Invited speakers

Invited speakers

Hear leading experts discuss the latest discoveries and cutting-edge science at these symposium sessions. More speakers will be added over the coming months.

Advances in natural product biochemistry and biotechnology

Organizers
Yi Tang, University of California, Los Angeles
Katherine Ryan, University of British Columbia

Natural products from higher eukaryotes and animals

Chair: Yi Tang

  • Bradley Moore, University of California, San Diego
  • Rebecca Butcher, University of Florida
  • Emily Derbyshire, Duke University
  • Jing-Ke Weng, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

Natural products from microbiomes and symbionts

Chair: Katherine Ryan

  • Jason Crawford, Yale University
  • Nancy Keller, University of Wisconsin—Madison
  • Alessandra Eustaquio, University of Illinois Chicago
  • Mohammad Seyedsayamdost, Princeton University

Biochemistry and biotechnology of natural product genome mining

Chair: Alessandra Eustaquiol

  • Jamie Link, Princeton University
  • Katherine Ryan, University of British Columbia
  • Gerald Wright, McMaster University
  • Yi Tang, University of California, Los Angeles

Cool and novel enzymes

Organizers
Shelley D. Copley, University of Colorado Boulder
Hung-wen (Ben) Liu, University of Texas at Austin

Enzymatic control of problematic intermediates

Chair: Hung-Wen (Ben) Liu

  • Shelley D. Copley, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Tom Niehaus, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
  • Shelley Minteer, University of Utah
  • Carole Linster, University of Luxembourg

Enzymes for a sustainable future

Chair: Shelley D. Copley

  • Gregg Beckham, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
  • Larry Wackett, University of Minnesota

New and unusual enzymatic transformations

Chair: Michelle Chang

  • Hung-wen (Ben) Liu, University of Texas at Austin
  • Aimin Liu, University of Texas at San Antonio
  • Sara O'Connor, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
  • Wenjun Zhang, University of California, Berkeley

Education and professional development

Organizer
Saumya Ramanathan, Arizona State University

Lipid metabolism

Organizers
Maria Fedorova, Dresden University of Technology
Neale D. Ridgway, Dalhousie University

Cellular topology of lipid metabolism

Chair: Maria Fedorova

  • Neale D. Ridgway, Dalhousie University
  • Greg Fairn, Dalhousie University
  • Shirin Bahmanyar, Yale University
  • Miriam L. Greenberg, Wayne State University

Lipid quality control in cell survival and death

Chair: Neale D. Ridgway

  • Maria Fedorova, Dresden University of Technology
  • Toni Petan, Jožef Stefan Institute
  • James Olzmann, University of California, Berkeley
  • G. Ekin Atilla–Gokcumen, University of Buffalo

Spatial lipidomics — tracing lipids in cells at molecular level

Chair: James Olzmann

  • Theodore Alexandrov, European Molecular Biology Laboratory
  • Judith Simcox, University of Wisconsin

Maximizing Access Committee

Organizers
Sonia Flores, University of Colorado School of Medicine
Kayunta Johnson–Winters, University of Texas at Arlington
Karla Neugebauer, Yale School of Medicine
Jonathan Kelber, Baylor University
Ruma Banerjee, University of Michigan

Biochemistry meets climate change: Steps that we can take towards one health


Chairs: Kayunta Johnson-Winters & Karla Neugebauer
  • Asiya Gusa, Duke University
  • James A. DeMayo, University of Colorado-Denver
  • Yixian Zheng, Carnegie Institution for Science
  • Teresa Horton, Northwestern University

Stress adaptations in tumor progression 

Chair: Jonathan Kelber

  • Jonathan Kelber, Baylor University
  • Edna Grabocka, Thomas Jefferson University
  • Christina Towers, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
  • Mark LaBarge, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope

Membrane contact sites

Organizers
Christopher T. Beh, Simon Fraser University
Jen Liou, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Regulation of lipid transfer and metabolism at membrane contact sites

Chair: Jen Liou

  • Hongyuan Yang, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • Jen Liou, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  • Alexandre Toulmay, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  • Arash Bashirullah, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Membrane signaling at membrane contact sites

Chair: Thomas Simmen

  • Thomas Simmen, University of Alberta
  • Jay Tan, University of Pittsburgh
  • Alissa Weaver, Vanderbilt University
  • Chi-Lun Chang, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Specialized membrane contact site functions

Chair: Christopher T. Beh

  • Isabelle Derré, University of Virginia
  • Aaron Neiman, Stony Brook University
  • Abel Rosado, University of British Columbia
  • Christopher T. Beh, Simon Fraser University

