Lewis Wheaton, Ph.D.
School of Biological Sciences
Georgia Institute of Technology

Livestream via Zoom

ABSTRACT
In our everyday lives, we understand the actions we see others through visual perception. Further, whether we are children or adults learning a new skill, we use these perceptions of others to help us learn and improve our own actions. How does the neuromotor system perceive action, and how can this be used to improve lives? From neurons to networks, researchers have been working to unlock how humans perceive action and how those perceptions shape our motor system. This research has made substantial strides in basic science, with emerging translation into various motor learning applications.  The goal of this talk is to provide insights into the neural networks involved in perceiving action, how these networks may evaluate crucial details of actions, and how the perceptual system may work to facilitate motor improvements in persons with neural injury.

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Annalise Paaby, Ph.D.
School of Biological Sciences
Georgia Institute of Technology

Livestream via Zoom

ABSTRACT
How do complex traits evolve? Living systems are governed by the interaction of hundreds, if not thousands, of genes encoded in the genome. Relationships between genes affect how mutations are expressed and whether traits are constrained or labile in the face of natural selection. How do these complex dynamics influence the variation we observe in natural populations? Using the model system C. elegans, I describe the role of genetic dependencies in two essential phenomena: RNA interference, a mechanism of gene regulation shared across Eukaryotes and for which C. elegans is the Nobel exemplar... but which nevertheless exhibits dramatic variation in competency; and transfer RNAs, an essential family of molecules required for protein synthesis, but which suffers extreme mutational degradation and gene turnover. In both scenarios, I make the case that uncovering the causes and consequences of natural variation is critical to understanding the biology of even the most well-studied traits.

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Shuyi Nie, Ph.D.
School of Biological Sciences
Georgia Institute of Technology

Livestream via Zoom

ABSTRACT
Cell and tissue movements play critical roles during embryonic development and homeostasis. Defects in cell migration and tissue morphogenesis often results in severe birth defects, such as neural tube defects, craniofacial anomalies, and congenital heart defects. In the past seven years, we studied a few regulatory events during cell and tissue movements, with a focus on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neural crest cell migration. In this talk, I will mainly discuss two stories. The first one describes a novel protein Cdc42ep1 in neural crest cell migration. We demonstrated a unique activity of this protein, which coordinates the protrusive activity at cell front and the retractive activity at cell rear by interacting with Cdc42 and septin filaments respectively. The second one explores the etiology of a severe heart defect, hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Our results show that defects from the cardiac neural crest, cardiomyocytes, and endocardial tissue collectively contribute to this birth defect and imply that early intervention may be able to correct it.  

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Jenny McGuire, Ph.D.
Schools of Biological Sciences and Earth & Atmospheric Science
Georgia Institute of Technology

Livestream via Zoom

ABSTRACT
We are on the brink of a 6th mass extinction, facing a devastation of biodiversity and ecosystem function. But we still have time to pull back. Work in conservation biology, ecology, and paleontology emphasize that natural systems dynamically respond to rapid environmental changes. However, given the magnitude and rates of anthropogenic and climatic change occurring today, it helps to bring a perspective that spans multiple spatial and temporal scales to infer these likely responses. With the advent of large paleontological databases and paleoenvironmental reconstructions, we are at the forefront of being able to solve previously intractable evolutionary and ecological questions with a quantitative deep-time approach. Using the fossil pollen and mammal records, we reconstruct the past climatic niches of plant and animal taxa from the last 21,000 years. We then explore how well plants and animals track climate and to what extent human impacts prevent species from tracking their preferred climate. We find that plants track climate with higher fidelity than mammals. Mammals shift their climatic niches in response to human landscape modifications— with large mammals shifting away from human-occupied climate regimes and many small mammals being facilitated by them. We finally explore how mammals’ differential responses to human impacts have resulted in the gradual erosion of certain functional traits. We see a distinct loss of trait-environment alignment both spatially, in heavily modified areas, and through time, starting around the time of the evolution of Homo erectus 1.9 million years ago. Different reactions to climate and human impacts across taxa and trophic levels highlight differential vulnerabilities to the dynamic changes to come. With these approaches and others, our goal is to develop a framework to identify and maintain the resiliency of rapidly changing ecosystems as we go into an uncertain future.

