2016 uva biotechnology training program...

2016UVABIOTECHNOLOGYTRAININGPROGRAMNEWSLETTER

7th Biennial BTP SymposiumKellen Chen, BME 4th year Graduate Student Dr. Kyle Lampe, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering

The 7th Biennial Symposium of theBiotechnology Training Program (BTP)will be held on Thursday, November10th, 2016 in UVa’s Newcomb Hall. Thetheme of "Tomorrow's MedicineToday: Biotechnology's Next Frontier,”will offer a diverse and multifacetedview of some of the challenges andbenefits of translating academicresearch into real world medicaldevices and therapeutics. Subthemesspan cellular, tissue and wholeorganism scales (see illustration). TheSymposium comprises a full day oftalks, panel discussion, and a studentposter competition. Breakfast andlunch will be provided. BTPer KellenChen and BTP faculty Kyle Lampe co-chair the BTP Symposium Committee.Also serving on the committee areBTPer’s (*some now graduated) ArchCreasy, Dan Nelson*, Phil Yen, JaymesBeech*, Anna Blazier, JoannaAdadevoh, Kelly Drews, Ali Harris, AlexKeller and Maria Ali. Other BTPfaculty on the Committee are: MazhanAdli, Hui Zong, Jill Venton, MarkKester and Chris Deppmann.

Editor’s Spotlight


Diversity is the sum of our individual differences. Bybringing together people of different backgrounds, thescope of what is possible in Science and Engineering issignificantly broadened and enhanced. Ground breakingdiscoveries are seeded and collaboration and innovationnurtured. Major funding sources now encourage and evenrequire applicants to include a statement on diversity, andthe broader impacts of their research. Expanding diversity isa very high priority of the BTP. With the enthusiastic help ofUVa’s Director of Diversity Programs, Keisha John, the BTPorganized the 2015 annual Biomedical Sciences (BIMS)Diversity Day, attracting underrepresented minorityundergraduate students from the University of Maryland,Baltimore County and from North Carolina A&T University.Inclement weather interfered with travel of students from Hampton and Norfolk StateUniversities. Students learned about day-to-day life in a research intensive university froma variety of UVa students and faculty.

One month before, the BTP visited Gallaudet University to expand outreach to thehearing disabled. Via a translator, BTP Director Gordon Laurie and ProgramAdministrator Mary Hall provided background on the BTP and BTPers Kelly Drews, MattBiggs and BTP alum Dan Nelson (‘15) presented their research.

The BTP offers a science outreach program to in state and out of state MARC programsthat features a lecture pool of senior BTP mentors. Several gave talks over the past year.

BTP mentors Andreas Gahlmann and Gordon Laurie are members of Keisha John’sMentoring Institute in which an entering student of diversity is matched with a supportivefaculty mentor. This arrangement seeks to ease the transition into graduate school, andoffer a source of guidance and advocacy through graduate training and potentiallybeyond.

In summary, our program values diversity and does a great job fostering a collaborativeand inclusive environment for all. We celebrate our 67% diverse 2016 entering class, andare committed to further enhance diversity in the graduate biomedical and engineeringsciences.

Kristopher Rawls, 3rd Year Graduate Student in

Biomedical Engineering

BTP Industry Panel Laryssa Manigat, 3rd year graduate student in BIMSThe 2015 Biotechnology Career Panel wasa Q&A session in which professionals fromvarious sectors of industry with differingbackgrounds shed light on their careersuccess, and what paths led them there.Panelists included David Edge, PhD(Merck), BTP alum Caren Petrie Aronin,PhD (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati),Anna Pomes, PhD (INDOORBiotechnologies), Ed Ramos, PhD (NIBIB),Thomas Thorpe, MBA (Afton Scientific)and Sue Yi, PhD (Syngenta). All UVascience students and postdocs wereinvited. The event was particularly helpfulto BTP students such as myself, who areunsure where our interest in biotechnologywill take us, and what career paths areavailable.The panel explored a range of options.

Panelists were mostly from the Mid-Atlantic region and represented BigPharma, the NIH, agribusiness, a patentlaw firm, as well as two smaller biotechcompanies. The dynamic of the panelistsmade the event highly engaging andinteractive.Following the event, BTP students metprivately with panelists over lunch.Students left the event with a broaderappreciation of the utility of Ph.D. training,perhaps following the career footsteps ofour panelists.

BTP Student Seminar

Each year student members of the BTPSeminar committee invite outside speakersto visit and discuss their research orcontribution to the field of biotechnology,or both. Serving on the committee in 2015were Mahmoud Saleh (3rd year,Microbiology, Immunology, and CancerBiology) and Bryan Chun (2nd year,Biomedical Engineering). Mahmoud andBryan invited Dr. Charles Gersbach,Rooney Family Associate Professor ofBiomedical Engineering from DukeUniversity, who spoke on his p and lunchedwith BTP students. The seminar was ashared event with Biomedical Engineering.Dr. Gersbach also talked about theSoutheast Biotechnology T32 CareerWorkshop (see next page).


