The 2021 SCBA DC-Baltimore Scientific Symposium held on zoom
For the second year in a row, the SCBA DC-Baltimore Chapter held its annual scientific symposium online. The one-day virtual symposium held on the Dec. 4th was a huge success, attracting more than 100 attendees from the DC-Baltimore area.
The program consisted of a keynote speech, four regular sessions, a poster session, and concurrent breakout room panel discussions with a focus on career development for trainees. This year’s keynote speaker was Dr. Duojia Pan, the Val Imm Bashour Distinguished Chair in Physiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and a HHMI senior investigator. Dr. Pan introduced the work from his laboratory, which helps define the Hippo signaling pathway that shapes cell size and organ homeostasis in both invertebrates and mammals.
There were four regular sessions, including “Genetics and Development”, “Neurobiology”, “Systems biology”, and “Bioimaging and Bioengineer”. Each session was featured with talks from both tenure-track investigators and well-established senior investigators representing all major institutions across DC-Baltimore region. Speakers were Xin Chen, Ph.D., HHMI, Johns Hopkins University; Haiyan He, Ph.D., Georgetown University; Chuan Wu, Ph.D., National Cancer Institute; Lichun Ma, Ph.D., National Cancer Institute; Zuhang Sheng, Ph.D., National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; Yi Gu, Ph.D., National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; Zhaozhu Qiu, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University; Yuanyuan Liu, Ph.D., National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research; Xuewei Wang, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University; Hongkai Ji, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University; Yingxi Chen, M.D., Ph.D., National Cancer Institute; Wanchang Cui, Ph.D., Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences; Zhiming Mai, Ph.D., National Cancer Institute; James Z. Liu, Ph.D., HHMI, Janelia Research Campus; Yun Chen, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University; Qi Cao, Ph.D., University of Maryland School of Medicine; Ye Qiao, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University.
One highlight of the meeting was the virtual poster session, which started with recorded 2-min flash talks by presenters. Each presenter was then given a breakout room in which they delivered a detailed presentation to interested audience. This year’s poster session received many high-quality presentations. Among them, five were chosen by our judges to receive the best poster awards. The awardees are Binbin Ma, Johns Hopkins University; Dan Li, National Cancer Institute; Aarti Kollur, National Cancer Institute; uhyung Lee, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease; and Haorong Li, George Washington University.
Another highlight of the meeting was the concurrent panel discussions on career development, which attracted a large number of fellows and students. The industry panel discussion was led by Drs. Ming Li (CEO of SciNeuro Pharmaceuticals), Qi Li (associate director and Group Leader of Hansoh Bio), Julian Luan (Senior Director of AstraZeneca), Xiaodong Xiao (VP of Innovent Biologics). The academic job panel discussion was led by Drs. Jie Xiao (Professor of Johns Hopkins University), Hong Xu (Senior investigator of NHLBI), and Fengquan Zhou (Professor of Johns Hopkins University). These experts shared their career development experiences with our trainees.
The event was organized by Drs. Yingxi Chen (NCI), Jie Xiao (Johns Hopkins University) and Hong Xu (NHLBI).