Microbial signaling, communication and metabolism

Organizers
Peter Chien, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Jade Wang, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Signaling nucleotides in microbes

Chair: Jade Wang

  • Vincent T. Lee, University of Maryland, College Park
  • Ming Chen Hammond, University of Utah
  • Emily E. Weinert, Pennsylvania State University
  • Jade Wang, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Microbial machines

Chair: Peter Chien

  • Peter Chien, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Erin Goley, Johns Hopkins University
  • Monica Guo, University of Washington
  • Briana Burton, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Microbial communities

Chair: Erin Goley

  • Stavroulos Hatzios, Yale University
  • John Whitney, McMaster University
  • Christopher S. Hayes, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Ami S. Bhatt, Stanford University

Mitochondria, peroxisomes and chloroplast metabolism

Organizers
Pere Puigserver, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School
Greg Moorhead, University of Calgary

Protein covalent modifications and chloroplast metabolism

Chair: Greg Moorhead

  • Greg Moorhead, University of Calgary
  • Glen Uhrig, University of Alberta
  • R. Paul Jarvis, University of Oxford
  • Paula Mulo, University of Turku

Peroxisome biogenesis/metabolism

Chair: Tom Rapoport

  • Francesca Di Cara, Dalhousie University
  • Brooke Gardner, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Tom Rapoport, Harvard Medical School; HHMI
  • Irfan Lodhi, Washington University in St. Louis

Mitochondria energetics/metabolism

Chair: Erin Goley

  • Pere Puigserver, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School
  • Lena Pernas, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing
  • Alexei Amunts, Stockholm University
  • Rebecca Voorhees, California Institute of Technology

New frontiers in structural biology

Organizers
Jose Rodriguez, University of California, Los Angeles
Hosea Nelson, California Institute of Technology

Redox and metals in biology

Organizers
Siavash Kurdistani, University of California, Los Angeles
Gina DeNicola, Moffitt Cancer Center

Advances in redox homeostasis in biology and disease

Chair: Urbain Weyemi

  • Kivanc Birsoy, Rockefeller University
  • Jessica Spinelli, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
  • Urbain Weyemi, National Cancer Institute
  • Elena Piskounova, Weill Cornell Medicine

Iron in redox biology: mechanisms and regulation

Chair: Gina DeNicola

  • Adam Hughes, University of Utah
  • James Wohlschlegel, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Sarah-Maria Fendt, VIB–KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology
  • Gina DeNicola, Moffitt Cancer Center

Copper in redox biology: From fundamental chemistry to cellular function

Chair: Siavash Kurdistani

  • Katherine Franz, Duke University
  • Peter Tsvetkov, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
  • Deborah Fass, Weizmann Institute of Science
  • Siavash Kurdistani, University of California, Los Angeles

RNA biology

Organizers
Katrin Karbstein, UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology
Jeremy E. Wilusz, Baylor College of Medicine

RNA biogenesis and processing

Chair: Olga Anczukow

  • Tracy L. Johnson, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Hiten D. Madhani, University of California, San Francisco
  • Jeremy E. Wilusz, Baylor College of Medicine
  • Roberto Bonasio, University of Pennsylvania

Ribosomes and translation

Chair: Katrin Karbstein

  • Shu-ou Shan, California Institute of Technology
  • Ruben L. Gonzalez, Columbia University
  • Homa Ghalei, Emory University
  • Amy S.Y. Lee, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School

RNA and disease

Chair: Jeremy E. Wilusz

  • Blake Wiedenheft, Montana State University
  • Shuying Sun, Johns Hopkins University
  • Olga Anczukow, Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine
  • Katrin Karbstein, UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology

Signaling mechanisms in the nucleus

Organizers
Glen Liszczak, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Aaron Johnson, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Chemical strategies to study nuclear processes

Chair: Aaron Johnson

  • Anna Mapp, University of Michigan
  • Glen Liszczak, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  • Oliver Bell, University of Southern California Kerk School of Medicine
  • Minkui Luo, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Chromatin organization, replication and repair

Chair: Katharine Diehl

  • Aaron Streets, University of California, Berkeley
  • Aaron Johnson, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
  • Carl Wu, Johns Hopkins University
  • TBA

Chromatin modifications in the nucleus

Chair: Glen Liszczak

  • Alex Ruthenberg, University of Chicago
  • Katharine Diehl, University of Utah
  • Tim Stasevich, Colorado State University
  • Phil Cole, Harvard University

Invited speakers

Hear leading experts discuss the latest discoveries and cutting-edge science at these symposium sessions. More speakers will be added over the coming months.

