Vlad Botchkarev
Thursday, June 9th
Vlad Botchkarev, a native of Sharon, is a Research Fellow in the Cancer Biology Department at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He obtained his BSc Honours degree in Medical Science at the University of Leeds in England and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from Brandeis University. Vlad’s expertise is in the fields of genetics, cell cycle control, DNA repair, and cancer biology. His past training also includes the study of cytoskeletal motor proteins by electron microscopy. Vlad has a deep interest in all aspects of cell biology. Vlad currently serves on the Board of the New England Society for Microscopy.
Vlad Botchkarev, a native of Sharon, is a Research Fellow in the Cancer Biology Department at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He obtained his BSc Honours degree in Medical Science at the University of Leeds in England and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from Brandeis University. Vlad’s expertise is in the fields of genetics, cell cycle control, DNA repair, and cancer biology. His past training also includes the study of cytoskeletal motor proteins by electron microscopy. Vlad has a deep interest in all aspects of cell biology. Vlad currently serves on the Board of the New England Society for Microscopy.
Caitlin KrauseCaitlin Krause is a mindfulness coach, writer, editor, and training expert. Caitlin has led workshops on Mindfulness, Leadership, Technology, Writing and Learning in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and the United States. She is a featured presenter at innovation events. When Caitlin’s not engaged in consulting, she’s usually travelling, writing, and taking photographs. Caitlin has a B.A. from Duke University, a Masters degree in Writing from Lesley University, and training qualifications in both mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Education. Her passion for writing, technology and interdisciplinary art, while working with mentors from Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies and Harvard Medical School, initially led her to explore connections between body and mind. Her organization, MindWise, focuses on mindfulness for the modern age. Dr. Muhammad Zaman Maternal Health Across the Globe Maternal health in low income countries continues to be one of the biggest challenges in development. A mother dies every 90 seconds from preventable causes. It affects individuals, families and societies as a whole. While the issue has been looked at from policy angle, there are important questions about the health and survival of mothers and babies that require new technologies that are affordable, easy to use and appropriate for the local environment. How do we know what technologies are needed? how do we assess the efficacy of a new tool? how do we even start creating a solution? This talk looked at these issues and we talked about one such technology being developed in our lab that aims to tackle the problem of maternal mortality and how we plan on making an impact on one of the grandest challenges of our time. A Sharon resident and BU faculty member since 2009, Dr. Zaman heads the Cellular and Molecular Dynamics Lab, which engineers new experimental and computational technologies for major healthcare problems in both the developing and developed world, including probing the mechanisms of cancer metastasis. The lab focuses on how physical and mechanical properties of cancer cells impact their growth and movement, modeling this behavior in computer programs. Dr. Afreen Siddiqi is a Research Scientist in the Engineering Systems Division of MIT. She has an S.B. in Mechanical Engineering, S.M. in Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Systems, all from MIT. Over the last several years, she has worked with public and private institutions in the US and abroad on modeling, design and optimization of complex socio-technical systems. Dr. Priya Roy Chowdhury studies the mechanisms underlying species’ responses to rapid human-induced environmental changes. She uses a combination of genetic, molecular, and physiological approaches to determine how materials and energy pathways are influenced by temperature and nutrient gradients – two most pressing environmental problems of present time. Specifically she focuses on how organisms deal with long term increase in dietary phosphorus content and increased temperatures at multiple levels of biological hierarchy. She received her PhD degree in Zoology from Oklahoma State University in 2014. Scott Shikora, MD, FACS attended medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and completed his surgical residency and Nutrition Support fellowship at New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston. He then spent the next four years as a major and a staff surgeon in the United States Air Force. He is a member of several medical societies and was active in leadership in the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition where he is a Past President and former board member and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery where he was both a Past President and a former Executive Council member. Dr. Shikora has authored numerous book chapters and journal publications and has made hundreds of presentations internationally on bariatric surgery and nutrition support topics. He also developed and directs the Bariatric Summit and World Congress for the Advancement of Surgery, in Israel conferences. Dr. Karim A. Sharif received his Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the Hunter College of the City of New York. Subsequently, he obtained his Ph.D. degree from the City University of New York. His doctorate research involved understanding the function of the enzyme RNA polymerase in the process of transcription in bacteria. He established a collaboration with Dr. Akira Ishihama and spent 4 months to carry out his research project in Japan. After completing his doctorate, he joined the Comprehensive Cancer Center of the Albert-Einstein College of Medicine as a post-doctoral fellow, where he studied the transport of chemotherapeutic drugs in human breast cancer cells. In doing so, Dr. Sharif introduced a new technique to study drug transport in adherent cells. Dr. Sharif then joined the Weill Cornell Medical College, New York as a research scientist, where he performed cancer and neurobiology research using transgenic mice. Dr. Sharif accepted a position of Assistant Professor of Biology in the LaGuardia Community College, New York in 2007. Currently Dr. Sharif is an Associate Professor of Biology at the Massasoit Community College, Brockton, MA. His current research interests involve comparative genomic analysis among Drosophila (fruit fly) species. He has authored several scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. |
