2021 CUNY-Columbia Biophysics Symposium

To celebrate the research accomplishments of our local Ph.D. students and postdocs over the challenging past fifteen months, we’re changing the format of the annual gathering of the CUNY biophysics community by:

• inviting participation from the CUNY and Columbia communities – students, postdocs, staff and faculty are welcome to join in.

• broadening our scope to cover the fields of biophysics, structural biology, biochemistry, chemical biology, and related fields.

• offering brief ten minute speaking spots to all Ph.D. students and postdocs to share their recent work and discuss future directions.

Talks will take place from 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. online via Zoom. See agenda below.

Immediately following the Symposium, an informal reception will be held on the CCNY Great Lawn, located between the New York Structural Biology Center and the CCNY Center for Discovery and Innovation. Enter via 85 St Nicholas Terrace, New York, NY 10031. The reception will be cancelled if there’s bad weather.

All approved ASRC Auditorium attendees will need to bring laptops or mobile devices of their own.

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Registration

Registration is now closed.

• All talk/presentation slots have been filled.

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Agenda

Download the agenda

1:00 p.m.–1:10 p.m.	Symposium Host/Moderator Kevin Gardner, Ph.D., SBI Director, ASRC and Einstein Professor Chemistry & Biochemistry, The City College of New York
Part I All talks to be followed by a 5 minute Q&A/Discussion
1:10 p.m.–1:20 p.m.	Fatlum Hajredini, Ph.D. Student, Ranajeet Ghose Lab, CUNY City College Talk title: “Repurposing an ancient fold for a new task”
1:25 p.m.–1:35 p.m.	Korak Kumar Ray, Grad Student, Ruben Gonzalez Jr., Columbia University Talk title: “Entropy – not enthalpy – drives the regulation of biomolecular machines”
1:40 p.m.–1:50 p.m.	Tamar Skaist, Ph.D. Student, Daniel Keedy Lab, CUNY ASRC Talk title: “The Effect of Temperature on Small-Molecule Fragment Binding to PTP1B”
1:55 p.m.–2:05 p.m.	Adeyinka Lesi, Grad Student, David Rumschitzki Lab, CUNY City College Talk title: “A Population Balance Model for Tumor Growth, Reduction and Metastasis: Insights into Dormancy and Recurrence in Cancer”
2:10 p.m.–2:20 p.m.	Break
Part II All talks to be followed by a 5 minute Q&A/Discussion
2:20 p.m.–2:30 p.m.	Inayah Entzminger, Ph.D. Student, Dixie Goss Lab, CUNY Hunter College Talk title: “Determination of ribosomal scanning in the BYDV WT 5′-UTR”
2:35 p.m.–2:45 p.m.	Pedro Gutierrez, Ph.D. Student, Liang Tong Lab, Columbia University Talk title: “A real-time fluorescence assay for CPSF73, the nuclease for pre-mRNA 3′-end
2:50 p.m.–3:00 p.m.	Aaron Owji, Ph.D. Student, Wayne Hendrickson Lab, Columbia University Talk title: “Structural and functional analysis of bestrophin-2 anion channels”
3:05 p.m.–3:15 p.m.	Rie Nygaard, Postdoctoral Researcher, Filippo Mancia Lab, Columbia Medical Center Talk title: “Structural basis of Wnt secretion by its carrier WLS
3:20 p.m.–3:30 p.m.	Break
Part III All talks to be followed by a 5 minute Q&A/Discussion
3:30 p.m.–3:40 p.m.	Zaynab Jaber, Ph.D. Student, Kevin Gardner Lab, CUNY ASRC Talk title: “Structural insights into a light-activated regulator of G protein signaling, bcLOV4”
3:45 p.m.–3:55 p.m.	Jeevan GC, Postdoctoral Researcher, Joachim Frank Lab, Columbia University Talk title: “MD simulations of membrane proteins”
4:00 p.m.–4:10 p.m.	Jyoti Pant, Postdoctoral Researcher, Jayne Raper Lab, CUNY Hunter College Talk title: “Ion-channel forming properties of Apolipoproteins L1-6 protein family is governed by the key functional channel-regulating residues”
4:15 p.m.–4:25 p.m.	Rosemary Cater, Postdoctoral Researcher, Filippo Mancia Lab, Columbia Medical Center Talk title: “Structural basis of ω-3 fatty acid transport across the blood-brain barrier”
4:30 p.m.–4:50 p.m.	Slam Session Krishnakoli Adhikary, Grad Student, Sebastien Poget Lab, CUNY College of Staten Island Talk title: “Recombinant expression and purification of a gating-modifier toxin and docking of its homology model to a target sodium channel” Blake Riley, Postdoctoral Researcher, Daniel Keedy Lab, CUNY ASRC Talk title: “qFit 3: Protein and ligand multiconformer modeling for X-ray crystallographic and single-particle cryo-EM density maps” Haixing Li, Postdoctoral Researcher, Ruben Gonzalez Jr. Lab, Columbia University Talk title: “Structural Dynamics of tRNA-induced +1 Frameshifting” Nikunjkumar Visaveliya, Postdoctoral Researcher, Dorthe Eisele Lab, CUNY City College Talk title: “Semi-microfluidic Synthesis of Structured Polymer Nanoparticles”
4:50 p.m.–5:00 p.m.	Closing Remarks by Kevin Gardner

 

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Hosted and moderated by Kevin Gardner, Ph.D.
Director, Structural Biology Initiative, ASRC
Einstein Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry, The City College of New York