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Kathryn E. Oliver, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics
Division of Pulmonary, Allergy/Immunology, Cystic Fibrosis & Sleep
Emory University School of Medicine

Livestream via Zoom

SPEAKER BIO
Dr. Oliver has pursued studies of cystic fibrosis (CF) pathogenesis since 2009. She began her scientific career as a master’s student at Auburn University, where she characterized adaptive metabolic strategies by which Pseudomonas aeruginosa chronically establishes itself in the lungs of individuals with CF. After graduating with an M.S. in Microbiology, she worked one year as Lead Instructor for the “Genetics and Evolution” course at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. In 2012, Dr. Oliver enrolled in the Genetics graduate program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to study CF disease mechanism. Her dissertation project utilized high-throughput yeast phenomics to identify novel genetic modifiers of the most common CF-causing variant (F508del-CFTR) and elucidated, for the first time, effects of ribosomal perturbation on CFTR synthesis, trafficking, and function. Dr. Oliver began postdoctoral training at Emory University in 2017 and continued to work towards a career in basic and translational science. Her studies concentrated on evaluating changes in translation kinetics – both in vitro and in vivo – following suppression of specific ribosomal proteins.

In 2021, Dr. Oliver was promoted to Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Emory. Her current research program employs interdisciplinary approaches in molecular genetics, RNA biology, biochemistry, cellular physiology, and functional genomics to investigate impact of translational speed, ribosome fidelity, and mRNA surveillance on protein synthesis in the context of CF. Particular emphasis is placed on premature termination codons (PTCs) and other rare defects that occur in the CFTR gene, specifically evaluating underlying mechanism(s) responsible for genotype-phenotype correlation, pharmacologic responsiveness, and heterogeneity of patient outcomes. Dr. Oliver’s scientific objectives also include better delineation of genetic factors that influence severity of refractory CFTR variants, including attention to mutations that occur in Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) with the disease. Her overarching goals are to provide new insights relevant to CF clinical intervention and extend research findings to other pediatric conditions with similar etiology. Dr. Oliver presently serves on the national CFF Guidelines Committee for CF Related Metabolic Disorder (CRMS) and CF Screen Positive Inconclusive Disorder (CFSPID), whose mission is to develop consensus recommendations for CRMS/CFSPID genetic testing, diagnosis, and treatment.

Host: Francesca Storici, Ph.D.

Bio credit: https://www.pedsresearch.org/people/faculty/kathryn-oliver-phd

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Please RSVP for this free event via Eventbrite.

Trammell Crow Company and Georgia Tech are pleased to invite you to a special groundbreaking event for Science Square.

Formerly known as Technology Enterprise Park, Science Square is an 18-acre master-planned district offering premier commercial lab/R&D and residential developments and is being reactivated as a regional and global hub of bioscience and life science that will draw research and investment from academia and private industry regionally and nationally.

Please join us for this important celebration and hear from leading officials at Georgia Tech, the State of Georgia and Portal Innovations, marking the commencement of the construction of Phase I.

9:00 - Arrival and refreshments

9:30 - Program

10am - 11:30am - Reception to follow at The Gathering Spot.

Location:
387 Technology Circle Northwest
Atlanta, GA 30313
View map

Learn more about the Science Square project here and here.

Event Details

Nothing announces the start of a new academic year quite like the King of Pops combined with a free BIOLOGY t-shirt. Come grab your sweet treat and your shirt as we welcome our new and returning undergraduates to campus for the Fall semester. If you have a shirt from a previous event, be sure to show it off at this year’s event which will be held at the Kendeda Porch on Tuesday, August 23rd from 11 AM – 12:30 PM. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Preregistration is now closed. Onsite registration will be available.

