Thanks in part to funding from the Sui-Tong Chang Fung Fund, Dale W. Young and W.E. Loomis, and Genetics, Development and Cell Biology (GDCB) travel awards, graduate students in the Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology presented their research as far away as Hawaii and Canada and attended scientific conferences in the 2023-24 academic year. 

Students receiving travel awards in the 2023-24 year include Abesh Bera, Jodi Callwood, Anurag Das, Peiduo Liu, Vaishali Todi, Chelsea Cheng, Jacinta Correia, Ankur Kumar, Anh Pham, James Preston, Sabrena Rutledge, Haris Variz and Brian Zebosi.

Sui-Tong Chan Fung Fund Travel Award 

Fall 2023 recipients of the Sui-Tong Chan Fung Fund Travel Award include Bera and Todi, while Correia, Kumar, Liu, Pham, Rutledge and Zebosi received Fung awards in spring 2024. The students with their presentation conference titles are:

• Bera: “Differential regulation of astral microtubules in a shared cytoplasm” — ASB Cell Bio 2023 in Boston, Mass.
• Todi: “Phosphoproteomics approach in understanding drug-mediated tension responses during chromosome segregation” — ASB Cell Bio 2023 in Boston
• Correia: “Characterization of peroxisomal import function in aged human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs)” — AGE 2024 Annual Meeting in Madison, Wis.
• Kumar: “The interplay of peroxisome and mitochondrial dynamics during aging in Drosophila melanogaster” — The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC 2024) in Washington, D.C.
• Liu: “Non-canonical dFOXO regulation in Drosophila larval oenocytes under starvation” — The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC) in Washington, D.C.
• Pham: “Mapping plasmalogen interactome: Insights into mitochondrial-peroxisome crosstalk” — AGE 52^nd Annual Meeting in Madison, Wis.
• Rutledge: “Improving Analysis and Interpretation of Single-Cell Sequencing Approaches” — 71^st SRI Annual Scientific Meeting in Vancouver, Canada
• Zebosi: “Individual and collective tissue-specific roles of Brassinosteroid Insensitive1 (BRI1) a receptor-like kinase to plant development and BR signaling” — 66^th Annual Maize Genetics Meeting in Raleigh, N.C.

Dale W. Young and W.E. Loomis Travel Award 

Jodi Callwood was a fall and spring recipient of the Dale W. Young and W.E. Loomis Award, while Variz received an award in spring 2024. The students with their presentation conference titles are:

• Callwood (Fall 2023): “A novel approach to E3 ubiquitin ligase-substrateinteraction prediction in Arabidopsis” — Purdue University Plant Science Symposium (Planting the Digital Seed: The Computer’s Influence on Plant Science” in West Lafayette, Ind.
• Callwood (Spring 2024): “Advancing Maize Pheotyping through Automation and Data Analysis” — North American Plant Pheotyping Network 2024 Annual Conference, West Lafayette, Ind.
• Variz: “Functional characterization of STRUBBELIG- receptor family 3 in regulating plasmodesmal function and plant immunity” — Plant Biology 2024 in Honolulu, Hawaii

GDCB Travel Award 

Das received a Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 GDCB Travel Award, while Cheng and Preston also received GDCB awards in spring 2024. The students with their presentation conference titles are:

• Cheng: “Nod1-dependent NF-kB activation initiates hematopoietic stem cell specification in response to small Rho GTPases” — International Society for Experimental Hematology in Chicago
• Das: “The role of peroxisome mediated glial-neuronal communication during Drosophile aging” — 2023 Midwest Drosophila Conference in Monticello, Ill., and The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC 2024) in Washington, D.C.
• Liu: “The regulation of forkhead box O (foxo) under starvation in larvae oenocytes” — 2023 Midwest Drosophila Research Conference in Monticello, Ill.
• Preston: “Investigating Hdac1 mechanisms in forebrain neurogenesis” — 2024 Midwest Regional Zebrafish Meeting in St. Louis, Mo.

Effective fall 2024, applications are open for GDCB travel awards in fall, spring and summer.