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ABOUT THIS COLLECTION
The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) Research Retreat highlights the medical school's vibrant scientific environment and ongoing research. Organized by the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science, the 25th Annual UMMS Research Retreat was held virtually on October 26-27, 2020. This site features a collection of selected posters and presentations contributed by UMMS researchers at that event.
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Publication Student Talks(2020-10-26) Knight, Kendall L.; Hester, Maureen M; Li, Xue; Rice, Nicholas P; Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology; Program in Molecular Medicine; Medicine; Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical SciencesModerator: Dr. Kendall L. Knight, Associate Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. Presenters: Maureen Hester, Division of Infectious Disease and Immunology (Stu Levitz lab), “Antigen specificity and cross reactivity in vaccine-mediated protection against cryptococcosis”; Xue Li, Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology (Elinor Karlsson lab), "Investigating the genetics of social behavior in wolf-dog hybrids”; and Nicholas Rice, Program in Molecular Medicine (Bill Theurkauf lab), "Heat stress disrupts piRNA biogenesis machinery”.Publication New Faculty Talks(2020-10-27) Green, Michael R.; Seddon, Johanna M; Kim, Sohye; Colubri, AndrésModerator: Dr. Michael Green, Chair and Professor, Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology Presenters: Dr. Johanna Seddon, Professor, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences: “Macular Degeneration epidemiology: nature-nurture, lifestyle factors, genetic risk, and gene-environment interactions: clues to therapies” Dr. Sohye Kim, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry: “Neural markers of social engagement in the first year of life” Dr. Andres Colubri, Assistant Professor, Microbiology and Physiological Systems: "ORAN: A meta-modeling platform to drive real-life and online outbreak simulations"Publication Post-Doc Talks(2020-10-26) Lane, Mary Ellen; Shah, Sneha; Tsagkaraki, Emmanouela; Wani, Khursheed AModerator: Dr. Mary Ellen Lane, Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professor, Neurobiology Presenters: Sneha Shah, Program in Molecular Medicine (Joel Richter lab): “FMRP loss alters the epigenetic landscape and alternative splicing of mRNAs in Fragile X Syndrome” Emmanouela Tsagkaraki, Program in Molecular Medicine (Mike Czech lab): “CRISPR RNP-enhanced adipocyte 'browning' as cell therapy for metabolic disease” Khursheed Wani, Laboratory of Comparative Immunology (Javier Irazoqui lab): “NHR-49/PAARα and HLH-30/TFEB cooperate for C. elegans host defense via a flavin-containing monooxygenase“Publication New Faculty Talks(2020-10-27) McCormick, Beth A.; Youk, Hyun; Bucci, Vanni; Munro, James B; Shank, Elizabeth AModerator: Dr. Beth McCormick, Vice Chair and Professor, Microbiology and Physiological Systems Presenters: Dr. Hyun Youk, Associate Professor, Program in Systems Biology: “Quantitative approach to understanding autonomous and collective deaths of microbial and mammalian cells” Dr. Vanni Bucci, Associate Professor, Microbiology and Physiological Systems: “Machine learning to decouple associations between microbiome, host immunology and clinical outcome” Dr. James Munro, Associate Professor, Microbiology and Physiological Systems: “Single-molecule analysis of HIV-1 genomic RNA conformation and dynamics” Dr. Elizabeth Shank, Associate Professor, Program in Systems Biology and Microbiology and Physiological Systems: "Metabolic interactions in microbial communities"Publication Presentation: The Dan Mullen Awards for Best Posters(2020-10-27) Knight, Kendall L.; Lane, Mary EllenThe Dan Mullen Poster Awards to best graduate student posters at the research retreat, presented by: Dr. Kendall L. Knight, Associate Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Dr. Mary Ellen Lane, Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences 2020 Dan Mullen Poster Award winners: Emily Agnello (Brian Kelch lab) – “Investigating the Self Assembly and Structural Features of a Thermophilic Bacteriophage” Hao-Ching Jiang (Paul Greer lab) – “Analyzing the Role of MS4A1 in Olfaction” Christine Carbone (Andrei Korostelev lab) – “Time-resolved Cryo-EM Visualizes Ribosomal Translocation with EF-G and GTP” Naema Nayyar (Michael Brehm lab) – “Intracranial Responses to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Pre-clinical Models of Melanoma Brain Metastasis”Publication Poster Sessions: 2020 University of Massachusetts Medical School Research Retreat(2020-10-26) UMMS Research RetreatList of poster session presentations for the 2020 virtual University of Massachusetts Medical School Research Retreat.Publication New Faculty Talks(2020-10-26) Davis, Roger J.; Lim, TengTing; Flavahan, William; Ruscetti, MarcusModerator: Dr. Roger Davis, Chair and Professor in Molecular Medicine Presenters: Dr. TengTing (Elaine) Lim, Assistant Professor, Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology and Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology: “Multiplexing and demultiplexing with cerebral organoids for neurological diseases” Dr. William Flavahan, Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology: “Insulator dysfunction and epigenetic alterations as tumor drivers" Dr. Marcus Ruscetti, Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology: "Harnessing cellular senescence for cancer immunotherapy”Publication Welcome and Opening Remarks(2020-10-26) Flotte, Terence R.; Collins, Michael F.; Luzuriaga, KatherineWelcome and Opening Remarks by: Dr. Terence R. Flotte, Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education; Dean, Provost and Executive Deputy Chancellor and Chief Research Officer Dr. Michael F. Collins, Chancellor and Professor, Population and Quantitative Health Sciences and Medicine; Senior Vice President for the Health Sciences Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga, Professor, Molecular Medicine, Pediatrics, and Medicine; Director, UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science; Vice Provost, Clinical and Translational ResearchPublication New Faculty Talks(2020-10-26) Walhout, Albertha J M; Thomson, Travis; Chan, Rigel; Bogunovic, MilenaModerator: Dr. Marian Walhout, Professor, Program in Molecular Medicine and Co-Director, Program in Systems Biology Presenters: Dr. Travis Thomson, Assistant Professor, Neurobiology: “All hail our viral overloads - Traversing synaptic plasticity with transposons” Dr. Rigel Chan, Assistant Professor, Neurology: “Multiplex pooled in-vitro modeling for genetic studies” Dr. Milena Bogunovic, Associate Professor, Pathology: “Heterogeneity and function of intestinal macrophages"Publication Student Talks(2020-10-26) Knight, Kendall L.; Hester, Maureen M.; Li, Xue; Rice, Nicholas P.Moderator: Dr. Kendall L. Knight, Associate Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Presenters: Maureen Hester, Division of Infectious Disease and Immunology (Stu Levitz lab): “Antigen specificity and cross reactivity in vaccine-mediated protection against cryptococcosis” Xue Li, Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology (Elinor Karlsson lab): “Investigating the genetics of social behavior in wolf-dog hybrids” Nicholas Rice, Program in Molecular Medicine (Bill Theurkauf lab): “Heat stress disrupts piRNA biogenesis machinery”Publication Virtual Poster Session #3(2020-10-26) UMMS Research RetreatVirtual Poster Session #3 (see Poster Session agenda for presenter details) for the University of Massachusetts Medical School Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences 25th Annual Research Retreat, held online on October 26-27, 2020. Full-text posters made available by presenters in this session: Poster 75: "PFN1 phosphorylation marks protein aggregation and white matter pathology in ALS," Sepideh Parsi, Tao Qiao, Lyle Wilfred Ostrow, Marco B. Rust, and Zuoshang XuPublication Virtual Poster Session #1(2020-10-26) UMMS Research RetreatVirtual Poster Session #1 (see Poster Session agenda for presenter details) for the University of Massachusetts Medical School Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences 25th Annual Research Retreat, held online on October 26-27, 2020. Full-text posters made available by presenters in this session: Poster 12: "Supporting Family Members of Youth in Mental Health Crisis," Joshua Feriante, Maite Cintron, Ariella Shayani, Brian Denietolis, Emily Lauer, David M. Cochran, Yael Dvir, and Emily Rubin Poster 22: "Transcriptome-wide investigation of stop codon readthrough in Saccharomyces cerevisiae," Kotchaphorn Mangkalaphiban, Feng He, Robin Ganesan, Chan Wu, Richard E. Baker, and Allan S. JacobsonPublication Virtual Poster Session #2(2020-10-26) UMMS Research RetreatVirtual Poster Session #2 (see Poster Session agenda for presenter details) for the University of Massachusetts Medical School Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences 25th Annual Research Retreat, held online on October 26-27, 2020. Full-text posters made available by presenters in this session: Poster 27: "Frailty Index Scores are Stronger Predictors of Complications in Free Flap Breast Reconstruction than BMI, Age, and ASA Class: A Retrospective Analysis on the ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program from 2010 - 2018," Alex Joo and Giorgio Giatsidis Poster 29: "A ThinPrep Cytopathology of Cutaneous Meningioma with Histologic