Seminar Schedule – Department of Biology

The Biology Department holds hour long seminars every Thursday at 4pm throughout the Fall and Spring semesters. Find flyers with more information on the second floor of DeGrace hall, sign up for the Biology Seminar emailing list biosem@case.edu, or contact Department Assistant Mikaela Libens (mxl1349@case.edu) with questions.

Spring 2025

Name	Date	Institution	Title	Website	Host
Postdoc Symposium – Amy Streets, Kasey Pham, Michael Rauscher	January 16th	CWRU Biology
BioScience Alliance Symposium	January 23rd	CWRU Biology and Affiliated Institutions – Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Holden Forests & Gardens			Mark Willis
CMD SEARCH	January 30th
Bridget Hegarty	February 6th	CWRU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering	“Tuning microbiomes: Engineering microbial communities for improved air and water quality”	https://www.bridgethegarty.com	Sarah Bagby
CMD SEARCH	February 13th
CMD SEARCH	February 20th
Spring Graduate Symposium	Friday, February 28th	CWRU Biology			Jean Burns, DGS
Workshop	March 6th	CWRU Biology	“Research Funding in a Changing World”		Elliot Gardner
NO SEMINAR – SPRING BREAK	March 13th
Kadeem Gilbert	March 20th	Michigan State University	“Leaf traits mediate multifarious plant interactions”		Elliot Gardner
Katie Stuble	March 27th	Holden Forests and Gardens	“Working the Woods: Science at the intersection of application”	https://holdenfg.org/staff/katie-stuble-phd/	Elliot Gardner
	April 3rd
Emily Lemmon	April 10th	Florida State University		https://www.bio.fsu.edu/chorusfrog/	E&E Graduate Student Aruni Kadawatha
Reshmi Parameswaran	April 17th	CWRU Department of Medicine		https://case.edu/cancer/members/member-directory/reshmi-parameswaran	Radhika Atit
Mahmoud Ghannoum	April 24th	CWRU Department of Dermatology		https://case.edu/medicine/dhri/about/primary-faculty/mahmoud-ghannoum	Emmitt Jolly

Fall 2024

Name	Date	Institution	Title or Area of Research	Website	Host
Nicole Crown	August 29th	Case Western Reserve University	“Using chromosome structural variants to understand CO patterning mechanisms in meiosis”	http://www.crownlab.science/	Mike Benard
Tracey Bonfield	September 5th	Case Western Reserve University	“Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Malleability: Therapeutic Development for Treating Chronic Lung Infections”		Emmitt Jolly
Ryan Arvidson	September 12th	Case Western Reserve University	“A Wasp Uses a Neurochemical Attack to Hijack a Cockroach Brain”	https://case.edu/medicine/biochemistry/faculty/ryan-arvidson	Angela Dixon
Megan Meuti	September 19th	The Ohio State University	“Timing is Everything: The Molecular Basis and Environmental Regulation of Seasonal Adaptations in Mosquitoes”	https://u.osu.edu/meutilab	Ryan Martin/Elliot Gardner
Brett Aiello	September 26th	Seton Hill University	“Fish, flight, and phylogeny: the evolutionary tuning of neuromechanical systems for effective movement”	https://brettaiello.weebly.com/	Mark Willis/Angela Dixon
Katy Greenwald	October 3rd	Eastern Michigan University	“Population and breeding dynamics of unisexual Ambystoma salamanders”	https://www.emich.edu/biology/faculty/k-greenwald.php	Mike Benard
Stephanie Wood	October 10th	Case Western Reserve University	“Identification of a flatworm specific class of Sox proteins”		Emmitt Jolly
Philip Copenhaver	October 17th	Oregon Health & Science University	“Novel roles for Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP): How a protein linked with Alzheimer’s Disease helps build the nervous system”	https://www.ohsu.edu/school-of-medicine/copenhaver-lab	Angela Dixon
Juliana Medeiros	October 24th	Holden Forests & Gardens	“How to talk to Randos™ about your research: and why you should do it”	https://holdenfg.org/staff/juliana-s-medeiros-phd/	Elliot Gardner
Rob Raguso	October 31st	Cornell University	“Corpse flowers and putrid pollinators: a microbial connection?”	https://nbb.cornell.edu/robert-raguso	Elliot Gardner/Angela Dixon
James Roberts	November 7th	U.S. Geological Survey		https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/james-j-roberts	Elliot Gardner
Jordanna Sprayberry	November 14th	Muhlenberg College		https://www.muhlenberg.edu/academics/biology/facultystaff/jordannasprayberry/	Jessica Fox/Angela Dixon
Michael Moore	November 21st	Oberlin College	“From sulfur to soil crusts: Lessons on plant evolution from a gypsum archipelago”	https://www.oberlin.edu/mike-moore	Elliot Gardner
THANKSGIVING BREAK – NO SEMINAR	November 28th
TBA	December 5th	Case Western Reserve University	Grad/Postdoc Career Development Workshop		TBA

