Discovery Series
The Discovery Series, launched in 2013, brings eminent scientists, thought leaders and innovators from around the world to the Biodesign Institute to share their research expertise. Discovery Series lectures and interactive discussions which follow exposes our faculty, staff and students to the latest developments in science, technology and medicine, keeping Biodesign researchers abreast of current trends and breakthroughs. Discovery Series events also provide networking and collaborative research opportunities – please join us!
Lectures are open to the community. Seating available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Upcoming Speaker
Air pollution and human health: Perspectives and new directions
Lecture by
Michelle L. Bell, PhD
Mary E. Pinchot Professor of Environmental Health
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University
Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018 • 1:30–2:30 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Poor air quality is one of the biggest drivers of public health burdens worldwide. The Global Burden of Disease project estimates that ambient air pollution causes over 5 million deaths each year and ranks air pollution as the fourth highest risk factor for mortality globally. The World Health Organization’s health-based air quality guidelines are exceeded for most of the globe’s population. Michelle L. Bell will cover several key challenges in the study of how air pollution impacts human health. These include transitions to multiple pollutant science, environmental justice, global health and climate change. Addressing these critical research challenges will provide scientific evidence to aid decision-makers in developing and implementing policies to best protect health from air pollution in the present day and under a changing climate.
Michelle Bell’s research investigates how human health is affected by atmospheric systems, including air pollution and weather. Much of this work is based in epidemiology, biostatistics and environmental engineering. The research is designed to be policy-relevant and contribute to well-informed decision-making to better protect human health.
Past Speakers
Sustainable Synthesis of Polyester Fiber and Bottles: Bioinspired Synthesis From Glucose or Plasma Refining of Carbon Dioxide/Methane
Lecture by
John Frost, PhD
University Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University
Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018 • 2–3 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
The world produces more than 60 billion kilograms of terephthalic acid for polymerization to polyethylene terephthalate, or polyester PET, which is used in the manufacture of plastic bottles, fibers and a myriad of other consumer products. Sustainable synthesis of terephthalic acid entails the bioinspired design of pathways enabling microbes to synthesize chemicals such as muconic acid, isoprene and acrylic acid from glucose. These intermediates are then converted chemically into terephthalic acid.
John Frost will present a very different strategy that entails plasma refining of methane and carbon dioxide to acetylenemonocarboxylic acid. This intermediate undergoes a catalyzed chemical reaction to form terephthalic acid. PET and its precursor terephthalic acid serve as an intriguing test case for formulation of sustainable syntheses of large-volume chemicals within the context of a world that could have a population of 13 billion people by the year 2100.
Normalizing transformed cancer cells with rigidity sensing | Super-resolution imaging of Salmonella pathogenesis
Lecture co-presented by
Michael Sheetz, PhD
Director, Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore
Linda Kenney, PhD
Principal Investigator, Mechanobiology Institute, National University Singapore
Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018 • 1:30–2:30 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
The shapes of cells, organs and whole organisms are determined by forces on and from the immediate environment, which is either extracellular matrix or adjacent cells. Sheetz discovered motor proteins and determined how they translate chemical energy into motion. Sheetz and Kenney bring together the latest technologies of engineers and physicists to address big challenges in biology and medicine in an open environment to discover important aspects of the biological systems that underlie disease and regeneration in humans and animals in a new field called “mechanobiology.” This work uses novel techniques in microscopy, which bends the limits of traditional techniques, permitting researchers to peer into cells under low-light conditions without traditional cellular damage caused by bright-light microscopic techniques. These studies reveal processes in living cells never seen before.
Sheetz uses these tools to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in a variety of phenomena from cancer metastasis to brain function by measuring cell forces at the molecular level, which reveal how cells can both generate and respond to external forces. He quantifies the steps involved in cell adhesion and spreading on a matrix-coated surface. Using a variety of cell lines that are missing proteins in various motility pathways, enabling the generation of a detailed model of the process for further studies of how cells differentiate, regenerate tissues or metastasize.
