The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology hosts several seminars each semester featuring on-campus faculty as well as prominent research scientists from other universities and institutions. These seminars are designed to broaden the knowledge of students, faculty and staff in the areas of current research and application of biochemistry and bio-technology.

Upcoming Seminars
Sep
25
Mon
Oct
09
Mon
Partnership, Responsibilities, and Expectations
Professor Fawwaz M. Al-Abed Al-Haq presents:
Fall 2023 SEMINAR SCHEDULE
DATE/TIME |
SPEAKER |
TITLE |
HOST |
Fri, Aug 4 | Juan Bonifacino | Rocky Mountain Membrane Trafficking Meeting 2023 | Wyatt Beyers
Randy Owen |
Tues, Sep 5th | Hiroshi Ochiai, PhD | Revealing regulatory mechanisms of transcriptional dynamics by imaging techniques | Tatsuya Morisaki, PhD |
Mon, Sep 18th | Loren D. William, PhD |
RNA and Protein: A Match Made in the Hadean |
Dr. Shing Ho |
Mon, Sep 19th | Michael Hughes, PhD | Contribution of Water to Phase Separation in Cell Biology | Dr. Santiago Di Pietro |
Mon, Sep 25th | Laurie Stargell, PhD Chair | BMB State of the Department | Dr. Laurie Stargell |
Mon, Oct 9th | Professor Fawwaz M. Al-Abed Al-Haq | Partnerships, Responsibilities, and Expectation |
Dr. Laurie Stargell |
Mon, Oct 30th | Dr. Ying Lu | TBD |
Dr. Tingting Yao |
Mon, Dec 4th |
Elise Fouquerel, PhD |
TBD |
IDEA Committee |
Spring 2023 SEMINAR SCHEDULE
DATE/TIME |
SPEAKER |
TITLE |
HOST |
Thu, Jan 19 | Cohen Lab | Ubiquitin regulation of DNA damage bypass in space and time | Cohen Lab |
Thu, Jan 26 | Hansen Lab | What is “Open” vs “Closed” Chromatin? | Hansen Lab |
Fri, July 28 | Dr. Olve Peersen Dr. Eric Ross Dr. Laurie Stargell |
SEMINAR | Dr. Olve Peersen Dr. Eric Ross Dr. Laurie Stargell |
Fall 2022 SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Date/Time | Speaker | Title | Host |
---|---|---|---|
Fri, Aug 26 | Lindsay Winkenbach |
Translation-dependent mRNA localization in the C. elegans embryo | Dr. Erin Nishimura |
Mon, Aug 29 | Dr. Laurie Stargell | BMB Kickoff | Department |
Mon, Sep 12 | Canceled – Dr. Dan Lark | An Organ System Approach to Study Extracellular Vesicle Biology | Department |
Thur, Oct 13 | Robert Thomas Patton William | Defense -Genome-wide characterization of the Caenorhabditis elegans intestine transcriptome and GATA transcription factor ELT-2 | Erin Nishimura |
Mon, Oct 17 | Allison M. Porman Swain, Postdoctoral Fellow, | Regulation of cell states by the RNA modification m6A, from breast cancer to pathogenic yeast | Hansen Lab |
Mon, Oct 24 | Dr. Allyson O’Donnell | From Here to There: The Expanding Roles of Alpha-Arrestins in Protein Trafficking and Their Impact on Celluar Metaabolism | Di Pietro Lab |
Wed, Oct 26 | Andrew Lamb | Defense-“Regulation of Actin Capping Protein During Clathrin-Mediated Endocytosis” | Santiago Di Pietro |
Mon, Nov 14 | Kevin Flynn, PhD | Beyond Basement Membranes: UltiMatrix and Other Matrices for Stem Cells and Organoids | James Bamburg |
Spring 2022 SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Date/Time | Speaker | Title | Host |
---|---|---|---|
Thur, Jan 20 | JEOL |
Cryo-Electron Microscopy @ CSU | Dr. Olve Peersen |
Thur, Jan 27 | ThermoFisher Scientific |
Cryo-Electron Microscopy @ CSU | Dr. Olve Peersen |
Thur, Feb 3 | Dr. Soham Chanda |
RAC – Induction of synapse formation by De Novo neurotransmitter synthesis | Chanda Lab |
Thur, Feb 10 | Dr. Chaoping Chen |
RAC – Characterization and antiviral development targeting n-terminal autoprocessing of SARS-CoV2 main protease | Chen Lab |
