Pharmacology held its annual Research Retreat March 22 in the Friday Center. It was a day full of lots of great science! Thanks to all who participated!

The research retreat was well attended and included two invited speakers, thirty-nine poster presentations and six oral presentations by graduate students, postdocs and research assistant professors, and a social mixer with award presentations.
Invited speakers were:
- Michael S. Kinch, PhD, Associate Vice Chancellor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Washington University in St. Louis
- “A Prescription for Change: The Looming Crisis in Drug Development,” who was the Keynote Speaker
- Guillermina “Gigi” Lozano, PhD, the Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Genetics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
- “Mutant p53 Activiites in Tumor Development.”
Oral presentations were by (in order of appearance):
- Raquel Marinez-Chacin, graduate student in the Brown lab
- “A new mechanism of activation of the APC/C鈥
- Nicole Hajicek, PhD, research assistant professor in the Sondek lab
- 鈥淪tructural basis for the activation of PLC-爷 isozymes byphosphorylation and cancer-associated mutations鈥
- Hechen Bao, postdoctoral fellow in the Song lab
- 鈥淒ysregulation of hippocampal adult-born neurons disrupts brain-side functional network鈥
- Waylin Yu, graduate student in the Kash lab
- 鈥淐ell type-specific midbrain and extended amygdala contributions to sex differences in pain and alcohol use鈥
- Dan Marston, PhD, research assistant professor in the Hahn lab
- 鈥淨uantitative analysis of RhoGEF-GTPase signaling in cell motility using simultaneous imaging of novel biosensors鈥
- Antje Schaefer, PhD, research assistant professor in the Der lab
- 鈥淭he small GTPase mutant RHOA-Y42C is a diffuse gastric oncogene that promotes focal adhesion kinases activation”
Presentation Award Winners

Oral Presentations
- Hechen Bao
- Waylin Yu
Poster Presentations
- Megan Agajanian, Grad Student in the Major Lab
- Brent Asrican, Res Asst Professor in the Song Lab
- Samantha Bevill, Grad Student in the Johnson Lab
- Irem Dagliyan, Grad Student in the Der Lab
- Reid Olsen, Grad Student in the Roth Lab
- Luis Quintanilla, Grad Student
- Daniel Sprague, Grad Student in the Yeh Lab
- Kimiko Suzuki, Grad Student in the Dohlman Lab
- Andrew Truong, Grad Student in the Kim Lab
- Blaide Woodburn Grad Student in the Swanstrom lab
- Yi Xu, Grad Student in the Yeh Lab
Congratulations to all the award winners!
Thanks to everyone who participated! It was a day filled with lots of new and interesting science!
Here are some more pics. Click for larger view. 聽Coming soon – more pics on聽Facebook.