Maine Biological and Medical Sciences Symposium

The 34rd Maine Biological and Biomedical Sciences Symposium will be held April 27-28, 2007 in the Maren Auditorium and Dahlgren Hall Conference Center at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Salisbury Cove, Maine. The Maine Biological and Medical Sciences Symposium (MBMSS) is a state-wide gathering of researchers and students—an opportunity to share research results, exchange ideas, promote collaboration, and network with Maine scientists in a variety of disciplines. Invited and selected speakers will present short research reports, followed by question/answer and open discussion. A poster session and grantsmanship workshop will also be held.

All Maine researchers, science faculty, graduate, undergraduate and high school students are cordially invited to attend.

David Botstein, Ph.D.
Director, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics
Princeton University

PROGRAM (as of 04/25/07)

The keynote speaker will be Dr. David Botstein, Director of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University.

Sessions will include:

Comparative Genetics and Human Genetics
Comparative and Human Physiology - including neuroscience, development, toxicology
Genomics and Computational Biology - including bioinformatics

Thursday, April 26
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm	Dinner MDIBL Dining Hall Participants who arrive early and plan to attend dinner should send an email 'reservation' to Jeff Baroody.
Friday, April 27
10:30 am - 12:00 pm	INBRE Project Leader Microarray Workshop David Towle, PhD, Director, DNA Sequencing Center, MDIBL Towle Laboratory, Marshall Laboratory
11:00 am - 1:00 pm	Symposium Registration & Poster Set-up Lobby - MDIBL Conference Center
1:00 pm	Symposium welcome and introduction Patricia H. Hand, PhD, Administrative Director, MDIBL
Session I: Comparative Genetics and Population Genetics Charles Wray, PhD, Chair Maren Auditorium - MDIBL Conference Center
1:15 pm	Kevin Mills, PhD, Associate Staff Scientist, The Jackson Laboratory "The three most important things for chromosomes: location, location, location"
1:45 pm	Mike Palopoli, PhD, Associate Professor of Biology, Bowdoin College "Polymorphism at the Caenorhabditis elegans plg-1 locus is due to a recent retrotransposon insertion that blocks transcription of a mucin-like protein"
2:15 pm	Viktoria Andreeva, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Maine Medical Center Research Inst. "Enhanced Twist expression causes facial clefting by increasing Sprouty1 expression"
2:30 pm	Genelle Harrison, Student, College of the Atlantic "Identifying Surface Bacteria on the Epidermal Coensarc of Montastraea cavernosa using Genetic Markers"
2:45 pm	BREAK
3:00 pm	Irv Kornfield, PhD, Professor of Marine Sciences, The University of Maine "Moose and Men: Molecular Forensics at The University of Maine"
3:30 pm	Sarah Maas, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, The Jackson Laboratory "The nonhomologous end joining factor Artemis suppresses multi-tissue tumor formation and prevents loss of heterozygosity"
3:45 pm	Jason Bubier, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, The Jackson Laboratory "Individual QTLs Controlling Resistance to the Defective Marginal Zone B-Cell Phenotype of Yaa Mice"
4:00 pm	Ryuhei Nishikawa, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, MDI Biological Laboratory "Conservation and expression of fibroblast growth factor receptors 1, 2, 3 and 4 genes in elasmobranchs, dogfish shark and little skate"
4:15 pm	Poster Session and Hors d'oeuvres Dahlgren Hall
6:00 pm	Banquet Entertainment to be announced MDIBL Dining Hall
7:00 pm	Keynote Speaker: David Botstein, PhD, Director, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University "System-Level Studies of Metabolic Hoemeostasis in Yeast"
Saturday, April 28
7:30 am	Continental Breakfast MDIBL Dining Hall
Session II: Comparative and Human Physiology Chris Petersen, PhD, Chair Maren Auditorium - MDIBL Conference Center
8:00 am	Russell Johnson, PhD, Associate Professor of Biology, Colby College, "Proteins interacting with PKABA1 in abscisic acid signal transduction in cereal grains"
8:15 am	George Kidder, PhD, Senior Scientist, MDI Biological Laboratory, "Observation of Aquatic Organisms with Schlieren Optics"
8:30 am	Alan Rosenwasser, PhD, Professor of Psychology, The University of Maine, "Chronobiology of Alcohol: Animal Models"
8:45 am	Sharon Ashworth, PhD, Assistant Research Professor, The University of Maine, "Ischemia Induced Acute Renal Failure Alters Actin Dynamics"
9:00 am	Sarah Burns, Student, Bowdoin College, "In vitro Granulopoesis during Epigenetic Modification"
9:15 am	Roger Sher, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, The Jackson Laboratory, "A Rostrocaudal Muscular Dystrophy Caused By A Defect In Choline Kinase Beta"
9:30 am	BREAK
10:00 am	Robin Ertl, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, The Jackson Laboratory, "Dietary Restriction Increases or Maintains Increased Hematopoietic Stem Cell Function With Age Yet Decreases Cancer"
10:15 am	Rebecca Sommer, PhD, Associate Professor in Biology and Environmental Studies, Bates College, "High dose prenatal arsenic exposure decreases coronary artery density and tends to increase cardiac fibrosis in adult male mice"
10:30 am	Doug Spicer, PhD, Scientist, Maine Medical Center Research Institute, "Twist dimers differentially regulate breast cancer metastasis"
10:45 am	Marie Hayes, PhD, Professor, Maine Institute of Human Genetics and Healthand The University of Maine, "Sleep, Arousal And Sleep Movements In Alcohol-Exposed Infants Compared To Apneic And Other SIDS High Risk Samples"
Session III: Maine Research and Research Training Initiatives Patricia Hand, PhD, Chair Maren Auditorium - MDIBL Conference Center
11:15 am	Janet Hock, BDS, PhD, Director, Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health “Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health: Building Critical Mass & Creativity In Cancer Research For Maine”
11:45 am	Lunch MDIBL Dining Hall MBMSS Board Lunch and Meeting Dahlgren Hall
12:45 pm	Walter Allan, MD, Director of Clinical Services, Foundation for Blood Research “BiomedWorks: How doctors use evidence-based medicine”
1:00 pm	Kathy Vandiver, PhD, Director of Community Education and Outreach, Center for Environmental Health Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Under Construction: Students' Concepts about DNA"
1:15 pm	Keith Hutchison, PhD, Director, The University of Maine Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
1:30 pm	Susie Valaitis, Vice President and Program Officer, Institute for Broadening Participation, "Funding Opportunities for Early Career Scientists at the National Science Foundation: REUs, AGEP, NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, IGERT, GK-12"
1:45 pm	BREAK
Session IV: Genomics and Computational Biology Carol Bult, PhD, The Jackson Laboratory, Chair Maren Auditorium - MDIBL Conference Center
2:00 pm	J. Michael Brockman, Graduate student, The Jackson Laboratory and Boston University, "Computational Discovery and Characterization of Cis-elements Involved in Post-transcriptional Regulation of mRNA in Neurons"
2:15 pm	Priyam Singh, Graduate student, The Jackson Laboratory and The University of Maine, "Characterization of Post-transcriptional Mis-regulation of mRNAs in Progenitor B-cell Lymphoma"
2:30 pm	Clare Congdon, PhD, Colby College, "GAMI: Genetic Algorithms for Motif Inference"
2:45 pm	Joseph Aman, Research Assistant, MDI Biological Laboratory, "Comparative Genomic Analysis for Regulatory Motif Discovery"
3:00 pm	Jim Harriman, Graduate student, The University of Maine and The Jackson Laboratory, "Comparison of Protein-Protein Interactions and Correlated SNP Variation in the Mouse Genome"
3:15 pm	Closing remarks

