Interdisciplinary Graduate and Professional Student Symposium

The Interdisciplinary Graduate and Professional Student Symposium (IGPS) is being held at the ARC on the UC Davis Campus on Thursday April 26th through Saturday April 28th (http://www.gradstudies.ucdavis.edu/about/igps.html)

MCIP has a number of students presenting at the Interdisciplinary Graduate and Professional Student Symposium.  Please take the time to support them. 

1. Shannamar Dewey will be presenting her poster: DYNAMIC PERTURBATIONS WITHIN THE UBIQUITIN PROTEASOME SYSTEM IN TYPE 1 DIABETES MELLITUS on Thursday, April 26th from 7:30-9:30PM
2. Amanda Klein will be giving her talk NEURAL MECHANISMS OF ITCHING, BURNING, PRICKING, STINGING, TINGLING AND NUMBING: HOW IRRITATING! On Friday, April 27th at 11:30 in ARC, Room A
3. Monica Watson is organizing a student panel on ACTIVE VS PASSIVE TEACHING which will include an experiment and real time data analysis on Saturday, April 28th from 11:00-11:45PM in ARC, Room 1 with Shannamar Dewey and Kate Watson
4. Kate Watson is organizing a workshop on WORK/LIFE BALANCE IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATH (STEM) on Saturday, April 28th from 12:00-1:00PM in ARC, BALLROOM C

Please join us for these events and spread the word so that these sessions are well attended! 

STEM Workshop Flyer for 2012 IGPS 


2012_Active vs Passive IGPS Flyer

What does the schedule look like?
Thursday, April 26
5:45 p.m. – Registration
6:00 p.m. – IGPS Opening Dinner (RSVP on the website listed above)
7:00 p.m. – Keynote Address, Tim Bucher
7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. – Poster Session

Friday, April 27
9:00 a.m. – Breakfast
9:30 a.m. – Presentation Talks Session 1
10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. – Resource Fair
11:00 a.m. – Presentation Talks Session 2
12:15 p.m. – Lunch
1:00 p.m. – Presentation Talks Session 3
2:30 p.m. – Presentation Talks Session 4
4:00 p.m. – Presentation Talks Session 5
5:15 p.m. – Refreshments
6:00 p.m. – Performance Session 1
7:30 p.m. – Performance Session 2

Saturday, April 28
8:30 a.m. – Breakfast
9:00 a.m. – Panel Session 1
10:00 a.m. – Panel Session 2
11:00 a.m. – Panel Session 3
Noon – Workshop
1:00 p.m. – Lunch and Awards

The keynote speaker is high-tech serial entrepreneur, Tim Bucher. Bucher has created several successful companies over the last 25 years, taking one of them public and selling four others to tech giants like Microsoft, Apple and Dell for over $1B.

Concussion Expert Dr. Stefan Duma Will Speak at UC Davis on Head Impact Exposure in Youth Football

Stefan Duma, the Virginia Tech professor of biomedical engineering and department head of the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, is directing a new study to instrument and map the head impact exposure of youth football players for all age groups from 6 years through 18 years. Here he fits a young player with a helmet.

 “Every Newton Hertz”

Stefan Duma, Ph.D., Professor and Department Head, Virginia Tech–Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, will speak as part of the UC Davis Biomedical Engineering Department’s Distinguished Seminar Series Thursday, 3/8/12 at 4:00 PM (1005 GBSF). Dr. Duma is one of the nation’s foremost scientists in the study of concussions. His rating system for football helmets has rocked the sports world since its release last spring and escalated the debate surrounding concussions in sports. Dr. Duma’s lecture, Every Newton Hertz, will discuss findings from his study recently published online in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering called, Head Impact Exposure in Youth Football (open access).

While the head impact exposure for athletes involved in football at the college and high school levels has been well documented, the head impact exposure of the youth population involved with football has yet to be investigated. This is despite the fact that 70% of football participants are in the youth leagues, over three million per year in the U.S. Dr. Duma’s group monitored impacts during both games and practices for 7 players aged 7-8 years old for the entire 2011 season. A 12 accelerometer array was equipped inside of the helmets of the participants and acceleration data were downloaded wirelessly to characterize the impact exposure of the participants. A total of 748 impacts were collected for the 7 participating players during the season, with an average of 107 impacts per player. The recorded linear accelerations ranged from 10 g to 100 g, and the recorded rotational accelerations ranged from 52 rad/s² to 7694 rad/s².

