Genetics and Genomics Seminar Series
2020-2021

Friday, January 15

“Pathophysiological Basis and Mitigation for Cardiometabolic and Genetic Disorders” 
Girish C. Melkani, Ph.D. 
Associate Professor 
Department of Pathology. Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology 
University of Alabama at Birmingham 

Friday, December 11

“Epithelial FOXP3-regulated network and targeted cancer therapies” 
Lizhong Wang, Ph.D. 
Associate Professor 
UAB Department of Genetics

Friday, November 20

“Feasibility and Potential Impact of Exon Skipping as a Therapeutic for Neurofibromatosis Type I (NF1)” 
Deeann Wallis, Ph.D. 
Associate Professor
UAB Department of Genetics 

Friday, November 6

“Sifting through Data from Clinical Genomes - When is a Case 'Solved'?” 
Elaine Lyon, Ph.D. 
Research Faculty Investigator, HudsonAlpha 
Huntsville, Alabama

Friday, Oct. 23

“Mitochondria Based Priming of Stem Cell Self-Renewal: From Basic Science to its Translation” 
Kasturi Mitra, Ph.D. 
Assistant Professor. Department of Genetics 
Co-Director, GGSC Undergraduate Program 

Friday, Oct. 16

“UAB Genomic Medicine” 
Bruce R. Korf, M.D., Ph.D. 
Wayne H. and Sara Crews Finley Endowed Chair in Medical Genetics 
Associate Dean for Genomic Medicine, UAB School of Medicine 
Chief Genomics Officer, UAB Medicine 

Friday, February 28 | “Understanding and Targeting Glioblastoma Environmental Effects: A Focus on Glucose Transporters” | Anita Hjelmeland, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Cell, Development and Integrative Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham 

Friday, December 13 | “Targeting α2AAR: Solution for Alzheimer’s Disease” | Qin Wang, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology, UAB

Friday, December 6 | “Bioactive Retinoic Acid: Gene knockouts reveal unexpected roles” | Natalia Y. Kedishvili, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, UAB

Friday, November 22 | “Selective RANK Signaling Pathways as Novel Drug Targets for Breast Cancer Prevention” | Xu Feng, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Pathology 

Friday, November 15 |“Population Genetics in an era of Precision Medicine” | Eimear Kenny, Ph.D., Director, Center for Genomic Health, Associate Professor of Medicine, Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 

Friday, November 8 | “The identification and targeting of novel oncogenic ncRNA in human cancer” | Mick Edmonds, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Genetics Research Division, Department of Genetics, UAB

Friday, November 1 | "Computational Drug Repositioning Strategies for Precision Medicine 2.0" | Jake Chen, Ph.D., Chief Bioinformatics Office, Professor, Department of Genetics, Informatics Institute, UAB

Friday, October 25 | “Mathematical modeling: Aiding biomedical discoveries" | Andre Leier, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, Assistant Professor, Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology, Associate Scientist, O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, Member, Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center 

Friday, October 18 | “Clinical Application of Genome Sequencing: The Children’s of Alabama Experience” | Anna C.E. Hurst, M.D., MS, FACMG, Assistant Professor,Department of Genetics,UAB

Friday, September 27 | “Fluid-Mosaic Membrane in Aging, Disease and Mitochondrial Function and The use of Membrane Lipid Replacement to Reduce Fatigue, Pain and Other symptoms while Improving Mitochondrial Function” | Garth Nicolson, Ph.D., M.D., Professor Emeritus, President and Founder, The Institute for Molecular Medicine, Huntington Beach, CA

Friday, September 13 | “From Genetic to Pharmacological Inhibition of TXNIP- Effects on Diabetes” | Anath Shalev, M.D., Professor of Medicine - Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism, Nancy R. and Eugene C. Gwaltney Family Endowed Chair in Juvenile Diabetes Research, Director, UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center 

Friday, September 6 | “Genetic and epigenetic regulation of Duchenne muscular dystrophy” | Matthew S. Alexander, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, UAB Pediatric Neurology

Friday, May 17 | “Implementation of a Personalized Medicine Program Across a Community Health System” | Peter J. Hulick, M.D., MMSc, FACMG, Medical Director, Mark R. Neaman Center for Personalized Medicine Division, Head, Center for Medical Genetics NorthShore University HealthSystem, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine

Friday, May 10 | “STAT3: From Fundamental Discoveries to Novel Targeting Platforms” | Hua Yu, Ph.D., Billy and Audrey L. Wilder Professor in Tumor Immunotherapy, Associate Chair and Professor, Department of Immuno-Oncology, Co-leader, Cancer Immunotherapeutics Program, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center

Friday, May 3 | “InterGenomic Cross Talk Underlying Aging and Cancer” | Keshav K. Singh, Ph.D., Joy and Bill Harbert Endowed Chair in Cancer Genetics and professor, Department of Genetics University of Alabama at Birmingham

Friday, April 19 | “Enhancing Precision Oncology at UAB” | Eddy S. Yang, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Vice Chair for Translational Science, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Friday, April 12 | “Genetics and Epigenetic Regulation of Heart Development in Mice” | Kai Jiao, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, Genetics Research Division, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Friday, March 22 | “The Impact of Geometry, Diffusion Barriers and Stochasticity in Cell Polarity and Protein Dynamics” | Tatiana Marquez-Lago, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Genetics, Research Division, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Friday, March 15 | “Functional characterization of human disease-associated gene variants using the vertebrate animal model Xenopus laevis” | Chenbei Chang, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology, UAB

Friday, March 8 | “RAS and the Plasma Membrane: A Complicated Relationship” | John Hancock, MA MB BChir PhD ScD MRCP FRACP, Professor and Chairman, Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology, Executive Director, The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center

Friday, February 22 | “Epithelial Homeostasis in Development and Disease” | Ian G. Macara, PhD, Professor and Louise B. McGavock Chair, Department of Cell and Development Biology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Friday, February 15 | “Structural Variations of the Immunoglobulin Receptors and
Clinical Phenotype” | Robert P. Kimberly, M.D., Director, Center for Clinical and Translational Science University of Alabama at Birmingham

Friday, February 1 | “A Novel Technology Developed at UAB for Phenomic Research and Drug Discovery” | John L. Hartman IV, M.D., Associate Professor, UAB Department of Genetics

Friday, January 18 | "Polycystic Kidney Disease-Treatment Options Update" | Michal Mrug, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Department of Nephrology

Friday, January 11 | “The algorithm for precision medicine” | Matthew Might, Ph.D., Professor of Computer Science, Director, UAB’s Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine institute, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Friday, December 14 | “Molecular profiling in ovarian cancer” | Rebecca C. Arend, M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Friday, December 7 | “Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition in Breast Cancer Progression and Metastasis” | Binhua (Peter) Zhou, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Director, Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Cancer and Metabolism, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY

Friday, November 30 | "A Mitochondrial Etiology of Common 'Complex' Diseases" | Douglass C. Wallace, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania 

Monday, November 19 | "Design and evolution of trans-splicing group I intron ribozymes" | Ulrich F. Muller, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California at San Diego

Friday, November 2 | “Unraveling the complex roles of SIN3 in breast cancer metastasis”| Douglas R. Hurst, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Friday, October 19 | "Patient-Specific NF1 Rodent Models & Gene Correction Therapies" | Robert A. Kesterson, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Genetics, UAB

Friday, October 12 | "The ELMOD family of ARF family GAPs: roles in mitochondria, cell cycle, ciliogenesis, and transcriptional regulation" | Richard A. Kahn, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Emory University

March 9, 2018 | Phillip Owens, Ph.D. | University of Colorado

March 16, 2018 | Richard Finnell, Ph.D. | Baylor College of Medicine

March 23, 2018 | Anthony Wynshaw-Boris, M.D., Ph.D. | Case Univeristy

April 4, 2018 | Nita Limdi, PharmD, Ph.D. | UAB

April 13, 2018 | Chulan Kwon, MS, Ph.D. | John Hopkins University

April 20, 2018 | Merry-Lynn McDonald, Ph.D. | University of Alabama at Birmingham 

May 4, 2018 | Mikhail Alexeyev, Ph.D., I University of South Alabama

May 11, 2018 | Jiangbing Zhou, Ph.D. I  Yale University