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

All Maine scientists, faculty, and students are invited to attend and participate in the Symposium. Any abstract in the biological and medical sciences is welcome. The following topics serve as a general framework into which some talks might be organized and outside speakers chosen:

Genomics and Computational Biology - including bioinformatics
Integrative and Organismal Biology - including neuroscience, physiology, development, toxicology
Comparative and Population Genetics

In addition to invited speakers, some speakers will be selected from the submitted abstracts. Speakers selected from the abstracts will be a mix of investigators and students. Due to time constraints, we will probably not be able to accomodate everyone who would like to give a platform presentation. We hope that anyone who cannot be fit into the platform sessions will present a poster of their work.

The MBMSS is an excellent forum for young scientists or junior faculty to present and discuss their research. Students who participate in research are specially encouraged to submit an abstract.

Abstract deadline - DEADLINE EXTENDED: March 23, 2007

POSTER SESSION

The poster session is a highlight of the symposium. It is a wonderful opportunity for one-on-one scientific interaction and networking. All participants, even those giving platform presentations, are encouraged to present their research in the poster session. We expect a large crowd, lively conversation, and refreshments.

Interested poster presenters should sumbit an abstract. A poster guide and instructions are available here. Posters should be no more than 50" wide, and most poster boards are vertical.

The abstract formatting rules for platform/poster presentation are listed below.

TRAVEL, PARKING AND HOUSING

Driving Directions: Are available here. MDI Biological Laboratory is located on Old Bar Harbor Road in the village of Salisbury Cove, 04672. Old Bar Harbor Road is a left hand turn approaching from Ellsworth on Rt. 3 (approximately 4 miles from the bridge at the head of Mount Desert Island).

Parking: Early arrivers may park roadside, along Old Bar Harbor Road. Parking is also available in lots adjacent to the conference facilities. Directional signs will indicate where to park.

Housing:

Limited student housing (free of charge) is available at the MDI Biological Laboratory. Email Jeff Baroody (jbaroody@mdibl.org) to make a reservation.

Atlantic Oakes by the Sea Rt. 3, Bar Harbor	207-288-5801	Group name: MBMSS	$67/night
On-campus housing MDIBL	207-288-9880, ext 100 jbaroody@mdibl.org		free for students

STUDENT FUNDING

The Maine INBRE will cover registration fees, travel, and on-campus housing for undergraduate and graduate students who wish to attend MBMSS. Please inquire with Jeff Baroody at MDIBL.

2007 Maine Biological & Medical Sciences Symposium
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Format

- Page limit = 1 page
- MS Word, plain text, or PDF file format only.

Style

- Font size: 12, Type Style: Times, Spacing: single spaced copy using paragraph indents, Margins: 1".
- Double space between paragraphs and justify right margin.

Layout

- Title: The title of the abstract should be bolded.
- Abbreviations must not be used in title.
- Name(s)/institution(s): List the author's name(s), institution(s) where the work originated, city, state and country. Indicate the SURNAME of each author followed by his or her INITIALS only.

Please underline attending authors name. Double space after affiliations and before the body text.

Deadlines

Abstract deadline: March 1, 2007

Pre-registration deadline: April 2, 2007

FEES, PRE-REGISTRATION, ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

Registration fee: $40. Includes symposium materials, abstract book, and all meals. You will be invoiced upon pre-registration. Student funding is available (see above).

ONLINE REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED. IF YOU WISH TO ATTEND MBMSS, PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO mmckernan@mdibl.org

The 2007 Maine Biological and Biomedical Sciences Symposium is organized and supported by the Maine IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence.