Meeting History
Club Speakers
Andrew Klock (speaker on Nov. 21, 2015)
Modern Genomics and it's Importance in Cancer Research
"I will be talking about genomics and cancer research. Specifically, I am going to talk about what I do at Nanostring (the genomics aspect of the talk) and how my work and Nanostring's products fit in with cancer research. I'll go briefly into cancer biology, modern genomics, and gene expression technologies to wrap everything up in a nice cohesive presentation."
Dr. Jan Chalupny (speaker on Jan. 9, 2016):
Antibody-derived Therapeutics
“Antibodies are amazing proteins produced by our own B cells that help our immune system protect us from foreign pathogens. Our knowledge of the molecular structure and function of antibodies now enables researchers to design and produce specialized antibodies for use as research tools or therapeutics.”
Becky Johnson (speaker on Feb. 27, 2016): Cancer and the Immune System
Becky Johnson gave an overview of the immune system and talked about cancer. She also explained her research and how researchers are finding ways to make the immune system fight cancer.
Dr. Mary Young (speaker on April 23, 2016): T-cells
"My work focuses on a group of cells in the immune system called T cells. In a vaccine, small pieces of bacteria or viruses are shown to T cells. The T cells then decide how to best fight that virus or bacterium and store it in their memory. When you are infected with the virus or bacteria, T cells then can jump quickly into action. My work focuses on how to program T cells to get them to make the best response possible. We can use the thousands of genetic “switches” to find the right program to fight each infection."
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Becky Johnson (speaker on October 29, 2016): CAR T-cell Therapy
Becky Johnson spoke about CAR T-cell therapy and engaged us in conversation about how this therapy can be used to kill cancerous tumors.
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Dr. Jan Chalupny (speaker on November 21, 2016): DNA Barcoding
Dr. Jan Chalupny gave an overview on DNA barcoding-a method to use DNA to identify a species.
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Dr. Reitha Weeks (speaker on March 18, 2017): Olfactory System and the Sense of Smell
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Andrew Klock is a bioinformaticist at NanoStrings Technologies, Inc.
who loves tackling problems
Dr. Jan Chalupny is a researcher in the field of biotechnology
who believes science is cool.
Becky Johnson researches ways to enhance cancer patients' immune systems
who is motivated to drive research projects forward.
Dr. Mary Young is a staff scientist at the Center for Infectious Disease Research (CIDR.)