Surprisingly, the majority of the high level impacts occurred during practices, with 29 of the 38 impacts above 40 g occurring in practices. Although less frequent, youth football can produce high head accelerations in the range of concussion causing impacts measured in adults. In order to minimize these most severe head impacts, Dr. Duma’s paper concludes that youth football practices should be modified to eliminate high impact drills that do not replicate the game situations. This finding has caused a sensation on ESPN, Discovery News, Stone Phillips Reports, and all over the media. The audience will have a chance to ask questions after the lecture.

Stefan Duma is the founding Director of the Center for Injury Biomechanics (CIB) at Virginia Tech-Wake Forest and has personally been awarded over $35 million in externally funded research from the NIH, CDC, NSF, DOD, DOT, and a range in industrial sponsors. He has published over 300 technical papers in the field of injury biomechanics including over 100 peer reviewed journal papers and two books. Dr. Duma is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine and his research has been recognized with numerous best paper awards at the Stapp and AAAM Conferences. 

When: Thursday, 3/8/12 4:00 PM
Where: 1005 GBSF, UC Davis

Seminar Announcement

Career Options Seminar

Greetings fellow grad students and faculty (and anyone else who is interested),

What are the odds that you will follow your PI in becoming a tenured faculty? Yep, less than 25%. Would it make sense to focus your entire PhD career on that 1 in 4 shot (assuming those odds don't deteriorate once you get your shot at a tenured track faculty position)? Of course not. Therefore we offer your an insight in the various career options there are for people with a PhD in molecular biology (and related fields), so you can make an educated plan for your own future. You can have plans for the day after your finish your PhD.

Career Options Seminar

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

Jane de Lartigue

10:30 AM

LSA 1022

Jane completed a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the University of Liverpool in England, where she's from, prior to moving to California to start a postdoc in the Scholey lab at UC Davis. After 2 years of postdoctoral research she left the lab to follow her passion for science writing. She started up her own freelance scientific writing and editing company, Jane de Lartigue Science Communications (JLSC,) in January 2011. Over the past year she has cultivated clients in fields ranging from academia to pharmaceutical companies and specialist medical magazines. She is also active in the online scientific communications community via blogging, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Whatever you study, this will be a good talk to attend because Jane will provide insight into how she succeeded in her career using the sheepskin we are all working for.

Tell your fellow grad students, techs, postdocs, and PI and we'll see you on February 14th!

Seminar schedule (http://bmcdb.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/career-option-seminar-schedule/):

Fall quarter
11 Oct 2011 - David Posner, UC Davis graduate, human resources Cisco
08 Nov 2011 – Paul Henderson, National lab + start-up company
13 Dec 2011 – Eric Jonas, CEO of Novia Systems start-up, PhD student at MIT

Winter quarter
10 Jan 2012 – Sharon Bergquist, Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellows, policy and global affairs
14 Feb 2012 – Jane de Lartigue, freelance science writer
13 Mar 2012* – Dave Crotty, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, executive editor CSHL Protocol

Spring quarter
10 Apr 2012 – Mel Bradnam, grant office at UC Davis Cancer Center
08 May 2012 – Megan Hall, associate editor PLoS Biology
12 Jun 2012** - Jacqueline Alldritt, high-school teacher

All talks will be at 10:30 in LSA1022.

* will be on a Friday at 2pm in LSA1022

** will be on a Tuesday, but at 4pm in LSA1022

The 7 Secrets of Highly Successful PhDs and Masters Students

The 7 Secrets of Highly Successful PhDs and Masters Students

Thursday, March 1, 2012
Noon-2:30pm
MUII, 2nd Floor, Memorial Union

Please Register at http://iccweb.ucdavis.edu/graduates/7SecretsSignUp.htm

What do graduate students and postdocs do to finish on time, to overcome isolation, doubt and writer’s block, and to enjoy the process? And just as importantly what do they do in order to spend guilt-free time with their family and friends and perhaps even have holidays? If this sounds appealing, then this session will be of particular use to you.

This workshop describes the seven key habits that will help you complete your graduate degree or postdoc. Just as importantly, these habits can greatly reduce the stress and increase the pleasure involved in the process of finishing your degree or training.

