MCB Seminars-School of Molecular and Cellular Biology Seminars

Monday, October 12, 2026

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Zhengmin Cong / KV Prasanth Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Wednesday, October 14, 2026

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Purnam Ghosh / Belmont Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Thursday, October 15, 2026

• MIP Seminar Student Seminar: Theresa Zepeda (Bagchi Lab) "Uterine HIF2ɑ is Essential for Embryo Implantation & Regulation of Polyamine Metabolism During Early Pregnancy" & Ashwitha Lakshmi (Fan Lab) "TBD"

  Time

  11:00 am

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102, CLSL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Friday, October 16, 2026

• Biochemistry Seminar: Dr. Sam Sternberg (Columbia University) - "RNA-guided and RNA-templated antiviral immunity"

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles G. Miller Auditorium, B102 CLSL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, October 19, 2026

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Humayra Oishi / S. Prasanth Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

• Madhusree Seal (Stadtmueller Lab) - "Structural characterization of mammalian and avian Fcα/µR".

  Time

  4:00 pm

  Location

  116 RAL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Qianjin Jiang (Shapiro Lab) - "Investigate Necrotic Cell Death Induced by Anticancer Drugs in Human Lung Cancers"

  Time

  4:30 pm

  Location

  Roger Adams Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Thursday, October 22, 2026

• MIP Seminar: Dr. Malcolm MacIver, Northwestern University "Why Planning Began on Land: Robot-Rodent Experiments on an Evolutionary Hypothesis"

  Time

  11:00 am

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102, CLSL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Microbiology Seminar: Dr. Shady Amin, New York University Abu Dhabi -- "Steroid hormones produced by coral-associated bacteria modulate the coral immune response during thermal stress"

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, October 26, 2026

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Tejus Sreelal / Li Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, October 27, 2026

• Final Defense: Hina Zhou (van der Donk Lab) - "Beyond the Peptide: Physiological Function of LanC-like Proteins and Noncanonical Substrate Scope of Peptide Aminoacyl-tRNA Ligases"

  Time

  10:00 am

  Location

  393 Bevier Hall

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Microbiology Student Seminar: Junya Li/Martinez Lab

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Wednesday, October 28, 2026

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Snigdha Mathure / Smith-Bolton Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Thursday, October 29, 2026

• MIP Seminar: Dr. Ekaterina Gribkova, UIUC, "From Cells to Societies: Fractal Modularity as a General Principle of Biological Intelligence and its Evolution"

  Time

  11:00 am

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102, CLSL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Final Defense - Katrine Dailey (Wu Lab) - "Deep Mutational Scanning Reveals Patterns in Broadly Neutralizing Influenza and Betacoronavirus Antibodies"

  Time

  2:00 pm

  Location

  124 Burrill Hall

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Microbiology Seminar: Dr. Zoi Rapti, Mathematics/University of Illinois Urbana-Illinois -- "TBA"

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Friday, October 30, 2026

• Biochemistry Seminar: Dr. Tom Cooper (Baylor College of Medicine) - "Mechanistic insights of RNA toxicity and disrupted RNA processing from modeling Myotonic Dystrophy in mice"

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles G. Miller Auditorium, B102 CLSL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, November 2, 2026

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Ran Yang / Brieher Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, November 3, 2026

• Microbiology Student Seminar: Jiayue Yang/Whitaker Lab and Simrandeep Singh/Imlay Lab

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Wednesday, November 4, 2026

• Seung Jun Lee (Shapiro Lab) - “A Novel Small-Molecule Inhibitor of an mRNA-Binding Protein Elicits Immunogenic Anticancer Effects in Colorectal Cancer”

  Time

  4:00 pm

  Location

  116 RAL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Subhashis Natua (Kalsotra Lab) - "Retained but Ready: Intron Retention as a Developmental Timer and Stress-Responsive RNA Reservoir"

  Time

  4:30 pm

  Location

  116 RAL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Thursday, November 5, 2026

• Ada Doisy Lectures in Biochemistry: Dr. Andrew Dillin (University of California Berkeley ) - "Neuronal control of mitochondrial form and function: mitokines"

  Time

  3:30 pm

  Location

  180 Bevier Hall

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Microbiology Seminar: Dr. Xavier Mayali, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory -- "Isotopes and high resolution mass spectrometry to quantify microbial biogeochemical cycling "

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Friday, November 6, 2026

• Ada Doisy Lectures in Biochemistry: Dr. Navdeep Chandel (Northwestern University) - " Mitochondrial signaling in physiology and disease"

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles G. Miller Auditorium, B102 CLSL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, November 10, 2026

• Microbiology Student Seminar: Brooke Ebner/Slauch Lab and Lindsey Grady/Hatoum-Aslan Lab

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Wednesday, November 11, 2026

• Ashley Holahan (Shapiro Lab) - "TBA"