Advances in natural product biochemistry and biotechnology

Organizers
Yi Tang, University of California, Los Angeles
Katherine Ryan, University of British Columbia

Natural products from higher eukaryotes and animals

Chair: Yi Tang

  • Bradley Moore, University of California, San Diego
  • Rebecca Butcher, University of Florida
  • Emily Derbyshire, Duke University
  • Jing-Ke Weng, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

Natural products from microbiomes and symbionts

Chair: Katherine Ryan

  • Jason Crawford, Yale University
  • Nancy Keller, University of Wisconsin—Madison
  • Alessandra Eustaquio, University of Illinois Chicago
  • Mohammad Seyedsayamdost, Princeton University

Biochemistry and biotechnology of natural product genome mining

Chair: Alessandra Eustaquiol

  • Jamie Link, Princeton University
  • Katherine Ryan, University of British Columbia
  • Gerald Wright, McMaster University
  • Yi Tang, University of California, Los Angeles

Cool and novel enzymes

Organizers
Shelley D. Copley, University of Colorado Boulder
Hung-wen (Ben) Liu, University of Texas at Austin

Enzymatic control of problematic intermediates

Chair: Hung-Wen (Ben) Liu

  • Shelley D. Copley, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Tom Niehaus, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
  • Shelley Minteer, University of Utah
  • Carole Linster, University of Luxembourg

Enzymes for a sustainable future

Chair: Shelley D. Copley

  • Gregg Beckham, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
  • Larry Wackett, University of Minnesota

New and unusual enzymatic transformations

Chair: Michelle Chang

  • Hung-wen (Ben) Liu, University of Texas at Austin
  • Aimin Liu, University of Texas at San Antonio
  • Sara O'Connor, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
  • Wenjun Zhang, University of California, Berkeley

Education and professional development

Organizer
Saumya Ramanathan, Arizona State University

Lipid metabolism

Organizers
Maria Fedorova, Dresden University of Technology
Neale D. Ridgway, Dalhousie University

Cellular topology of lipid metabolism

Chair: Maria Fedorova

  • Neale D. Ridgway, Dalhousie University
  • Greg Fairn, Dalhousie University
  • Shirin Bahmanyar, Yale University
  • Miriam L. Greenberg, Wayne State University

Lipid quality control in cell survival and death

Chair: Neale D. Ridgway

  • Maria Fedorova, Dresden University of Technology
  • Toni Petan, Jožef Stefan Institute
  • James Olzmann, University of California, Berkeley
  • G. Ekin Atilla–Gokcumen, University of Buffalo

Spatial lipidomics — tracing lipids in cells at molecular level

Chair: James Olzmann

  • Theodore Alexandrov, European Molecular Biology Laboratory
  • Judith Simcox, University of Wisconsin

Maximizing Access Committee

Organizers
Sonia Flores, University of Colorado School of Medicine
Kayunta Johnson–Winters, University of Texas at Arlington
Karla Neugebauer, Yale School of Medicine
Jonathan Kelber, Baylor University
Ruma Banerjee, University of Michigan

Biochemistry meets climate change: Steps that we can take towards one health


Chairs: Kayunta Johnson-Winters & Karla Neugebauer
  • Asiya Gusa, Duke University
  • James A. DeMayo, University of Colorado-Denver
  • Yixian Zheng, Carnegie Institution for Science
  • Teresa Horton, Northwestern University

Stress adaptations in tumor progression 

Chair: Jonathan Kelber

  • Jonathan Kelber, Baylor University
  • Edna Grabocka, Thomas Jefferson University
  • Christina Towers, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
  • Mark LaBarge, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope

Membrane contact sites

Organizers
Christopher T. Beh, Simon Fraser University
Jen Liou, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Regulation of lipid transfer and metabolism at membrane contact sites

Chair: Jen Liou

  • Hongyuan Yang, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • Jen Liou, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  • Alexandre Toulmay, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  • Arash Bashirullah, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Membrane signaling at membrane contact sites

Chair: Thomas Simmen

  • Thomas Simmen, University of Alberta
  • Jay Tan, University of Pittsburgh
  • Alissa Weaver, Vanderbilt University
  • Chi-Lun Chang, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Specialized membrane contact site functions

Chair: Christopher T. Beh

  • Isabelle Derré, University of Virginia
  • Aaron Neiman, Stony Brook University
  • Abel Rosado, University of British Columbia
  • Christopher T. Beh, Simon Fraser University

