1. Logistics
2. General guidance regarding presentations
3. Schedule of Panels

A. Logistics

• Where and When: All presentations are in the Harris Hall Computer Lab, Room 3112 (see map). See Schedule below for days and times.
   
• What: A presentation is a coherent story about a portion of a research proposal or an article translation. See description below as to the nature of these two types. You might also see, if you like, the instructions given to presenters on how to compose a presentation.
   
• Who: Presentations are open to the public, but in practice the only people there are usually presenters and panelists.
   
• Loading presentations: There won't be time to download your presentation. It must be on the computer before the panels begin. This can be done in either of two ways:
   
  • E-mail your presentation to me by 15 minutes before the first presentation of your session (probably MORE than 15 minutes before your presentation)
  • Bring your presentation on a memory device by 15 minutes before the first presentation your session
  
  Do not expect to download it from your e-mail or upload it on the spot from your memory device.
   
• Duration of presentation: Up to seven minutes and no more. At six minutes, presenters will hear a courteous tinkle of a bell. At seven minutes, a bone-shaking clang will stop the presentation if it has not already concluded. Presenters may complete the sentence in progress (with no more than one conjunction), but that's it.
   
• Duration of question and answer period: Up to eight minutes. Questions will be posed by the panel concerning the presentation and the written proposal. The primary reviewer (underlined below) initiates the discussion.
   
• Feedback: The eight minutes of questioning will by itself provide valuable feedback to the presenter. Reviewers are free, if they wish, to provide written feedback as well.
   
• Revision: Presenters will have an opportunity to revise their work (due Monday, December 17) in response to insights gained during the review. The date has been extended owing to VCU's weather-related extension of the deadline to submit grades.
   

B. General guidance regarding presentations

• Objects of Review: Reviewers will consider both the proposal or website (link below) and the presentation (link to be active just before presentation). Be prepared to speak about both.
   
• Overall: The goals of a proposal or translation may be seen as part of the course objectives.
   
• Audience: If you are presenting a proposal, your audience is your peers, those who are not familiar with the field. If you are presenting a translation, your audience are those with a good high school biology education (or, if you prefer, Nobel Prize winners in physics who don't know much about biology). This isn't an exercise of dumbing something down but rather including more people in the essential experience of the work you're presented.
   
• Context: The presenter should make clear what big problem surrounds the presented experiment, a problem understandable to a general audience. Through a series of logical steps, citing prior work, the proposer should proceed from the big picture to the experiment, which should be presented as a small part of the effort to solve the big problem.
   
• Focus: The presenter should present a question sufficiently focused so that it can be addressed by a single experiment. This is true even if you are translating an article. The presentation should be an interesting slice of your website.
   
• The Experiment: The proposer should describe the principles behind every essential aspect of the presented experiment. Details needed to reproduce an experiment (e.g. buffer, temperature of incubation, etc) are neither needed nor desirable, but the specifics of the procedures and materials necessary to conduct the experiment should be described. If the experiment uses q-RT-PCR, how does it work? What is the sequence of the primers used? Why them? (a map would be useful)
   
• Observation/measurement: The proposer should make clear what is or will be the nature of the primary observation. It is not enough to say "...measured enzyme activity". Measured how?
   
• Graphics: Use lots. It is seldom appropriate to use graphics directly from an article. Adapt them so that they are comprehensible to your audience.
   
• Depth, not breadth: Go deeply into the experiment, how it works. That means that much will be left behind. Fine.
   
• More advice: Please see How to Give a Presentation Focused on an Experiment.

C. Schedule of Panels

Titles link to the written proposals.
Presentation links to the corresponding powerpoint presentation (active the day of the presentation).

Panel I: Wednesday, Dec 12, 11:00 - 12:00 noon
Panelists: Bill Barton, Mike McVoy, Nick Rodriguez

Nasita Islam	Synthesis and antimicrobial evaluation of amixicile-based inhibitors of the pyruvate-ferredoxin oxidoreductases of anaerobic bacteria and epsilonproteobacteria Primary: Bill Barton, Secondary: Mike McVoy       (Presentation)
Nupur Pandya	Development of potential agents for the treatment of sickle cell anemia Primary: Bill Barton, Secondary: Nick Rodriguez       (Presentation)
Krishna Karamsetty	mda-7/IL-24 induces cell death in neuroblastoma through a novel mechanism involving AIF and ATM Primary: Mike McVoy, Secondary: Nick Rodriguez       (Presentation)
Sarah Otih	Tie1 and Tie2 dimerization and the possible inhibition of angiogenesis in tumor endothelial cells Primary: Nick Rodriguez, Secondary: Mike McVoy       (Presentation)

Panel II: Wednesday, Dec 12, 1:00 - 2:00 PM
Panelists: Derek Prosser, Maria Rivera, Fernando Tenjo

