Department Retreat
Cell and Developmental Biology
7th Annual Retreat
Thursday, April 16, 2009
8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Vanderbilt University Student Life Center
Cell and Developmental Biology graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and lab personal from primary and secondary/joint labs will spend the day in a relaxing atmosphere reviewing and discussing research projects. Twelve graduate students and post docs will present 15-minute oral talks; 90 posters will be viewed in two sessions.
View Retreat Abstracts: <Here>
AGENDA |
|
| 8:00-8:30 am | Registration and Poster Set-Up |
| 8:30-8:45 am | State of the Department
Address |
| 8:45-9:45 am | First Session – 4 speakers |
| 9:45-10:00 a.m. | Break |
| 10:00-11:15 a.m. | Second Session – 5 speakers |
| 11:15-12:45 p.m. | POSTER SESSION I |
| 12:00-1:00 p.m. | LUNCH |
| 1:00-2:00 p.m. | Keynote Address – Jeffrey Gordon, M.D. |
| 2:00-2:15 p.m. | Break |
| 2:15-3:00 p.m. | Third Session – 3 speakers |
| 3:00-4:30 p.m. | POSTER SESSION II |
| 4:00-5:30 p.m. | Reception |
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Jeffrey I. Gordon, Center for Genome Sciences
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO .
"The human microbiome project: exploring the microbial side of ourselves"
Our genetic landscape is a summation of the genes embedded in our human genome and the genomes of our microbial partners (the microbiome). Similarly, our metabolic features are an amalgamation of human and microbial traits. Therefore, understanding of the range of human genetic and physiologic diversity means that we must characterize our microbiome, as well as the factors that influence the assembly, stability, functions and variations in our microbiota. The results should provide an additional perspective about contemporary human biology as we assess how our changing lifestyles, cultural traditions, socioeconomic status, and biosphere are influencing our ‘micro’-evolution, and thus our health. Members of our lab are exploring the following questions in gnotobiotic mice and in monozygotic and dizygotic twins and their mothers. How do we acquire our gut microbiota? How stable is it? Do humans share an identifiable core gut ‘microbiome’? How do variations in the gut microbiome correlate with and contribute to health and disease - specifically our energy balance and nutritional status?
OUTSTANDING GRADUATE STUDENT and POST DOC AWARDS
An
annual award to recognize a CDB graduate student and a CDB postdoctoral fellow for outstanding accomplishment
in research is presented each year at the retreat. Eligibility: Graduate Student nominees may
be either Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. students who have passed the CDB qualifying exam.
Senior graduate students are preferred. Students graduating within the past
year are also eligible. Postdoctoral fellows must be in a primary or secondary/joint lab.