Correlation," Ahmed M. Alhusseiny and Rukmini M. Kashikar Poster 35: "Targeted multielectrode tDCS increases functional connectivity within the arcuate fasciculus network: An exploratory study and analysis," Karl D. Lerud, Anant B. Shinde, Axel Thielscher, David A. Ross, and Gottfried Schlaug Poster 42: "Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Post-stroke Motor Recovery - a Phase II Study (TRANSPORT2)," Muhammed E. Gunduz, Anant B. Shinde, Karl D. Lerud, Wayne Feng, and Gottfried Schlaug Poster 49: "PAD2 Dysregulation and Abnormal Protein Citrullination in ALS Disease Models," Issa Yusuf, Tao Qiao, Ronak Tilvawala, Paul R. Thompson, and Zuoshang XuPublication Closing Remarks(2020-10-27) Flotte, Terence R.Closing Remarks by: Dr. Terence R. Flotte, Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education; Dean, Provost and Executive Deputy Chancellor and Chief Research OfficerPublication Agenda: 2020 University of Massachusetts Medical School Research Retreat(2020-10-26) UMMS Research RetreatAgenda for the 2020 virtual University of Massachusetts Medical School Research Retreat.Publication COVID-19 Research(2020-10-27) Pederson, Thoru; Finberg, Robert W.; Schiffer, Celia A.; Khvorova, AnastasiaModerator: Dr. Thoru Pederson, Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and Associate Vice Provost for Research Presenters: Dr. Robert Finberg, Chair and Professor, Medicine: “SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza-What's the difference and why do I care?" Dr. Celia Schiffer, Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology: "Structural insights to antivirals against SARS-CoV-2” Dr. Anastasia Khvorova, Professor, RNA Therapeutics Institute: “Developing RNAi-based therapeutics for COVID-19 in five months”Publication Transcriptome-wide investigation of stop codon readthrough in Saccharomyces cerevisiae [poster](2020-10-26) Mangkalaphiban, Kotchaphorn; He, Feng; Ganesan, Robin; Wu, Chan; Baker, Richard E.; Jacobson, Allan; Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; Department of Microbiology and Physiological SystemsTranslation of mRNA into a polypeptide is terminated when the release factor eRF1 recognizes a UAA, UAG, or UGA stop codon in the ribosomal A site and stimulates nascent peptide release. However, “stop codon readthrough” can occur when a near-cognate tRNA outcompetes eRF1 in decoding the stop codon, resulting in the continuation of elongation into the mRNA 3’-UTR. Previous studies with reporter systems have shown that the efficiency of termination or readthrough is modulated by cis-acting elements other than stop codon identity, including two nucleotides 5’ of the stop codon, six nucleotides 3’ of the stop codon in the ribosomal mRNA channel, and stem-loop structures in the mRNA 3’-UTR. It remains to be determined whether these elements are important at a genome-wide level and whether other mRNA features proximal to the stop codon significantly affect termination and readthrough efficiencies in vivo. Accordingly, we carried out ribosome profiling analyses of yeast cells expressing wild-type or temperature-sensitive eRF1 and developed bioinformatics strategies to calculate readthrough efficiency, and to identify mRNA and peptide features which influence that efficiency. Our analyses revealed that the most influential features consist of the stop codon (nt +1 to +3), the nucleotide after it (nt +4), the codon in the P site (nt -3 to -1), and 3’-UTR length, while nts +5 to +9 and mRNA secondary structure in the 3’-UTR had milder effects. Additionally, we found low readthrough genes to have shorter 3’-UTRs compared to high readthrough genes in cells with thermally inactivated eRF1, while this trend was reversed in wild-type cells. Together, our results confirmed the general roles of known regulatory elements in genome-wide regulation and identified several new mRNA or peptide features important for translation termination and readthrough.Publication PFN1 phosphorylation marks protein aggregation and white matter pathology in ALS(2020-10-26) Parsi, Sepideh; Qiao, Tao; Ostrow, Lyle Wilfred; Rust, Marco B.; Xu, Zuoshang; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular PharmacologyAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease is the most common form of motor neuron disease. In familial ALS, Multiple mutations of, PFN1 gene a well-known actin-binding protein have been linked to ALS disease recently. Phosphorylation in many degenerative conditions plays an important role in disease mechanism but its potential role in ALS remains not fully understood. We sought to look further into not previously studied phosphorylation of PFN1 as a potential contributor to aggregation and toxicity in ALS. Using different histochemistry and cytochemistry and molecular biology approaches, we observed that