June 8, 2023

8:00 a.m.

Check-in and continental breakfast

9:00 a.m.

Opening remarks 

9:15 a.m. 

Keynote Presentation - David Johnson, Ph.D., Founder and CEO, GigaMune

"The Journey from a Ph.D. in Sea Squirt Genetics to Founding Three Biotechs”

10:00 a.m.

Lina Maria Mancipe Castro, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, MiMedx

“Navigating Osteoarthritis Biology for the Development of Intra-articular Therapies” 

10:30 a.m.

Poster Session

11:45 a.m.

Louise Hecker, Ph.D., Founder/Chief Scientific Officer, Fibronox; Associate Professor, Emory University

"Fibronox: Tales of an Academic Entrepreneur"

12:15 p.m. 

Lunch

1:15 p.m.

Keynote Presentation - Zhi Li, Ph.D., Associate Director, Bristol Myers Squibb

“Career Opportunities in Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing”

2:00 p.m.

Rapid Fire Presentations

1. Steven Swingle (Sulchek lab),“Leveraging Flow Simulations of Microfluidic Cell Sorting to Tune Cell Trajectories by Altering Device Geometry”
2. Aaron Silva (Kwong lab),“DNA-gated Cytometry for Scarless Isolation of Antigen-specific T cells”
3. Amy Wood-Yang (Prausnitz lab),“Highly Water-soluble Microneedle Patch for Short Wear Time and Rapid Drug Delivery”
4. Chloé Thiveaud (Kwong lab),“Lipid Nanoparticle Delivery of Synthetic Antigens to Sensitize Solid Tumors to CAR-mediated Cytotoxicity”
5. Gabriela Sanchez Rodriguez (Feola lab),“Age and Ovariectomy Affect Retinal Gene Expression of TGF-β, TNF-α and ECM Related Pathways”
6. Yarelis Gonzalez-Vargas (Dixon lab),“Reverse Engineered Lymphatic Malformation Organoids from Patient-derived Tissue Explants Highlights Heterogeneity of Lymphatic Disease and Response to Treatment”
7. Lauren Liebman (Dixon lab),“Surgical Disruption of the Tumor-draining Lymphatic Network Suggests Altered Drainage Routes in a Bilateral Melanoma Model”
8. Ashley Alva (Arvanitis lab),“Tracking Macrophages with Ultrasound”
9. Laura Casas Ferrer (Bhamla lab),“Mechanical Behavior of Optically Controlled Motor-free Cytoskeletal Networks Under Biomimetic Confinement”

3:00 p.m.

Break

3:30 pm.

Career Panel

4:30 p.m.

Casey Vantucci, Ph.D., Laboratory Leadership Service Fellow, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

“From Materials Engineer to CDC Disease Detective”

5:00 p.m.

Closing and Awards Ceremony

7:00 p.m.

Off Campus Social