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.
Lectures will be video conferenced to the SCRB4 Auditorium, S1.1110
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
Spring 2020 Blaffer Schedule
January 21, 2020
Speaker: Nevan Krogan, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco, CA
Title: “Using Systems Approaches to Understand Disease"
Host: Junjie Chen, Ph.D., Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology
January 28, 2020
Speaker: Yibin Kang, Ph.D., Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Title: "Breast Cancer Metastasis: Molecular Mechanisms and Development of Novel Therapeutics"
Host: Li Ma, Ph.D., Department of Experimental Radiation Oncology
February 4, 2020
Speaker: Mustafa Khokha, M.D., Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
Title: “Surprising Connections between Congenital Heart Disease and Pluripotency: An Electrophysiological Connection“
Host: Rachel Miller, Ph.D., UTHealth, Department of Pediatrics
February 11, 2020
Speaker: Warren Pear, M.D., Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Title: “Tribbles: Beyond Star Trek and Towards Reinvigorating the T Cell Immune Response”
Host: Margarida Albuquerque Almeida Santos, Ph.D., Department of Epigenet & Molecular Carcinogenesis
February 18, 2020
Speaker: Channing J. Der, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Title: "Targeting ‘undruggable’ RAS for Cancer Treatment"
Host: Gigi Lozano, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
February 25, 2020
Speaker: Brad Cairns, Ph.D., Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah
Title: “TBA”
Host: Kunal Rai, Ph.D., Department of Genomic Medicine
March 3, 2020
Speaker: Jodi Nunnari, Ph.D. University of California, Davis
Title: “Mitochondrial Behavior”
Host: Michael Galko, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
March 24, 2020
Speaker: Alan D'Andrea, M.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
Title: “Targeting DNA Repair in Cancer Therapy"
Host: Neal Copeland & Nancy Jenkins, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
March 31, 2019
Speaker: Shan Zha, M.D., Ph.D., Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY
Title: “The cNHEJ Independent Role of DNA-PK on RNA Processing and its Implications in MDS/AML"
Host: Bin Wang, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
April 7, 2020
Speaker: Bruce Beutler, Ph.D., Nobel Prize Winner, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Center for the Genetics of Host Defense, Dallas, TX
Title: “Creating Germline Phenotypes in Mice and instantly Solving them”
Host: Neal Copeland & Nancy Jenkins, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
April 14, 2020
Speaker: Kai Kessenbrock, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, CA
Title: “Understanding the Role of the Cellular Microenvironment in Breast Cancer Initiation”
Host: Nicholas Navin, Ph.D., Department of Genetics
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