Hudson Valley RNA Club

HVRC RNA Salon Seminars are sponsored by the following:

Date: May 18th, 2021 @ 4 p.m.
Zoom Virtual Meeting (details will be sent out)
Speakers: Tristen Head, RNA Fellow (Mentor: Nathaniel Cady) and Joerg Vogel, IMIB – Institute for Molecular Infection Biology

Date: September 21st, 2021 @ 4 p.m.
Zoom Virtual Meeting (details will be sent out)
Speakers: Lien Nguyen, K99 awardee (Repeat associated non-ATG translation in disease and therapies)

Date: December 14th, 2021 @ 4 p.m.
Zoom Virtual Meeting (details will be sent out)
Speakers: Jen Heemstra, Emory University

Date: April 20th, 2021 @ 4 p.m.
Click link above to view Recording.
Speaker: Ankur Jain. PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology, MIT

Date: March 16th, 2021 @ 4 p.m.
Click link above to view recording.
Speakers: Shane Breznak, RNA Fellow (Mentor: Prash Rangan) and Blanton Tolbert, Case Western Reserve University

Date: February 16th, 2021
Zoom Recording (Passcode: 1&8RaXpV)
Speakers: Haley Caldwell, RNA Fellow (Mentor: Alexander Ciota) and David Tollervey, Welcome Center Cell Biology

Date: January 19th, 2020
Zoom Recording (Passcode: k!79wXrM)
Speakers: Serene Durham, RNA Fellow (Mentor: Morgan Sammons) and Ute Kothe, Professor of Biochemistry, University of Lethbridge

Date: December 15th, 2020
Click link above to view recording.
Speakers: Amber Altrieth, RNA Fellow (Mentor: Mindy Larsen) and Markus Landthaler, Max-Delbruck-Centrum fur Molekulare Medizin (MDC)

Date: November 17th, 2020
Zoom Recording (Passcode: N8ycp1X*)
Speaker: First year RNA Fellows’ speed talks Part II

Date: October 20th, 2020
Zoom Recording (Passcode: 9%3sgR^?)
Speaker: First year RNA Fellows’ speed talks Part I

Date: September 15th, 2020
Zoom Recording (Passcode: 9D^Rp@Tw)
Speaker: Megan Gura, PhD
Affiliation: Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry Graduate Program, Brown University
Title: Uncovering a mammalian TAF4b-dependent gene expression program required for fertility

Date: May 19th, 2020 
Speaker: Patrick Maxwell, PhD
Affiliation: Biology Department, Siena College
Title: Retrotransposition Asymmetry During Cell Division

Speaker: Arun Chandrasekaran, PhD
Affiliation: Halvorsen Lab, The RNA Institute
Title: Building Nanoscale Structures with DNA

Date: April 28th, 2020
Doctoral Dissertation Defense:
Xiaolong (Eren) Dong 
Affiliation: University at Albany
Title: Group II introns: evolution, structure and function

Date: February 18th, 2020
Speaker: Jamie Corro, Ojha Lab
Affiliation: BioMedical Sciences
Title: Zinc starvation and dormancy in mycobacteria

Speaker: Alexander Shekhtman, PhD, 
Affiliation: University at Albany
Titles: Ribosome Modulates In-Cell Protein Activities

Date: January 21st, 2020
Speaker: Roxie Girardin, PhD, McDonough Lab
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center
Title: The sRNA Mcr11 regulates the growth and central metabolism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Speaker: Alyssa Hoy, Royzen Lab
Affiliation: University at Albany/RNA Institute
Titles: HoNA: A New Oligonucleotide

Date: December 17th, 2019
Speaker: Jared Richardson, Berglund Lab
Affiliation: University at Albany/RNA Institute
Title: Understanding myotonic dystrophy through transcriptomic analysis of humans, mice, and zebrafish

Speaker: Jibin Punnoose, Halvorsen Lab
Affiliation: University at Albany/RNA Institute
Titles: High Throughput Single-molecule Investigation using a Centrifuge Force Microscope

Date: November 19th, 2019
Speaker: Speed talks by current RNA Fellows
Affiliation: Various
Titles: Various

Date: October 15th, 2019
Speaker: Speed talks by current RNA Fellows
Affiliation: Various
Titles: Various

Date: Sept 17th, 2019
Speaker: Kathleen McCann, PhD
Affiliation: NIH
Title: “Guiding cell fate decisions: Investigating the role of H/ACA snoRNAs in differentiation.”

Date: May 21st, 2019
Speaker: Justin Waldern (Belfort Lab) and Timothy Czajka (Mantis Lab)
Affiliation: University at Albany
Titles: TBD

Date: April 16, 2019
Speaker: Kaalak Reddy (Berglund Lab) and Xiaochun Long, AMC
Affiliation: University at Albany
Titles: TBD

Date: March 19, 2019
Speaker: Justin Waldern (Belfort Lab) and May Lee (Melendez Lab)
Affiliation: University at Albany
Titles: TBD

Date: February 19, 2019 – HVRC meeting has been Cancelled!!
February’s HVRC has been cancelled. There will be a RNA Cafe event at 4 p.m. in the D’Ambra Auditorium in the Life Sciences Building.
Speaker: Ed Yong from The Atlantic.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, D’Ambra Auditorium, UAlbany

Date: January 22, 2019
Speaker: Lifeng Zhou (Halvorsen Lab) and Marissa Louis (Pager Lab)
Affiliation: University at Albany
Titles: TBD

Date: December 18, 2018
Speaker: Colin Echeverria Aitkin, Ph.D. and Ryan McDowell (McDonough Lab)
Affiliation: Vassar College and University at Albany
Titles: TBD

Date: November 20, 2018
Speaker: Andrew Berglund, Ph.D. and Dazhi Tan, Ph.D.
Affiliation: The RNA Institute, University at Albany and Silicon Therapeutics
Titles: TBD

