Mouse Mammary Tumor Virus.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting?
The immense learning and connections I have developed are my key takeaways from this meeting.

How many CSHL meetings and/or courses have you attended? 
This is my first visit to CSHL and my first CSHL meeting; though my poster was selected for last year’s Retroviruses meeting. Also, I would be very eager to participate in the annual Retroviruses meeting in the upcoming years.

Was there something specific about the Mechanisms in Metabolic Signaling meeting that drew you to attend? 
My first and foremost attraction was to meet the field specialists and catch up with the latest advancements. I was also excited to share my results with other colleagues in my scheduled talk and poster. And I intend to find a competitive PhD position with an established group participating in this meeting.

If someone curious in attending this meeting asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her? 
I would extend my words about this exceptional opportunity of meeting with all field specialists under one roof.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL? 
The scenic view of this campus is one thing which took my breath away in first sight because flying from a desert to this lush green island is nothing less than a scientific vacation.  

Thank you to Shaima 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.

A Word From: Jared Rutter, Mitch Lazar & Susanne Mandrup

This week, we hosted the third CSHL meeting on Mechanisms of Metabolic Signaling. We checked in with all three meeting organizers – Jared Rutter, Mitch Lazar, and Susanne Mandrup – for a casual chat about the meeting and its role in bringing together the different metabolism disciplines.

Jared: I view the Mechanisms of Metabolic Signaling meeting as being unique in the sense that it’s the one meeting, I know about, that brings together people who work on metabolism involved in different diseases and different physiological states. There are a lot of cancer metabolism meetings, diabetes meetings, and obesity meetings. This meeting brings together metabolic aspects of all of those and allows cross-fertilization across those different disciplines. 

Susanne: The different metabolic disciplines is a common denominator in the positive feedback we’ve received from the participants.  

Mitch: I’m occasionally at cancer metabolism meetings and I was thrilled that several of the leaders of the cancer metabolism field, first of all, came to this meeting because they thought it was important and second of all, were asking the difference between what happens in the organism versus in cells. This has historically been one of the big differences between organismal metabolism and cancer metabolism. 

Susanne: Also there are many great technologies now being applied across the disciplines, from in-vitro technologies to whole-organism technologies.

This meeting is still fairly new but it plays a unique role in bridging the gap between the different disciplines in the field of metabolism. It consistently attracts a great number of meeting participants who are junior scientists; with graduate students and postdocs continuing to make up 42% of the meeting. We brought up this fact during the interview and Jared shared an insightful response:

I think it’s a reflection of the fact that young people are realizing that metabolism is cool again. That it’s important again. This wasn’t always the case. I would guess that 15 years ago, metabolism meetings had a bunch of old people and no one under 60. But, I feel like now, there’s a rebirth of metabolism research and people are interested again, and that provides an opportunity to bring these people together – young and old. 

As for those curious or who were on the fence about attending this meeting, Jared shares some advice: 

Think a little bit more broadly than just in your narrow field, and realize that if you study cancer metabolism, you can learn a lot by talking with people who study metabolic physiology in diabetes or the brain or whatever. I think we often, as scientists, tend to have our own tribes of people that hang out with each other and think about things the same way. It enables innovation when we can go between tribes and learn how someone else thinks about the world.

Lastly, we inquired about the presentation awards they are handing out this year. Though they kept the award categories close to the vest during our interview, the winners were announced at last night’s banquet and we love the idea of the presentation awards.

Check out all the chats we had with other meeting organizers and course instructor. 

Visitor of the Week: Erandi Velazquez Miranda

Meet Erandi Velazquez Miranda of the Neurobiology Institute in the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (Mexico). The first-year PhD Student is a member of the Cellular Physiology Lab in the Molecular Neurobiology Department and is on campus for the Mechanisms of Metabolic Signaling meeting where she presented a poster. Read on for more on Erandi and her take on the meeting.

What are you working on?
The role of extracellular ATP in the development and establishment of hepatic fibrosis.

What is your key takeaway from the Meeting?
There are many interesting pathways that interact in one process. Hearing distinct points of view about many of the pathways can spark an idea, a way to look at your own question from another angle.

How many CSHL meetings and/or courses have you attended? 
This is my first CSHL meeting and I have not attended any courses, but I would much like to attend to many more of either in the future. 

Was there something specific about the Mechanisms in Metabolic Signaling meeting that drew you to attend? 
We are just beginning to understand the metabolic aspect of our research, so it was an important topic to approach, and this meeting was the perfect opportunity to do so. 

If someone curious in attending this meeting asked you for feedback or advice on it, what would you tell him/her? 
I would tell him/her that the meeting is great, very complete and varied. The organization of the meeting is very good which makes it an immensely useful experience.

What do you like most about your time at CSHL? 
The setting is beautiful. The campus is amazing that makes your time here a really pleasant feeling.

Thank you to Erandi 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.