BTP Industry Panel from November 2015

Southeast Biotechnology T32 Career WorkshopMatthew Biggs, 5th year graduate student in Biomedical Engineering

Charles Gersbach, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University,hosted the first annual ‘Southeast Biotechnology T32 Career Workshop’ June 16 – 17,2015. BTP students from Duke, NC State, UVa, and Georgia Tech participated. Iattended not really knowing what to expect, but hoping I could get some good tips andmake new connections. The event ended up being really fantastic and valuable. At itscore, the Workshop consisted of a slate of speakers from the biotech industry whoshared their career paths, highlighting the reasons they made certain decisions andsummarizing their experiences into a few pieces of advice. The advice they gave washelpful both from “what’s it like to do your job?” and “how do I figure out what I want todo?” standpoints. Barbara Gerratana, NIH Program Director of all BTP’s nationwide(former tenured professor at the U. of Maryland) spoke, as well as Laura Hagerty,Program Officer at the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Laura has worked at both tinyand enormous biotech companies. We also heard from Barry Myers, who is the only PhD,MD, MBA I’ve ever met. He had great advice about career transitions and networking.Other speakers included Lucinda Camras and Derek Jantz, both of whom founded andcontinue to operate successful biotech companies. We heard from Ali Behbahani, aventure capitalist, and Charles Anamelechi, who works as a consultant with Deloitte.


There are too many bits of advice to share here, but there were some broad themes thatcame out of the many stories people told. The most prominent is to build and leverageyour network. That means cultivating real relationships. Regularly take the time to get toknow people. Be interested in them and be helpful to them. Keep in touch with them innatural ways. Another theme was to be flexible and be willing to seize unexpectedopportunities. Most of the speakers built their careers on unforeseen opportunities andare in positions now that, as students, they didn’t even know existed. Finally, you are afree agent, so don’t think of yourself as under the care of an organization. You takeinitiative to follow your interests, to make connections, and to seize opportunities.

We practiced elevator pitches, toured a local biotech company (Precision Biosciences,which had a really beautiful space in a converted tobacco warehouse), and networkedwith the speakers and other students. Overall, I would strongly encourage all to attendthis event in the future, regardless of your specific career goals.


BTP Day of Caring

2015 BTP Students after Day of Caring Volunteering.

The annual BTP Day of Caring is acommunity service project organized withthe United Way in which old and newBTP’ers work together towards a commoncommunity improvement goal. Pastactivities include trail building, mulchingand improvement of a day care. InSeptember 2015, BTP’ers assisted residentsof the Cedar’s retirement home in severalhours of bingo. The residents and staff hadtaken bingo to a new compeitive level andenjoyed the visit. We had fun playing, andwere very appreciative of the time spentthere. This event was organized by BTPstudent Anna Blazier (4th year, BiomedicalEngineering).BTP Trip to Gallaudet University

Matthew Biggs, Kelly Drews, 3rd year graduate student A small group of graduate students went on arecruiting trip to Gallaudet University at theend of September, 2015, accompanied by theBTP Director and Program Administrator.Gallaudet is a school for the hearing disabledlocated in Washington D.C. We met with agroup of undergraduate students in differentscience programs and presented slides aboutour backgrounds and current research at UVa.Two American Sign Language translatorshelped us to convey our messages (notsurprisingly, the science jargon was a little bitdifficult to translate), and we received goodquestions from students in attendance. Forme, the most interesting part was the tour oftheir facilities. All of their laboratories weredesigned using DeafSpace principles. Thatmeans better lines of sight between desks andlecturers, and between lab benches. Thecolors are all muted to be easier on the eyes,and alerts are made more visual (flashinglights rather than beeps). They have several

recently renovated lab spaces which areused for both teaching and research. I wasimpressed with the students we met and theuniversity as a whole. Visiting Gallaudet wasa wonderful experience that enabled us toshare our research at UVA with an eagercrowd of university students. Each of usprovided a short Powerpoint presentationon our work and answered questions.Students asked about our research, ourfield, life as graduate students, and UVa ingeneral. When we arrived we were a bitunsure as to how interested the studentswould be or if any of them had consideredgraduate school. I remember in particularone or two of the students had veryinsightful and persistent questions aboutour research, and stayed afterwards todiscuss possibilities for deaf students toearn their graduate degrees at UVa. Lookingback I feel lucky to have had a chance toparticipate in such a unique and effectiveoutreach program through the BTP. I’mhoping to go back to Gallaudet in thecoming years and continuing to share myexperiences at UVa with their students.


Kelly DrewsVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Biology, Biochemistry, HistoryPhD Department: Pathology, Kester Lab

Bryan ChunPrinceton University, Molecular Biology PhD Department: Biomedical Engineering, Saucerman Lab

Alexander KellerDuke University, Environmental SciencePhD Department: Physiology, Isaakson Lab

Laryssa ManigatNortheastern University, Behavioral NeurosciencePhD Department: Pathology, Purow Lab

Mahmoud SalehGuilford College, Biology and ChemistryPhD Department: Microbiology, Immunology, Petri Lab

Kristopher RawlsNorth Carolina State University, Biomedical EngineeringPhD Department: Biomedical Engineering, Papin Lab

Alexandra HarrisUniversity of California, San Diego, Biochemistry, Cell BiologyPhD Department: Pathology, Munson Lab

Faith KaranjaUniversity of Massachusetts, BiochemistryPhD Department: Cell Biology, Halme Lab

Maria AliCollege of William and Mary, NeurosciencePhD Department: Biology, KucenasLab

Jennifer OrtizBinghamton University, ChemistryPhD Department: Chemistry, Pompano Lab

Nicole SwopeSaginaw Valley State University, Biochemistry/SpanishPhD Department: Chemistry, Columbus Lab

2015 BTP Appointees 2016 BTP Appointees

Jacob WolpeJames Madison University, BiotechnologyPhD Department: Physiology Tamm Lab

Lee TalmanSUNY-Albany, Nanotechnology EngineeringPhD Department: Biomedical Engineering, Peirce-Cottler Lab

2016 uva biotechnology training program...

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