The Office of Faculty Affairs & Faculty Development and the Medical School Office of Research have launched a Research Faculty Seminar Series (RFSS). The RFSS provides a platform to disseminate scientific findings, facilitate networking, and provide resources for research track faculty.

Please register for sessions you'd like to attend - in the event that we need to update, change, or cancel the session, you will be notified. Faculty are welcome to attend virtual sessions without registering with the caveat that you may miss important updates prior to the session.

If you are joining a virtual RFSS program on the day of the program, please use the zoom link directly - do not register via the REGISTER ONLINE button.

Interested in presenting at the RFSS?

If you would like to be a speaker at an upcoming RFSS, please email Research-faculty-seminar-series@med.umich.edu to apply.

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Upcoming Session

April 9, 2024

12 p.m. - 1 p.m.
NCRC Building 10 South Atrium
Lunch will be provided.

Micro-RNAs, GBM Stem Cells and Emerging Therapeutics: For Big Impact…Go Small

Hernando Lopez-Bertoni, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Departments of Neurology and Oncology
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

This talk will focus on our approach to understanding how reprogramming events that contribute to the cancer stem cell phenotype of Glioblastoma play a role in tumor propagation. Dr. Lopez-Bertoni will discuss the role of epigenetic changes in Glioblastoma, with an emphasis on miRNAs and illustrate the use of miRNAs as targeted therapeutics for brain tumors. He will share some of our recent results showcasing advances in in vivo delivery of nucleic acids with promising therapeutic efficacy in pre-clinical models of GBM. Finally, Dr. Lopez-Bertoni will provide an outlook and next steps for optimizing delivery approaches using next generation polymers to target brain tumors.

Dr. Hernando Lopez-Bertoni is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology, Oncology and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Since being appointed Assistant Professor in July 2018, he has gained a national and international reputation as a leader in the field of cancer stem cell biology and miRNA therapeutics.

Dr. Lopez-Bertoni has established himself as an exceptional researcher and educator with extensive experience studying molecular and cellular phenotypes critical in cancer cell biology including DNA methylation, miRNAs, DNA damage response, tumor microenvironment and the GBM cancer stem cell phenotype. His work on in vivo miRNA delivery is serving as the foundation for sophisticated, mechanism-based, rational approaches to designing molecular cancer therapeutics for GBM. He recently published the results of this work in high-impact factor journals such as Oncogene, Cancer Research, Nano Letters, and Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy. His most recent work involves understanding at the single-cell level how GBM cells transition to a therapy resistant state. He is the PI of a cross-disciplinary team of experts using state-of-the art GBM cell models, single-cell genomics, and innovative gene-delivery technology to understand how GSC-driving mechanisms contribute to the generation of tumor-propagating and therapy resistant cells in GBM with the goal of defining novel therapeutic targets for recurrent GBM. He has also demonstrated excellence in training young scientists and a strong commitment to education.

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Past Sessions

March 12, 2024

Inflammation regulates multi-step process of photoreceptor regeneration in zebrafish

Mikiko Nagashima, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Scientist
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences

 

February 13, 2024

To Swim or not to Swim:
Identifying a Regulatory Motif Underpinning a Pathogenic Bacterium's Decision

Jeremy Schroeder, Ph.D.
Research Investigator
Department of Biological Chemistry

 

January 9, 2024

Monitoring tumor heterogeneity and evolution in metastatic lobular breast cancer by liquid biopsy

Andi Cani, Ph.D.
Research Investigator
Department of Internal Medicine 

 

December 12, 2023

STAT3 restrains dendritic cell function and tumor immunity

Jiajia Zhou, Ph.D.
Research Investigator
Department of Surgery 

 

November 14, 2023

Understanding cancer cell survival dependency towards novel therapeutic combinations

Ejaz Ahmad, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Pathology

 

October 10, 2023

Evaluations of infant mental health interventions: Bayesian analysis

Jennie Jester, Ph.D.
Associate Research Scientist
Department of Psychiatry

 

September 12, 2023

Biomarkers for Precision Medicine in Nephrology: Beyond Correlation

Wenjun Ju, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
Department of Internal Medicine

 

June 8, 2023

End of Year Celebration

 

May 11, 2023

Cannabis for pain management: the long strange trip continues

Kevin F. Boehnke, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Anesthesiology

Bridging the gap between high throughput omics and routine clinical care

Geoffrey H. Siwo, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Learning Health Sciences

 

April 13, 2023

Brd4 degradation protects cardiac reprogramming from macrophage/oncostatin M induced inhibition through JAK/STAT pathway