Date: October 16, 2018
Speaker: RNA Fellows
Affiliation: University at Albany
Title: TBD

Date: September 18, 2018
Speaker: Amanda Whipple, Ph.D.
Affiliation: Harvard University
Titles: Regulation of gene expression in the brain by imprinted non-coding RNAs

Date: June 12, 2018
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, University at Albany
Speaker: Maxine L. Barasch, Esq.
Affiliation: Intellectual Property Lawyer, Keohane & D’Alessandro, PLLC
Titles: Careers in Patent Law

Date: May 15, 2018
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, University at Albany
Speaker: Parisa Ebrahimi (Chen Lab, UAlbany) and Andrea Leonardi (Begley Lab, UAlbany)
Titles: “Simulating the miR-34a/mSIRT1 conformational rearrangement using Replica Exchange Molecular Dynamics to assess miRNA activity” (P. Ebrahimi) and “The tRNA methyltransferase Alkbh8 protects animals against reactive oxygen species and environmental insults” (A. Leonardi)

Date: April 17, 2018
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, University at Albany
Speaker: Maksim Royzen, PhD and Rachel Nelson (Pata Lab, Wadsworth Center)
Titles: In-cell activation of siRNA using bio-orthogonal chemistry (M. Royzen) and Structure and Mechanisms of C-Family Bacterial DNA Polymerases (R. Nelson)

Will be followed by a RNA Fellows Colloqium:
Time: 5:15 p.m.
Speaker: Aly Hoy (Royzen Lab, University at Albany)
Title: HNA: A new oligonucleotide

Date: March 20, 2018
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, University at Albany
Speaker: Patrick M. Murphy (Curcio Lab, Wadsworth Center) and Neil M. Robertson (Fabris Lab, UAlbany)
Titles: “Formation of LTR-retrotransposon nucleocapsid assembly sites perturbs asymmetric centrosome inheritance” (P. Murphy) and “Controllable RNA and small molecule therapeutics using MRI-active nanoparticles” (N. Robertson)

Will be followed by a RNA Fellows Colloqium:
Time: 5:15 p.m.
Speaker: Jamie Corro (Ojha Lab, Wadsworth Center)
Title: Zinc depletion regulates expression of alternative ribosomes and promotes hibernation in Mycobacterial species

Date: February 20, 2018
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, University at Albany
Speaker: Ravi Kiran Koripella, PhD (Agrawal Lab, Wadsworth Center) and Rebecca J. D’Esposito (Fabris Lab, UAlbany)
Titles: “Structural and Functional Aspects of the Human Mitochondrial Initiation Factor-3” (R. Koripella) and “Using coarse-grained molecular dynamics and ion mobility mass spectrometry for nucleic acid gas-phase structure determination” (R. D’Esposito)

Will be followed by a RNA Fellows Colloqium:
Time: 5:15 p.m.
Speaker: Shane Breznak (Rangan Lab, University at Albany)
Title: Transcriptional silencing promotes timely differentiation

Date: January 25, 2018
Time: 10 a.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, University at Albany
Speaker: J. Andrew Berglend, PhD
Affiliation: University of Florida
Titles: Understanding how toxic RNAs cause a common form of muscular dystrophy

Date: January 16, 2018
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, University at Albany
Speaker: Faraz Ahmed, PhD and Patrick Blatt (Rangan Lab)
Affiliation: University at Albany
Titles: The Core Perspective on RNA-seq Analysis (F. Ahmed) and Regulation of Maternal mRNAs (P. Blatt)

Will be followed by a RNA Fellows Colloqium:
Time: 5:15 p.m.
Speaker: Amber Altrieth (Larsen Lab)
Title: Profiling of Endothelial Cell Signaling Using RNA-seq

Date: December 19, 2017
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, University at Albany
Speaker: Alex Valm, PhD and Alicia McCarthy (Rangan Lab)
Affiliation: University at Albany
Title: Multiplex labeling of 16S rRNA to study systems level oral microbial community structure (A. Valm) and Cracking open the epigenetics of making an egg (A. McCarthy)

Date: November 21, 2017
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Jason Herschkowitz, PhD and Rachel Netzband (Pager Lab)
Affiliation: UAlbany
Title: Dissecting the Epitranscriptome in Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition in Breast Cancer (J. Herschkowitz) and RNA modifications as tools for viral infection (R. Netzband)

Date: October 17, 2017
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: RNA Fellows
Affiliation: UAlbany
Title: Endothelial cell signaling in submandibular salivary gland regeneration (A. Altrieth), Regulation of a ncRNA involved in dosage compensation (S. Breznak), Alternative ribosomes in Mycobacterial species (J. Corro), Using single-molecule experiments to calibrate nucleic acid base-stacking in molecular simulations (K. Dill) and HNA- A new oligonucleotide (A. Hoy)

Date: October 3, 2017
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Athma Pai, PhD
Affiliation: MIT and RNA Therapeutics Institute, UMass Medical School
Title: The kinetics of mRNA splicing: uncovering the need for speed in gene regulation​

Date: June 22, 2017 – PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS SEMINAR HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: James Gagnon (Postdoc, Schier Lab)
Affiliation: Harvard University
Title: Whole organism lineage tracing with genome editing

Date: May 16, 2017
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Thomas Kenderdine (Postdoc, Fabris Lab) and Gabriele Baniulyte (PhD student, Wade Lab)
Affiliation: UAlbany and Wadsworth Center
Title: Developing IMS-MS-based Technologies for Screening Potential RNA Therapeutics (T. Kenderdine) and Nus factors have a widespread regulatory function in bacteria (G. Baniulyte)

