The retreat will include oral presentations from our T32 current trainees, faculty talks, and poster presentations by research staff and trainees at all levels. Prizes will be awarded for the top oral and poster presentations. The retreat is an important component of our T32 Training Grant.
Continental breakfast and lunch will be provided.
We look forward to gathering to celebrate research from multiple laboratories!
Stefan Strack, PhD and Dave Roman, PhD
Co-Directors, Pharamcological Sciences Training Program
Registration
Register for the Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Retreat
Deadline to register is Friday, August 2 at 5:00pm.
*Registration is required for all attendees, including those not submitting an abstract for a poster or oral presentation.
Agenda
Time | Topic | Location |
---|---|---|
8:00 - 9:00 AM | Registration and Poster setup Continental Breakfast | CPB 1st Floor |
9:00 AM | Welcome and Opening Remarks: Stefan Strack, PhD, Co-Director of T32 | CPB 210 |
9:15 - 10:10 AM | Short Talk Presentations by T32 Trainees (12-minute talks + 3 minutes Q&A) | CPB 210 |
9:15 - 9:30 | Izzy Herring, Neuroscience Graduate Program Mentors: Krystal Parker, PhD and Aislinn Williams, PhD The Puzzle Box: An Innovative Assay for Problem Solving Capabilities in Mice | |
9:35 - 9:50 | Emma Simpson-Wade, Molecular Medicine Graduate Program Mentor: Marie Gaine, PhD Understanding epigenetic alterations of behavioral genes in pregnancy | |
9:55 - 10:10 | Andrew Kain, Neuroscience Graduate Program Mentor: Stephanie Gantz, PhD The Monoamine Menagerie: Unraveling the molecular mechanisms driving noradrenaline-dependent excitation of serotonin neurons in the Dorsal Raphe Nucleus | |
10:15 - 10:30 | Pravda Quinones, Pharmacology Graduate Program Mentor: Ted Abel, PhD Investigating post transcriptional regulation through nonsense-mediated mRNA decay during sleep deprivation | |
10:35 - 10:45 AM | Break & Group Photo | CPB 1st Floor |
10:50 AM - 12:35 PM | Poster Session - Viewing/Judging | CPB 1st Floor |
10:50 - 11:40 | Odd numbered posters present | |
11:45 - 12:35 | Even numbered posters present | |
12:45 - 1:30 PM | Lunch | CPB Courtyard & 1st Floor |
1:30 - 2:20 PM | Exploring Future Careers with T32 Trainee Alumni | CPB 210 |
2:30 - 3:15 PM | Keynote Speaker (35-minute talk + 10-minute Q&A) Yarimar Carrasquillo, PhD Senior Investigator Section on Behavioral Neurocircuitry and Cellular Plasticity National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NICCIH) Bethesda, MD The Amygdala: A Pain Rheostat in the Brain | CPB 210 |
3:20 – 4:30 PM | Faculty Short Talks (17-minute talks + 3 minutes Q&A) | CPB 210 |
3:20 - 3:40 | Colin Kenny, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Surgery Antagonistic Roles for MITF Paralogs as Molecular Regulators of Melanoma Cell Plasticity | |
3:45 - 4:05 | Adele Stewart, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Neuroscience & Pharmacology Sex, drugs, & monoamines: neural substrates driving sexbiased, psychostimulant-elicited behavior | |
4:10 - 4:30 | Jared McLendon, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences & Experimental Therapeutics (PSET) Deciphering the druggable potential of Sorbs2 | |
4:35 PM | Awards Announcement and Closing Remarks | CPB 210 |
Keynote Speaker

Yarimar Carrasquillo, PhD
The Amygdala: A Pain Rheostat in the Brain
Dr. Yarimar Carrasquillo joined the Pain and Integrative Neuroscience Branch of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a Principal Investigator in 2014. Her research focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying pain modulation in the brain at cellular and circuit levels using rodent models. Dr. Carrasquillo received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine, followed by postdoctoral training in cellular neurophysiology at Washington University School of Medicine. Her major contributions to the field include establishing a causal link between amygdala plasticity and changes in persistent pain-related behaviors and demonstrating a hemispheric lateralization of amygdala function for pain processing. More recently, her team further showed that the amygdala has dual and opposite functions in the modulation of pain, functioning as a pain rheostat that can amplify or decrease pain. In addition to her scientific contributions, Dr. Carrasquillo is also strongly committed to mentoring and training, increasing diversity and inclusion in science, and promoting rigor, transparency, and reproducibility in research. She has received multiple awards for her contributions to the field, including the STEM Woman of the Year Award from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in 2016 and been listed in “100 Inspiring Hispanic/Latinx Scientists in America” in 2020 by the scientific blog Cell Mentor (Cell Press).
Contact Us

Linda Buckner
Address: 2-471B BSB
Phone: (319) 335-7946
Email: linda-buckner@uiowa.edu