Thur, Feb 17 | Dr. Jessica Hill |
RAC – Into the Microverse: A model for genetic interaction between the gut microbiota and intestinal cells | Nishimura Lab |
Thur, Feb 17 | Dr. Tim Stasevich |
RAC – Shadow Scopin’ w/ the Silhouettes: Digital Holography for 3D Tracking | Stasevich Lab |
Thur, Mar 10 | Dr. Eric Ross | RAC – From prions to Stress Granules: What Drives Protein Phase Separation Upon Stress | Ross Lab |
Thur, Mar 24 4:00 pm |
Dr. Sarah Swygert | RAC – In the weeds with Micro-C | Swygert Lab |
Fri, Mar 25 1:00 pm |
Maia Zoller |
M.S. Defense – “INTERRUPTION OF NEURON-MICROGLIA BIDIRECTIONAL COMMUNICATION TO MODULATE COFILIN:ACTIN ROD FORMATION” | Dr. James Bamburg |
Thur, Mar 31 4:00 pm |
Dr. Shing Ho | RAC – The cX-Zyme: An X-Bond (Halogen Bond) Catalyzed DNA Nuclease/Ligase | Ho Lab |
Mon, April 4 10:00 am |
Anna Detry |
M.S. Defense – The Discovery of Novel Proteins Regulating Melanosome Biogenesis and Function | Dr. Santiago Di Pietro |
Thur, Apr 7 4:00 pm |
Dr. Santangelo | RAC – The Secrets of Thermophily | Dr. Santangelo |
Mon, Apr 11 10:00 am |
Dr. Annette Angus | Seminar – At the Intersection of Environmental Disinfection and Social Justice-from the lens of a Black Microbiologist | BMB IDEA Committee |
Thur, Apr 14 4:00 pm |
Dr. Grant Schauer |
RAC – Stress Management for Replicating Chromosomes | Schauer Lab |
Thur, Apr 21 4:00 pm |
Dr. Olve Peersen | RAC – Evolution of Large Genome RNA Viruses -Polymerase Adaptations to Outrun Innate Immunity Without Destroying the Genome | Peersen Lab |
Mon, Apr 25 10:00 am |
Dr. Lisa Dysleski | Seminar – Inclusive Syllabi | BMB |
Tues, Apr 26 2:00 pm |
Aaron Escobedo & Alexis Gomez | Seminar – Safe Zone Training | BMB IDEA Committee |
Thur, Apr 28 4:00 pm |
Dr. Steven Markus | RAC – Let It Go! | Markus Lab |
Mon, May 2 10:00 am |
Dr. Erin Nishimura and Dr. Paul Laybourn | Seminar – BMB Undergrad Survey | BMB IDEA Committee |
Thur, May 5 4:00 pm |
Dr. Bob Cohen and Dr. Tingting Yao | RAC – How to catch ubiquitinated nucleosomes for CUT&RUN |
Cohen and Yao Labs |
Thur, May 12 4:00 pm |
Dr. Jim Bamburg | RAC – The Brain That Wouldn’t Die |
Bamburg Lab |
Mon, May 16 9:30 am |
Meghan Stettler |
Defense – The role of ferredoxin 3 in hydrogen metabolism in the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakarensis |
Meaghan Stettler |
Thur, May 19 4:00 pm |
Dr. Graham Peers |
RAC – Photosynthetic Acclimation: Dark to Light is not Black and White |
Hansen Lab |
Thur, May 26 4:00 pm |
Dr. Santiago Di Pietro | RAC – RAC – Expanding The Pigmentation Palette |
Di Pietro Lab |
Tues, May 31 10:00 am |
Dr. Magnus Johansson | Seminar – Single-molecule tracking for kinetics measurements of protein synthesis and targeting inside living cells | Stasevich Lab |
Mon, June 6 10:00 am |
Dr. Weihan Li | Seminar – Spatial Coordination of Cytosolic and Mitochondrial Translations | Stasevich Lab |
Fall 2021 SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Date | Speaker | Title | Host |
---|---|---|---|
Fri, Aug 6 | Ryan Czarny |
Site-Specific Function of Endonuclease G and CPS6 to enable Vertebrate function in an Invertebrate model | Dr. Shing Ho |
Mon, Aug 30 | Dr. Laurie Stargell |
2021-2022 Academic Year Kick-off | Department |
Mon, Sep 20 | Dr. Tom Santangelo |
Promotion Seminar – “Vignettes with King Phillip” | Dr. Shing Ho |
Mon, Sep 27 | Dr. Erin Nishimura |
Promotion and Tenure Seminar – “How mRNA transcripts are spatially patterned to direct developmental outcomes” | Dr. Tom Santangelo |
Mon, Oct 4 | Dr. Tingting Yao |
Promotion Seminar – “Sensing and making sense of ubiquitin signals” | Dr. Olve Peersen |