Date: April 18, 2017
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Caroline Horizny (PhD student, Tenenbaum Lab) and Nicholas Mantis, PhD
Affiliation: CNSE and Wadsworth Center
Title: Structurally-Interacting RNAs for the Detection and Identification of Intracellular and Exosomal miRNAs (C. Horizny) and Elucidating the Dynamics of Ricin-Ribosome Interactions with Single Domain Antibodies (N. Mantis)

Date: March 21, 2017
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Graziano Vernizzi, PhD and Jia Sheng, PhD
Affiliation: Siena College and UAlbany
Title: A statistical mechanical model for RNA molecules with pseudoknots (G. Vernizzi) and Structural Studies of 2′-5′-linked RNAs (J. Sheng)

Date: February 21, 2017
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Ben Szaro, PhD and Sri Ranganathan, PhD
Affiliation: UAlbany
Title: Specific Introns Mediate Post-Transcriptional Control of Neurofilament Reporter Gene Expression in vivo (B. Szaro) and Modeling RNA-nanoparticle interactions for developing biosensors (S. Ranganathan)

Date: January 17, 2017
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Rebecca DeVaux (Herschkowitz Lab) and J. Andres Melendez, PhD
Affiliation: UAlbany (Herschkowitz Lab) and SUNY Polytechnic Institute
Title: Long noncoding RNAs as functional drivers of invasive breast cancer (R. DeVaux) and Identifying redox-responsive senescence control networks (J.A. Melendez)

Date: December 20, 2016
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Todd Gray, PhD and Alicia Salinero (Morse/Curcio Labs)
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center
Title: New beginnings in mycobacterial gene expression (T. Gray) and The Mediator tail regulates Ty1 mobility via alternate transcription start site selection (A. Salinero)

Date: November 15, 2016
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Bijan Dey, PhD and Maksim Royzen, PhD
Affiliation: UAlbany
Title: Non-coding RNAs in Skeletal Muscle Regeneration and Muscle Degenerative Disease (B. Dey) and Bio-orthogonal chemistry facilitates delivery of siRNA and other therapeutics (M. Royzen)

Date: October 18, 2016
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: RNA Fellows
Affiliation: UAlbany
Title: TBD

Date: September 20, 2016
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Eren Dong and Ben Boivin, PhD
Affiliation: UAlbany and SUNY Polytechnic Institute
Title: Structure determination of a group II intron RNP by SHAPE (E. Dong) and PTP1B: mediating ROS signaling to silence genes (B. Boivin)

Date: May 17, 2016
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Joseph Wade, PhD and Thomas Begley, PhD
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center and SUNY Polytechnic Institute
Title: Genome-scale analyses of the E. coli CRISPR-Cas immune system (J. Wade) and Stressing out with Translation and the UGA stop codon (T. Begley)

Date: April 19, 2016
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Rachel Cary and Mehmet Yigit, PhD
Affiliation: UAlbany
Title: Involvement of N-6 methyladenosine (m6A) enzymes during Dengue virus infection (R. Cary) and DNA and gold nanotechnology for sensing applications (M. Yigit)

Date: March 15, 2016
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Katerina Tluckova and Ryan Palumbo
Affiliation: UAlbany (Rangan Lab)
Title: Role of the secondary structure in translation control (K. Tluckova) and Sequential translational repression of a germline mRNA by temporally restricted translational repressors (R. Palumbo)

Date: February 16, 2016 
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Alan Chen, PhD and Jason Biegel
Affiliation: UAlbany and UAlbany (Pager Lab)
Title: Simulating RNA-graphene interactions to improve biosensor design (A. Chen) and The Role of the DEAD-box RNA Helicase RCK/p54 in Hepatitis C Virus Gene Expression (J. Biegel)

Please note that there will not be a meeting on Tuesday, January 19th.

Date: December 15, 2015
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Gwen Knapp and Gabriel Fuchs, PhD
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center (McDonough Lab) and UAlbany
Title: Genetic regulation of the methylcitrate cycle and methylmalonyl pathway by the cAMP-associated transcription factor, Cmr (G. Knapp) and Posttranslational modifications of RPS25 affect poliovirus IRES translation and virus yield (G. Fuchs)

Date: November 17, 2015
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building D’Ambra Auditorium, UAlbany
Speaker: Arun Chandrasekaran and Drew Peifer
Affiliation: UAlbany (Postdoc with Halvorsen at RNA Institute) and RPI (Grad student in Maxwell lab)
Title: Programmable DNA nanoswitches for microRNA detection (A. Chandrasekaran) and Regulation and consequences of retrotransposons during quiescence (D. Peifer)

Date: October 20, 2015
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building D’Ambra Auditorium, UAlbany
Speaker: Patrick Blatt (Biology), Rachel Cary (Biology), Lauren Cooper (BMS), Rebecca D’Esposito (Chemistry), Alicia McCarthy (Biology), Rachel Nelson (BMS) and Neil Robertson (Chemistry)
Affiliation: UAlbany
Title: RNA Training Fellows Speed-talks

Date: September 15, 2015
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Danielle Fabris, PhD, and Sridar Chittur, PhD
Affiliation: UAlbany and UAlbany Center for Functional Genomics
Title: Global profiling of RNA post-transcriptional modifications for investigating the epitranscriptomics of stress response (D. Fabris) and Nextseq500: should this be your sequencing platform for RNA and other applications? (S. Chittur)

Date: June 22, 2015
Time: 3 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building, D’Ambra Auditorium, UAlbany
Speaker: Gil Amitai, PhD
Affiliation: Weizmann Institute
Title: CRISPR dependency on host DNA repair for distinction of self vs non-self
Co-hosted with UAlbany Department of Biological Sciences