Kenney’s laboratory is working in signal transduction and the regulation of gene expression in prokaryotes. In particular, the two-component regulatory system EnvZ/OmpR that regulates the expression of outer membrane proteins as well as many other genes. Current work is focused on how OmpR activates genes required for systemic infection (located on Salmonella pathogenicity island 2) in Salmonella enterica.
Exploring Novel Mechanisms of Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis
Lecture by
Robert Vassar, Ph.D.
Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018 • 1 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the elderly. There are currently more than 5 million AD patients in the United States, but this number is expected to grow dramatically as a result of the aging population. Currently, there are no therapies that treat the underlying biological mechanisms of AD. If such disease-modifying treatments are not found, the ensuing AD epidemic will threaten the social and economic welfare of the nation. Central to the development of Alzheimer’s disease-modifying therapies is a deep and comprehensive understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms of AD pathogenesis. Robert Vassar will summarize several themes of his lab’s ongoing research, including BACE1 as a therapeutic target for AD, the calcium hypothesis and dystrophic neurite formation, and explorations of the mechanisms of two recently discovered AD-associated genes, UNC5C and ACE1. AD is a complex multifactorial disease, and we must understand the entire AD pathogenic pathway in exquisite detail in order to identify appropriate points of therapeutic intervention and stage of disease to attack. Moreover, combination therapies that target disease pathogenesis at several points will have the highest likelihood of success.
Taming the Distinctive Bacterial Microbiota of Social Bees
Lecture by
Nancy Moran, Ph.D.
Leslie Surginer Endowed Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin
Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017 • 1 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Animals are associated with communities of microorganisms that can have a major influence on the evolution and phenotypes of their hosts. The extent to which these microbial lineages coevolve with hosts and with each other is often unclear, as are the kinds of genetic changes that accompany this evolution. Social bees are associated with a set of well-defined and host-restricted bacterial lineages that make up the gut microbiota. Genomic analyses on the bee gut microbiota indicate a long, shared evolutionary history of several distinctive bacterial lineages with their hosts, including honey bees, bumble bees and stingless bees. Experiments show that these communities have effects on host metabolism and resistance to pathogens, and that disruption can result in increased mortality. The bee microbiota system promises insights into and the kinds of genetic changes that have accompanied the evolution of host-associated bacterial communities.
A Broad and Inclusive Cybersecurity Community
Lecture by
Zachary Staples
Commander, U.S. Navy; Director, Naval Postgraduate School Center for Cyber Warfare
Wednesday, April 12, 2017 • 1 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
The U.S. Navy’s mission is to win wars, deter aggression and maintain freedom of the seas. During an all-out cyberattack, these defenses must be performed by machines. We will be asked by our country to make good decisions on vast amounts of data that can only be fully analyzed by autonomous systems.
We need to prototype and test such decisions to quickly adapt our way of fighting. Creating and adopting such innovative, diverse and fast practices in cybersecurity will help us reach the creative potential needed to defend our digital shores.
Protecting the Proteome in Aging and Neurodegenerative Disease
Lecture by
Richard Morimoto, Ph.D.
Bill and Gayle Cook Professor of Biology, Director of the Rice Institute for Biomedical Research, Northwestern University
Wednesday, March 1, 2017 • 10 a.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
A common feature of disease and aging is the accumulation of damaged proteins that accumulate in aggregates and amyloid species. The appearance of this molecular clutter is a consequence of protein metastability and the direct result of failure of the quality-control machinery that leads to the accumulation of these damaged proteins, which over time interferes with cellular function.