Tue, Oct 26 | Dr. Rachel Green |
Woody Lectureship Series – “Ribosome collisions trigger cell fate signaling pathways” | Dr. Santiago Di Pietro |
Thur, Nov 4 | Matt Baer | “Characterizing Unique Features of Prion-like Domains Recruited to Stress Granules” | Dr. Eric Ross |
Thur, Nov 8 | Dr. Soham Ghosh | “Emerging roles of nuclear mechanobiology: in development, homeostasis, and degeneration” | Dr. Jeffrey Hansen |
Mon, Nov 15 | Dr. Marco Mangone | miRNAs and Alternative Polyadenylation | Dr. Erin Nishimura |
Mon, Dec 13 | Craig Marshall | Mechanisms of transcription termination and polarity in hyperthermophilic Archaea | Dr. Tom Santangelo |
Spring 2021 SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Date | Speaker | Title | Host |
---|---|---|---|
Thur, Jan 28 | Laurie Stargell | Dancing with the Histones: Histone chaperone functions | Stargell Lab |
Thur, Feb 4 | Soham Chanda | Glutamate/Gaba Synapse/Off | Chanda Lab |
Thur, Feb 11 | Lubna Tahtamouni | Androgen receptor modulation in controlling metastasis of triple negative breast cancer | Bamburg Lab |
Thur, Feb 18 | Chaoping Chen | Allosteric Modulations of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Precursor Autoprocessing | Chen Lab |
Mon, Feb 22 | Sarah G. Swygert | Unraveling repressive three-dimensional chromatin structure in quiescence | Jeffrey Hansen |
Wed, Feb 24 | Sara Young-Baird | Unravelling the Role of Translation Dysregulation and the Integrated Stress Response in Human Disease | Jeffrey Hansen |
Thur, Feb 28 | Meghan Costello | Optimizing the MS2/MCP system in C. elegans to visualize single transcript localization and dynamics in live embryos | Nishimura Lab |
Mon, March 1 | Erik E. Griffin | Patterning the cytoplam of the C. elegans embryo | Jeffrey Hansen |
Wed, March 3 | Lisa Boxer | Chromatin regulation in neuronal development and disease | Jeffrey Hansen |
Thur, Mar 4 | Tim Stasevich | imaging w/ the Stasevich Lab (some assembly required) | Stasevich Lab |
Thur, Mar 11 | Tingting Yao and Bob Cohen | Reading chromatin ubiquitination | Yao/Cohen Labs |
Thur, Mar 18 | Eric Ross | Different phases of prions: From homopolymeric solids to complex liquids | Ross Lab |
Thur, Mar 25 | Jake DeLuca | Drafting a recombinant antibody palette | DeLuca Lab |
Thur, Apr 1 | Shing Ho | M.(ickey) elegans: Introducing mouse functionality into a worm enzyme | Ho Lab |
Thur, Apr 8 | Tom Santangelo | Transcription detour ahead | Santangelo Lab |
Mon, Apr 19 | Derek Applewhite | The role of Drosophila Split Discs in the regulation of non-muscle myosin II | BMB IDEA Committee |
Thur, Apr 22 | Tom Kuhn | Attacking a Pathogen And Improving Vaccine Development | Hansen Lab |
Mon, Apr 26 | Needhi Bhalla | A Tale of Two Checkpoints | BMB IDEA Committee |
Thur, Apr 29 | Grant Schauer | DNA Damage Tolerance in S-Phase | Schauer Lab |
Thur, May 6 | Olve Peersen | The Making of a Warm Speed Viral Replicase – our Trek with SARS-CoV-2 nsp12 | Peersen Lab |
Thur, May 13 | Steven Markus | True Grit | Markus Lab |
Thur, May 20 | Santiago Di Pietro | In-N-Out Cargo: Studying the endosomal entry and exit of α-granule proteins… Animal Style® | Di Pietro Lab |
Tue, May 25 | Amanda Koch | Strange Translation – Investigating IRES-mediated and codon non-optimal translation dynamics at the single mRNA level in living cells | Dr. Tim Stasevich |
Thur, May 27 | Charlotte Cialek | Examining translation control from a new perspective | Dr. Tim Stasevich |
Tues, Jun 8 | Dylan Parker | mRNA localization in Caenorhabditis elegans embryogenesis | Dr. Erin Nishimura |