Date: May 19, 2015
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Dawn Carone, PhD, Prem Singh Kaushal, PhD and Guosheng Qu, PhD
Affiliation: Williams College, Wadsworth Center (Agrawal lab) and UAlbany (Belfort Lab)
Title: Chromosome-associated RNA from the junk of the genome (D. Carone) and Molecular analysis of the cryo-EM structure of a group II intron ribonucleoprotein complex (P. Kaushal and G. Qu)

Date: April 21, 2015
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Devon Fitzgerald and Joan Curcio, PhD
Affiliation: UAlbany (Wade Lab) and Wadsworth Center
Title: Genome-wide mapping and characterization of RpoF-dependent promoters in Escherichia coli (D. Fitzgerald) and Changing course: retrotransposon assembly and asymmetric cell division (J. Curcio)

Date: March 17-20, 2015
Location: Life Sciences Research Building, UAlbany
Keynote Speakers: Christine Guthrie, PhD, Peter Sarnow, PhD, Robert Singer, PhD,and Erik Sontheimer, PhD
Hosted By: The RNA Institute, UAlbany
Sponsored By: Sigma-Aldrich Corporation
Title: 2nd Annual Symposium on RNA Science and its Applications
CRISPR Systems Workshop

Date: January 20, 2014
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Kathleen McDonough, PhD, and Dawn Carone, PhD
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center and Williams College
Title: TBA

Date: December 16, 2014
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Hongmin Li, PhD, and Dustin Trufanoff ,
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center and UAlbany (Osuna lab)
Title: Structure, function and inhibition of flavivirus RNA methyltransferase (H. Li) and Control of dksA expression in E. coli (D. Trufanoff)

Date: November 18, 2014
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Maitreyi Upadhyay, and Jason Herschkowitz, PhD,
Affiliation: UAlbany (Rangan lab) and UAlbany
Title: TBA

Date: October 21, 2014
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Celina Juliano, PhD, and Rajendra Agrawal, PhD,
Affiliation: Yale Stem Cell Center and Wadsworth Center
Title: PIWI-piRNA pathway function in the stem cells of immortal Hydra (C. Juliano) and Structure and function of the mammalian mitochondrial ribosomes (R. Agrawal)

Date: September 26, 2014
Time: 11:30 a.m.
Room: LS 1143, Life Sciences Research Building, the University at Albany
Speaker: Patrick Allard, PhD
Affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles
Title: Living and reproducing in a complex environment: A model organism approach to study of environmental stresses

Date: September 16, 2014
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Chen Wang, PhD, and Joseph T. Wade
Affiliation: UAlbany (Szaro lab) and Wadsworth Center
Title: Splicing of a specific intron is essential for in vivo translation of a reporter gene containing a neurofilament 3′ untranslated region (C. Wang) and RNAs everywhere: discovery and characterization of pervasive transcription in bacteria (J. Wade)

Date: June 24, 2014
Time: 3 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra Auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Gabriele Fuchs
Affiliation: Stanford University
Title: Ribosome Composition and Translational Control

Date: May 20, 2014
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Pan Li, PhD, and Xiaochun Long, PhD,
Affiliation: UAlbany and Albany Medical College
Title: Probing structural polymorphism of expanded CAG RNA repeats (P. Li) and Initial characterization of smooth muscle-enriched long non-coding RNAs (X. Long)

Date: April 15, 2014
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Deepak Thirunavukarasu, Thomas Begley, PhD,
Affiliation: UAlbany (Shi Lab) and SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering
Title: RNA aptamer enabled manipulation reveals a negative feedback in HSP70-CHIP mediated ubiquitination of misfiled proteins (D. Thirunavukarasu) and Regulation of Gene Expression and Translational Fidelity by RNA Modification: Connecting Yeast and Cancer Models
(T. Begley)

Date: March 18, 2014
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Gang Liu, PhD, Maria Basanta Sanchez and Ken Halvorsen
Affiliation: Albany Medical College and UAlbany (RNA Institute)
Title: TBD (G. Liu) and Collaborative research initiatives and technology at the RNA Institute (M. Basanta Sanchez & K. Halvorsen)

Date: February 18, 2014
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Todd Gray, PhD and Rebecca Rose
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center and UAlbany (Fabris Lab)
Title: Mycobacterial mixed messages: efficient translation initiation of both leadered and leaderless transcripts leads to a search for a mechanism (T. Gray) and Using global surveys of RNA modifications to reveal the multistage processes involved in cell discrimination, metabolism and pathological state (R. Rose)

Date: January 22-24, 2014
Location: Life Sciences Research Building, UAlbany
Keynote Speakers: Rachel Green, PhD, Michael Ibba, PhD, Shawn Shafer, Sigma-Aldrich, Henri Tiedge, PhD,and Eckard Wimmer, PhD
Hosted By: The RNA Institute, UAlbany
Sponsored By: Sigma-Aldrich Corporation
Title: 1st Annual Sigma-Aldrich Symposium & Workshop: RNA Science and its Applications

Date: November 19, 2013
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Kevin Czaplinski, PhD
Affiliation: Center for Nervous System Disorders, Stony Brook University
Title: Brain zipcode binding proteins you never knew existed

Date: October 25-26, 2013
Time: Noon
Venue: The Inn on the Lake, Canandaigua, NY
Title: Finger Lakes RNA group

Date: October 15, 2013
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Sheila Lutz and Joachim Jaegar, PhD
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center
Title: RNA localization is needed to form replication competent Ty1 virus-like particles (S. Lutz) and RNA synthesis in a box (J. Jaeger)

Date: September 17, 2013
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Darryl Conte, PhD
Affiliation: University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA
Title: RNAi-related pathways survey the germline transcriptome in C. elegans

Date: May 21, 2013
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Life Sciences Research Building Room 1143, UAlbany
Speaker: Guosheng Qu and Joseph T. Wade
Affiliation: UAlbany & Wadsworth Center
Title: HVRC seminar series

Date: May 17, 2013
Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra Auditorium, UAlbany
Speaker: Various
Affiliation: Workshops for Interaction and Scientific Collaboration (WISC)
Title: Viruses and Other Selfish Elements

Date: April 17, 2013
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, UAlbany
Speaker: Patrick Maxwell
Affiliation: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Title: The Regulation and Influence of Retrotransposons During Cellular Aging
co-hosted by Prashanth Rangan and Joan Curcio

Date: November 5, 2012 (cancelled due to weather, new date to be decided)
Time: To be announced
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center
Speaker: Mark Bayfield
Affiliation: York University
Title: RNA chaperone activity of La and La-related proteins

Date: January 30, 2013
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, UAlbany
Speaker: Jia Sheng
Affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital
Title: Nucleic Acid Crystallography: from Methodology Development to the Origin of Life

Date: January 24, 2013
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, UAlbany
Speaker: Anurag Sethi
Affiliation: Los Alamos National Lab
Title: Evolution and Modeling of Information Processing in the Cell

Date: January 22, 2013
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, UAlbany
Speaker: Sharon Aviran
Affiliation: University of California, Berkeley
Title: High-throughput RNA structure analysis from footprinting experiments

Date: January 17, 2013
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, UAlbany
Speaker: Shi-Jie Chen
Affiliation: University of Missouri-Columbia
Title: RNA Folding: New Theory, New Insights

Date: December 19, 2012
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, UAlbany
Speaker: Hasan Demirci
Affiliation: Brown University
Title: Structural Studies of Ribosome Modifying Enzymes and Mutant Ribosomes

Date: December 17, 2012
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, UAlbany
Speaker: Alan A. Chen
Affiliation: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Title: The Kiss that Binds: Simulating the Mechanical Stability of Retroviral Kissing-Loops

Date: November 28, 2012
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, UAlbany
Speaker: Kotaro Nakanishi
Affiliation: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Title: Structural Studies of the Two Key Players in the RNAi, Argonaute and Dicer

Date: October 19, 2012
Time: 3 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra Auditorium, Life Sciences Research Building, University at Albany
Speaker: Jacquin Niles
Affiliation: MIT
Title: A Versatile Engineered Platform For Directly Controlling Cellular RNA Functions

Date: October 12, 2012
Time: 3 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra Auditorium, Life Sciences Research Building, University at Albany
Speaker: Thomas Gingeras
Affiliation: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Title: Important Lessons From Complex Genomes

Date: October 4, 2012
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra Auditorium, Life Sciences Research Building, University at Albany
Speaker: Cynthia Clark
Affiliation: President, ibiliti
Title: An Entrepreneurs View: Successfully Translating Life Science Research into Commercial Products

Date: May 9, 2012
Time: 11 a.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium
Speaker: Kathleen McDonough
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center
Title: Big role for small RNAs in Yersinia Pestis

Date: May 23, 2012 (Double Header)
Time: 10 a.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium
Speaker: Douglas Conklin
Affiliation: University at Albany
Title: Functional genomic studies of breast cancer

Speaker: Gary P. Schroth
Affiliation: Illumina
Title: Revealing the transcriptome using next-generation sequencing

Date: June 25, 2012
Time: Noon
Room: LS 1143, Life Sciences Research Building, University at Albany
Speaker: Gil Amitai
Affiliation: Weizmann Institute
Title: CRISPR, and RNA-guided acquired immune system in bacteria

Date: April 16, 2012
Time: Noon
Room: CMS collaboratory
Speaker: Eric Masse
Affiliation: Universite de Sherbrooke
Title: Regulating mRNA translation and decay with small RNAs in E. coli

Date: April 13, 2012
Time: 3 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium
Speaker: Shi-Jie Chen
Affiliation: University of Missouri
Title: Physics-based modeling of RNA folding (joint Biological Sciences-Physics-RNA Institute-HVRC seminar)

Date: February 28, 2012
Time: 2 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Michelle Arnold
Affiliation: NIAID, NIH
Title: Cells Lose Their Inhibitions: Subversion of the Innate Immune Response by RNA Viruses

Date: February 23, 2012
Time: 2 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Elizabeth Tran
Affiliation: Purdue University
Title: Exploring the Roles of RNA Helicases in Transcriptional Fidelity

Date: February 20, 2012
Time: 2 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Rebecca Tirabassi
Affiliation: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Title: Big Viruses, Small RNAs: Coregulation of target genes by human cytomegalovirus miRNAs

Date: February 16, 2012
Time: 2 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Cara Pager
Affiliation: Stanford University
Title: Hepatitis C Virus Subverts Cellular RNA Granules to Promote Viral Gene Expression

Date: February 13, 2012
Time: 2 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Shuo Gu
Affiliation: Stanford University
Title: From dsRNA to ssRNA: Unwinding the mystery of RISC maturation

Date: February 9, 2012
Time: 2 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Xantha Carp
Affiliation: Columbia University
Title: Modulation of microRNA pathways and the maintenance of developmental potential
during quiescence

Date: January 30, 2012
Time: 10 a.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Jason Herschkowitz
Affiliation: Baylor College of Medicine
Title: Non-coding RNAs and the claudin-low subtype of breast cancer: the long and short of it

Date: January 19, 2012
Time: 10 a.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Prashanth Rangan
Affiliation: Kimmel Center for Biology and Medicine, Skirball Institute, NYU
Title: RNA regulation in the germline

Date: January 17, 2012
Time: 10 a.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Auinash Kalsotra
Affiliation: Baylor College of Medicine
Title: MicroRNA regulation of alternative splicing networks during heart development and disease

Date: December 12, 2011
Time: 9 a.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Blanton Tolbert
Affiliation: Miami University
Title: Structural biophysics of protein-RNA complexes involved in viral replication