The workshop helps you to understand how to increase your effectiveness and outcomes in the following key areas:

• how you deal with your adviser
• how you structure your writing time
• your attitude (or lack thereof!) in relation to your research
• dealing with writer’s block or having difficulty writing
• getting the help you need when you are stuck
• juggling multiple commitments and never having enough time
• keeping on going when the going gets tough

Feel free to bring a brown bag lunch!

Light refreshments will be served.

In Vivo Small Animal Imaging Workshop

An Invitation from Simon Cherry

The Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging (CMBI) invites you to join them at the “In vivo Small-Animal Imaging: An Introductory Workshop,” to be held March 21, 2012, at the auditorium of the Genome and Biomedical Sciences Facility on the UC Davis campus. This workshop is designed for individuals who are new to in vivo, small animal imaging. It is appropriate for technical staff and researchers who have recently started working with in vivo imaging techniques and who want to learn more about the basic science and methods of small-animal imaging. The workshop will consist of lectures in the morning and demonstrations of imaging procedures in the afternoon. Only the first 26 registered participants will be invited to participate in the afternoon demonstrations at the Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging (CMGI). No prior knowledge is assumed. Please note that the workshop is not suited for those already experienced in small-animal imaging. We look forward to seeing you in March!

Tentative schedule:

8:00 a.m. Registration and continental breakfast

8:30 a.m. Welcome

8:35 a.m. Small Animal Imaging Basics, Simon Cherry, PhD

10:00 a.m. Data Acquisition, Processing Analysis, Doug Rowland, PhD

11:15 a.m. Targeted Molecular Imaging, Julie Sutcliffe, PhD

12:15 p.m. Image Reconstruction Techniques, Ramsey Badawi, PhD

1:00 p.m. Lunch

1:45 – 4:45 p.m. Demonstrations (limited to the first 26 registered participants) in the CMGI

Registration: $25 per participant (non-refundable). Please register at http://cmgi.eventbrite.com

For more information: If you have any questions regarding this workshop, please contact

Malena Teeters at (530) 754-8033 or mbteeters@ucdavis.edu

JOINT SEMINARS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Sponsored by: The  College of Biological Sciences, Graduate Group in Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Department of Plant Biology, Molecular & Cellular Biology Training Grant (NIH), and Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology

Dr. Hana El-Samad

Assistant Professor

Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics

University of California, San Francisco

""Non-Genetic Individuality: Molecular Noise as a Phenotype"."

Thursday, February 2, 2012

4:10 p.m.

1022 Life Sciences

Faculty Host: Katie Dehesh (kdehesh@ucdavis.edu)

 (If you wish an appointment with the invited speaker, please contact their host.)

Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Innate Immunity

If you missed The Center for Comparative Medicine's Symposium on  the Evolution of Common Molecular Pathways Underlying Innate Immunity, audio/visual power point presentations from the speakers (two of whom are Nobel Laureates) have been released.  I have provided the links below for the presentations, but you can also visit The Center for Comparative Medicine's website for additional information and upcoming events/seminars/symposia.

• "The Drosophila Host Defense: A Model for the Study of Innate Immunity"  by Jules Hoffmann, PhD, 2011 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg

• “Creating Immune Deficiencies by Random Mutagenesis in Mammals” by Bruce Beutler, MD, 2011 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas

• “The Rice XA21 Receptor Recognizes a Conserved Bacterial Signaling Molecule” by Pamela Ronald, PhD, Professor Department of Plant Pathology, UC Davis Genome Center, University of California, Davis

• “Toll-like Receptors and Inflammasomes:  Key Drivers of Inflammatory Diseases” by Luke O'Neill, PhD, Professor School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity College, Dublin

Storer Life Sciences Endowment Seminar Series

The Major Issues in Modern Biology (MIiMB) seminar series was established by the College of Biological Sciences in 1986 to focus attention on important issues that influence the direction of modern biology. In 1990, the Tracy and Ruth Storer Lectureship in the Life Sciences endowment began funding the seminar series to bring to Davis eminent biologists whose current work represents the cutting edge of their fields of inquiry. The series features speakers whose work has had a major impact in their field and is of broad appeal to the campus community of biologists.

The series generally consists of 4-6 seminars scheduled at intervals throughout the academic year. Each speaker presents a single seminar.