School of MCB Graduate Research Retreat

Thank you to all the presenters and attendees of the 2024 School of Molecular & Cellular Biology Graduate Research Retreat held at the I Hotel and Illinois Conference Center on Friday, March 29.

Awards were presented for both the poster sessions and oral presentations. Congratulations to this year's winners!

Poster Session: 

• Owen Ouyang, in Dr. Nicholas Wu’s lab, with “oPool+ Display: A Rapid and Cost-effective In-vitro Antibody Screening Platform.”
• Joel Rivera-Cardona, in Dr. Christopher Brooke’s lab, with “Using Single-cell Approaches to Characterize the Evolution of Influenza’s Innate Immune Antagonism.”
• Yenny Yook, in Dr. Nien-Pei Tsai’s lab, with “Hyperfunction of Post-synaptic Density Protein 95 Promotes Seizure Response in Early-Stage Aβ Pathology.”

Oral Session:

• Megan Ringling, in Dr. Steven Blanke’s lab, with “Helicobacter pylori vacA’s Binding Region and Its Potential as a Clinical Gastric Disease Risk Marker.”
• Mireille Farjo, in Dr. Christopher Brooke’s lab, with “Genetic and Spatial Properties of Superinfection Exclusion by Influenza Viruses.”
• Xiangning Song, in Dr. Milan Bagchi’s lab, with “Trophoblast Cells Secrete Extracellular Vesicles to Communicate with Maternal Cells During Placenta Development.”

The School of MCB would like to thank the judges for volunteering their time.

Our keynote speaker was University of Illinois physics professor Paul Selvin. School of MCB faculty who delivered spotlight talks included Benjamin Auerbach, Nkrumah Grant, Chu-Young Kim, and Boxuan Zhao.

Download a copy of the program.

Many thanks to the retreat organizing committee!

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The 2024 committee included, from back row, left: Timothy Tan, Gabe McKenna, Rujuta Pendharkar, Shawna Smith, Saika Hossain, Quang Nguyen, Lori Raetzman, Aatiqa Nawaz, Shrunali Amin, Rayeed Ihsan. Not pictured: Courtney Rose.