Basic Science Academic Department Seminars

January 2023

The Basic Science academic departments welcome members of the Northwestern community to attend upcoming seminars.

Please click on the event times for more details, updates and to confirm the event format (in-person, hybrid or virtual).

Campus partner events are noted below with an asterisk.

Monday, January 9

3:00 p.m. | Pharmacology Research Works-in-Progress

Michaela Novakovic
PhD Candidate, Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience
Prakriya Lab
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Kotaro Tsuboyama, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar, Rocklin Lab
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Host: Department of Pharmacology

Tuesday, January 10

*11:00 a.m. | "Tracing Rare Cell Plasticity and Therapy Resistance in Single Cells"

Yogesh Goyal, PhD
Assistant Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Host: Basic Sciences Research Division of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University

Noon | "Interactions and Antagonism Among the Gut Bacteroidales"

Laurie Comstock, PhD
Professor of Microbiology
The University of Chicago

Host: Department of Microbiology-Immunology

Wednesday, January 11

*3:30 p.m. | "Mechanisms of T Cell Exhaustion and Insights for Human Immune Health"

E. John Wherry, PhD
Chair, Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics
Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President's Distinguished Professor
Director, Institute for Immunology
Co-Program Leader, Immunobiology Program, Abramson Cancer Center
Co-Director, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
University of Pennsylvania

Host: Center for Human Immunobiology

Thursday, January 12

10:00 a.m. | "Cancer evolution through the lens of the non-coding genome"

Ekta Khurana, PhD
Associate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics and of Computational Genomics
Weill Cornell Medicine

Host: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics 

Friday, January 13

Noon | "Resolving the basis of specialized midbrain dopamine system functions in motivated behaviors" 

Larry Zweifel, PhD
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and of Pharmacology
University of Washington

Host: Department of Neuroscience 

Tuesday, January 17

10:00 a.m. | "Transcriptional and Epigenetic Mechanisms of Brain Aging"

Ashley Webb, PhD
Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry
Brown University

Host: Simpson Querrey Institute for Epigenetics

*11:00 a.m. | "The Role of Noncoding RNAs in Cancer: Shedding Light on the Transcriptomic Dark Matter"

Shannon Lauberth, PhD
Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Host: Basic Sciences Research Division of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University

Noon | "The Changing Landscape of Human B Cell Memory"

Shiv Pillai, PhD, MD
Professor of Medicine and Health Sciences
Harvard Medical School
Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard

Host: Department of Microbiology-Immunology

Wednesday, January 18

Noon | "Megamolecules and applications to antibody mimics"

Milan Mrksich, PhD
Vice President for Research
Henry Wade Rogers Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, and Cell & Developmental Biology

Host: Department of Cell & Developmental Biology

Thursday, January 19

10:00 a.m. | "Cell state dynamics and plasticity in tumorigenesis and drug resistance"

Itai Yanai, PhD
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Scientific Director, Bioinformatics Core
NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Host: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics

Friday, January 20

1:00 p.m. | SQE Forum on Biochemistry, Epigenetics and Metabolism (BEaM)

Arun Upadhyay, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Neurology, Savas Lab
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Host: Simpson Querrey Institute for Epigenetics

Monday, January 23

3:00 p.m. | Pharmacology Research Works-in-Progress

Megan Larmore
PhD Candidate, Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences
DeCaen Lab
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dalton Huey
PhD Candidate, Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences
George Lab
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Host: Department of Pharmacology

Tuesday, January 24

Noon | "Inhibiting the Evolution of Antimicrobial Resistance"

Houra Merrikh, PhD
Professor of Biochemistry
Vanderbilt University

Host: Department of Microbiology-Immunology

Wednesday, January 25

3:30 p.m. | CDB Trainee Seminar

"Alpha-catenin mechanosensitivity contributes to cell division fidelity via the abscission factor LZTS2"
Yuou Wang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Gottardi Lab
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Annmarie Dominguez
PhD Student, Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences
Arispe Lab
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Host: Department of Cell & Developmental Biology

Thursday, January 26

10:00 a.m. | "Advances in Single-Cell Combinatorial Indexing in Neuroscience and Cancer"

Andrew Adey, PhD
Associate Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics
Oregon Health & Science University

Host: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics

Monday, January 30

3:00 p.m. | Pharmacology Research Work-in-Progress

Carolina Clark 
PhD Candidate, Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences
Perera Lab
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

David Scholten
PhD Candidate, Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences
Liu Lab
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Host: Department of Pharmacology

Tuesday, January 31

Noon | M-I Seminar 

Jiexi Chen
PhD Student, Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Host: Department of Microbiology-Immunology