  Time

  4:00 pm

  Location

  116 RAL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Thursday, November 12, 2026

• MIP Seminar Student Seminar: Laura Hovenga (Anakk Lab) "TBD"

  Time

  11:00 am

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102, CLSL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Microbiology Seminar: Dr. Benjamin Good, Stanford University -- "TBA"

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Friday, November 13, 2026

• Biochemistry Seminar: Dr. Lucas Meirelles (Harvard/Mass General) - "Dynamic Host-Pathogen Co-Adaptation in Chronic Airway Infections”

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles G. Miller Auditorium, B102 CLSL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, November 16, 2026

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Afifa Iqbal / Sokac Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Saireet Misra / Belmont Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, November 17, 2026

• Microbiology Student Seminar: Yishuo Jiang/Sirk Lab

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Wednesday, November 18, 2026

• Xinyi Dai (Shapiro Lab) - "TBA"

  Time

  4:00 pm

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Yujia Ji (Stadtmueller) - "Mexican axolotl SIgX structure reveals conserved pIgR mediated IgX(A) mucosal transport in amphibians"

  Time

  4:00 pm

  Location

  116 RAL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Thursday, November 19, 2026

• Microbiology Seminar: Dr. Mohammed Kaplan, University of Chicago -- "TBA"

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, November 30, 2026

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Oraya Zinder / S. Prasanth Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Shreyasi Neogi / Belmont Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, December 1, 2026

• Microbiology Student Seminar: Abigail Finn/Whitaker Lab and Jessica Hertig/Imlay Lab

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Wednesday, December 2, 2026

• Evan Hebner (Leckband) - "TBA"

  Time

  4:00 pm

  Location

  116 RAL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Christina Li (K. Zhang Lab) - "TBA"

  Time

  4:30 pm

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Thursday, December 3, 2026

• MIP Seminar: Dr. Dave Zhao, University of Illinois "TBA"

  Time

  11:00 am

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102, CLSL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Microbiology Seminar: Dr. Jizhong Zhou, University of Oklahoma -- "TBA"

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, December 8, 2026

• Microbiology Student Seminar: Tori Boyle/Hatoum-Aslan Lab and Keegan Schoeller/Hatoum-Aslan Lab

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Wednesday, December 9, 2026

• Terry Gao (Huang Lab) - "TBA"

  Time

  4:00 pm

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

• Amna Mehfooz (K. Zhang Lab) - "TBA"

  Time

  4:30 pm

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Thursday, December 10, 2026

• Final Defense: Jorge Calderin (Fratti Lab) - "The Detection of Vacuolar Phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate (PI(3,4,5)P3), and its Control on SNARE-Mediated Membrane Fusion Through Binding Vam7 and Impacting the Assembly of Critical Membrane Microdomains."

  Time

  1:00 pm

  Location

  Charles G. Miller Auditorium, B102 CLSL

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, December 14, 2026

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Reean Abdullah / Chen Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, January 19, 2027

• Microbiology Student Seminar: New Student Presentations

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, February 1, 2027

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Luyan (Lorraine) Bai / Li Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, February 8, 2027

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Ansumita Biswas / Freeman Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, February 15, 2027

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Zheng (William) Fang / Zhao Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, February 22, 2027

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Shengyi Fei / Zhao Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, March 1, 2027

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Diptika Raut / Li Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, March 8, 2027

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Katie Whalen / Freeman Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, March 9, 2027

• Microbiology Student Seminar: Rodrigo Arana Garrido/Mera Lab and Courtney Hill/Hatoum-Aslan Lab

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, March 22, 2027

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Divisha Biswas / Sokac

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, March 23, 2027

• Microbiology Student Seminar: Aniritha Ramalingam Balasubramanian/Hatoum-Aslan Lab and William Wightkin/Blanke Lab

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, March 29, 2027

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Connor Powers / Smith-Bolton Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, March 30, 2027

• Microbiology Student Seminar: Abagail Long/Mera Lab and Lance Pollitz/Hatoum-Aslan Lab

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, April 6, 2027

• Microbiology Student Seminar: Claire Murphy/Slauch Lab and J.D. Norcross/Dr. Steven Blanke

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, April 12, 2027

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Cecilia Sun / Ceman Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, April 13, 2027

• Microbiology Student/Postdoc Seminar: Nathan Walker/Whitaker Lab and Thomas Cowell/Whitaker Lab

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, April 19, 2027

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Youyang Wang / S. Prasanth Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Tuesday, April 20, 2027

• Microbiology Postdoc Seminar: Motaher Hossain/Hatoum-Aslan Lab and Yumi Iwadate/Slauch Lab

  Time

  4:00 pm   5:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, April 26, 2027

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Jacob Yan / KV Prasanth Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium

  

Monday, May 3, 2027

• Cell and Developmental Biology Student Seminar: Yiran Zhang / Li Lab

  Time

  12:00 pm

  Location

  Charles Miller Auditorium, B102 Chemical & Life Sciences Laboratory

  • Seminar/Symposium