Microbial signaling, communication and metabolism

Organizers
Peter Chien, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Jade Wang, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Signaling nucleotides in microbes

Chair: Jade Wang

  • Vincent T. Lee, University of Maryland, College Park
  • Ming Chen Hammond, University of Utah
  • Emily E. Weinert, Pennsylvania State University
  • Jade Wang, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Microbial machines

Chair: Peter Chien

  • Peter Chien, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Erin Goley, Johns Hopkins University
  • Monica Guo, University of Washington
  • Briana Burton, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Microbial communities

Chair: Erin Goley

  • Stavroulos Hatzios, Yale University
  • John Whitney, McMaster University
  • Christopher S. Hayes, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Ami S. Bhatt, Stanford University

Mitochondria, peroxisomes and chloroplast metabolism

Organizers
Pere Puigserver, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School
Greg Moorhead, University of Calgary

Protein covalent modifications and chloroplast metabolism

Chair: Greg Moorhead

  • Greg Moorhead, University of Calgary
  • Glen Uhrig, University of Alberta
  • R. Paul Jarvis, University of Oxford
  • Paula Mulo, University of Turku

Peroxisome biogenesis/metabolism

Chair: Tom Rapoport

  • Francesca Di Cara, Dalhousie University
  • Brooke Gardner, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Tom Rapoport, Harvard Medical School; HHMI
  • Irfan Lodhi, Washington University in St. Louis

Mitochondria energetics/metabolism

Chair: Erin Goley

  • Pere Puigserver, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School
  • Lena Pernas, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing
  • Alexei Amunts, Stockholm University
  • Rebecca Voorhees, California Institute of Technology

New frontiers in structural biology

Organizers
Jose Rodriguez, University of California, Los Angeles
Hosea Nelson, California Institute of Technology

Redox and metals in biology

Organizers
Siavash Kurdistani, University of California, Los Angeles
Gina DeNicola, Moffitt Cancer Center

Advances in redox homeostasis in biology and disease

Chair: Urbain Weyemi

  • Kivanc Birsoy, Rockefeller University
  • Jessica Spinelli, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
  • Urbain Weyemi, National Cancer Institute
  • Elena Piskounova, Weill Cornell Medicine

Iron in redox biology: mechanisms and regulation

Chair: Gina DeNicola

  • Adam Hughes, University of Utah
  • James Wohlschlegel, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Sarah-Maria Fendt, VIB–KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology
  • Gina DeNicola, Moffitt Cancer Center

Copper in redox biology: From fundamental chemistry to cellular function

Chair: Siavash Kurdistani

  • Katherine Franz, Duke University
  • Peter Tsvetkov, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
  • Deborah Fass, Weizmann Institute of Science
  • Siavash Kurdistani, University of California, Los Angeles

RNA biology

Organizers
Katrin Karbstein, UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology
Jeremy E. Wilusz, Baylor College of Medicine

RNA biogenesis and processing

Chair: Olga Anczukow

  • Tracy L. Johnson, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Hiten D. Madhani, University of California, San Francisco
  • Jeremy E. Wilusz, Baylor College of Medicine
  • Roberto Bonasio, University of Pennsylvania

Ribosomes and translation

Chair: Katrin Karbstein

  • Shu-ou Shan, California Institute of Technology
  • Ruben L. Gonzalez, Columbia University
  • Homa Ghalei, Emory University
  • Amy S.Y. Lee, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School

RNA and disease

Chair: Jeremy E. Wilusz

  • Blake Wiedenheft, Montana State University
  • Shuying Sun, Johns Hopkins University
  • Olga Anczukow, Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine
  • Katrin Karbstein, UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology

Signaling mechanisms in the nucleus

Organizers
Glen Liszczak, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Aaron Johnson, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Chemical strategies to study nuclear processes

Chair: Aaron Johnson

  • Anna Mapp, University of Michigan
  • Glen Liszczak, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  • Oliver Bell, University of Southern California Kerk School of Medicine
  • Minkui Luo, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Chromatin organization, replication and repair

Chair: Katharine Diehl

  • Aaron Streets, University of California, Berkeley
  • Aaron Johnson, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
  • Carl Wu, Johns Hopkins University
  • TBA

Chromatin modifications in the nucleus

Chair: Glen Liszczak

  • Alex Ruthenberg, University of Chicago
  • Katharine Diehl, University of Utah
  • Tim Stasevich, Colorado State University
  • Phil Cole, Harvard University