Spring 2024

Name	Date	Institution	Title or Area of Research	Website	Host
Francesca Hand	January 25th	The Ohio State University	“Deciphering host-pathogen and fungal-fungal interactions within the latent fruit rot of winterberry pathosystem: from the field to the biochemistry”	https://plantpath.osu.edu/our-people/francesca-peduto-hand	Jean Burns
Jess Fox and Gabby Wolff	February 1st	Case Western Reserve University	“Academic Job Search Q&A”
NEURO SEARCH	February 8th				Neuro Search Committee
NEURO SEARCH	February 15th				Neuro Search Committee
NEURO SEARCH	Tuesday, February 20th				Neuro Search Committee
Graduate Recruitment Symposium	February 22nd	Case Western Reserve University
Rodrigo Somoza Palacios	February 29th	Case Western Reserve University, Center for Modular Manufacturing of Structural Tissues	“Perivascular MSCs and the basement Membrane Roles in Bone Metastasis”	https://case.edu/cm2ost/about/center-directory/faculty/rodrigo-somoza-palacios	Arnold Caplan
Kimberly Sheldon	March 7th	The University of Tennessee Knoxville		https://www.biogeographyresearch.org/	E&E Students
NO SEMINAR – SPRING BREAK	March 14th
Sam Senyo	March 21st	Case Western Reserve University		https://senyolab.com/lab-personnel/	Karen Abbott
Leah Rosin	March 28th	National Institute of Child Health and Human Development		https://leahrosinlab.com/	Nicole Crown
Jamie Marks	April 4th	Michigan State University		https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hVpMnNwAAAAJ&hl=en	Karen Abbott
Melissa Warden	April 11th	Cornell University	“Neuromodulation and the balance between goal-directed and reactive behavior”	https://www.wardenlab.org/	Neuro Students
Josh Benoit	April 18th	University of Cincinnati	“Blood feeding and virus transmission in mosquitoes is shifted by drought”	http://insectphysiology.uc.edu/	Gabriella Wolff
Ashleigh Schaffer	April 25th	Case Western Reserve University	“Leveraging rare disease models to advance scientific and therapeutic discovery”	https://case.edu/medicine/genetics/people/primary-faculty/ashleigh-schaffer	Radhika Atit