Date: December 13, 2011
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Jeffrey Chao
Affiliation: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Title: Studying posttranscriptional regulation with old and new tricks

Date: December 2, 2011
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Room: Thompson Physical Laboratory 205, Williams College
Speaker: Koulosh Zarringhalam
Affiliation: Boston College
Title: Recent results on the thermodynamics and kinetics of RNA structure (Physics and Astronomy Colloqium)

Date: October 3, 2011
Time: 3 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Hanna Engelberg-Kulka
Affiliation: Hebrew University,
Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel
Title: Programmed cell death, signaling and the multicellular behavior of the bacterial population
(Joint Biological Sciences/RNA Institute/HVRC seminar)

Date: August 3, 2011
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Kenji Ichiyanagi
Affiliation: Kyushu University, Japan
Title: Epigenetic regulation of retrotransposons in mouse germ cells by DNA methylation and small RNA (Joint Biological Sciences/RNA Institute/HVRC seminar)

Date: June 22, 2011
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory
Speaker: Alexander Brodsky
Affiliation: Brown University
Title: Translating Translation: Regulation of Protein Synthesis by Hormones and Metastasis

Date: May 19, 2011
Time: Noon
Room: CMS Collaboratory, Wadsworth Center
Speaker: Ann Palmenberg
Affiliation: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Title: Bioinformatics and Rhinoviruses: Implications for Virus Functions and Antiviral Therapies

Date: March 18, 2011
Time: 3 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Renée Schroeder
Affiliation: RNA Laboratory, University of Vienna, Austria
Title: Genomic aptamers that regulate their own transcription (Joint Biological Sciences/RNA Institute/HVRC seminar)

Date: February 16, 2011
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center
Speaker: Graziano Vernizzi
Affiliation: Siena College
Title: Topological Classification of RNA Pseuodoknots

Date: December 6, 2010
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Markus Landthaler
Affiliation: Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch
Title: Using small RNA sequencing to decode post-transcriptional regulatory networks (Joint HVRC/RNA Institute seminar)

Date: November 9, 2010
Time: 1 p.m.
Room: Salon G/H, Albany Marriott
Speaker: Joel G. Belasco
Affiliation: NYU
Title: 5′-terminal control of bacterial RNA degradation

Date: November 9, 2010
Time: 1:40 p.m.
Room: Salon G/H, Albany Marriott
Speaker: John D. Helmann
Affiliation: Cornell University
Title: A central role of sRNA in bacterial iron homeostasis

Date: November 9, 2010
Time: 2:40 p.m.
Room: Salon G/H, Albany Marriott
Speaker: Joseph Wade
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center
Title: Pervasive transcription in Escherichia coli

Date: November 9, 2010
Time: 3:20 p.m.
Room: Salon G/H, Albany Marriott
Speaker: Jonathan Livny
Affiliation: Broad Institute
Title: Fishing in the deep: using high throughput cDNA sequencing to identify and characterize regulatory RNAs in diverse bacteria

Date: November 5, 2010
Time: 10 a.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Paul Vouros
Affiliation: Northeastern University
Title: Analyzing DNA Adducts at the Trace Level; Challenges and Implications (RNA Institute seminar)

Date: November 5, 2010
Time: 11 a.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Jack Henion
Affiliation: Advion Biosciences, Inc.
Title: Automated Liquid Extraction Surface Analysis (LESA) Combined with nESI-MS as a Novel Tool for Analyzing Surfaces (RNA Institute seminar)

Date: October 29, 2010
Time: 3 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, the University at Albany
Speaker: Dieter Soll
Affiliation: Yale University
Title: The continuing evolution of the genetic code (RNA Institute seminar)

Date: October 14, 2010
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: DAI auditorium, Wadsworth Center
Speaker: Sean Eddy
Affiliation: HHMI, Janelia Farm
Title: Exploiting Oxytricha Trifallax Nanochromosomes to Screen for Noncoding RNA Genes (Wadsworth seminar)

Dates: Oct 8 – 9, 2010

Keynote Speakers:

Lynne Maquat, Director, University of Rochester Center for RNA Biology
Larry Gold, University of Colorado at Boulder and SomaLogic, Inc.
Anna M. Pyle, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Yale University

The first annual RNA-UNY conference, hosted by the Hudson Valley RNA Club and
the Rochester RNA Cluster, will be held in the beautiful and rustic fall setting of
the Rensselaerville Institute
in Rensselaerville, New York.

The conference will promote interdisciplinary
conversations between RNA researchers pursuing biochemical,
structural, computational, or systems approaches to enable
critical breakthroughs in RNA structure, RNA catalysis, RNA-
protein interactions, RNA interference, and RNA genomics.
Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are especially
encouraged to attend.

Abstract deadline: July 31, 2010 (extended till August 18, 2010)
Early registration fees (till August 31, 2010)
$ 125 – $ 275 depending on circumstances.
Late registration fees (from September 1 till September 20, 2010)
$ 175 – $ 325 depending on circumstances.

