Here’s how to watch Biology students’ online presentations in the 2023 CSUNposium

The annual CSUNposium showcase of student research and creative work returns this Friday with in-person poster presentations, and student research talks presented over Zoom platform. As in previous years, Biology Department graduate and undergraduate researchers are well represented in the CSUNposium.

Poster presentations will be on view in the Univeristy Student Union’s Northridge Center, in sessions starting at 10AM and 1PM. The 3- or 10-minute talks are all to be given over Zoom — here’s a rundown of Biology student talks, organized by specialty areas and scheduled start times, with links to the Zoom sessions:

Genetics & Development

• 8:30 AM — Undergraduate researcher Debra Duguil will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Promoting the Maturation of Skeletal Muscle Progenitor Cells to Satellite Cells Through Activation of Nuclear Receptors” — Zoom link
• 8:36 AM — Undergraduate researcher Gabriela Gajardo Del Real will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Assessing the function of Smad1 and Smad5 in the specification of dorsal neuron identity using mouse embryonic stem cells as a model system” — Zoom link
• 8:42 AM — Undergraduate researcher Diana Ibrahim will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Modeling the Emergence of Neural Network Dysfunction in Rett Syndrome with Mosaic Organoids” — Zoom link
• 8:42 AM — Undergraduate researcher Amberly Sanden will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Investigating the Effect of mtDNA Mutations on Pluripotent Stem and Progenitor Cells” — Zoom link
• 8:48 AM — Undergraduate researcher Gabriella Rivas will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Investigation of DNA Damage Pathways Through Development in Rett Syndrome” — Zoom link
• 8:48 AM — Undergraduate researcher Pionik Shahgholian will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Initial culture conditions of hESC/ hiPSC cultures impact the efficiency of sensory interneuron differentiation in vitro” — Zoom link
• 8:50 AM — Graduate students Michelle Bonilla and Jocelyn Coreas will present work with Dr. Mariano Loza-Coll, “Characterization of the Inheritance of Ethanol Resistance in Drosophila melanogaster” — Zoom link
• 8:54 AM — Undergraduate researcher Cristian Rodriguez will present work with Dr. Mariano Loza-coll, “Exploring New Approaches to Studying Inheritance of Ethanol Resistance in Flies” — Zoom link
• 9:00 AM — Undergraduate researcher Delaram Zare will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Maintenance of Hematopoietic Stem Cells with Small Molecule Inhibitors” — Zoom link
• 9:00 AM — Undergraduate researcher Maya Zarafshan will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Nucleolin” — Zoom link
• 9:30 AM — Graduate student Vivian Vy Le will present work with Dr. Ray Hong, “The molecular genetics of gustatory preferences in Pristionchus pacificus” — Zoom link
• 9:30 AM — Undergraduate researcher Caroline Coto and Adrian Arimie will present work with Dr. Cheryl Van Buskirk, “Can sleeping worms be used to test anti-cancer drugs?” — Zoom link
• 10:00 AM — Undergraduate researcher Megan Hampton will present work with Dr. Ray Hong, “A tale of dopamine and serotonin in two worms” — Zoom link
• 10:30 AM — Graduate student Cameron Atighetchi will present work with Dr. Carlos Eduardo Guerra Amorim, “The Genetic Basis of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) in diverse ancestries” — Zoom link
• 10:36 AM — Undergraduate researcher Ithan Cano will present work with Dr. Mariano Loza-Coll , “Regulation of Drosophila intestinal stem cells by the nuclear envelope protein Klaroid (Koi)” — Zoom link
• 10:42 AM — Undergraduate researcher Courtney Frazier will present work with Dr. Mariano Loza Coll, “Functional analysis of Escargot and STAT targets in intestinal stem cells of the Drosophila melanogaster posterior midgut” — Zoom link
• 10:54 AM — Undergraduate researcher Jigar Patel will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone — Zoom link
• 11:00 AM — Undergraduate researcher Gabriel Rubio will present work with Dr. Cheryl Van Buskirk, “PKCs may play a role in the activation of a sleep-inducing protease ADM-4” — Zoom link
• 12:30 PM — Undergraduate researcher Daniela Alonzo will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Gene Expression of the Ubiquitin-Specific Peptidase 47 Promoter Region” — Zoom link
• 12:30 PM — Graduate student Ashlee Ochoa will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Characterization and Evolutionary Conservation of the UVRAG Promoter” — Zoom link
• 12:50 PM — Undergraduate researcher Dain Dayo will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Characterizing the Promoter Region of RAD51AP1” — Zoom link
• 12:50 PM — Graduate student Cynthia Petrossian will present work with Dr. Mariano Loza-Coll, “Cross-regulatory interactions among downstream targets of the master regulator genes Escargot and Stat92E in Drosophila melanogaster intestinal stem cells” — Zoom link
• 1:10 PM — Undergraduate researcher Alyssa Parra will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Gene regulation of the Transducin-Like Enhancer of split 1 promoter region” — Zoom link
• 1:30 PM — Graduate student Jesse Jones will present work with Dr. Cheryl Van Buskirk , “Identification of a New Sleep-Promoting Ligand and Its Sheddase” — Zoom link
• 1:50 PM — Graduate student Victor Gutierrez-Garcia will present work with Dr. Cindy Malone, “Characterization of POLR3B Promoter Region Through the Luciferase Activity of Transiently Transfected HEK 293T Cells” — Zoom link