Fall 2023

Name	Date	Institution	Title or Area of Research	Website	Host
Jacob Scott	August 31st	Case Western Reserve University	“Controlling evolution: applications to infectious disease and cancer”	https://www.lerner.ccf.org/translational-hematology-oncology/scott/	Michael Benard
David Kikuchi	September 7th	Oregon State University	“Information Warfare: Mimicry and Social Learning in Predator-Prey Communities”	http://www.warningsignal.org/	Ryan Martin
Corine Jackman	September 14th	Carnegie Mellon Univeristy	“Mini-bioreactors to elucidate bacterial communication in the vaginal and upper respiratory tract”		Angela Dixon
Rebecca Swab	September 21st	Holden Forests and Gardens	“Creating community around trees: conservation & community forestry at Holden Forest & Garden”		Michael Benard
Jessica Tingle	September 28th	University of Akron	The Evolution and Maintenance of Novel Locomotor Behaviors	https://jleetingle.com/	Michael Benard
Heather Eisthen	October 5th	Michigan State University	“Toxic relationships: Production, detection, and resistance to tetrodotoxin in rough-skinned newts”	https://eisthenlab.com/	Gabby Wolff
Brian Taylor	October 12th	Case Western Reserve University	Animal multimodal sensation and sensory processing	https://engineering.case.edu/profiles/bkt2	Michael Benard
Patrick Bradley	October 19th	The Ohio State University	“In vitro and in silico tools for interrogating the human gut microbiome”	https://bradleylab.science/	Sarah Bagby
Chrystian Junqueira Alves	October 26th	Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai	Cancer Biology	https://icahn.mssm.edu/profiles/chrystian-j-alves	Angela Dixon
Gina Lewin	November 2nd	Case Western Reserve University	“Microbial Interactions in the Dynamic Oral Environment”	https://case.edu/medicine/pathology/faculty/gina-lewin	Michael Benard
Lauren Simonitis	November 9th	Florida Atlantic University	“Getting Nosy: Investigations into the Chondrichthyan Olfactory System”	https://www.laurenevesimonitis.com/	Michael Benard
Postdocs Michael Rauscher, Amy Streets, Jeremy Didion, and Rogério Miranda	November 16th	Case Western Reserve University			Gabby Wolff
NO SEMINAR – THANKSGIVING BREAK	November 23rd
Christie Bahlai	November 30th	Kent State University	Applied Computational Ecology	https://bahlailab.org/	Ryan Martin
Boris Tezak	December 7th	Duke University	“Exploring the role of germ cells in temperature-dependent sex determination”		Nicole Crown

Spring 2023

Name	Date	Institution	Title or Area of Research	Website	Host
Marie Dacke	January 26th	Lund University	“The Dynamic Nature of the Insect Compass System”	https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/marie-dacke	Gabriella Wolff
Viorel Popescu	February 2nd	Ohio University	“Challenges and Opportunities for Conserving Terrestrial Carnivores in Human-Dominated Landscapes”	https://vioreldpopescu.com/	Michael Benard
Bradley Dickerson	February 9th	Princeton University	“Functionally Stratified Encoding in a Biological Gyroscope”	https://dickersonlab.princeton.edu/	Gabriella Wolff
Andrew Dacks	February 16th	West Virginia University	“Stimulus Specific Modulation of Olfactory Coding by Serotonin”	https://www.dacksneuroscience.com	Gabriella Wolff
Judith Yanowitz	February 23rd	Magee-Womens Research Institute	“To Break or Not To Break: Initiation and Regulation of Meiotic Crossovers”	https://mageewomens.org/investigator/judith-yanowitz-ph-d	Nicole Crown
Timothy Mead	March 2nd	University Hospitals, CWRU School of Medicine	“Extracellular matrix optimization during embryogenesis”		Radhika Atit
Stephanie Langel	March 9th	Case Western Reserve University	“What maternal antibody responses in pigs, ferrets, and mice teaches us about human biology”	https://langelresearchteam.com/the-team	Jessica Fox
Arvid Agren	March 23rd	Cleveland Clinic	“Evolution of Within-Organism Conflicts”	https://arvidagren.com/	Ryan Martin
Rachelle Adams	March 30th	The Ohio State University	“Integrative Evolution: The illumination of symbiotic and systems”	https://megalomyrmex.osu.edu/	Gabriella Wolff
Tiffany Betras	April 6th	Case Western Reserve University	“Understanding the causes of biodiversity decline in temperate forests: Disentangling the impacts of browsing and nonnative species”	http://www.rzlab.pitt.edu/?page_id=1738	Sarah Bagby and Michael Benard
Grant Yu	April 13th	Case Western Reserve University	“The roles of soil biota in plant defense in an ecological context”		Jean Burns
Jordan Renna	April 20th	University of Akron	Neural Circuit Development	https://rennalab.uakron.edu/	Gabriella Wolff
John Kopchick	April 27th	Ohio University	“Growth Hormone, Minni-Mice, Football, Dirty Shirts, and a New drug”		Joseph Terry

