Conference

Chris Smith: Evolution Meeting

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Chris Smith: Evolution Meeting Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2019 - 18:00

Chris Smith

I just got back from the Evolution Meeting in Providence and I’m full of information and ideas for research. I had the opportunity to reconnect with past colleagues and meet some new people. Other CU ��«��Ƶ folks attended, including the labs of Dan Doak, Nancy Emery, Nolan Kane, Stacy Smith, and Scott Taylor (sorry if I missed any others).

Although most of the research represented at Evolution is empirical research on understanding and preserving biodiversity, many attendees were excited to discuss methods. In particular, producing large amounts of DNA sequencing data - both empirically, and using computer simulations - is no longer limiting in many cases. Therefore, the challenge of developing theory and methods for analyzing these data has received more attention in recent years.

Highlighting a couple of talks I thought were memorable: Paul Hohenlohe (U. Idaho) described the array of reduced representation sequencing approaches that are available and important trade-offs among them. Adam Jones (also U. Idaho) used simulations to see if and how pleiotropy and epistasis affect scans for loci involved in adaptation; he reported that pleiotropic effects don’t really affect outlier scans and that some important loci are still detected in the presence of genetic interactions. Zach Gompert (Utah State) presented a cool approach for quantifying fluctuating selection.

My presentation was part of the session on Population Genetics Theory, which is too broad of a name for the session because the talks were each focused specifically on inferring historical population sizes and admixture. Multiple speakers used ancient DNA to infer population history and used computer simulations to validate their approach. Other speakers, including myself, were trying to “break” commonly used tools that infer population history, to understand which parameters and data work best, or worst.

On a fun note, we got to see the “WaterFire” event in downtown Providence next to the convention center. This event is a big deal. There were thousands of attendees packed onto bridges and standing in the park along the river. Leading up to, and during the event, large amplifiers played music covering a range of- and alternating dissonantly between- intense classical music, tribal music, country music, and horns. At dusk, they lit small bonfires floating on the river. That’s it.

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World Congress of Biomechanics – Dublin, Ireland

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 16:42:41 +0000

World Congress of Biomechanics – Dublin, Ireland Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/24/2018 - 10:42

Kristin Calahan

This summer, I had the opportunity to present my research at the 2018 World Congress of Biomechanics in Dublin, Ireland. As the premier meeting worldwide in the field of biomechanics, this was an incredible opportunity to network with scientists in this field, both within my subfield of biomechanics and far outside of it. I especially enjoyed this aspect of the conference because as an IQ Biology student I am intrigued by interdisciplinarity and the intersection of biology and mechanics at different length scales.

The talks spanned many areas of interest, but some of my favorites were sports and injury biomechanics, cell biomechanics, tissue engineering, images and devices, and biomechanics education. There were about fifteen research presentation sessions going on at any given time which was overwhelming at first, but once I was able to navigate the conference, I liked having the freedom to decide if I wanted more depth or breadth each day.

In addition to attending so many great talks, I had the opportunity to present a poster showing my latest research results describing mechanisms of friction between bio-inspired micropatterns on medical devices and the in vivo tissue environment. During my poster presentation, I was able to network with several graduate students from around the world as well as some professors that are active researchers in my subfield of biomechanics. It was motivating to discuss and ideate with other scientists focused on biomechanics research because it opened some new perspectives in thinking about my research. Overall, the conference was an awesome experience that reinforced my interest in the interdisciplinary field of biomechanics.

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SIAM Life Sciences Conference in Boston

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 15:25:25 +0000

SIAM Life Sciences Conference in Boston Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/13/2016 - 09:25

Jacqueline Wentz

This July I attended the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Conference on the Life Sciences in Boston. It was four days long, packed with talks, poster sessions, and unnecessary amounts of coffee. At the conference, I presented a poster on my latest research examining a molecular mechanism that is associated with aging in C. elegans. There were eight other graduate students from CU ��«��Ƶ who gave presentations on topics, such as, biofilm dynamics, bacterial flocculation, wound healing, and disease outbreaks.

The SIAM Life Sciences conference is geared towards applied mathematicians who are interested in using their mathematical expertise to help answer biological questions, ranging from questions on intracellular dynamics to epidemiology. Thus, the conference is inherently interdisciplinary. At many of the talks I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that the courses I took during my first year of IQ Biology helped me understand the biological problems discussed. For example, several of the talks dealt with microtubule dynamics, a topic that was extensively covered in the biophysics course I took in the spring. Other talks of note included a discussion of how mathematical modeling helped in the development of an artificial heart valve and an exploration into how the extracellular matrix affects sperm dynamics. I even got to see the notable Donald Knuth discuss the topic of satisfiability (i.e., given a formula, is there a model that makes that formula true). Besides making significant contributions to theoretical computer science, Donald Knuth is the developer of TeX, a computer typesetting language used extensively by mathematicians (myself included).

There were also many presentations that directly related to my research. For example, several talks discussed Turing instabilities. This is a type of instability that can explain how patterns arise from random distributions through a reaction/diffusion process. I am currently studying a system in which, I hypothesize, this type of instability leads to spatial expression patterns of a small heat shock protein in C. elegans. I actually met a PhD student who was examining Turing instabilities in C. elegans, but instead of mechanisms related to aging, she was modeling the development of neuronal synapses.

Overall the conference was a great experience. I was introduced to a group of interdisciplinary scientists who, like me, are interested in biological processes and want to use mathematics to enhance our understanding of these processes. I even had the opportunity to meet my academic “grandfather”, Dr. H. T. Banks. Dr. Banks greeted me at my poster session and explained to me that since he had advised my advisor, Dr. David Bortz, he was my academic grandfather and would treat me as such. Some additional bonuses included exploring the nearby Aquarium, visiting my alma mater, and getting to tour around Boston.

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My experience with Evolution

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

My experience with Evolution Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 08/29/2016 - 18:00

April Goebl

Attending Evolution, the premier international conference for evolutionary biology, had a big influence on my recently spawned, yet still vague, choice to pursue a career in evolutionary biology. Held in Austin, Texas this year and the largest conference in its field, Evolution is a joint event for three major societies: the American Society of Naturalists, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Society of Systematic Biologists.

By observing well-seasoned Evolution attendees, I noted their strategy for making the most of the busy conference: Attend talks on emerging methods, and spend time re-connecting with old lab mates and collaborators. For those transitioning from undergraduate, this conference was an optimal space to explore the breadth of current evolutionary biology research and to casually meet and chat with potential graduate advisors.

For me (someone recently starting on their PhD journey with broad interests in ecology, evolution and environmental biology) attending this conference felt like a well-timed bonus. I was able to attend talks and posters ranging from genomics, population genetics theory and ecological genetics to speciation and adaptation, biogeography, and conservation biology.

While this breadth of selection was nothing short of overwhelming for someone that struggles with indecision, the payoff of defining where my interests lie was well worth it. The challenge of navigating which talks to attend and how to traverse the conference center in time to make my next session of interest, was balanced by the reward of gaining insight into how to appropriately ask questions in this field and how to try to answer them.

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Computing Machinery and Mouse Genomes

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Computing Machinery and Mouse Genomes Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/09/2015 - 18:00

Daniel Malmar

I recently attended the 2014 Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Health Informatics (ACM BCB) with fellow IQ Biology student Joey Azofeifa and our advisor Robin Dowell. The conference had many interesting talks, ranging from theory-heavy explanations of algorithm improvements to very applied talks on using computational analysis for medical procedures. Joey presented his work on FStitch, a tool for measuring RNA transcription with GRO-seq data, which is soon to be published in the conference journal. His talk went very well and he fielded many good questions from interested attendees. In addition, Robin was a panelist for the “Women in Bioinformatics Panel” which addressed specific issues women might face in the field of bioinformatics.

I presented my poster titled “Inferring Ancestry in Mouse Genomes using a Hidden Markov Model”, where I showed my work on determining haplotype block inheritance using single-nucleotide polymorphism data from two selectively bred mouse strains and six of the eight ancestor strains that they were bred from (the other two ancestor strains haven’t been sequenced). To infer ancestry, I used a hidden Markov model (HMM)- a probabilistic model used to find the maximum likelihood path through a state machine. The poster session was great and I ended up having many visitors over during the two-hour timeframe. Some were simply intrigued by the pretty pictures and wanted to know what an HMM was, while others had worked on similar inheritance problems and had good questions about my process. I even spoke with a group that works with the mice strains we used and have imputated the genomes of the two unsequenced ancestor mouse strains, so I’m now looking into incorporating this data in my model.

The conference was held in Newport Beach, CA and while it was hot and sunny the entire weekend, I unfortunately never got a chance to visit the beach. I was lucky enough, however, to have a good friend who lives in the area and whom I hadn’t seen in over a year, so I got to spend some quality time with her. We were trying to plan a trip to see each other soon anyways, so it was really lucky that the conference happened to be in her area!

Currently, other members of the Dowell Lab and I are in the process of writing a paper on the sequencing of the two selectively bred mice strains, which will include my ancestor inference piece as a section. We then hope to extend my work by refining our methods, running simulations, and including the imputed genomes of the missing ancestors. This can hopefully be published as a conference paper later this year.

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Night at the Museum: With the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Night at the Museum: With the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/07/2012 - 17:00

Laruen Shoemaker

The kickoff for the 72^nd Annual Meeting for the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology was the night of October 17^th—that’s right, the meeting began on National Fossil Day.

To be honest, I didn’t know that there was such a thing as National Fossil Day before attending SVP (as I’m guessing you didn’t know until just now, either). However, the holiday was well-celebrated among the SVP crowd, with posters of wooly mammoths, stickers, and celebratory pins. While the Welcome Dinner for SVP wasn’t specifically set-up for National Fossil Day, it definitely still fit the theme.

