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

TimeTopicLocation
8:00 - 9:00 AMRegistration and Poster setup Continental BreakfastCPB 1st Floor
9:00 AMWelcome and Opening Remarks: Stefan Strack, PhD, Co-Director of T32CPB 210
9:15 - 10:10 AMShort Talk Presentations by T32 Trainees (12-minute talks + 3 minutes Q&A)CPB 210
9:15 - 9:30Izzy 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 - 9:50Emma Simpson-Wade, Molecular Medicine Graduate Program Mentor: Marie Gaine, PhD Understanding epigenetic alterations of behavioral genes in pregnancy 
9:55 - 10:10Andrew 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 - 10:30Pravda Quinones, Pharmacology Graduate Program Mentor: Ted Abel, PhD Investigating post transcriptional regulation through nonsense-mediated mRNA decay during sleep deprivation 
10:35 - 10:45 AMBreak & Group PhotoCPB 1st Floor
10:50 AM - 12:35 PMPoster Session - Viewing/JudgingCPB 1st Floor
10:50 - 11:40Odd numbered posters present 
11:45 - 12:35Even numbered posters present 
12:45 - 1:30 PMLunchCPB Courtyard & 1st Floor
1:30 - 2:20 PMExploring Future Careers with T32 Trainee AlumniCPB 210
2:30 - 3:15 PMKeynote 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 BrainCPB 210
3:20 – 4:30 PMFaculty Short Talks (17-minute talks + 3 minutes Q&A)CPB 210
3:20 - 3:40Colin Kenny, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Surgery Antagonistic Roles for MITF Paralogs as Molecular Regulators of Melanoma Cell Plasticity 
3:45 - 4:05Adele Stewart, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Neuroscience & Pharmacology Sex, drugs, & monoamines: neural substrates driving sexbiased, psychostimulant-elicited behavior 
4:10 - 4:30Jared McLendon, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences & Experimental Therapeutics (PSET) Deciphering the druggable potential of Sorbs2 
4:35 PMAwards Announcement and Closing RemarksCPB 210

Keynote Speaker

Yarimar Carrasquillo, PhD

Yarimar Carrasquillo, PhD

Senior Investigator
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

Linda Buckner

Research Support Specialist

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