phosphorylation on Profilin shows a very distinctive pattern in PFN1C71G andSOD1G93A disease models. This modification is abundantly found in both astrocytes and white matter which latter indeed marks a staining pattern that is indistinguishable between two ALS mice model compared to controls. Interestingly, pPFN1 reactive areas colocalized with Myelin in the spinal cord are frequently found in the proximity of CD68 positive macrophages. Moreover, biochemical fractionation using ultracentrifugation detects endogenous pPFN1 in the highly insoluble fraction of protein lysate from both PFN1C71G andSOD1G93A model. Finally, a similar staining pattern to the ALS mice model was also observed in human sporadic ALS cases. Overall, our results suggest for the first time a role for phosphorylation of PFN1 in protein aggregation and white matter pathology in ALS that will shed more light on the mechanism of disease and developing potential therapeutics in near future.Publication NHR-49/PAARα and HLH-30/TFEB cooperate for C. elegans host defense via a flavin-containing monooxygenase(2020-10-26) Wani, Khursheed A; Department of Microbiology and Physiological SystemsDuring bacterial infection, the host is confronted with multiple overlapping signals that are integrated at the organismal level to produce defensive host responses. How multiple signals are sensed by the host and how they elicit the transcription of specific host defense genes is much less understood at the whole-animal level than at the cellular level. The model organism Caenorhabditis elegans is known to mount transcriptional defense responses against intestinal bacterial infections that elicit overlapping starvation and infection responses, but the specific regulation of such responses is not well understood. By directly comparing C. elegans that were either starved or infected with Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus revealed a large infection-specific transcriptional signature. This signature was almost completely abrogated by deletion of transcription factor hlh-30/TFEB, except for six genes including a flavin-containing monooxygenase (FMO) gene, fmo-2/FMO5. We found that the mechanism of fmo-2/FMO5 induction required the nuclear hormone receptor, NHR-49/PPARa, which induced fmo-2/FMO5 and host defense cell non-autonomously. Moreover, deletion of fmo-2/FMO5 severely compromised infection survival, thus identifying the first FMO important for innate immunity in animals. These findings for the first time reveal an infection-specific host response to S. aureus, identify HLH-30/TFEB as its main regulator, reveal that NHR-49/PPARa contributes to host defense, and demonstrate that FMOs are important innate immunity effectors in animals.Publication Frailty Index Scores are Stronger Predictors of Complications in Free Flap Breast Reconstruction than BMI, Age, and ASA Class: A Retrospective Analysis on the ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program from 2010 - 2018(2020-10-26) Joo, Alex; Giatsidis, Giorgio; T.H. Chan School of Medicine; Restorative and Regenerative Surgery Innovation Center; Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive SurgeryBackground: Free flap autologous breast reconstruction (f-ABR) improves quality of life in cancer survivors but has a 5-47% higher postoperative complication (PCs) rate in vulnerable patients, such as those with obesity or the elderly. Given the high (respectively: 43% and 16%) and rising prevalence of these conditions, operative risk prediction is critical to guide targeted care. Age, BMI, and ASA class have shown inaccuracies as predictive factors of PCs in f-ABR. Since frailty, a measure of vulnerability, was reported to be a reliable predictor of PCs in multiple other surgical fields, we hypothesized that it would be an accurate predictor of PCs also in f-ABR. Methods: Patients undergoing f-ABR (CPT: 19364) were identified using the ACS-NSQIP (American College of Surgeons-National Surgical Quality Improvement Program) database (01/2010-12/2018). Frailty was calculated using the validated modified Frailty Index (mFI). Rates of wound complications, bleeding episodes, readmissions, returns to operating room (ROR), and DVTs were compared across mFI score, BMI, age, and ASA class. Results: mFI ≥ 2 was associated with 22.22% (p <0.001) wound complications; 15.79% (p <0.001) bleeding episodes; 8.20% (p <0.001) readmissions; 17.19% (p <0.001) ROR; and 1.81% (p <0.05) DVTs. Higher BMI, age, and ASA class did not significantly correlate with increased rates in one or more PCs. Only a high mFI was consistently associated with significantly higher odds of complications in all complication types. Conclusions: As a reliable and accurate predictor of PCs in f-ABR, frailty could be used preoperatively to counsel patients and guide surgical care.