Getting More out of the Sunlight:
Overcoming Constraints on Photosynthetic Energy Conversion Efficiency
Lecture by
Andreas Weber, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Biology, Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Heinrich Heine University
Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017 • 10 a.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Life on earth depends on the conversion of solar energy to chemical energy through the process of photosynthesis. Typical crops convert light energy to biomass with efficiencies of approximately 2 to 3 percent, which is less than half of the theoretically achievable maximum. In his seminar, Andreas Weber will discuss constraints on photosynthetic energy conversion efficiency and synthetic biology approaches to overcome these constraints.
Regulated Mutation and Evolution and Deep Translational
Discovery of Cancer Gene Functions in Bacteria
Lecture by
Susan Rosenberg, Ph.D.
Ben F. Love Chair in Cancer Research and Professor, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine
Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017 • 1 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Susan Rosenberg will describe her work with the molecular mechanism of stress-induced mutation in E. coli and the parallels in other organisms, including human cancer; discuss anti-evolvability drugs that could be aimed at targeting mutagenesis and delaying the evolution of cancer progression; and share engineered proteins that trap, label, quantify and map in genome-specific DNA intermediates in genome instability.
Antibiotic resistance genes in recycled water:
Harmonizing challenges in sustainable water infrastructure and public health
Lecture by
Amy Pruden, Ph.D.
W. Thomas Rice Professor of Engineering, Virginia Tech
Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017 • 11 a.m
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Water reuse is a key strategy for water sustainability. To support continued advancement, research into potential health concerns needs to keep pace. In particular, antibiotic resistance is a growing global health concern and water reuse is one potential avenue that could contribute to its spread. Hear Pruden discuss implications of the growing body of research on antibiotic resistance genes in the water cycle and how it can inform best practices in the future direction of water infrastructure to advance sustainability and protect public health.
Late Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Implicates Microglial Function?
Lecture by
Alison Goate, Ph.D.
Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Center on Alzheimer’s Disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017 • 11 a.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Until recently the genetics of late onset Alzheimer’s disease was poorly understood. Apolipoprotein E genotype was the only replicated genetic risk factor. High-throughput technologies such as genomewide association studies and next-generation sequencing approaches are transforming our understanding with more than 30 loci identified in the last few years. The challenge for the field is to translate this knowledge into an improved understanding of the biology of disease.
Mutation, Drift and the Origin of Subcellular Features
Lecture by
Michael Lynch, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Biology, Indiana University – Bloomington
Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017 • 11 a.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Information on spontaneous mutations, obtained from whole-genome sequencing of mutation-accumulation lines, implies an inverse scaling of the mutation rate (per nucleotide site) with the effective population size of a species. This pattern is thought to arise naturally as natural selection pushes the mutation rate down to a lower limit set by the power of random genetic drift.
Using Epigenomic Approaches to Identify Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets for Alzheimer’s Disease
Lecture by
Li-Huei Tsai, Ph.D.
Director, The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory; Picower Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Senior Associate Member, Broad Institute Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016 • 1 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Hear about how Li-Huei Tsai and her team use cutting-edge transcriptomic and epigenomic approaches to study Alzheimer’s disease mouse models and human brain samples. These analyses reveal dysregulation of novel pathways that can be targeted for therapeutic intervention.
The Complex Science of Cybersecurity
Lecture by
Stephanie Forrest, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, University of New Mexico
Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016 • 1 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
See how ideas from biological defense systems can be applied to solve cybersecurity problems. Learn how tools of complexity science can be used to understand today's technological networks and their linkages to human behavior, social norms and economic incentives, which can help us address global scale cybersecurity problems.
Written in Blood: Nanopore-enabled Peptidomic Analysis and its Application in Disease Detection
Lecture by
Tony Hu, Ph.D.
Core Director, Peptidomics Nanoengineering Core and Assistant Professor of Nanomedicine, Institute for Academic Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute
Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016 • 1:30 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Hear about developing and validating the integrated nanotechnique-based strategies to perform marker discovery and molecular diagnostics from peripheral blood and to provide a translatable solution for personalized medicine.
