NESDB 2018 Program

http://www.albany.edu/nesdb/

Sponsors

Keyence Microscopes
Automated Lab Tech
GeneTools
Nightsea
Union Biometrica
Zeiss
RNA Institute, University at Albany

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Friday April 20

Session I: 1:00-5:15

1:00-1:15 Welcome and Introductory Remarks

Prashanth Rangan and Eric Folker

Chair: Marcos Simoes-Costa

1:15-1:35 Elena Ezhkova, Mount Sinai, Associate Professor, Polycomb regulation of skin development
and skin stem cells

1:35-1:50 John Young, Harvard Medical School, Post doctoral fellow, Developmental mechanisms
underlying forelimb heterochrony and reduction in the emu Dromaius novaehollandiae

1:50-2:05 Kaitlyn Webster, University of Massachusetts Boston, Graduate Student, cdk21 encodes a
putative cell cycle regulator necessary for germ cell maintenance in Zebrafish

2:05-2:20 Erica Hutchins, California Institute of Technology, Post doctoral fellow, Draxin: a novel player
in the molecular control of cranial neural crest EMT

2:20-2:40 Dustin Updike, MDI Biological Laboratories, Assistant Professor, Germ granules and the
cytoplasmic regulation of cellular pluripotency

2:40-3:15 Coffee Break

Chair: Alicia Ebert

3:15-3:35 Karen Schindler, Rutgers University, Assistant Professor, Genetic interactions among the
Aurora kinases reveal that AURKC drives their compartmentalization in mouse oocytes

3:35-3:50 Rhea Datta, New York University, Post doctoral fellow, A feed-forward relay integrates the
regulatory activities of Bicoid and Orthodenticle via sequential binding to suboptimal sites

3:50-4:05 Alexandra Mills, Boston College, Undergraduate, Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome related genes
are expressed in migrating cranial neural crest cells and are implicated in WHS phenotype

4:05-4:25 Mustafa Khokha, Yale University, Professor, RAPGEF5 regulates nuclear translocation of β-
catenin

4:25-4:55 Fast Track Talks Hans Laufer (PI), Ben Szaro (PI), Jeff Farrel (Postdoc), Evan Kingsley
(Postdoc), Jeff Bouffard (Grad), and Brian Kinney (Grad)
 4:55-5:15 Coffee Break

Keynote Address: 5:15-6:20

Hopi Hoekstra, Harvard University, Professor, Evolutionary Genetics
A tale of tails: skeletal evolution in wild mice

Dinner: 6:30-7:30

Student/Postdoc Discussion on Involvement with SDB: 7:30-8:00

Session led by Jeremy Nance, NYU, Professor, and Northeast Rep to SDB

Poster Session and Mixer: 8:00-10:00

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Saturday April 21

Breakfast: 7:00-8:30

Session II: 9:00-12:00

Chair: Julia Paxson

9:00-9:20 Eliezer Calo, MIT, Assistant Professor, Tissue-selective effects of nucleolar stress and rDNA
damage in developmental disorders

9:20-9:35 Kimberly Johnson, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Post doctoral fellow, Systemic cell cycle
activation is induced following complex tissue injury in Axolotl

9:35-9:50 Alicia McCarthy, University at Albany, Graduate Student, ATAC Complex promotes mitotic to
meiotic switch during Drosophila oogenesis

9:50-10:05 Adrienne Roeder, Weill Institute-Cornell University, Assistant Professor, How variable cells
make reproducible organs in Arabidopsis

10:05-10:30 Coffee Break

Chair: Karen Schindler

10:30-10:50 Paolo Forni, University at Albany, Assistant Professor, Loss of AP2e and the identity crisis of
the vomeronasal sensory neurons

10:50-11:05 Jake Schnabl, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Graduate Student, It takes a village to
build a brain: Defining the heterogeneous cell types contributing to commissure formation in
the Zebrafish forebrain

11:05-11:20 Nathan Lord, Harvard University, Post doctoral fellow, Nodal patterning without Lefty
inhibitory feedback is functional but fragile

11:20-11:35 Alexander Jaworski, Brown University, Assistant Professor, TAG-1 controls multiple steps of
motor neuron wiring in parallel

11:35-11:55 Sarah McMenamin, Boston College, Assistant Professor, Thyroid hormone coordinates
postembryonic development and morphogenesis of the Zebrafish skeleton

