Conferences & Events
John H. Blaffer Lecture Series
Each Tuesday from September through April, an internationally recognized scientist is invited to speak and present his or her latest results. Students have the opportunity to meet and interact with these distinguished scientists. Swathi Arur, Ph.D., is the chair and coordinator of the Blaffer Lecture Series.
The Fall 2023 Series is an in-person opportunity for those wanting to attend the Blaffer Lecture Series. Please check the MD Anderson Calendar for upcoming lectures.
For further information on a lecture, please contact Lisa M. Watson, administrative coordinator, at lmwatson@mdanderson.org.
Tuesdays, 12–1 p.m.
Onstead Auditorium (BSRB S3.8012)
September through April
Fall 2023 Blaffer Schedule (In-Person)
September 12, 2023
Special Lecture– 2023 Mary Beth Maddox Award Recipient
Speaker: Florencia McAllister, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Cancer Prevention, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Title of Talk: "Microbial Matters in Pancreatic Cancer"
Host: Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology (TAMEST) & Department of Genetics, Blaffer Lecture
September 19, 2023
Speaker: Raul Mostoslavsky, M.D. Ph.D., Professor, Scientific Co-Director, The Laurel Schwartz Professor of Oncology (Medicine) MGH Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School
Title of Talk: "Linking Metabolism, Epigenetics and Cancer, One Gene at a Time"
Host: Eyal Gottlieb, PhD, Vice President of Research
October 3, 2023
Speaker: Dihua Yu, Ph.D., Professor and Chair ad interim, Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Title of Talk: "Co-evolution of Cancer Cells and TME in Metastasis and Therapeutic Resistance"
Host: Richard Behringer, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
October 10, 2023
Speaker: Lance Davidson., Ph.D., William Kepler Whiteford Professor, BioEngineering, Development Biology, Computational and Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh
Title of Talk: "Cells into Tissues: Mechanical Forces of Development"
Hosts: George Eisenhoffer, Ph.D., Dept of Genetics & Rachel Miller, Ph.D., Dept of Pediatrics, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth
October 17, 2023
Speaker: Michael Buszczak, Ph.D.., Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, UT Southwestern Medical Center and Associate Director for the Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine.
Title of Talk: "mRNA Translation in Development and Disease"
Host: Swathi Arur, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
October 24, 2023
Speaker: Franklin Pugh, Ph.D., Professor, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University
Title of Talk: "Protein Architecture of a Eukaryotic Genome"
Hosts: Sharon Dent, Ph.D., & Evangelia Koutelou, Ph.D., Department of Epigenetics & Molecular Carcinogenesis
October 31, 2023
Speaker: Yongsheng Shi, Ph.D., Professor & Chancellor’s Fellow, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine.
Title of Talk: "The Nuclear Degradation Code"
Host: Shih-Han “Peggy” Lee, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
November 7, 2023
Speaker: Mariella G. Filbin, M.D., Ph.D. Co-Director, Brain Tumor Center of Excellence, Research Director, Pediatric Neurooncology Program, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Associate Member, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorder Center
Title of Talk: "Targeting Intra-Tumoral Heterogeneity and Developmental Pathways in Pediatric High-Grade Glioma"
Host: Sadhan Majumder, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
November, 14, 2023
Speaker: Richard Wood, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, MD Anderson Cancer Center
(Newly elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
Title of Talk: "Two Faces of DNA Polymerases – Protecting Genomes and Causing Mutations"
Host: Gigi Lozano, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
November 28, 2023
Speaker: Georg Halder, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Oncology, VIB KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology, Belgium
Host: Michael Galko, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
December 5, 2023
Speaker: Michael Yaffe, M.D., Ph.D. Director, MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, David H. Koch Professor of Science, Director of Clinical Outreach, Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Senior Associate Member, Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Host: Junjie Chen, Ph.D., Department of Experimental Biology
December 12, 2023
Sohrab P. Shah, Ph.D. Chief, Computational Oncology, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics & Professor, Weill Cornell Medical College, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Host: Peter Van Loo, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
Research Exchange Series
Each week from September through May, this series alternates faculty from across the Texas Medical Center (TMC) with senior trainees from the Department of Genetics to discuss their research. This series highlights the breadth and depth of science in the TMC and provides an opportunity to establish collaborations across the numerous institutions in the TMC. It is also a forum for senior students and postdoctoral trainees to present their studies.
Peter Van Loo, Ph.D., and Shih-Han "Peggy" Lee, Ph.D., will host this series.
For further information or access to a seminar, please contact Monique Richardson at MMRichardson1@mdanderson.org.
Wednesdays, 12–1 p.m.
September through May
Fall 2023 Research Exchange Schedule (In-Person)
September 13, 2023
Sreeja Sridharan
Graduate Student (Galko Lab) Department of Genetics, MD Anderson
September 20, 2023
Katherine King, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Pediatrics-Infectious Disease, Baylor College of Medicine
September 27, 2023
Andrew Shepherd, B.Sc. Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Symptom Research, Division of Internal Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center
October 4, 2023
Angela Ting, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, Division of Basic Science Research, MD Anderson Cancer Center
October 11, 2023
Kimberley Renee Fuchs Tolias, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Neuroscience & Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine
October 18, 2023
Maxime Tarabichi
Junior Group Leader at IRIBHM Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Biologie Humaine et Moléculaire and a visiting scientist at the Crick (Van Loo Lab)
October 25, 2023
Daniel A Gorelick, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology Center for Precision Environmental Health, Baylor College of Medicine
November 1, 2023
Hongjie Li, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine
November 8, 2023
Yogesh Srivastava, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow (McCrea Lab) Department of Genetics, MD Anderson
November 15, 2023
Rugang Zhang, Ph.D.
Chair, & Professor, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, Division of Cancer Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center
November 29, 2023
Yon Son Betty Kim, M.D., Ph.D., FRCSC, FAANS
Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, MD Anderson Cancer Center
December 6, 2023
Tin Pham, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow (Karras Lab) Department of Genetics, MD Anderson
December 13, 2023
Shichang Liu, Ph.D.
Instructor (Wang Lab) Department of Genetics, MD Anderson