Conferences & Events
John H. Blaffer Lecture Series
Each week from September through May, 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. For further information, please contact Lisa M. Watson at lmwatson@mdanderson.org
Tuesdays, 4-5 p.m.
Onstead Auditorium
Onstead Auditorium is accessible from the main MD Anderson
building via the 3rd/4th floor Tan Zone skybridges and the front
entrance to the Mitchel Basic Science and Research Building (BSRB)
at 6767 Bertner, Houston, TX 77030.
Research Exchange Series
Each week from September through May, this series alternates faculty from across the Texas Medical Center (TMC) with senior trainees from Genetics to discuss their research. This series highlights the breadth and depth of science in the Texas Medical Center and provides an opportunity to establish collaborations across the numerous institutions in the TMC. It is also a forum for senior students and post-doctoral trainees to present their studies. George Eisenhoffer, Ph.D., and Georgios Karras, Ph.D. will host this series. For further information, please contact Elva Lopez at eplopez@mdanderson.org.
Mondays, Noon - 1 p.m.
14th Floor Conference Room, Mitchell BSRB, S14.8336
Fall 2019 Blaffer Schedule
September 24, 2019
Speaker: Andreas Ladurner, Ph.D., Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
Title: “The Oncogenic Remodeller CHD1L Mediates Chromatin Dynamics upon to Allosteric Activation by PARP1 "
Host: Georgios Karras, Ph.D.
October 1, 2019
Speaker: John Wallingford, Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin, TX
Title: "Body Sculpting: How Embryos Build Themselves"
Host: Rachel Miller, Ph.D. (UTHealth)
October 8, 2019
Speaker: Thomas F. Duchaine, Ph.D., McGill University, Goodman Cancer Research Center, Montreal, QC, Canada
Title: “Rivalry and Backward Origami : The Systems Biology of microRNA Polycistrons in Cancer”
Host: Swathi Arur, Ph.D.
October 15, 2019
Speaker: Douglas Lowy, Ph.D., Acting Director of the National Cancer Institute, (NCI) of the National Institute of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD
Title: “HPV Vaccination: Recent Evidence and Future Prospects”
Host: Neal Copeland & Nancy Jenkins, Ph.D.
October 22, 2019
Speaker: Anna Huttenlocher, M.D., University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison, WI
Title: "Imaging Tissue Damage and Inflammation in Wounds and the Tumor Microenvironment”
Host: George Eisenhoffer, Ph.D.
October 29, 2019
Speaker: Emily Troemel Ph.D., University of California, San Diego, CA
Title: “Characterizing the Intracellular Pathogen Response in C. elegans”
Host: Michael Galko, Ph.D.
November 5, 2019
Speaker: Eva Nogales, Ph.D. (HHMI) University of California, Berkeley, CA
Title: “Molecular Structure and Dynamics in the Control of Gene Expression”
Host: Pierre McCrea, Ph.D.
November 12, 2019
Speaker: Donna Zhang, Ph.D., University of Arizona, Tuscon, AZ
Title: “The Role of NRF2 in Cancer Prevention and Intervention”
Host: Boyi Gan, Ph.D.
November 19, 2019
Speaker: Monica Justice, Ph.D., Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, Canada
Title: “A Suppressor Screen in Mecp2-null Mice Reveals that the DNA Damage Response is Key to Rett Syndrome Pathology"
Host: Richard Behringer, Ph.D.
December 3, 2019
Speaker: Manolis Kellis, Ph.D., MIT Computer Science and Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA
Title: “TBA”
Host: Kunal Rai, Ph.D.
December 10, 2019
Speaker: Dipanjan Chowdhury, Ph.D., Dana Farber Cancer Center, Boston, MA
Title: “New Factors in DNA Double Strand Break Repair: Impact on Genome Stability and Cancer Therapy”
Host: Katharina Schlacher, Ph.D.
For further information please contact Swathi Arur Ph.D., Blaffer Committee Chair: sarur@mdanderson.org or Lisa M. Watson, Administrative Coordinator: lmwatson@mdanderson.org
Fall 2019 Research Exchange Schedule
Download the Schedule
September 23, 2019
Michelle Hildebrandt, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Department of Epidemiology, MD Anderson
September 30, 2019
Xiao Wu, Ph.D., Instructor (Wang Lab)
Melody Mazon, Ph.D., Postdoc (Karras Lab)
Department of Genetics, MD Anderson
October 7, 2019
Olivier Lichtarge, Ph.D., Professor
Department of Pharmacology, Cullen Foundation, Chair & Director of the Computational and Integrative Biomedical Research Center
Baylor College of Medicine
October 14, 2019
Beverly Mock, Senior Investigator (Host: Lozano)
Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics
NCI/CCR, National Institutes of Health
October 21, 2019
Amanda Wasylishen, Ph.D., Instructor, (Lozano Lab)
Department of Genetics, MD Anderson
October 28, 2019
Fuguo Jiang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Department of Cancer Biology, MD Anderson
November 4, 2019
Ale Ontiveros, Student (Behringer Lab)
Youmna Atieh, Ph.D., Odyssey Fellow (Eisenhoffer Lab)
Department of Genetics, MD Anderson
November 11, 2019
Margot Williams, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology, Center for Precision Environmental Health
Baylor College of Medicine
November 18, 2019
Jack Byrne, Ph.D., Professor
June and Virgil Waggoner Chair, Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy
UTHealth, McGovern Medical School
November 25, 2019
Shaun Xiaoliu Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., MD Anderson Professor
Department of Biology and Biochemistry, Director, Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling
University of Houston
December 2, 2019
Tapsi Kumar, Graduate Student (Navin Lab)
Kevin Stebbings, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow (McCrea Lab)
Department of Genetics, MD Anderson
December 9, 2019
Kristin Eckel-Mahan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Department of Center for Metabolic and Degenerative Diseases
The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine
December 16, 2019
Roger Lopez Bellido, Research Scientist (Galko Lab)
Brant Gracia, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow (Karras Lab)
Department of Genetics, MD Anderson