Our 13th Annual Program in Developmental Biology Scientific Retreat was held at Paris Landing State Park.   Researchers and support personnel from Vanderbilt and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital participated in two days of presentations from graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and our invited keynote speaker.   We were also joined by 8 incoming IGP students, all of whom have expressed an interest in pursuing developmental biology studies during their pre-doctoral training. 

Our 13th Annual Retreat keynote was Dr. Brad Yoder, Professor of Cell Biology at University of Alabama Birmingham.  Dr. Yoder and his lab utilize comparative approaches in both the mouse and C. elegans to investigate the function of cilia and the pathways in which they are required.  Dr. Yoder spoke to our group about "Clilary function and dysfunction during develop and in disease pathology".

In addition to our keynote address, participants heard oral presentations from 12 graduate trainees and 7 postdoctoral fellows from Vanderbilt.    During our poster session, which was held by candle and cell phone light due to a technical glitch in the lighting system, approximately 48 trainees and fellows presented posters and discussed their research into the early morning hours.

The speaker and poster presenters did a wonderful job of discussing their projects and a number of them were awarded 'best of' status for their outstanding efforts at the retreat. 2009 Retreat presentation winners were:

Best Talk - Session 1
	Xi Huang (Chiang Lab)
Best Talk - Session 2
	Cody Smith (Miller Lab)
Best Talk - Session 3
	Russell McConnell (tyska Lab)
Best Talk - Session 4
	Elaine Shelton, Ph.D. (Bader Lab)
Best Graduate Trainee Poster
	Sarah Anthony (Miller Lab)
Best Postdoctoral Trainee Poster
	Nancy Hernandez de Borsetti (Gamse Lab)
Most Inspiring New Trainee Poster
	Sataree Khuansawan (Gamse Lab)

Information about all 13 PDB Retreats can be found
at our Retreat Overview page.