Thurs, Jun 10 | Gaia Bublitz | Characterization of Interactions of Lipoquinone Derivatives Within Model Membrane Systems | Dr. Debbie Crans |
Fall 2020 SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Date | Speaker | Title | Host |
---|---|---|---|
Mon, Aug 31 | Dr. Laurie Stargell |
2020-2021 Academic Year Kick-off | Department |
Mon, Sep 14 | Prof. Gerald Schatten | LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19: Career Planning Now And the Future of Assisted Reproduction” | Dr. Lubna Tahtamouni |
Mon, Sep 28 | Dr. Thomas Boothby | TBA | Dr. Erin Nishimura |
Mon, Nov 2 | Harshad Ghodke | Molecular Mechanisms of transcription and repair coupling | Dr. Grant Schauer |
Tues, Nov 3 | Zachary Hazlett | Characterization of the Selective Hydrolysis of Branched Ubiquitin Chains by UCH37 and its Activator RPN13 | Dr. Tingting Yao |
Wed, Nov 4 | Kari Ecklund | SHE1 Regulates Dynein-Mediated Spindle Positioning in Budding Yeast | Dr. Steven Markus |
Thurs, Nov 5 | Robert Wimbish | Make or break: molecular requirements for kinetochore-microtubule attachment regulation | Dr. Jennifer G. DeLuca |
Thurs, Nov 5 | Travis Sanders | Post-Initiation Activities of the Archaeal RNA Polymerase in a Chromatin Landscape | Dr. Tom Santangelo |
Mon, Nov 30 | Sangjin Kim | TBA | Dr. Tim Stasevich |
Mon, Dec 7 | Maria Vera Ugalde | Imaging single mRNA molecules to investigate the regulation of the stress response | Dr. Tim Stasevich |
Spring 2020 SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Date | Speaker | Title | Host |
---|---|---|---|
Mon, Jan 27 | Zvi Murry | “Zebrafish Eye Development: Rac and the Creepy Crawlers of the Eye” | Dylan Parker, Erin Nishimura, Ph.D. |
Mon, Feb 10 | Dr. Lisa Petrella | “Regulating chromatin compaction during development at the right and place” | Erin Nishimura, Ph.D. |
Mon, Feb 24 | Dr. Andrew Carter | “A CryoEM perspective on transport by the microtubule motor dynein” | Steven Markus, Ph.D. |
Thurs, Feb 27 | Matthew Marzo | “Budding yeast dynein: lessons for human neurological disease” | Steven Markus, Ph.D. |
Mon, Mar 9 | Aubrey Ibele | TBA | Laurie Stargell, Ph.D. |
Mon, Mar 30 | Amanda Broad | “A New Dawn for Aurora B Regulation: Shining Light on Multiple Discrete Populations of Aurora B Kinase at Centromeres and Kinetochores” | Jennifer DeLuca, Ph.D. |
Mon, Apr 6 | Hazheen Shirnekhi | “Investigating mitotic vulnerabilities that arise upon oncogenic cell transformation” |
Jennifer DeLuca, Ph.D. |
Mon, May 11 | Luisa Prada | “Ubiquitin homeostasis and it’s regulation by DUB and conjugating enzyme interactions” | Robert Cohen, Ph.D. |
Thurs, Jun 11 | Colleen Watkins | “Long Range Interaction Networks within 3DPOL and the Roles They Play in Picornavirus Genome Replication and Recombination” | Olve Peersen, Ph.D. |
Fri, July 3 | Isaac Babcock | “A Common Molecular Pathway Leading to Cofilin-Actin Rods in Rodent Models of Major Human Dementias” | James Bamburg, Ph.D. |
Fall 2019 SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Date | Speaker | Title | Host |
---|---|---|---|
Mon, Aug 26 | Dr. Laurie Stargell | “Academic Kick Off 2019” | Dr. Laurie Stargell |
Mon, Sep 16 | Francesco Scavone | Ph.D. Defense | Dr. Bob Cohen |
Mon, Sep 23 | Dr. Santiago Di Pietro | Promotion Seminar | Dr. Eric Ross |
Mon, Oct 7 | Dr. Tim Stasevich | P & T Seminar | Dr. Jeff Hansen |
Mon, Oct 14 | Dr. Chaoping Chen | Promotion Seminar | Dr. Jennifer Nyborg |
Tues, Oct 15
3:00 PM |
Kim Orth. Ph.D. University of Texas Southwestern Medical |