Resolvin’ Tumor Growth with Resolvins
Lecture by
Dipak Panigrahy, M.D.
Assistant Professor, Pathology, Harvard Medical School; Instructor in Surgery, Vascular Biology Program, Boston Children’s Hospital; Member of Neuro-Oncology, Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center
Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015 • 1 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Panigrahy’s studies show that enhancing endogenous clearance of tumor cell debris represents a new biological target to complement current cancer therapy.
Colorectal Cancer: Familial Risk, Screening and Prevention
Lecture by
N. Jewel Samadder, M.D.
Assistant Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine
Thursday, October 8, 2015 • 1 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Learn about colon cancer syndromes, their genetic basis and clinical management and the unique resources available in Utah to study familial clustering of cancer and health care resource utilization.
Epigenetic Mechanisms in Memory Formation
Lecture by
J. David Sweatt, Ph.D.
Evelyn F. McKnight Chair, Department of Neurobiology and Director of the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Alabama at Birmingham
Monday, June 8, 2015 • 1 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Conservation of epigenetic mechanisms for information storage represents a unifying model in biology, with epigenetic mechanisms being utilized for cellular memory at levels from behavioral memory to development to cellular differentiation.
Reconstructing the First Few Human Tumor Cell Divisions (Big Bang Tumorigenesis)
Lecture by
Darryl Shibata, M.D.
Professor of Pathology, Keck School of Medicine of USC
Tuesday, May 12, 2015 • 1 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Darryl Shibata is interested in cancer evolution with a focus on using genomic data to infer human somatic cell ancestral trees.
Atherosclerosis, Cancer and Wound Healing: A Systems Biology Connection
Lecture by
Alexandra Lucas, M.D.
Professor of Medicine, Ethel Smith Chair in Vasculitis Research, and Director of Vascular Research Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Florida
Tuesday, April 14, 2015 • 1 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Alexandra Lucas’s research has examined the roles of serine protease inhibitors (serpins) as well as the glyocalyx and chemokines in transplant vasculopathy. She is a practicing interventional cardiologist in addition to running an active basic research lab in vascular inflammatory research.
Super-resolution Fluorescence
Microscopy
Lecture by
Jörg Enderlein, Ph.D.
Professor of Biophysics and Complex Systems, Third Institute of Physics at the Georg-August University Göttingen
Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015 • 1 p.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Although Jörg Enderlein has a wide scope of interests, his research explores single molecule spectroscopy and imaging, from fundamental aspects to biophysical applications. Come to hear about the latest super-resolution microscopy techniques from someone who uses them.
Decoding Omics Data:
Disease Pathway and Drug Target Discovery
Lecture by
John Quackenbush, PhD
Director, Center for Cancer Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Professor, Biostatistics and Computational Biology, and Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Harvard School of Public Health
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015 • 9:30 a.m.
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Dr. John Quackenbush provides broad-based bioinformatics support to the local research community using a collaborative consulting model. His research is focused on developing new methods for integrative genomic data analysis and inference of gene networks as well as understanding the role that variation plays in the defining phenotype.
Animal Microbiomes and the Origin of Species
Lecture by
Seth R. Bordenstein, PhD
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Seth Bordenstein is a biologist who probes the rules of symbiosis and evolution, and
their inseparable connections. Key questions guiding his science include
• What is the role of the microbiome in the origin of species?
• How do viruses subsist in obligate intracellular bacteria?
• What interactions shape maternal microbial transmission?
Bordenstein’s research is inspired by the Carl Sagan quote that "Life looks for life.” He is the founding director of the international citizen science program Discover the Microbes Within! The Wolbachia Project.