Date: October 7, 2010
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: DAI auditorium, Wadsworth Center
Speaker: Rob Knight
Affiliation: University of Colorado at Boulder
Title: Biogeography of the Human Microbiome (Wadsworth seminar)

Date: September 22, 2010
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center
Speaker: Sheila Lutz
Affiliation: Heidelberg University
Title: TREX-2 couples transcription and mRNA export at the nuclear pore

Date: July 21, 2010
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center
Speaker: Gang Liu
Affiliation: Albany Medical College
Title: Localization of mRNAs encoding actin polymerization nucleators and directional cell migration

Date: May 19, 2010
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center
Speaker: Jack M. Sullivan
Affiliation: Ira G. Ross Eye Institute, University at Buffalo
Title: Relieving bottlenecks in RNA drug discovery
Note: A 15 minute update on IRNAST after the seminar
by Paul Agris

Date: April 29, 2010
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: DAI auditorium, Wadsworth Center
Speaker: Tom Tullius
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry,
Boston University
Title: The role of DNA shape in the workings of the human genome (Wadsworth seminar)

Date: April 15, 2010
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS Collaboratory, Wadsworth Center, 150 New Scotland Ave
Speaker: Anke van den Berg
Affiliation: University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen
Title: AGO-2 Immunoprecipitation to Identify Human miRNA Targets in B Cell Lymphoma (Wadsworth seminar)

Date: March 17, 2010
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center, 150 New Scotland Ave
Speaker: Steve Hanes
Affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Wadsworth Center
Title: Ess1, the CTD Code, and Other Stories

Date: February 17, 2010
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center, 150 New Scotland Ave
Speaker: Angel E. García
Affiliation: Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, RPI
Title: Atomistic simulations of the folding/unfolding equilibrium of the UUCG RNA tetraloop

Date: January 20, 2010 (Postdoc Double Header)
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center, 150 New Scotland Ave
Speaker: Patrick Maxwell
Affiliation: Joan Curcio lab, Wadsworth Center
Title: Mobility and Age: Do Retrotransposons Influence Aging?
Speaker: Josh Martin
Affiliation: Alain Laederach lab, Wadsworth Center
Title: RNA secondary structure changes from single nucleotide polymorphisms

Date: December 4, 2009
Time: 3 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium
Speaker: Ailong Ke
Affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University
Title: Mechanism of ligand-sensing and multimerization in RNA

Date: November 18, 2009
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: TBA, College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering
Speaker: Joseph Wade
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center
Title: Antisense transcription in E. coli: new tricks for an old dog

Date: October 15, 2009
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: DAI auditorium, Wadsworth Center, 120 New Scotland Ave
Speaker: Michael Brenowitz
Affiliation: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Title: Finding roads most traveled during RNA folding (Wadsworth seminar)

Date: October 5, 2009
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: SUNY East campus, Gen*NY*Sis Center Auditorium
Speaker: Karen Adelman
Affiliation: NIEHS
Title: Stress-responsive genes are poised for activation

Date: September 16, 2009
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center, 150 New Scotland Ave
Speaker: Ben Szaro
Affiliation: the University at Albany
Title: The regulation of neurofilament RNAs during axon outgrowth in development and regeneration

Date: July 16, 2009
Time: 10 a.m.
Room: DAI auditorium, Wadsworth Center, 120 New Scotland Ave
Speaker: Yi-Tao Yu
Affiliation: University of Rochester Medical Center
Title: Spliceosomal snRNA modification and pre-mRNA splicing (Wadsworth seminar)

Date: July 15, 2009
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, Life Sciences Research Building, SUNY main campus
Speaker: Tom Eickbush
Affiliation: University of Rochester
Title: Non-LTR retrotransposons: using the chromosomal target site to prime reverse transcription

Date: June 24, 2009
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center, 150 New Scotland Ave
Speaker: Jörg Vogel
Affiliation: The Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany
Title: How small RNAs recognize multiple mRNAs to rewire gene expression

Date: June 17, 2009
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center, 150 New Scotland Ave
Speaker: Alexander Mankin
Affiliation: Professor,
Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Department of Medicinal Chemistry & Pharmacognosy, University of Illinois at Chicago
Title: Control of gene expression by nascent peptide-ribosome interactions (Wadsworth DTM DIvision seminar)

Date: June 3, 2009
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center, 150 New Scotland Ave
Speaker: Paul Agris
Affiliation: Professor of Biological Sciences and of Chemistry,
Director of IRNAST, University at Albany and Professor of Biochemistry, North Carolina State University
Title: An Informal Discussion on the Importance of Being Modified, and of being IRNAST

Date: May 13, 2009
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center, 150 New Scotland Ave
Speaker: Edward Arnold
Affiliation: Rutgers University
Title: HIV-1 RT/DNA Complexes (Joint Molecular Machines / HVRC seminar)

Date: April 10, 2009
Room: DAI auditorium, David Axelrod Institute, Wadsworth Center
Speaker: John Moran
Affiliation: HHMI / University of Michigan
Title: Studies of a Human Transposable Element (Wadsworth seminar)

Date: April 6, 2009
Speaker: Dan Fabris
Affiliation: University of Maryland Baltimore County
Title: High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry for Investigating the Structure-Function
Relationships in Retroviral Protein-Nucleic Acid Assemblies

Date: March 11, 2009
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, Wadsworth Center, 150 New Scotland Ave
Speaker: Thomas Begley
Affiliation: Gen*NY*sis Center, University at Albany
Title: Optimizing stress signaling via wobble base tRNA modifications

Date: February 18, 2009
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra Auditorium, Life Sciences Research Building, SUNY Uptown campus
Speaker: Marlene Belfort
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center
Title: Stressed out group II introns on the move

Date: January 21, 2009
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: SUNY East campus, Gen*NY*Sis Center Auditorium
Speaker: Magnus Bergkvist
Affiliation: University at Albany, Center for Environmental Sciences & Technology Management
Title: BioNanotechnology: Bioinspired Nanofabrication & Device Integration

Date: December 17, 2008
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Fischbach Room, Folsom Library, RPI
Speaker: Maurille Fournier
Affiliation: University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Title: Strong RNA modification machinery is required for healthy ribosomes

Date: November 12, 2008
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: DAI auditorium, David Axelrod Institute, Wadsworth Center
Speaker: Kevin Weeks
Affiliation: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Title: High-Throughput Analysis of the HIV-1 RNA genome (Wadsworth seminar)

Date: October 15, 2008
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Room: Fischbach Room, Folsom Library, RPI
Speaker: Daniel Aalberts
Affiliation: Department of Physics, Williams College
Title: Asymmetry in Pseudoknots: Observation and Theory

Date: September 17, 2008
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra auditorium, Life Sciences Research Building, the University at Albany main campus
Speaker: David Mathews
Affiliation: University of Rochester Medical Center
Title: Improving RNA structure prediction

July – August: Summer Break, HVRC steering committee meeting held on July 17, 2008,
meeting minutes are available here as a pdf file.