Woody Lectureship Series “Black Spot, Black Death, Black Pearl: The Tales of Bacterial Effectors” |
Dr. Santiago Di Pietro |
Mon, Oct 21 | Dr. Steven Markus | P & T Seminar | Dr. Jake DeLuca |
Mon, Nov 18 | Dr. Scott Horowitz University of Denver |
“The Chaperone Activity of Nucleic Acids” | Dr. Eric Ross |
Mon, Dec 2 | Ben Prytherch – Colorado State University | “The Case Against Statistical Significance” | Dr. David King |
Mon, Dec 9 | Dr. Oliver Zill | TBD | Dr. Erin Nishimura |
Spring 2019 SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Date | Speaker | Title | Host |
---|---|---|---|
Mon, Jan 28 | Dr. Louise Cramer University College London, UK | “Attractive and Repellent Chemotaxis start with distinct Actin-based Mechanisms” | James Bamburg, Ph.D. |
Mon, Feb 25 | Dr. Ramanujan Hegde Cambridge, United Kingdom | “Molecular basis of membrane protein biogenesis” | Kenneth Lyon |
Mon, Mar 11 | Dr. Alexey Merz University of Washington | “How to get into and out of the Golgi” | Santiago Di Pietro, Ph.D. |
Mon, Mar 25 | Dr. Ahmet Yildiz UC Berkeley |
“The Mechanism and Regulation of the Dynein/Dynactin Machinery | Steven Markus, Ph.D. |
Mon, Apr 8 | Dr. Christian Kaiser John Hopkins University |
“The ribosome cooperates with a chaperone to guide multi-domain protein folding” | Tim Stasevich, Ph.D. |
CANCELED Mon, Apr 22 | Dr. Daniela Cimini Virginia Tech |
“Aneuploidy, tetraploidy, and centrosomes: a numbers game” | Jake DeLuca, Ph.D. |
Mon, Apr 29 | Dr. Tom Muir Princeton University |
“Painting Chromatin with Synthetic Protein Chemistry” | Jeffrey Hansen, Ph.D. |
Fall 2018 SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Date | Speaker | Title | Host |
---|---|---|---|
Mon, Aug 20 | Reserved for Chair – | Laurie Stargell, Ph.D. | |
Mon, Aug 27 | Kelly C. Wrighton, Ph.D. CSU Department of Soil and Crop Science– |
“From the deep biosphere to the human gut: tracking microbial methylamine metabolism across ecosystem” | Laurie Stargell, Ph.D. |
Mon, Sep 3 | University Holiday | ||
Mon, Sep 10 | Katya Grishchuk, Ph.D. Associate Professor Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania |
“Chromosomes on the edge: coupling kinetochores to dynamic microtubule ends” | Jennifer DeLuca, Ph.D. |
Mon, Sep 17 | Kassandra Ori-McKenney, Ph.D. UC Davis |
“Microtubule Cartography: The Role of Microtubule-Associated Proteins in Lattice Gating” | Steven Markus, Ph.D. |
Mon, Sep 24 | Matthew Taliaferro from University of Denver | “mRNA Localization: Delivering the Message” | |
Mon, Oct 15 | Dr. Dileep Varma Northwestern University |
“Mechanisms controlling formation and stabilization of kinetochore-microtubule attachments during mitosis” | Jennifer DeLuca, Ph.D. |
Mon, Oct 22 | Dr. Srinivas Ramachandran CU Anschutz Medical Campus |
“Caught in the act: Mapping chromatin dynamics during transcription and replication” | Tinting Yao, Ph.D. |
Mon, Oct 29 | Steve Foster Director, Licensing & Business Development CSU Ventures |
“Google, Gatorade, and GPS- A world transformed by university ideas” |
Matthew Saxton |
Mon, Nov 5 | Greg Hermann, Ph.D from Lewis and Clark College | Santiago Di Pietro, Ph.D. | |
Mon, Nov 19 | Fall Break | ||
Mon, Nov 26 | Karine Gousset, Ph.D. California State University -Fresno |
“Microproteonomics and Transcriptomics analyses of laser capture microdissected cell protrusions” | Erin Nishimura, Ph.D. |
Mon, Dec 3 | Dr. Edouard Bertrand – The Institute of Molecular Genetics at Montpellier | “Imaging single mRNPs reveals new insights into RNA localization and translation” | Tim Stasevich, Ph.D. |
Mon, Dec 10 | Finals Week |