Lunch: 12:00-1:00

Session III: 1:00-5:00

 Chair: Eliezer Calo

1:00-1:20 Josien van Wolfswinkel, Yale University, Assistant Professor, Regulation of planarian stem
cells by non-coding RNA

1:20-1:35 Debadrita Bhattacharya, Cornell University, Graduate student, Control of neural crest
multipotency by Wnt signaling and the Lin28/let-7 axis

1:35-1:50 Warren Vieira, University of Massachusetts Boston, Post doctoral fellow, Epigenetic
regulation of pattern formation in axolotl limb regeneration

1:50-2:05 Divya Shiroor, Cornell University, Graduate student, Injury Promotes Stem Cell Survival
Following Radiation in Planarians

2:05-2:20 Tianchi Xin, Yale University, Post doctoral fellow, Flexible fate determination ensures robust
differentiation in the skin hair follicle

2:20-2:40 Bing He, Dartmouth College, Assistant Professor, Regulation of tissue-level coordination
during Drosophila mesoderm invagination

2:40-3:00 Coffee Break

Chair: David Matus

3:00-3:20 Trista North, Harvard University, Associate Professor, YAP regulates hematopoietic stem cell
formation in response to the biophysical forces of blood flow

3:20-3:35 Tara Finegan, University of Rochester, Graduate Student, Interphase cell shape does not
predict division orientation in Drosophila epithelium

3:40-4:10 Fast track talks Chen Wang (Postdoc), Katherine Rivera-Gomez (Grad), Megan Rothstein
(Grad), Jocelyn Steinfeld (Grad), Anthony James (UG), Prithu Pareek (HS), Morgan Schwartz
(UG), Sacha Roberts (UG), and Ashley Fisher (UG)

Education Session: 4:10 – 5:00

Mathew Fireman, Bio-Seq, Tufts University, Reaching out: identifying and
surmounting barriers to underserved communities

5:00-5:15 Coffee Break

Keynote Address: 5:15-6:15

Oliver Hobert, Columbia University, Professor, A homeobox-based regulatory map of the C.
elegans nervous system

Dinner: 6:30-7:30

Poster Session and Mixer: 8:00-10:00

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Sunday April 22

Breakfast: 7:00-8:30

Session IV: 9:00-12:00

Chair: Mary Wallingford

 9:00-9:20 Craig Magie, Assistant Professor, Quinnipiac University, Rho GTPase function during early
development in the cnidarian, Nematostella vectensis

9:20-9:35 Abraham Kohrman, Stony Brook University, Graduate student, Cell cycle regulation of
morphogenesis - insights across species

9:35-9:50 Claudia Racioppi, New York University, Post doctoral fellow, Chromatin accessibility
underlying cardiac vs pharyngeal muscle specification in Ciona

9:50-10:05 Ashley Waldron, University of Vermont, Graduate student, Knock-down of Zebrafish histidyl-
tRNA synthetase results in fewer retinal neurons and mechanosensory hair cells

10:05-10:35 Coffee Break

10:35-10:50 Cynthia Bradham, Boston University, Associate Professor, V-type H+ ATPase activity is
required for dorsal-ventral symmetry breaking in sea urchin embryos

10:50-11:10 Jeremy Nance, New York University, Professor, Assembling a germline stem cell niche in the
C. elegans embryo