Ecology & Evolution

• 8:30 AM — Undergraduate researcher Daniel Dakduk will present work with Dr. Jeremy Yoder, “Using iNaturalist and PRISM weather data to produce a species distribution model for toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia)” — Zoom link
• 8:30 AM — Undergraduate researcher Ana Karina Andrade will present work with Dr. Jeremy Yoder, “The Power of Flowering Data in Studying the Health of Joshua Tree Populations Throughout the Mojave” — Zoom link
• 9:10 AM — Undergraduate researcher Nicole Bisente will present work with Dr. Robert Espinoza, “A Comparative Analysis of Morphological Variation among Invasive Populations of Mediterranean House Geckos across the USA” — Zoom link
• 10:40 AM — Graduate student Shanelle Wikramanayake will present work with Dr. Jeanne Robertson, “Investigating the neurological basis of speciation in a polymorphic neotropical treefrog, Agalychnis callidryas” — Zoom link
• 12:50 PM — Graduate student Jack Dirck will present work with Dr. Robert Espinoza and Dr. Jeanne Robertson, “Can Human-mediated Dispersal Promote Invasion Success? Using Population Genomics to Test the Paradox of Invasion for a Widely Introduced Reptile” — Zoom link
• 1:10 PM — Graduate student Sean Farmer will present work with Dr. Robert Espinoza, “Demystifying the Paradoxical Rarity of the Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) in Southern California” — Zoom link
• 1:30 PM — Graduate student Diego Gomez-Morales will present work with Dr. David Gray, “Acoustic response of insects to wildfires in the Santa Monica Mountains.” — Zoom link

Marine Biology

• 8:30 AM — Graduate student Danielle Barnas will present work with Dr. Nyssa Silbiger, “Natural Environmental Gradients Alter Community Composition and Functional Diversity on Coral Reefs” — Zoom link
• 9:10 AM — Graduate student Robert Dellinger will present work with Dr. Nyssa Silbiger, “Facing Physiological Constraints: The Response of an Intertidal Gastropod to the Interactive Effects of Ocean Acidification and Warming” — Zoom link
• 9:30 AM — Graduate student Olivia Diehl will present work with Dr. Robert Carpenter, “Investigating the interactive effects of herbivory and water flow on the morphology and metabolic rates of non-calcifying marine macroalgae” — Zoom link
• 10:00 AM — Graduate student Jamie Kerlin will present work with Dr. Nyssa Silbiger, “Coral growth rate and survivorship response to long-term environmental variability and small-scale reef neighborhood structure” — Zoom link
• 10:20 AM — Graduate student Jose Munoz Maravilla will present work with Dr. Peter Edmunds, “Three-Dimensional Prining Can Provide Opportunities to Promote Coral Recruitment on Disturbed Reefs” — Zoom link
• 12:30 PM — Graduate student Adelaide Dahl will present work with Dr. Peter Edmunds, “Does size matter? Habitat spatial structure relationships to biodiversity on a patch reef in Moorea, French Polynesia” — Zoom link

Microbiology

• 9:10 AM — Graduate student Amanda Di Maso will present work with Dr. Cristian Ruiz Rueda, “Identifying AcrZ- dependent endogenous substrates of the AcrAB-TolC efflux pump in Escherichia coli” — Zoom link
• 10:20 AM — Graduate student Vanessa Tamayo will present work with Dr. Gilberto Flores, “Variation in Bile Acid Resistance Among Human-Associated Akkermansia” — Zoom link
• 12:50 PM — Undergraduate researcher Erick Gonzalez and Tamryn Spinner will present work with Dr. Sean Murray, “Regulation of a dynamically-localizing polyester by three Caulobacter crescentus transcription factors” — Zoom link
• 1:10 PM — Undergraduate researchers Tyler Harry, Natalia Kaliszuk and Cruz Robinson will present work with Dr. Sean Murray, “Overexpression of a bacterial efflux pump causing multidrug resistance and reduced motility in Caulobacter crescentus” — Zoom link
• 1:30 PM — Undergraduate researcher Kit Cheung will present work with Dr. Gilberto Flores, “Interactions between Akkermansia muciniphila and Bifidobacterium bifidum, key members of the human gut microbiome” — Zoom link
• 1:50 PM — Undergraduate researcher Mayra Meza and Andrea Gutierrez will present work with Dr. Melissa Takahashi, “Developing a gene expression assay to test biomolecules designed to interfere with an essential stress response pathway in Escherichia coli” — Zoom link

Molecular, Cellular, & Physiological Biology

• 8:30 AM — Graduate student Michelle Alcantara will present work with Dr. Yoshie Hanzawa, “Verifying Inferred Regulatory Interactions in the Circadian Clock and Flowering Gene Networks in Soybean” — Zoom link
• 10:00 AM — Graduate student Evan Rank will present work with Dr. Maria Elena de Bellard , “Preferential melanoma migration” — Zoom link
• 10:40 AM — Undergraduate researcher Ranel Tuplano will present work with Dr. Jonathan Kelber, “DHPS and SLC3A2 Cooperate with Fibronectin to Govern Spheroid Growth and CDK4/6 Inhibitor Response in Triple Negative Breast Cancer” — Zoom link
• 10:54 AM — Graduate student Elizabeth Ortiz will present work with Dr. Jonathan Kelber, “Morphology and Expansion of HER2-Positive Breast Cancer Patient-Derived Organoids and 3D Tumor Cell Line Cultures” — Zoom link
• 2:10 PM — Undergraduate researcher Audrey Todd will present work with Dr. Jonathan Kelber, “Molecular Analyses of Multicellular Pancreatic Cancer Spheroids” — Zoom link