After a long first day of talks ranging from the discovery of a new dinosaur specimen to the evolution of sloths, an update about digs in Panama, and even a talk centered around determining the color of dinosaur feathers, the attendees made their way to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for the Welcome Dinner. Many of the people in attendance work at various natural history museums, but for me this after-hours exploration of the museum was a real treat! I enjoyed my dinner of pasta and salad and then, with a fellow grad student from Lima, Peru wandered around the museum until 10:00 p.m.

I was immediately struck by the various strategies used by the museum to connect with visitors of all ages and scientific backgrounds. Many of the exhibits were very hands-on and appealed to multiple learning styles simultaneously. Others, such as a skeleton of a right whale that was hit by a boat several years ago, did an excellent job conveying the importance of conservation biology. While visiting the weather exhibit, I learned that my fellow grad student had almost died a few years ago at her field site when a severe earthquake caused landslides on the road between her dig site and camp. It was fascinating to witness firsthand the science conversations and questioning that occurs, even among world-class scientists, while at a museum designed for the general public.

By far, my favorite part of the after hours party was exploring the museum’s research paleontology collection which consists of over 56,000 vertebrate and 55,000 invertebrate skeletons, including skeletons ranging from dinosaurs to ancient ground sloths. Embarrassingly, the vast majority of the various fossils, such as a femur or tooth, I couldn’t identify past “dinosaur” or “mammal.” I’m still perplexed by some vertebrae I saw in the private collection area that were nearly 12 inches in diameter. While I loved examining them in such close proximity, it was frustrating that none of the scientists around me, nor I, had any clue which species they were from.

I found that It was an incredible opportunity to be part of the conversations that occurred in the special collections area. Many centered around fossil identification, but I also took part in conversations about modeling in paleontology, climate change (and the various ways this will be evident in the fossil record), and even a conversation about microbes, and their role (or lack thereof) in fossil preservation. The conversations were incredibly diverse in nature, and most of them were spurred by some exhibit in the museum, created for school groups or a family visiting on a vacation. This was an incredible reminder to me of the importance of making our science accessible to all, and that everyone—no matter their background—enjoys a trip to see dinosaurs and giant sloths at the museum.

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Science in pictures

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Science in pictures Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/19/2012 - 18:00

Topher Weiss-Lehman

Recently I was lucky enough to present a poster at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) conference in Portland, Oregon. This is the largest conference of ecologists and evolutionary biologists in the US with over 4,000 attendees this year. With so many researchers attending a single conference, the diversity of research topics is vast. In my opinion, however, what really made this particular conference interdisciplinary wasn’t so much the range of research discussed, but the setting of the conference itself. I discovered Portland to be a highly interdisciplinary city. I don’t think you can mix disciplines any more thoroughly than bacon on donuts or artsy paintings of PBR cans on billboards.

However, despite the interdisciplinary allure of the city, I was there for the conference. I spent my days navigating the interior of the Oregon Convention Center rather than downtown Portland.

At any given time in the convention center, there were at least 15 different talks being given in any of 20 different exhibit halls or ballrooms. In addition, each session was classified by a different acronym: SYMP (symposium), PS (poster session), COS (contributed oral session), and OOS (organized oral session). I’m told that those last two are actually different, but I have yet to understand why.

The sessions also covered a huge range of topics from the overly vague (“Theoretical Ecology”) to the surprisingly specific (“Rhizophere And Root Function”). However, while the conference was sometimes difficult to navigate, the talks were always worth going to, and provided useful information on current research efforts, different presenting techniques, and how to draw in an audience (tip #1: be Peter Chesson or Brett Melbourne).

On the third day of the conference I was scheduled to present my poster entitled “Temperature dependent selection on microbial genomes: an examination of intergenic regions and GC composition.” The nice thing about poster sessions is that people are just wandering around the room, quite often socializing with a beer in their hand. They are therefore available to be drawn in to a poster through the strategic use of pretty pictures, a friendly smile, and just the right amount of awkward eye contact.

Given the diversity of interests and backgrounds of the conference attendees it was a challenge to adjust the presentation of my poster to accommodate each person. Many people were interested in some element of the poster, but had no background in the others.

One man in particular seemed to have a hard time understanding the poster. Every time I tried to explain it in a different way or using less jargon, he continued to seem confused. After he left I began to feel nervous about the other people who had visited my poster. Were they just being polite and hadn’t really understood what I’d said?

Luckily the man returned later to talk with me more. It turned out he was a musician and was only there because his girlfriend was presenting a poster too. I had not been prepared for this. While I was expecting to explain my poster to a diverse audience, it hadn’t occurred to me that I would be explaining to someone unfamiliar with concepts like DNA or adaptation.

We talked some more, and it became clear that his interest in the poster came from a different place than most other people I had talked to. When I asked him what questions he had about the poster, he kept returning to a picture I included of Morning Glory Pool in Yellowstone National Park (a particularly colorful hot spring).

Apparently what drew him to the poster and what continued to hold his interest was the photo and the idea that the colors in the hot springs were due to the microbes living there. He really wasn’t interested in what genomic adaptations they might have, he just wanted to enjoy the picture and marvel a little bit at how cool nature is. As my friend and fellow IQ Biology student Daniel McDonald says: “Science is all about pretty pictures.”

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