Heather GoldstoneHeather Goldstone is the science editor at WCAI, the Cape and Islands NPR Station. She holds a Ph.D. in ocean science from M.I.T. and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and spent a decade as an active researcher before leaving the lab to become a writer. In her nine years with the Cape and Islands NPR Station, Goldstone has reported on Woods Hole’s unique scientific community and key environmental issues on Cape Cod. Her reporting has appeared in venues ranging from NPR and PBS News Hour to The Cape Cod Times and Commercial Fishery News. Most recently, Goldstone hosted the blog “Climatide,” an exploration of how climate change is impacting coastal life. Julian Tyson, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, received his B.S. in Chemistry from Aberdeen University in Scotland in 1971, and his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Imperial College, London University in England in 1975. Over the 40 years of his research career, his group has developed new methods for the measurement of potential harmful compounds of arsenic, antimony, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, and selenium in a variety of environmental and biological materials, including waters, soils, plants, dietary supplements and a number of foodstuffs. His current interests are focused on the challenges of measuring arsenic compounds in rice. Since the fall of 2014, he has been associated with the work of Chemists Without Borders, for whom he is currently the manager of the Arsenic-in-Rice project. In his talk, Professor Tyson explained why we should be concerned about the arsenic compounds, some of which are known to cause cancer, in the rice we are eating and what the challenges are for the analytical chemist in devising methods to measure these compounds reliably. He will demonstrate the procedure that undergraduates (and some high school students) are developing in his lab for use at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. Brian D. Snyder, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School and Research Professor of Bioengineering at Boston University, Department of Bioengineering. An attending orthopaedic surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital, his clinical practice focuses on congenital and acquired deformities about the hip and spine related to neuromuscular conditions as well as pediatric trauma. As a clinician-scientist funded by NIH, DoD, private foundations and industry, his translational research focuses on improving the practice of orthopaedic surgery by applying engineering principles to solve clinical problems. In recognition for his translational research, Dr. Snyder received a Kappa Delta Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the Russell Hibbs Award from the Scoliosis Research Society and the A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School. The research interests of Zvonimir Dogic and his group lie in elucidating rules that govern self-assembly of materials, with a particular emphasis being placed on the role the particle's shape and chirality play in these assembly processes. They strive to create very simple model systems in which precise control is possible over all the relevant parameters. This enables a rigorous and detailed comparison with theoretical predictions. The particles they use have very simple hard core repulsive interactions. Despite the apparent simplicity of these building blocks, they have demonstrated that through a careful choice of particle shape and chirality it is possible to assemble at least half a dozen unique structures. By necessity the research is highly interdisciplinary. To accomplish goals, in addition to a host of experimental techniques, they also utilize theoretical statistical mechanics, computer simulations, biochemistry, various protein purification techniques and molecular cloning. Val Boutin and Laura Moreno are both Fire Protection Engineers with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) in Quincy, Massachusetts. The NFPA is a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating death, injury, property, and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards by developing codes and standards and providing outreach and advocacy. Laura graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) with her B.S. Chemical Engineering and M.S. in Fire Protection Engineering. She currently works in the Industrial and Chemical engineering division. Val graduated from WPI with her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and her M.S. in Fire Protection Engineering and works in the Building Fire Protection and Life Safety Division. Their talk will provide an overview of the fire protection engineering field and describe different career paths. They will highlight some projects they have been involved with including Tiny Homes, Hot Work Training, Explosion Protection, and Tall Timber Structures. Dr. John Lydeard, who is a scientist at Biogen and a proud resident of Sharon, received both his B.S. and Ph.D degrees from Brandeis University. His scientific work focuses on discovering new treatments for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases by using epigenetics. Epigenetics is a way through which cells can turn on and off their genes. Dr. Lydeard is also an expert in DNA repair and cancer therapeutics. During his Doctoral studies at Brandeis, Dr. Lydeard identified mechanisms through which DNA breaks can be repaired. He completed his postdoctoral training in cancer therapeutics at Harvard Medical School, where he was a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellow. We are very excited to have Dr. Lydeard kick off our Sharon STEM Talks. Dr. Lydeard’s talk will be about how epigenetics can be used to study and treat diseases of the brain. |