11:10-11:30 Business Meeting

Student and Postdoc Presentation Awards: 11:30-11:45

Boxed Lunch: Noon
Posters

Abstract Poster Day

Abstract Title First Name Last Name
number
P1 1 Friday Thyroid Hormone Promotes Uniform Caudal Fin Regeneration in Danio rerio Benjamin Acosta
P2 2 Friday Reciprocal regulation of C. elegans dbl-1 and cuticle collagen genes Shahrear Ahmed
P3 3 Friday Things with Wings: Extracurricular Biology Research in a High School Setting Noor Amin
P4 4 Friday Reelin in Autism Spectrum Disorders: an investigation of reelin-disabled signaling Katrina Anderson
in neurogenesis and disease
P5 5 Friday Elucidating the mechanisms governing neuromuscular phenotypic variation in a Erin Bailey
zebrafish muscular dystrophy model
P6 6 Friday Exploring the role of Polycomb Repressive Complexes in Lingual Epithelium Carmit Bar
Development
P7 7 Friday TACC3,a plus-end tracking protein, facilitates neural crest cell motility. Elizabeth Bearce
P8 8 Friday Zebrafish dazl is essential for germ cell maintenance Sylvain Bertho
P9 9 Friday mRNA surveillance mechanism functions during oogenesis to prevent Patrick Blatt
inappropriate transcripts from being passed on to the next generation in
Drosophila
P10 10 Friday The RhoGAP SPV-1 acts through CDC-42 to regulate calcium signaling in the C. Jeff Bouffard
elegans spermatheca during embryo transits.
P11 11 Friday Transcriptional silencing promotes timely differentiation during Drosophila Shane Breznak
oogenesis
P12 12 Friday Tension-sensitive regulators of cell dynamics and tissue remodeling Maria Bustillo
P13 13 Friday Unraveling the germline stem cell program of Drosophila melanogaster Justin Camacho
P14 14 Friday RNA molecules, the ?dictators? of the embryonic clock? Gil Carraco
P15 15 Friday Spatial propagation of nodal signaling Adam Carte
P16 16 Friday Investigation of Notch Signaling in Cone Fate Specification in Vertebrate Retina Xueqing Chen
P17 17 Friday Your Fish on Drugs: Introductory Biology Research in a High School Setting Curran Chopra
P18 18 Friday Characterizing the role of MINK1 in Congenital Heart Disease Vaughn Colleluori
P19 19 Friday Fyn-dependent phosphorylation of PlexinA1 and PlexinA2 at conserved tyrosines Kristen D'Elia
is essential for zebrafish eye development
P20 20 Friday Maternal lethality of the fruitfly GTPBP2 homolog CG2017 Angela Derosa
P21 21 Friday Characterization of Sema6a and its Downstream Effector Crmp2 in Zebrafish Eye Caroline Dumas
Development
P22 22 Friday The microtubule plus-end-tracking protein TACC3 promotes persistent axon Burcu Erdogan
outgrowth and mediates responses to axon guidance signals during
development.
P23 23 Friday Visualizing joint morphogenesis during axolotl limb regeneration Johanna Farkas
P24 24 Friday Single-cell reconstruction of developmental trajectories during zebrafish Jeffrey Farrell
embryogenesis
P25 25 Friday Developmental mechanisms underlying phenotypic variation in Satb2-mediated Jennifer Fish
craniofacial disease
P26 26 Friday RNA-seq analysis of optic nerve and spinal cord injury in Xenopus laevis reveals Ben Szaro
core genes associated with successful CNS axon regeneration
P27 27 Friday Sequential regulation of maternal mRNAs utilizing a single cis-acting element in Pooja Flora
their 3'UTRs
P28 28 Friday cart3 enhances regeneration rate in larval zebrafish fin fold Elizabeth Freilich
P29 29 Friday The role of NRG1 signaling during adult salamander neurogenesis and spinal Polina Freitas
cord regeneration
P30 30 Friday Paclitaxel mimics effects of BPA in regenerating planaria Amber Funk
P31 31 Friday Effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on pharyngeal system Aleice Goodman
development
P32 32 Friday Scaling of asymmetric cell division mechanisms with embryo size in the C. Stephanie Her
elegans zygote
P33 33 Friday Thyroid hormones facilitate fin ray branching in zebrafish. Yinan Hu
P34 34 Friday Mechanisms Regulating Centriole Engagement during Male Meiosis in C. Anthony James
 elegans
P35 35 Friday Investigating non-canonical signaling of Slita in the guidance of astroglial cells Cassie Kemmler
and the post optic commissure axons they support during zebrafish forebrain
development
P36 36 Friday C. elegans sex myoblasts as an in vivo model for cell migration Nuri Kim
