Spring 2026 GDCB Seminar schedule

January 20
Steve Whitham — Iowa State University    
Topic: Effects of increasing atmospheric CO2 on crop-pathogen interaction
Host: Dior Kelley

February 3          
Dipa Sashital — Iowa State University  
Topic: Bacterial anti-phage defense systems 
Host: Jeff Essner             

February 10     
Aishwarya Pawar — Iowa State University
Topic: From differentiable splines to digital twins in biomedical applications
Host: Jeff Essner

February 17       
Alberto Ciccia  — Columbia University Medical Center   
Topic: Characterization of DNA damage response factors
Host: Tessa Bierbaum  

February 24       
Andrey Parkhitko — University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Topic: Targeting age-related metabolic dysfunction to extend healthspan
Host: Ping Kang                  

March 3               
Kostandin Pajcini — University of Illinois at Chicago 
Topic: To be announced (TBA) 
Hosts: Clyde Campbell and Raquel Espin Palazon                        

March 10            
Christina Camell — University of Minnesota 
Topic: TBA
Host: Jacinta Correia

March 24            
Amit Joshi — University of Tennessee, Knoxville   
Topic: ER and organelle biogenesis
Host: Hua Bai                   

March 31          
Adrienne Roeder —  Cornell University   
Topic: Plant morphogenesis: moss leaves, Arabidopsis sepals, and bio-inspired designs
Host: Josh Strable                          

April 7   
Rolf Turk — Integrated DNA Technologies
Topic: Genomic medicine and gene editing therapies
Host: Josh Strable

April 14 
Kathrin Schrick — Kansas State University 
Topic: Lipid binding transcriptional regulators of cell expansion and glucosinolate biosynthesis in the plant epidermis
Host: Michelle Guo

April 21 
Xinnian Dong — Duke University                   
Topic: Searching for messages carried by messenger RNAs                             
Host: Michelle Guo

April 28       
Jesus Lacal Romero — University of Salamanca, Spain 
Topic: Functional characterization of rare diseases-associated variants
Hosts: Clyde Campbell and Raquel Espin Palazon