In case of rain, our social will be held in Dalney 180.

Event Details

Channel your inner Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern’s character in "Jurassic Park") at Tech’s Spatial Ecology and Paleontology Lab for Fossil Fridays. Sifting through dirt pulled from the Natural Trap Cave in Wyoming, community members can help researchers find fossils up to 30,000 years old. “We’re interested in ‘citizen science’ and making sure our community knows what we’re working on and feels included,” says Julia Schap, a third-year PhD candidate and one of the hosts of Fossil Fridays. “We don’t like this idea that science happens behind closed doors.”

Fossil Fridays begin Friday, September 2. Learn more and register here.

"CITIZEN SCIENTISTS" ARE WELCOME DURING FOSSIL FRIDAYS AT GEORGIA TECH.

This story by Jennifer Herseim first appeared in Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine.

Eleven-year-old Matthew and his brother Joey, age 7, are hunched over a small pile of dirt in Tech’s Spatial Ecology and Paleontology Lab. The brothers aren’t students at Georgia Tech—at least not yet, says their mother, Christine Conwell, PhD Chem 04, who works at Georgia Tech and is married to fellow Yellow Jacket David Gaul, PhD Chem 98.

Nevertheless, the two young fossil hunters are doing important work for the lab: helping researchers find fossilized bones, some of which could be 30,000 years old. Matthew and Joey are just two of the citizen scientists who have lent a hand during “Fossil Fridays,” an open, two-hour session when members of the community can come learn about paleontology and dig through dirt samples in search of real fossils.

“We’re interested in ‘citizen science’ and making sure our community knows what we’re working on and feels included,” says Julia Schap, a third-year PhD candidate and one of the hosts of Fossil Fridays. “We don’t like this idea that science happens behind closed doors.”

The program started in 2014 as a hands-on community activity, but also, partly, as a much-needed solution to help researchers in Jenny McGuire’s Spatial Ecology & Paleontology Lab at Georgia Tech sift through literally a ton of dirt pulled from the Natural Trap Cave in Wyoming.

As the name implies, the cave’s unique geography has made it an ideal spot for paleontologists—a large hole in a plateau above the cave acts as a natural trap. For hundreds of thousands of years, animals have fallen through the hole to an 80-foot drop below, explains Schap. The stack of bones below the hole is a treasure trove for researchers like Schap. She visited the cave with McGuire last summer. Their team bagged and shipped 2,000 pounds of sediment back to Atlanta. 

Some of the fossils found in the samples come from rodents, rabbits, lizards, snakes, birds, frogs, and occasionally fish that get brought in by the birds. “A lot of Tech students like Fossil Fridays, especially those who are interested in medical school, because they become more familiar with what animal bones look like compared to humans,” Schap says. “Also, people think it’s just fascinating that you can touch fossils.”

The lab uses fossils in a variety of research areas. Schap studies fossils of small mammals to find out how these species were affected by climate at different periods of history. Her findings are useful for current conservation efforts.

Fossil Fridays are on pause for the summer but will resume in the fall. During a typical session, Schap likes to play movie soundtracks in the background to help fossil hunters unwind.  “I sometimes play the Jurassic Park soundtrack to really help everyone get in the mood and to feel like they’re doing really important work—because they are.

Channel your inner Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern’s character in "Jurassic Park") at Tech’s Spatial Ecology and Paleontology Lab for Fossil Fridays. Sifting through dirt pulled from the Natural Trap Cave in Wyoming, community members can help researchers find fossils up to 30,000 years old. “We’re interested in ‘citizen science’ and making sure our community knows what we’re working on and feels included,” says Julia Schap, a third-year PhD candidate and one of the hosts of Fossil Fridays. “We don’t like this idea that science happens behind closed doors.”

Fossil Fridays begin Friday, September 2. Learn more and register here.

"CITIZEN SCIENTISTS" ARE WELCOME DURING FOSSIL FRIDAYS AT GEORGIA TECH.

