MCB Seminar Program Schedule

Fall 2007

Tuesdays – 4:00 p.m. (unless otherwise noted)
319 Morrill III South (OEB Conference Room)
Refreshments at 3:45 p.m.
Faculty Organizer: Gerry B. Downes - gbdownes@bio.umass.edu

September 11 – Rotation Fair for First-Year MCB Ph.D. Students
HOSTS: Wei-Lih Lee and Patricia Wadsworth

September 18 – Rotation Fair for First-Year MCB Ph.D. Students
HOSTS: Wei-Lih Lee and Patricia Wadsworth

September 25 – Donald F. Ready, Purdue University
"Three for the Road: Myosin-V, Rab11 and dRip11 Mediate Apical Transport in Drosophila Photoreceptors"
HOST: Abbie Jensen

October 2 – Katsuhiko Murakami, Pennsylvania State University
"Structural Biology of RNA Polymerase"
HOST: Craig Martin

October 9 - Co-Sponsored by NSB
Francisco Bezanilla, University of Chicago
"How Membrane Proteins Sense Voltage"
HOST: Gerry Downes

October 16 – Laura Grabel, Wesleyan University
"Making Neurons from Embryonic Stem Cells, In Vitro and in the Brain"
HOST: Michael Barresi

October 23 - Marcelo G. Kazanietz, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
"Diacylglycerol Signaling by PKC and Beyond PKC"
HOST: Pablo Visconti

November 1 (Thursday) – Co-Sponsored by NSB
Peter Thomas, University of Texas at Austin
"Characteristics of Novel Steroid Membrane Receptors Coupled to G Proteins in Reproductive Tissues"
HOST: Tom Zoeller

November 6 – John Roth, University of California, Davis
"Origin of Mutations under Selection: The Cairns Controversy"
HOST: Steve Sandler

November 15 (Thursday) – Roald Hoffmann, Cornell University
1981 Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
*Student Union Ballroom
"Chemistry's Essential Tensions: A Different Look at a Science"
HOST: William Mahoney

November 20 – No Seminar Scheduled - Thanksgiving Week

November 27 – Joan C. Mecsas, Tufts University
"Role of Yersinia Yops in Inactivating Host Defenses during Infection"
HOST: Alejandro Heuck

December 5 (Wednesday) - Co-Sponsored by NSB
Michael Francis, University of Massachusetts Medical School
"Cellular Mechanisms for Regulation of Excitatory Synapses in C. elegans"
HOST: Daniel Chase

Spring 2008

Tuesdays – 4:00 p.m.
101 Lederle Graduate Tower
Refreshments at 3:45 p.m.
Faculty Organizer: Lynmarie K. Thompson - thompson@chem.umass.edu

February 5 – A. Clay Clark, NC State University
"Death by Caspase Dimerization"
HOST: Jeanne Hardy

February 12 – David B. Goodin, The Scripps Research Institute
"Probing the Substrate Binding Site of Heme Enzymes with Molecular Wires"
HOST: Michael Knapp

February 19 – No Seminar—Monday schedule due to holiday

February 26 – Ning Zheng, University of Washington
"Ubiquitin Ligase Machinery: From Plant Biology to Human Diseases"
HOST: Scott Garman

March 4 - Evan T. Powers, The Scripps Research Institute
"Protein Folding, Misfolding, and Export from Cells"
HOST: Lila Gierasch

Saturday, March 8 - Annual MCB Retreat
Guest Speaker: James L. Keck, University of Wisconsin-Madison
(Former Biochemistry Undergraduate here at UMass)
"Structural Mechanisms of Genome Maintenance"
HOST: Steve Sandler

March 11 – Gregory A. Petsko, Brandeis University
"Structural Neurology - An Approach to the Understanding, Treatment and Prevention of Neurodegenerative Diseases"
HOST: Scott Garman

March 18 - No Seminar—Spring Break Week

March 25 - Seung J. Baek, University of Tennessee
"Pro-Apoptotic Protein NAG-1 Suppresses Obesity and Inflammation"
HOST: Yeonhwa Park

April 1 – Frederick R. Maxfield, Weill Cornell Medical College
"Sterol Distribution and Transport in Cells"
HOST: Alejandro Heuck

April 8 – Erika L.F. Holzbaur, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
"Cytoplasmic Dynein Function and Dysfunction in Intracellular Transport"
HOST: Wei-Lih Lee

April 15 – Sarah E. O'Connor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Alkaloid Biosynthesis in Periwinkle"
HOST: Jennifer Normanly

April 29 - Stephen C. Blacklow, Harvard Medical School
"Mechanistic Insights into Normal and Pathogenic Notch Signaling"
HOST: Jenny Maki, MCB Student

May 6 - Douglas C. Rees, California Institute of Technology
"ABC Transporter Structure and Mechanism"
HOST: Lynmarie Thompson