Date: June 18, 2008
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, 150 New Scotland Ave, Albany
Speaker: Alain Laederach
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center
Title: Elucidating the effects of human genetic variation on RNA structure using CAFA (Capillary Automated Footprinting Analysis)

Date: May 21, 2008
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: D’Ambra Auditorium, Life Sciences Research Building, SUNY Uptown campus
Speaker: Li Niu
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, the University at Albany
Title: One RNA aptamer sequence , two structures: a collaborating pair that inhibits glutamate receptors?

Date: April 14, 2008
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory, 150 New Scotland Ave, Albany
Speaker: Renée Schroeder
Affiliation: RNA Laboratory, University of Vienna, Austria
Title: Understanding the Molecular Basis for Target RNA Recognition by Human RISC Enables the Design of Potent siRNAs

Date: March 19, 2008
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Massry Conference Room, Gen*NY*Sis Center for Excellence in Cancer Research
Speaker: Douglas Conklin
Affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, the University at Albany
Title: RNA Interference-Based Functional Genomics of Breast Cancer

Date: February 20, 2008
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary studies, RPI
Speaker: James Ferris
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, RPI
Title: The RNA World Scenario for the Origins of Life

Date: January 16, 2008
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS Collaboratory
Speaker: Paul Masters
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center
Title: Replication of Coronavirus Genomic RNA

Date: December 19, 2007
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS Collaboratory
Speaker: Ye Ding
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center
Title: Elucidating regulatory networks by non-coding RNAs

Date: November 7, 2007
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: the University at Albany, Life Sciences Building Auditorium
Speaker: Pan Li
Affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, the University at Albany
Title: Breaking the kissing interaction, one molecule at a time

Date: October 17, 2007
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Room: RPI Bruggeman conference room
Speaker: Michael Zuker
Affiliation: Department of Mathematical Sciences and Biology, RPI
Title: Structural RNAs from a mathematician’s perspective: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Date: September 19, 2007
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Room: CMS Collaboratory (2nd Floor)
Speaker: Joachim Frank
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center
Title: The Ribosome, A Molecule Built to Rock: Toward Mechanistic Understanding of Translocation

Date: August 15, 2007 (Double Header)
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: SUNY main campus, Life Sciences Research Building auditorium
Speaker: Min-Ho Lee
Affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, the University at Albany
Title: Translational Regulation in C. Elegans Germline Development, GLD-1 and Its mRNA Targets
Speaker: Hua Shi
Affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, the University at Albany
Title: Towards Aptamer-Mediated Opsonization

Date: June 20, 2007
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory (2nd Floor)
Speaker: Markus Landthaler
Affiliation: Rockefeller University
Title: Biochemistry of the Human RNAi Machinery

Date: May 16, 2007
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Room: SUNY East campus, Gen*NY*Sis Center Auditorium
Speaker: Scott Tenenbaum
Affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, the University at Albany
Title: The mRNP code

Date: April 18, 2007 (HVRC Inaugural Seminar)
Time: 4 p.m.
Room: CMS collaboratory (2nd Floor)
Speaker: Joan Curcio
Affiliation: Wadsworth Center
Title: RNA to the Rescue! The Role of Retrosequences in Restructuring Damaged Genomes

The first gathering of RNA Scientists in the Capital Region was at a retreat, “The Magical World of RNA”, that took place in 2004 at Alumni House at the University at Albany. Participants included Marlene Belfort, Joan Curcio, Ye Ding, Joachim Frank, Paul Masters, Janice Pata, Scott Tennenbaum, David Shub and Michael Zuker. Then, the HVRC was born in 2007 as a grass-roots organization born out of an obvious and growing nexus of RNA researchers in the Capital Region. Joan and Marlene at Wadsworth, Scott at UAlbany and Michael at RPI were the ring leaders. Meetings were hosted once a month at the various sites, with pizza and conversation. Joan gave the inaugural talk at Wadsworth (Center for Medical Sciences), followed by Scott on the East Campus (Health Sciences Campus). RNA scientists from all over the region quickly gathered and grew in number to several dozen faculty members. The HVRC fostered connections and collaborations that didn't exist at the time among folks at different institutions. Nilesh Banavali put together a website and the first big annual meeting was held in Rensselaerville in 2010. The University of Rochester folks were included and the inaugural meeting was a huge success. Scott was in charge of fundraising and the organizers put on a great 2-day conference with several outside speakers including Larry Gold, Lynn Maquat and Anna Pyle. In 2013 Rochester reciprocated at the Finger Lakes Symposium with Nahum Sonenberg as keynote. The HVRC was really firing on all cylinders with about 80 active members including students, post docs, and faculty.

Meanwhile, in 2010 emerged the idea of starting what would become the current RNA Institute. The HVRC has been loosely associated with the Institute ever since and the RNA Institute Annual Meeting replaced the annual HVRC conference.  

The HVRC started being hosted predominantly out of the UAlbany uptown campus, using the two-speaker format, with an emphasis on post docs and students rather than faculty. The HVRC then became the forum for presentations by the RNA Fellows, and has been run as such by Gaby Fuchs, using funds raised from the RNA Society, Krackeler, Lexogen and New England Biolabs. The HVRC is now one of the RNA Society’s RNA Salons. Due to COVID-19, in 2020 the monthly meetings became virtual, and that allowed participation of speakers from across the country and abroad.