Fall 2022

Name	Date	Institution	Title	Website	Host
Uli Steiner	September 8th		Individual heterogeneity and aging: on humans, plants and bacteria	https://sites.google.com/site/steinerbiodemographylab/home	Robin Snyder
Oindrila De	September 13th		Septate junction proteins play non-occluding roles in Drosophila embryonic morphogenesis	https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Oindrila-De-2	Rob Ward
Luisa Hiller	September 22nd		The Pneumococcal Social Network	https://www.bio.cmu.edu/labs/hiller/index.html	Sarah Bagby
Matthew Forister	September 29th		The Fast & the Fragile: How Many Butterflies will Survive the Anthropocene?	https://www.unr.edu/biology/faculty/matt-forister	Angie Lenard
NO SEMINAR	October 6
Tiffany Betras	October 13th		Understanding the causes of biodiversity decline in temperate forests: Disentangling the impacts of browsing and nonnative species	http://www.rzlab.pitt.edu/?page_id=1738	Sarah Bagby
Rikesh Patel	October 20th		Path integration above and below the water’s surface	https://rickeshpatel.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/0/6/25066119/patel_rn_cv_2021.pdf	Gabriella Wolff
Bruce Sullenger	October 27th		From the RNA World to the Clinic with RNA guides and aptamers	https://surgery.duke.edu/divisions/surgical-sciences/research/research-laboratories/cardiovascular-biology-laboratory	Yolanda Fortenberry
Britton Sauerbrei	November 3rd		Cortico-Cerebellar Dynamics for Skilled Movement in the Mouse.	https://sauerbreilab.org/	Hillel Chiel, Gabriella Wolff
Michael Sheehan	November 10th		Ecology, evolution, and neuroscience of facial recognition in paper wasps	https://sheehanlab.weebly.com	Kris Lea
Stephen Montgomery	November 17th		Rapid expansion and visual specialisation of learning and memory centres in Heliconiini butterflies.	https://www.shmontgomery.co.uk/index.html	Gabriella Wolff
Sangeet Lamichhaney	December 1st		Exploring adaptive evolution through the lens of modern genomics		Ryan Martin
Lydia Kisley	December 8th		Super-resolution imaging of protein dynamics within the extracellular matrix	https://www.kisleylab.science/	Radhika Atit, Sarah Bagby

Summer 2022

Name	Date	Institution	Seminar title	Website	Host
Dr. Abdel Halloway	June 9, 2022	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	“Rapid Eco-Evolutionary Feedbacks in Ecological Communities”	E-Co-Evo – Co-Evolution in Ecological Communities	Karen Abbott

Spring 2022

Name	Date	Institution	Seminar Title	Website	Host
Dr. Leila Rieder	March 3, 2022	Emory University	“Nuclear body organization of the zygotic genome”	https://www.riederlab.org/	Dr. Nicole Crown
Dr. Seyeon Chung	March 17, 2022	Louisiana State University	“Mechanisms Underlying Epithelial Tube Formation”	https://faculty.lsu.edu/seyeonchunglab/	Dr. Robert Ward
Dr. Alison Bennett	March 24,2022	The Ohio State University	“Interactions among microbiomes: The bottom up and top down influences of soil and insect microbiomes”	https://species-interactions.osu.edu/people.html	Dr. Jean Burns
Dr. Amanda Larracuente	March 31.2022	University of Rochester	“Meiotic Drive and Satellite DNA in Drosophila Melanogaster”	http://blogs.rochester.edu/larracuente/	Dr. Nicole Crown
Dr. Gerald Downes	April 7, 2022	University of Massachusetts Amherst	“From Swimming to Seizures: Investigating hyperactive locomotor behavior in developing zebrafish”	RESEARCH – Downes Laboratory	Dr. Jessica Fox
	April 14, 2022
Dr. Lauren Sullivan	April 21, 2022	University of Missouri	“Ecological causes and consequences of dispersal in restored and native grasslands”	sullivanplantecology.com	Amy Patterson