P37 37 Friday Airway cartilage patterning and development of the avian vocal organ Evan Kingsley
P38 38 Friday Canonical Wnt signaling and sox2 interact to maintain the neuromesodermal Brian Kinney
progenitor population in the zebrafish tailbud
P39 39 Friday Dissecting the roles of cis- and trans-regulation in the programming of cell Taylor Medwig
invasive behavior in C. elegans Kinney
P40 40 Friday Retinoic Acid Receptor Alpha Reduces Fibrosis in Regenerating Salivary Glands Melinda Larsen
P41 41 Friday Using Xenopus laevis as a model for studying genes associated with intellectual Micaela Lasser
disabilities
P42 42 Friday Significant Sources of Alkylphenols which are Endocrine Disrupting Pollutants in Hans Laufer
Marine Environments, affect Lobster Development, Metamorphosis, and
Survival
P43 43 Friday Abl2 promotes microtubule polymerization in vivo via multiple functional Kyle Lawrence
domains and interacts with actin during filopodial formation and extension
P44 44 Friday Regulation of Bucky Ball ? an essential regulator of Oocyte Polarity. Kathyann Lee
P45 45 Friday TACC3 mitigates Nocodazole-induced growth cone effects and is required for Eric Lee
proper embryonic neural development
P46 46 Friday Testing the role of the transcription factor AP-2e in directing the identity of Jennifer Lin
vomeronasal sensory neurons
P48 48 Friday Examination of the role of the microenvironment in mediating cell invasive simeiyun liu
behavior during nematode uterine-vulval attachment
P49 49 Friday Understanding the Role of cdh6 in Early Zebrafish Development via Generation Katherine Lo
of a cdh6 Mutant and Reporter Line
P50 50 Friday Utilizing HCR FISH to localize mRNA expression in the axolotl Alexander Lovely
P51 51 Friday Dcbld2 and its Tyrosine Phosphorylation are Essential for the Development of Michelle Lunde
the Zebrafish Retina, Optic Tract and Vasculature
P52 52 Friday An RNAi based screen in Drosophila larvae identifies Fascin as a regulator of Jenna Mark
myoblast fusion and myotendinous junction structure
P53 53 Friday Helicases involved in ribosome biogenesis ensure cell cycle progression through Elliot Martin
a G1/S checkpoint in the Drosophila female germ line
P54 54 Friday Preservatives that synergize with xenoestrogens Kayla Massena
P55 55 Friday Thyroid hormone differentially regulates head and body lateral line Angela Mauri
development in zebrafish.
P56 1 Saturday Anatomical assessment reveals that thyroid hormone stimulates ossification and Catherine May
morphogenesis in bones of many origins and developmental profiles
P57 2 Saturday Niche Cell Wrapping Depends on Basement Membrane Cues in the C. elegans Daniel McIntyre
Embryonic Gonad
P59 3 Saturday Changes in DNA methylation correspond with acquiring regeneration Roni Milgrom
competency in the amphibian limb regenerate
P60 4 Saturday Quantifying the Retention of BPA in Regenerating Planaria Troy Moody
P61 5 Saturday Cell cycle regulation of notochord/floor plate progenitor cells in the zebrafish Robert Morabito
tailbud
P62 6 Saturday Wnt5b, the fine tuner of neural stem cell division and differentiation Vivian Morris
P63 7 Saturday Contribution of Mesenchymal Cell Populations to the Salivary Gland Epithelial Nicholas Moskwa
Progenitor Cell Niche
P64 8 Saturday Structural and Functional Analyses of the C. elegans Spindle-Defective Protein 2 Mikaela Murph
ASH domain
P65 9 Saturday Role of TGFb/BMP signaling in controlling the mainenance of basal neuronal cell Ankana Naik
fate in the Vomeronasal organ.
P66 10 Saturday When Axolotls Metamorphose: The Kinematics of Salamnders That Shouldn't Victoria Narici
Walk
P67 11 Saturday Characterization of the TACC Microtubule Plus-End Binding Complex Helen Nazarenko
P68 12 Saturday Establishment of knock-in transgenic animals for functional genomic studies in a Naoyuki Ohta
simple chordate
P69 13 Saturday Interferon Induced with Helicase C Domain in Xenopus Oocyte Maturation Jennifer Olivieri
P70 14 Saturday Step-by-step evolution of Bicoid?s target specificity Pinar Onal
P71 15 Saturday Investigating the role of cell cycle regulators in cell invasion Nicholas Palmisano
P72 16 Saturday Effect of serotonin modulation on the pathology of a zebrafish model of Prithu Pareek
Duchenne muscular dystrophy
P73 17 Saturday The Roles of the Somitic Mesoderm in de novo Blood Vessel Formation in the Eric Paulissen
