MMI Hosts Scientific Retreat for Faculty, Postdocs, Students and Staff
Team members from the Coppens Lab and the Srinivasan Lab enjoy lunch outside and the waterfront location at the 2023 MMI Scientific Retreat. From left to right: Shabaz Khan, Maryam Saffarian, Deepti Sarkar, Elizabeth Lee, Sean Yanik, Ravi Kumar.
On October 12, the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology (MMI) hosted a departmentwide scientific retreat at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park Museum in Baltimore's historic Fells Point. Over 200 researchers, principal investigators, postdocs, and students in the department’s three programs—PhD, ScM, and MHS—gathered for faculty presentations, poster sessions and two keynote addresses.
Faculty presenters shared their research which included:
- Seasonal respiratory viruses: Linking surveillance, epidemiology and basic research – presented by Professor Andy Pekosz, PhD
- Mitochondrial and endolysosomal organelle compartments collaboratively regulate apoptosis signaling – presented by Associate Scientist Anne Hamacher-Brady, PhD
- Malaria in the U.S. – presented by Professor and Director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute Jane Carlton, PhD
- Mosquito leaky gut syndrome and malaria transmission – presented by Professor George Dimopoulos, PhD
- Hemozoin – presented by Professor David Sullivan, MD
- Cell death mechanisms in mammals and in microorganisms – presented by Professor J. Marie Hardwick, PhD
The retreat featured two invited speakers: Rita Colwell, PhD, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, and Jack Levin, MD, Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Medicine at the University of California. Professor Colwell gave the second Noel Rose Endowed Lecture; her presentation was titled Climate, oceans and human health: Predicting pandemics. Professor Levin gave a talk honoring the legacy of Frederick Bang, chairman of the department from 1953 to 1981, when it was known as the department of Pathology.
“The retreat was well attended by students, trainees and faculty. Faculty gave informative talks, our key note speakers gave outstanding presentations, and the retreat gave our students the opportunity to hone their poster presentations skills, and to both ask and get answers to really thought-provoking questions,” said MMI professor Photini Sinnis, who co-organized the event with assistant professors Monica Mugnier and Conor McMeniman.