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Virginia Tech Life Science Seminars

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The Virginia Tech Life Science Seminars (VTLSS) is a university-wide seminar series funded by the Fralin Life Sciences Institute. The seminars take place on Fridays at 12:00pm at the Fralin Auditorium in Fralin Hall. These interdisciplinary seminars are open to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff. You are not required to be in life sciences to attend; if a subject matter is of interest to you, we welcome your participation.

Seminars are given by renowned scientists from the US and abroad whose research connects to the life sciences disciplines at Virginia Tech. Some past seminars are available on our Youtube playlist.

Seminars will be in-person, hybrid, or virtual.
Virtual and hybrid seminars will be hosted at this Zoom link:
https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/81458701257

Students and postdocs, if you are interested in having lunch with the speaker, please contact each respective host.

speaker portrait

Brian Altman, University of Rochester

The MYC oncogene disrupts circadian rhythms in cancer

September 1 - 12:00p - Fralin Hall Auditorium
In-person and on Zoom (NOT recorded), Hosted by Carla Finkielstein


speaker portrait

Shihuan Kuang, Purdue University

Metabolic regulation of stem cell regeneration in muscle

September 8 - 12:00p - Fralin Hall Auditorium
In-person and on Zoom (NOT recorded), Hosted by Sally Johnson


Naola Ferguson-Noel, University of Georgia

NGenome Plasticity in Mycoplasma spp. - Inventing Your Niche

September 15 - 12:00p - Fralin Hall Auditorium
In-person and on Zoom (will be recorded), Hosted by Margie Lee


Debashish Bhattacharya, Rutgers University

Foodfight among the likes of plant and pathogens in Apoplastopolis

September 22 - 12:00p - Fralin Hall Auditorium
In-person and on Zoom (will be recorded), Hosted by Frank Aylward


Josh Strable

Ethylene signaling in the maize shoot apex at single cell resolution

September 29 - 12:00p - Fralin Hall Auditorium
In-person ONLY, Hosted by Nicholas Santantonio


Harmit Malik, Fred Hutch Cancer Center

Genetic conflicts during meiosis drive rapid evolution of essential chromatin proteins

October 6 - 12:00p - Fralin Hall Auditorium
In-person and on Zoom (will be recorded, recording only accessible with a VT login), Hosted by Daniela Cimini


speaker portrait

Colleen Doherty, North Carolina State University

Effects of climate change on plants and plant solutions to climate change

October 20 - 12:00p - Fralin Hall Auditorium
In-person, Hosted by Bas Bargmann


speaker portrait

Steven Haase, Duke University

Network Control of Rhythmic Behavior: From Cell Division to Infectious Disease

October 27 - 12:00p - Fralin Hall Auditorium
In-person, Hosted by Shihoko Kojima


speaker portrait

John Tyson,  Virginia Tech

Time-Keeping and Decision-Making in the Eukaryotic Cell Cycle

November 3 - 12:00p - Fralin Hall Auditorium
In-person and on Zoom (will be recorded), Hosted by Silke Hauf


speaker portrait

Jianhua Xing, University of Pittsburgh

Systems biology in the era of machine learning and big data

November 10 - 12:00p - Fralin Hall Auditorium
In-person, Hosted by Jing Chen


Ellie Heckscher, University of Chicago

Talk Title TBD

November 17 - 12:00p - Fralin Hall Auditorium
In-person, Hosted by Sweta Agrawal


Lynmarie Thompson, University of Massachusetts

Talk Title TBD

December 1 - 12:00p - Fralin Hall Auditorium
In-person, Hosted by Birgit Scharf


In order to nominate a speaker please fill out the form found here. Please note that only VT faculty are allowed to nominate and host VTLSS speakers. The VTLSS faculty committee will review the nomination and email the faculty member with permission to extend a formal invitation to the nominated speaker. Faculty are allowed to submit multiple nominations, but each faculty member is only allowed to invite and host one speaker per semester.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Krystal Turner.

The VTLSS faculty committee consists of:

Committee Member Email
Michelle Olsen molsen1@vt.edu
Silke Hauf silke@vt.edu
Clay Caswell caswellc@vt.edu
Tim Jarome tjjarome@vt.edu
Ryan Senger senger@vt.edu
Jim Westwood westwood@vt.edu
Joel McGlothlin joelmcg@vt.edu