This story by Jennifer Herseim first appeared in Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine.

Eleven-year-old Matthew and his brother Joey, age 7, are hunched over a small pile of dirt in Tech’s Spatial Ecology and Paleontology Lab. The brothers aren’t students at Georgia Tech—at least not yet, says their mother, Christine Conwell, PhD Chem 04, who works at Georgia Tech and is married to fellow Yellow Jacket David Gaul, PhD Chem 98.

Nevertheless, the two young fossil hunters are doing important work for the lab: helping researchers find fossilized bones, some of which could be 30,000 years old. Matthew and Joey are just two of the citizen scientists who have lent a hand during “Fossil Fridays,” an open, two-hour session when members of the community can come learn about paleontology and dig through dirt samples in search of real fossils.

“We’re interested in ‘citizen science’ and making sure our community knows what we’re working on and feels included,” says Julia Schap, a third-year PhD candidate and one of the hosts of Fossil Fridays. “We don’t like this idea that science happens behind closed doors.”

The program started in 2014 as a hands-on community activity, but also, partly, as a much-needed solution to help researchers in Jenny McGuire’s Spatial Ecology & Paleontology Lab at Georgia Tech sift through literally a ton of dirt pulled from the Natural Trap Cave in Wyoming.

As the name implies, the cave’s unique geography has made it an ideal spot for paleontologists—a large hole in a plateau above the cave acts as a natural trap. For hundreds of thousands of years, animals have fallen through the hole to an 80-foot drop below, explains Schap. The stack of bones below the hole is a treasure trove for researchers like Schap. She visited the cave with McGuire last summer. Their team bagged and shipped 2,000 pounds of sediment back to Atlanta. 

Some of the fossils found in the samples come from rodents, rabbits, lizards, snakes, birds, frogs, and occasionally fish that get brought in by the birds. “A lot of Tech students like Fossil Fridays, especially those who are interested in medical school, because they become more familiar with what animal bones look like compared to humans,” Schap says. “Also, people think it’s just fascinating that you can touch fossils.”

The lab uses fossils in a variety of research areas. Schap studies fossils of small mammals to find out how these species were affected by climate at different periods of history. Her findings are useful for current conservation efforts.

Fossil Fridays are on pause for the summer but will resume in the fall. During a typical session, Schap likes to play movie soundtracks in the background to help fossil hunters unwind.  “I sometimes play the Jurassic Park soundtrack to really help everyone get in the mood and to feel like they’re doing really important work—because they are.

The Office of the Vice President for Interdisciplinary Research invites you to join us for a brown bag virtual information session with guest presenter Connie Casteel on Wednesday, August 10, 2022, from Noon to 1:00 pm. Please find the Zoom link below. This event is open to all Georgia Tech faculty, staff, and students.

Need funding to advance your research from lab to product? The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs provide funding to transform basic research into market-ready products; they help ready your innovations for commercialization. Known as “America’s Seed Fund,” SBIR/STTR funding has helped launch thousands of startup companies around the country with research awards up to $1.5M. Whether launching your own company or partnering with an existing business, SBIR/STTR can move a technology down the development pipeline toward a product.

Not sure if SBIR/STTR is right for you? This Info Session is designed for those who know little or nothing about SBIR or STTR; it will be a starting point for anyone considering SBIR/STTR funding and will provide a forum to answer your questions. Come learn about the programs and see how they might be utilized to help commercialize your research.  

Connie Casteel, of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), helps researchers, entrepreneurs, and companies around the state understand and secure federal funding from the SBIR and STTR programs. ATDC, Georgia’s state-funded technology business incubator, helps launch, grow, and scale startups in Georgia.

Registration is not required. To join, follow this link: https://gatech.zoom.us/j/96325411583?pwd=MGJzUWFvZ0RZcjhVQUxuQUhra1hHUT09  Open the attached calendar invitation to add this event to your calendar. We hope to see you there!

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