2018

Dr. Dipali Sharma

Professor of Oncology
Breast Cancer Program, Department of Oncology
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Centre
Johns Hopkins Medicine

"Mechanistic Links Underlying Obesity-Breast Cancer Connection: Insights and Strategies"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Ph.D. Thesis Defence, Sergio Andrés Muñoz Gómez

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"The anatomical and phylogenetic nature of the first mitochondrial ancestor"

Location
Room 430, Goldberg Computer Science Building 6050 University Avenue Halifax, NS

Dr. André Schneider

Professor
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
University of Bern, Switzerland

"Mitochondrial biogenesis in trypanosomatids: variations of a theme or fundamentally different?”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Honours Student Research Presentations 2018

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

4:10 – 4:20 pm - Xiaoyi Ma
Neuron Growth on Collagen/Recombinant Spider Silk Films

4:25 – 4:35 pm - Kathleen Vergunst
Characterization of the Interaction Between Microphthalmia-associated Transcription Factor (MITF) and CBP/p300.

4:40 – 4:50 pm - Keira Durnin
Genomic Insights into Nephromyces: a Novel Lineage of the Apicomplexa

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Dr. David Smith, Student Research Day Guest Speaker

Associate Professor
Department of Biology
Western University

Events Include:
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Students - Meet with Dr. David Smith
12:00 - 12:50 p.m. Tupper Bldg. Rm. 9-A1

Workshop on Popular Science Writing with Dr. David Smith
1:00-2:00 p.m. CHEB C264

Research Poster Presentations
2:00-2:45 p.m. Location - CHEB C140

Undergraduate & Graduate Three Minute Thesis
3:00-3:50 p.m. CHEB C264

Keynote Speaker: Dr. David Smith
“Stranger things: the green algal organelle genome edition”
4:00 to 5:00 p.m. - Theatre A, Tupper Medical Bldg. (Halifax) and Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

For more information contact: Shannon Sibbald - Shannon.sibbald@dal.ca

Location
CHEB & Tupper Building

Cosponsored by: Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences (CSMB)

Sergio Andrés Muñoz-Gómez - Recipient of the 2017/2018 Doug Hogue Award

Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"The nature of the first mitochondrial ancestor”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Dr. Yassine El Hiani

Assistant Professor
Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Dalhousie University

"Role of TRPM2 ion channel in breast cancer pathogenesis and chemoresistance”

Location
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB) and
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)

Dr. Nikhil Thomas

Associate Professor
Department of Microbiology & Immunology
Department of Medicine (Division of Infectious Diseases)
Dalhousie University

"Bacterial modulation of virulence gene expression: flipping the switch towards pathogenesis”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Dr. Gareth Lim

Principal Scientist/Adjunct Professor
Centre de recherche du CHUM (CRCHUM)
Université de Montréal, Department of Medicine

"Determining the 14-3-3zeta interactome to understand adipocyte development”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Dr. Eva Nowack

Group Leader, Microbial Symbiosis & Organelle Evolution
Heinrich Heine University
Dusseldorf, Germany

"Gaining control over a bacterial endosymbiont – The long way from endosymbiont to organelle”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Cosponsored by: Centre for Comparative Genomics & Evolutionary Bioinformatics

Dr. Andrew M. Gulick

Associate Professor
Department of Structural Biology
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
University at Buffalo

"Iron Acquisition in Bacterial Pathogens: Structural and Functional Studies of Siderophore Biosynthesis”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Dr. Jennifer Schleit, Director of Molecular Genetics & Christine Davies, CGC and Genetic Services Consultant

Blueprint Genetics
Seattle Washington

"Understanding Genetic Variant Interpretation: Current Methods and Future Directions”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

M.Sc. Thesis Defence, Pooja Srinivasan

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"A study on the importance of an intact-ring structure in proline racemase catalysis”

Location
Room C264, Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB),(Halifax, NS) and Room 218, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Ph.D. Thesis Defence, Iman A. Khan

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Molecular mechanisms of ErbB2-driven three-dimensional breast tumor growth”

Location
Room 3107, The Mona Campbell Building, 1459 LeMarchant Street, Halifax, NS

M.Sc. Thesis Defence, Michael McPhee

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"An investigation of phosphoregulation and the role of CTP:phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase alpha in promoting ras-induced malignant transformation of intestinal epithelial cells.”