Liu Liu, Ph.D.
Research Investigator
Department of Cardiac Surgery

BayesPharma: a Tool for Bayesian Analysis of Pharmacology Experiments

Matthew O'Meara, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics

 

March 9, 2023

The use of risk predictive modeling in kidney disease: an example from the U.S. Veterans Health Administration

Jennifer Bragg-Gresham, M.S., Ph.D.
Associate Research Scientist
Department of Internal Medicine

Neural mechanisms by which sensory perception impacts lifespan

Christi Gendron, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology

 

February 9, 2023

DeSUMOylation of hepatic b-ZIP transcription factor E4BP4 and lipid droplet biogenesis in diet-induced fatty liver disease

Xin (Tony) Tong, M.D., Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor
Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology

Overexpression of VGLL3 Drives Hippo and TGFb Dysregulation and Fibrosis in CLE Lesions using Single-cell RNA-Sequencing Data Analysis

Mehrnaz (Nazy) Gharaee-Kermani, M.P.H., Ph.D., D.V.M.
Assistant Research Scientist
Departments of Dermatology and Internal Medicine

 

January 12, 2023

Library Engagement Across the Research Lifecycle

Facilitators:
Judy Smith, Informationist, Taubman Health Sciences Library
Tyler Nix, Informationist, Taubman Health Sciences Library

 

December 8, 2022

Investigating Single Cell Heterogeneity in Cancer

Brock Humphries, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Radiology

Functional Characterization of EPDR1 as Novel Osteoblast Effector Gene at the BMD-GWAS Implicated STARD3NL locus

Yadav Wagley, Ph.D.
Research Investigator
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery

 

November 10, 2022

Exposing a Novel Role of Translation Initiation Factor SUI1a as a Critical Determinant of Toxoplasma Gondii Differentiation

Fengrong Wang, Ph.D.
Research Investigator
Department of Microbiology & Immunology

Integrative Genomics Approach to Understand Disease Progression in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

Malathi Kandarpa, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Scientist
Department of Internal Medicine 

 

October 13, 2022

Discovery of First-In-Class PRC1 inhibitor with in vivo Efficacy for AML treatment

Yiwu Yao, Ph.D.
Research Investigator
Department of Pathology

Sleeping for Two: Maternal Sleep and Fetal Wellbeing

Louise O’Brien, Ph.D., M.S.
Research Professor
Department of Neurology

 

June 9, 2022

Using participatory research methods to investigate and enhance patient safety

Sarah Krein, Ph.D., R.N.
Research Professor
Department of Internal Medicine

 

May 12, 2022

Global knockout mouse models reveal cooperative effects of thrombospondins 1 and 2 on bone physiology

Andrea Alford, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery

 

April 14, 2022

Intelligent Integration of Multimodal Data for Clinical Decision Support

Jonathan Gryak, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Scientist
Department of Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics

 

March 10, 2022

Investigating causes of brain malformations with induced pluripotent stem cell models

Andrew Tidball, Ph.D.
Research Investigator
Department of Neurology

 

February 2022

CDK-12 is a context-specific regulator of prostate cancer

Jean Tien, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Scientist
Department of Pathology

Inactivating mutations in the gene encoding cyclin-dependent kinase 12 (CDK12) define a subclass of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) that lacks other established oncogenic driver mutations. We employed mouse models and ex vivo organoid culture to determine the impact of Cdk12 loss in prostate epithelial cells. Our findings revealed Cdk12 loss to have context-specific effects: Inducing pre-cancerous lesions in the wild-type prostate, impairing the progression of tumors driven by Pten knockout, and promoting adenocarcinoma formation in the setting of p53 ablation. The findings suggest manipulation of CDK12 function has future clinical relevance in prostate cancers harboring specific mutational profiles.  

 

January 2022

Development and Testing of a Novel Patient-Reported Outcome Metric for End-Stage Kidney Disease Dialysis Patients 

Claudia Dahlerus, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Scientist
Department of Internal Medicine

 

December 2021

The December 9th session has been canceled.

Should I stay or should I go (or grow)?

Kathy Luker, Ph.D.
Associate Research Scientist
Department of Radiology

 

November 2021

Editing the Rabbit Genome for Translational Research

November 11  |  4 p.m. - 5 p.m.  |  Zoom

Dongshan Yang, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Internal Medicine

 

October 2021

Patient Demographics and Disease Mechanisms

Sex and age alter immunity in ALS

October 14  |  4 p.m. - 5 p.m.  |  Zoom

Benjamin Murdock, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Neurology

 

September 2021

Newly Navigated Territory
The risks, isolation, and rewards of family caregiving in the time of COVID-19

September 9  |  4 p.m. - 5 p.m.  |  Zoom

Amanda Leggett, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Psychiatry