Developing Zebrafish Embryo
P74 18 Saturday Building a complete tool kit to understand how Slit guidance cues build the Nadia PenkoffLidbeck
zebrafish forebrain
P75 19 Saturday Shroom2 plays an important role in a number of cytoskeletal driven neural Benjamin Pratt
development processes
P76 20 Saturday Autophagy Regulation due to DBL-1 Signaling in the model C. elegans Gehan Ranepura
P77 21 Saturday A critical and direct role for thyroid hormone in zebrafish craniofacial Anna Redgrave
remodeling
P78 22 Saturday Chromosome features regulating genome partitioning and spindle organization Katherine Rivera Gomez
in meiosis
P79 23 Saturday Nuclear envelope dependent organization of beta-integrin is an early event in Sacha Roberts
sarcomere assembly.
P80 24 Saturday Defining the Neurog3 gene regulatory network in Xenopus endoderm Anthony Rodriguez-
Vargas
P81 25 Saturday A TFAP2B Regulatory Subcircuit Controls Cranial Neural Crest Specification Megan Rothstein
P82 26 Saturday We know it flies but does it flex? Investigating scalloped function in Drosophila Jackie Ryan
embryonic muscles.
P83 27 Saturday XMAP215 regulates axonal growth cone morphology Annika Samuelson
P84 28 Saturday Examination of neurod4 in Retinogenesis Alexis Saunders
P85 29 Saturday Light, Radiation and GABA: Extracurricular Biology Research in a High School Anika Schipma
Setting
P86 30 Saturday DeltaSCOPE: A new method to quantify 3D biological structures and identify Morgan Schwartz
differences in zebrafish forebrain development
P87 31 Saturday Investigation of Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome associated genes in Xenopus laevis Megan Selig
embryos
P88 32 Saturday A new system to study the effect of genome copy number on the size and scaling Vanvarong Serey
relationships of biological structures
P89 33 Saturday von Willebrand Factor D and EGF-Domains is an essential gene for axolotl limb Sofia Sessa
regeneration
P90 34 Saturday Antibody See Yorkie?: characterizing the protein expression in the Drosophila Sadie Signorella
embryo
P91 35 Saturday Microtubule Acetylation in Drosophila Germline Stem Cell System Taylor Simao
P92 36 Saturday XMAP215 binds actin filament in vitro and promotes microtubule/actin filament Paula Slater
alignment
P93 37 Saturday Investigating the role of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex in the Jayson Smith
differentiation of the invasive phenotype
P94 38 Saturday Torsin A is essential for muscle development Divya Sridharan
P95 39 Saturday It?s all in the family: Investigating the zebrafish dmrt gene family in gonadal and Jocelyn Steinfeld
sexual development
P96 40 Saturday Characterization of Crk and Crkl in the developing zebrafish retina Helaina Stergas
P97 41 Saturday How to get a brain: Evolutionary implications of neurogenesis in the annelid Abhinav Sur
Capitella teleta
P98 42 Saturday The Effect of Atrazine on the Cytoskeletal Structure of Jurkat Cells Ashley Fisher
P99 43 Saturday Determining the Role of the 16p12.1 Microdeletion in Neurodevelopment Jessica Tiber
P100 44 Saturday We know it flies but does it flex? Investigating scalloped function in Drosophila Matthew Trang
embryonic muscles.
P101 45 Saturday A switch in the mode of Wnt signaling orchestrates the formation of germline Maitreyi Upadhyay
stem cell differentiation niche in Drosophila
P47 47 Saturday Taking a Roundabout Investigation of the Forebrain: Testing the Requirements Mackenzie Litz
of Robo1 and Robo4 in Zebrafish Forebrain Development.
P102 48 Saturday Knock-down of Zebrafish histidyl-tRNA synthetase results in fewer retinal Ashley Waldron
neurons and mechanosensory hair cells.
P103 49 Saturda Mary Wallingford
Regulation of Inorganic Phosphate at the Maternal-Fetal Interface
P104 50 Saturday Decoding neuronal sexual dimorphisms regulated through the DM domain Chen Wang
transcription factors
P105 51 Saturday Mechanisms regulating the size of the amphibian limb regenerate. Kaylee Wells
P106 52 Saturday The axolotl retina promotes attachment of grafted retinal progenitor cells better Anastasia Yandulskaya
than the pig retina
P107 53 Saturday Expression of Notch pathway genes in gef mutants Amanda Young
P109 54 Saturday TorsinA's Role in Mechanosensing Ability of Neurons Timothy Zaccaro