Location
Room C264, Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB),(Halifax, NS) and Room 218, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

M.Sc. Thesis Defence, Sarah Shah

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"The Genome of Blastocystis sp. Isolated from the Oriental Cockroach”

Location
Room C264, Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB),(Halifax, NS) and Room 105, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Dr. Matt Field

Senior Research Fellow
Bioinformatics
James Cook University

"Comparison of Predicted and Actual Consequences of Missense Mutations: Implications for Personalized Medicine”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Cosponsored by: Centre for Comparative Genomics & Evolutionary Bioinformatics

Saki Sultana, Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Understanding the biological role of beta-glucosidase 2 (GBA2), a gene mutated in neurological disorders"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Dr. Jamie Kramer

Assistant Professor
Departments of Physiology, Pharmacology & Biology
University of Western Ontario

“Epigenetic regulators in learning and memory”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Simiao (Michelle) Lu, Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

“A computational study to explore the conformational space of amyloid-beta”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Pooja Srinivasan, M.Sc. Candidate & Purvi Trivedi, Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Pooja Srinivasan, M.Sc. Candidate
“Entropic effects on proline racemase catalysis”

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Purvi Trivedi, Ph.D. Candidate
“Nutritional regulation of Transcription Factor EB (TFEB) in the heart”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Anamika Sulekha, Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

“Investigation into the initiation of aciniform silk fibrillogenesis"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Jonghwa (Kyle) Lee, Ph.D. Candidate

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

“The role of phosphatidylcholine in lipid droplet biogenesis and lipoprotein secretion”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Sarah Shah & Michael McPhee, M.Sc. Candidates, Ph.D. Candidates

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

Sarah Shah
“The mitochondrial genome of Blastocystis sp. isolated from the Oriental cockroach”

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Michael McPhee
“Understanding the role of phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis in cancer cells.”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Macpherson Seminar

10:00 a.m.
Discovery and development of Selonsertib, a first in class inhibitor of ASK1 for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

Dr. David Breckenridge

Senior Director of Biology, Gilead Sciences Inc.

4:00 p.m.
Three short stories on survival in the age of CRISPR/Cas9

Dr. David Edgell

Acting Chair, Department of Biochemistry, Western University

Dr. L. B. Macpherson taught biochemistry at Dalhousie University for sixteen years and played a major role in the development of the Medical School.

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Dr. Gregory Steinberg

Professor
Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine
Canada Research Chair in Metabolism and Obesity
J. Bruce Duncan Chair in Metabolic Diseases
McMaster University

"Cellular energy sensing and metabolism: implications for treating diabetes”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

2016 Patrick Prize Award Seminar - Dr. Mitesh Nagar

Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology
University of Massachusetts Medical School

"Finding keys to the “PAD”lock: Unraveling the regulation of Protein Arginine Deiminases”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Dr. Robert Beiko

Professor
Faculty of Computer Science
Dalhousie University

"Mining Antimicrobial-Resistance Genes From Metagenomic Data”

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Honours Student Research Presentations 2018

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

Honours Student Research Presentations 2018

Location
Theatre B, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)

Ph.D. Thesis Defence - Gregory D. McCluskey

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"Investigation of Inhibition, Filament Formation, and Inter-Domain Ammonia Channelling of CTP Synthase"

Location
Room 3107, The Mona Campbell Building, 1459 LeMarchant Street, Halifax, NS.

Dr. Christopher Beh

Associate Professor
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Simon Fraser University

"Membrane In - Membrane Out: Coordinating Transport to the Cell Membrane"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Ph.D. Thesis Defence - Antonietta Pietrangelo

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

"ORP4 is a Phospho-regulated Lipid Binding Protein Required for Cell Growth and Maintenance of TGN Morphology"

Location
Room 3107, The Mona Campbell Building, 1459 LeMarchant Street, Halifax, NS.

Graduate Student Symposium

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Dalhousie University

Biochemistry 5910.06

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Dr. Lewis Kay, 2017 Canada Gairdner International Laureate

Departments of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Chemistry
University of Toronto

"NMR Why Bother? Studies of the p97 Molecular Machine Provide an Answer"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Cosponsored by: The Gairdner Foundation

Dr. Gilbert Walker

Professor, Department of Chemistry
University of Toronto

Hydrophobic hydration

The interactions of hydrophobes with water, each other and surfaces drives many interesting processes, ranging from protein collapse, ligand binding and cellular attachment. Hydrophobe size matters, and there appears to be a fundamental transition from volume to surface area control of the hydrophobic hydration energies as size increases. I will illustrate how the macromolecule structure change is induced at these different length scales, with examples taken from single proteins, amyloids, polymers, and their surfaces. Finally, I will give examples of applications of these concepts to create materials for biodiagnostics and biofouling control.

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Dr. Brendan Leung

Assistant Professor
Department of Applied Oral Sciences, School Biomedical Engineering
Dalhousie University

"Towards disease-on-a-dish: applications of microtissues and micropatterning technologies in advanced culture and assay platforms"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)

Dr. Derek Wilson

Associate Professor 
Professor, Department of Chemistry
York University

"Linking Protein Conformational Dynamics with 'Real World' Drug Development in Neurodegenerative Disease and Cancer"

Location
Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building (Halifax, NS)
Room 102, DMNB (Saint John, NB)