Each year at the Annual Meeting, we invite a group of attendees to share their experiences and perspectives on the Society's blog. Read about this year's crop of bloggers below, and then follow their adventures here on the blog throughout the meeting.
Jubilee Cabellon
I am a 2nd year graduate student in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics PhD program. I am studying in Tatiana Mishanina’s lab, identifying pause sites on mitochondrial tRNAs and the effects of tRNA mutations leading to mitochondrial diseases. After starting my journey in community college, I have a passion for assisting community college students into higher education and the pursuit of scientific careers, collaborating with Southwestern Community College in Chula Vista, CA to encourage transfer to UCSD. In my free time, I like to crochet, knit and embroider, and also design characters for my part-time business, itskindacatchy.com, where I make cute science animal characters into stickers, shirts, and tote bags.
Miguel de Jesus
I am from the Philippines, where I studied chemistry, conducted research on microbial biosurveillance, and participated in clinical trials utilizing anti-cancer immunotherapy. I moved to New York in 2016, and to this day utilize high-resolution microscopy to study the mechanical aspects of T-cell synapsis. I am an avid reader of Japanese manga & Continental philosophy, and practice the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira twice a week.
Faraz Harsini
I’m Faraz Harsini, a biomedical scientist focused on alternative protein development for food applications. Currently, I work as the Bioprocessing Senior Scientist at the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit think tank that supports the burgeoning plant-based, fermentation, and cultivated meat industries and promotes the use of these technologies to solve a variety of environmental and public health challenges. I hold a BSc in chemical engineering and completed my MSc and Ph.D. studies in biotechnology (cancer research) and molecular biophysics. After my Ph.D., I led projects related to drug development and clinical trials in biopharmaceuticals. After studying cancer, Covid-19, influenza, and other subjects, I learned that many of the top public health, environmental, and global challenges are caused by our food system. Therefore, I have since used my scientific background to advance alternative proteins that can help mitigate problems like climate change, antibiotic resistance, and animal welfare.
Fiona Kearns
I earned my B.S. in Chemistry and PhD in Computational Chemistry from the University of South Florida. I conducted bachelor’s and PhD research in the lab of H. Lee Woodcock from 2011 to 2020. I am now a post-doctoral scholar co-advised by Rommie Amaro and J. Andrew McCammon here at UCSD! My current research interests include modeling and probing interactions between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the epithelial glycocalyx, a dense matrix of proteoglycans and glycoproteins including heparan sulfate and mucins. I am passionate about exploring biomolecular structure/function relationships and one day hopes to establish her own computational biophysics lab. Outside of work, I enjoy running, hiking, playing soccer, painting, scuba and snorkeling!
Gregory Kyro
My name is Gregory Kyro; I am a PhD student at Yale studying computational biophysical chemistry. I am interested in leveraging machine learning and statistical models to solve important problems for humanity. I am primarily focusing on three projects: (1) Innovating within the interface of machine learning, quantum computing, and biochemistry to create novel architectures capable of accurately predicting biomolecular phenomena; (2) Developing and applying graph-theoretic statistical methods for describing information transfer in biomolecules; (3) Providing a molecular-level description of the CRISPR/Cas9 mechanism with DNA.
Shannon McElhenney
I am a PhD student in theoretical and computational chemistry at UC-Irvine working in the Jin Yu group. My personal research interests are in the use of chemical computations to advance drug discovery, particularly in the field of secondary toxicity. My current research focuses on a mechanistic investigation of human mitochondrial RNA polymerase using molecular dynamics. Outside of the lab, I enjoy spending time with my cat, reading, videogames, and cooking.
Tugba Ozturk
I am a computational biophysicist working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher. I study how lipids modulate function, conformational dynamics and association of integral membrane proteins using computational modelling. I am also interested in biophysics education; I have been a member of the BPS Education Committee since 2018.
Divya Pathak
I am Divya and I am a postdoc in Prof. James Spudich lab at Stanford University. I got fascinated by cytoskeletal motors during my PhD work with Prof. Roop Mallik's lab at TIFR where we dissected the importance of microtubule-based motors, Kinesin and Dynein, in phagosome maturation and tried to understand the mechanisms used by pathogens to evade the usual phagosome to lysosome pathway. I have continued my interest in cytoskeletal motors in my postdoc where I study the cardiac muscle sarcomere protein ß- cardiac myosin using single molecule and ensemble assays. We are currently studying mutations in this motor protein implicated in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, an inherited heart disease driven largely by mutations in ß- cardiac myosin and myosin-binding protein-C. When I'm not in the lab running experiments, you will find me outdoors going for hikes and walks. I like traveling to new places and exploring new cuisines (and coffee) and cultures. I'm looking forward to meeting new people at BPS 2023 and talk about their amazing science, and we could explore coffee and eating options close to the conference. Catch me at the conference and I would love to chat in person, which has surprisingly become my treasured activity post-pandemic.
Ali Risheh
I am Ali Risheh, MSc student at CSULA in the department of computer science. I am working as a researcher in Computational Molecular Biology (COMB) Lab. My main research started in 2021 and is based on integration of physics-based with deep learning models and predict the binding free energy with high performance and accuracy.
Ivy Xiong
I’m a postdoc fellow at the University of Southern California, studying sex differences in the mammalian kidney. My interest is to understand the mechanisms of transcriptional regulation that govern cell fate transition, both during normal development and between health and disease. By applying techniques from nonlinear dynamics, computational biology and advanced imaging, my research strives to explain the spatiotemporal nature of biological phenomena.
Priya Yadav
I am a graduate student at ICGEB in New Delhi, India. My research focuses on interdisciplinary techniques to better explore and understand host-viral protein interactions in modulating host immune response. I am also working on purine salvage pathway enzymes, a well-conserved pathway in all life forms. My perception of science as a language of communication, along with my love of communication, keeps me interested in learning about new topics. I enjoy organizing social and cultural events. My hobbies include travelling, going for hikes, and writing. I am looking forward to this exceptional opportunity to interact with researchers who will bring their diverse viewpoints and aesthetic beauty to science. I'm excited to be a blogger at BPS2023.
Lindsey Young
I’m Lindsey. My goal in writing these BPS posts is to share some practical advice for trainees. The first post will be how to give a great talk, as a Q&A with my mentor, Dr. Elizabeth Villa. Dr. Villa is known for her high-energy research presentations and infectious enthusiasm for science. Next, I will write about how to moderate a panel session and what a first-time chair might want to know. Finally, Dr. Joachim Frank is currently doing a month-long sabbatical in our group in San Diego. I will share an interview with him on his perspective on life, science, and the arts during his career.
About me: I am a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Elizabeth Villa’s group at UC San Diego, where we explore the cellular interior by in-situ cryo-electron tomography to investigate structure-function relationships in their native context. I hope everyone has a wonderful time at the conference. See you in San Diego!