More than 80 faculty, staff and students from the Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology (GDCB) enjoyed a day of science by attending the 2023 GDCB Research Day held in Reiman Gardens in mid-January.

Graduate students, postdocs and faculty shared their research presentations via posters and talks. Split into three sessions, the day-long event included flash talks and poster presentations. In addition, the department recognized two faculty who retired at the end of December 2022: Professor Emeritus Thomas Peterson and Professor Emeritus Steve Rodermel.

First session presenters included GDCB Assistant Professor Joe Aung, "Plasmodesmata function as signaling hubs"; Ashwini Rangaraj (graduate student in Tuteja lab), "Mechanisms of Mmp9 mediated trophoblast invasion"; and GDCB Associate Professor Hua Bai, "Comparative transcriptomic analysis on the cellular stress response to peroxisomal dysfunction." 

Presenters and their topics for the second session includes Steph Klein (postdoc in Anderson lab), "The genomic basis of maize root responses to nitrogen depleted soils"; Chelse Cheng (graduate student in Espin Palazon lab), "Nod1-dependent NF-kB activation initiates hematopoietic stem cell specification in response to small Rho GTPases"; and Biology and Genetics Programs Director Don Sakaguchi, "Engineering approaches to modulate the differentiation of neural progenitor cells."

Sahiba Siddiqui, Abesh Bera, Abbigail McCune, Linkan Dash, Ping Wang and Ankur Kumar presented flash talks in between the second and third sessions and before the poster presentations.

The 2023 GDCB Research Day Poster Award recipients include Radwa Barakat (postdoc in Espin Palazon lab), first place; Linkan Dash (former graduate student in the Kelley lab who graduated in spring 2023), second place; and Panchali Chakraborty (graduate student in Aung lab) and Ankur Kumar (graduate student in Bai lab), co-third place.

The third session included presentations by GDCB Associate Professor Moe Gupta, "Orchestrating groups of microtubules in a shared cytoplasm"; Simon Moe (graduate student in the Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition), "The role of miR-92 in synaptogenesis and neuronal function"; and GDCB Assistant Professor Dior Kelley, "Influences of auxin on maize root morphogenesis".

GDCB Associate Professor Maura McGrail, GDCB Assistant Professor Michelle Guo and Stephanie Klein (postdoc in the Anderson lab) coordinated the 2023 GDCB Research Day.