Kethan Mahavadi	S1P effect on cIAP2 knockout mice microglia during EAE, an animal model of multiple sclerosis Primary: Derek Prosser, Secondary: Fernando Tenjo       (Presentation)
Ramtin Deljouei	CMYA5 and schizophrenia: Functional study of CMYA5 via CRISPR/Cas9 Primary: Maria Rivera, Secondary: Derek Prosser       (Presentation)
Daanish Fiaz	Antisenescence effect of mouse embryonic stem cell conditioned medium through a PDGF/FGF pathway Primary: Fernando Tenjo, Secondary: Maria Rivera       (Presentation)

Panel III: Thursday, Dec 13, 9:00 - 10:00 AM
Panelists: Wan-Ling Chiu, Allison Johnson, Janina Lewis

Karun Rajesh	The protein Interactome of Streptococcus pneumoniae and bacterial meta-interactomes improve function predictions Primary: Janina Lewis, Secondary: Allison Johnson       (Presentation)
Owais Shahzada	Insights into the molecular mechanism of mitochondrial toxicity by AIDS drugs Primary: Allison Johnson, Secondary: Janina Lewis       (Presentation)
Farhana Khan	The protein Interactome of Streptococcus pneumoniae and bacterial meta-interactomes improve function predictions Primary: Wan-Ling Chiu, Secondary: Janina Lewis       (Presentation)
Amrita Kondeti	The functional diversity of TCP genes during the evolution of flowering plants: A case study of CYC2-like genes in Schizanthus (Solanaceae) Primary: Wan-Ling Chiu, Secondary: Allison Johnson       (Presentation)

Panel IV: Thursday, Dec 13, 10:00 - 11:00 AM
Panelists: Jill Bettinger, Sarah Rothschild, Greg Walsh

Dalton Huey	Determining the neuron type specificity of a potential mechanism for alcohol addiction Primary: Jill Bettinger, Secondary: Sarah Rothschild       (Presentation)
Ria Shah	Ethanol regulation of serum glucocorticoid kinase 1 expression in DBA2/J mouse prefrontal cortex Primary: Greg Walsh, Secondary: Jill Bettinger       (Presentation)
Emaan Chaudry	A HIF-independent mediator of transcriptional responses to oxygen by deprivation in Caenorhabditis elegans Primary: Sarah Rothschild, Secondary: Jill Bettinger       (Presentation)
Brenna Kent	Opioid addiction and pregnancy: Perinatal exposure to buprenorphine affects myelination in the developing brain Primary: Greg Walsh, Secondary: Sarah Rothschild       (Presentation)

Panel V: Friday, Dec 14, 1:00 - 2:15 PM
Panelists: Keith Baker, Joyce Lloyd, Rita Shiang, Binks Wattenberg

Wassal Alhammad	KLF1 directly activates expression of the novel fetal globin repressor ZBTB7A/LRF in erythroid cells Primary: Joyce Lloyd, Secondary: Keith Baker       (Presentation)
Ahson Saiyed	MutL-induced endonuclease activity in cyanobacteria Primary: Keith Baker, Secondary: Rita Shiang       (Presentation)
Casey Harless	Detection of a predicted bacterial gene-fusion responsible for plant derived anti-tumor metabolites Primary: Binks Wattenberg, Secondary: Joyce Lloyd       (Presentation)
Shravani Wadwekar	The phosphocarrier protein HPr of the bacterial phosphotransferase system globally regulates energy metabolism by directly interacting with multiple enzymes in Escherichia coli Primary: Rita Shiang, Secondary: Joyce Lloyd       (Presentation)
Jeetika Sainani	Ceramide kinase is required for a normal eicosanoid response and the subsequent orderly migration of fibroblasts Primary: Binks Wattenberg, Secondary: Keith Baker       (Presentation)

Panel VI: Friday, Dec 14, 3:00 - 4:15 PM
Panelists: Glen Kellogg, Becca Martin, Balaji Nagarajan, Shozo Ozaki

Leila Alickovic	Accounting for side-chain flexibility in protein-ligand docking: 3D interaction homology as an approach of quantifying side-chain flexibility of tyrosine rotamers Primary: Balaji Nagarajan, Secondary: Glen Kellogg       (Presentation)
Jake Rodriguez	Understanding the mechanism of chemokine CXCL13 and glycosaminoglycan interaction will help improve immunotherapies Primary: Glen Kellogg, Secondary: Balaji Nagarajan       (Presentation)
Hunter Freeman	Does MicroRNA-7 inhibition significantly affect tumor growth in breast to brain metastasis? Primary: Becca Martin, Secondary: Balaji Nagarajan       (Presentation)
Sharoon Arshad	Furin deletion in B cells alters ADAM10 prodomain processing and the downstream effects on allergic asthma Primary: Shozo Ozaki, Secondary: Becca Martin       (Presentation)
Sohail Syed	FFAT rescues VAPA-mediated inhibition of ER-to-golgi transport and VAPB-mediated ER aggregation Primary: Shozo Ozaki, Secondary: Becca Martin       (Presentation)