The HPV-associated Cancer Epidemic
and Our Path Forward
Lecture by
Erich Sturgis, MD
Professor, Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Department of Epidemiology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Erich Sturgis is the program director of the MD Anderson Oropharynx Program, an eight-year clinical and translational research effort supported by a $10-million gift by Charles and Daneen Stiefel to the MD Anderson Head and Neck Program. He is also the administrative leader of the MD Anderson Pilot Moon Shot for HPV-associated Malignancies. His research interests include HPV and molecular epidemiology of carcinomas of the head and neck region, while his clinical focus is sarcomas of the head and neck region as well as thyroid cancer.
Crossing Barriers in Alzheimer’s
Drug Development
Lecture by
Ryan Watts, PhD
Director and Senior Scientist, Department of Neuroscience, Genentech
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Ryan Watts leads 10 Genentech laboratories focused on developing therapies for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, ALS, pain and other neurological disorders. His research on the blood-brain barrier focuses on the ability of large molecules to transverse it. This effort has led to a new Alzheimer’s therapy and a pipeline of large molecule drugs focused on diseases affecting the central nervous system.
Precision Medicine for the Critically Ill
is Feasible and Necessary
Lecture by
Joe “Skip” Garcia, MD
Senior Vice President, Health Services; Interim Dean, College of Medicine; Endowed Professor of Medicine at University of Arizona
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Skip Garcia is internationally recognized for his genetic-based research on lung disease and for development of novel therapies for critically ill patients with acute inflammatory lung disease.
A key member of the University of Arizona’s senior executive team, Garcia provides academic leadership for the Arizona Health Sciences Center colleges: the UA College of Medicine – Tucson, the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix, the UA College of Pharmacy, the UA College of Nursing and the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. He also has direct leadership oversight of the UA Cancer Center.
Quantifying Biomolecular Interactions Using Nanopores: Not Seeing and Believing
Lecture by
Meni Wanunu, PhD
Assistant Professor, Departments of Physics and Chemistry/Chemical Biology. Northeastern University/p>
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Meni Wanunu researches subtle changes in the chemical structure of biomolecules. These changes, called mutations, are sufficient to cause disease by producing a malfunctioning protein. Many of the ways miniscule chemical changes affect biomolecular function are still unknown.
To address these questions, the Wanunu Lab is developing novel techniques that probe how small molecular changes affect the global properties of macromolecules and biomolecules. Using various tools enabled by nanotechnology, the team investigates biomolecular structure and dynamics at their corresponding size scale.
Glucocorticoid Receptor:
Regulatory Selectivity, Logic and Allostery
Lecture by
Keith Yamamoto, PhD
Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California-San Francisco, Executive Vice Dean of the School of Medicine, and Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Keith Yamamoto's research is focused on signaling and transcriptional regulation by intracellular receptors, which mediate the actions of several classes of essential hormones and cellular signals. He uses both mechanistic and systems approaches to pursue these problems in pure molecules, cells and whole organisms.
Design a Life for Yourself:
One Little Step at a Time
Lecture by
Story Musgrave, PhD
Landscape architect, businessman and former astronaut
ASU Biodesign Institute, Auditorium B105
727 E. Tyler St., Tempe, AZ 85287
Story Musgrave was an NASA astronaut for more than 30 years and flew on six spaceflights. He performed the first shuttle spacewalk on Challenger's first flight, was a pilot on an astronomy mission, conducted two classified Department of Defense missions, was the lead spacewalker on the Hubble Telescope repair mission, and on his last flight, he operated an electronic chip manufacturing satellite on Columbia.
Gut Microbes and Their Role
in Obesity and Malnutrition
Lecture by
Rob Knight, PhD
Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Colorado Boulder
ASU Biodesign Institute Auditorium
727 E. Tyler St.
Rob Knight's research is focused on understanding biological evolution at scales ranging from individual molecules to whole ecosystems. He uses a combination of techniques drawn from fields ranging from computer science to molecular biology to understand the evolution, structure and function of the human microbiome (the microbes that inhabit each of our bodies) and, at a more fundamental level, the evolution of biochemical functions in random-sequence pools of RNA molecules.