Saltiel Life Sciences Symposium 2020

Zoom Webinar Virtual Symposium

Audience This is a public event.

Broadening the Biosciences: Exploring diverse approaches to biological and biomedical research

The 2020 Saltiel Life Sciences Symposium explored innovative and creative research already taking place to broaden our understanding of the biosciences, and all we have yet to learn from more diverse approaches to biological and biomedical research. Read more about this year’s symposium.

Schedule

Tuesday, September 29

2:00 p.m. | Welcome

Talk Session 1: Human Adaptation and Evolution

2:10 p.m. | Mary Sue and Kenneth Coleman Life Sciences Lecture — Genomic evolution and adaptation in Africa: Implications for health and disease
Sarah A. Tishkoff, Ph.D.
David and Lyn Silfen University Professor, Departments of Genetics and Biology; Director, Center for Global Genomics & Health Equity, Department of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Talk Session 2: Social Biomimicry

3:10 p.m. | Towards living robots: Using biology to make better machines (full lecture)
Barry A. Trimmer, Ph.D.
Henry Bromfield Pearson Professor of Natural Sciences; Director, Neuromechanics and Biomimetic Devices Laboratory, Tufts University
4:05 p.m. | How the physics of slithering can teach multilegged robots to walk (short talk)
Shai Revzen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan
4:25 p.m. | What wasps can teach us about the evolution of animal minds (full lecture)
Elizabeth Tibbetts, Ph.D.
Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan
5:20 p.m. | Day 1 Closing Remarks

Wednesday, September 30

9:00 a.m. | Welcome

Talk Session 3: Biological Control of Disease Vectors

9:05 a.m. | Breaking up Anopheles-Plasmodium interactions for malaria control (full lecture)
Flaminia Catteruccia, Ph.D.
Professor, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Harvard University
10:00 a.m. | Cryopreservation of multicellular animals: Lessons from extreme insects (short talk)
Nicholas Teets, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky
10:20 a.m. | Break

10:35 a.m. | Transgenic fungi for mosquito control (full lecture)
Raymond St. Leger, Ph.D.
Professor, Entomology, University of Maryland
11:30 a.m. | Recombination versus mutation as the fuel for rapid evolution across the fungal tree of life (short talk)
Timothy James, Ph.D.
Lewis E. Wehmeyer and Elaine Prince Wehmeyer Professor in the Taxonomy of Fungi, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan
11:50 a.m. | Building a moving wall: Maintaining cell wall polarity during tip growth (short talk)
Cora MacAlister, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan
12:10 p.m. | Closing remarks