June 30 @ 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
The Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences will be holding our first Graduate Student and Post-Doc symposium on June 30th at Applied Innovation. This symposium is an opportunity for Postdocs and Graduate students to share their research across departments. There is no registration fee for Biological Science Graduate Students, and Post-Docs are encouraged to register.
Event Details:
Date: Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Time: 8 a.m.
Location: UC Irvine Beall Applied Innovation
Attendees will have the opportunity to present their research through poster and oral presentations. Presenters will also have the chance to be considered for awards for best poster and speaker.
Awards:
$600 for best Grad Student Presentation
$400 for best Grad Student Poster
$600 for best PostDoc Presentation
$400 for best PostDoc Poster
Please complete this form by June 16th @ 11:59 pm to ensure your inclusion in the program as part of the poster presentations.
Keynote Speakers:
Aileen Anderson, Ph.D., Vice Chancellor for Research at UC Irvine
An accomplished researcher and campus leader, Anderson’s work focuses on advancing translational neuroscience strategies for spinal cord injury and central nervous system disease. Her research has helped move promising discoveries toward clinical trials, reflecting the power of interdisciplinary science to create new possibilities for human health. As Vice Chancellor for Research, she helps guide and support UCI’s broad research enterprise, making her perspective especially meaningful for graduate students preparing to shape the future of discovery.
Rob Steele, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biological Chemistry in the UC Irvine School of Medicine. Rob’s research uses Hydra as a model system to explore fundamental questions in developmental and evolutionary biology, with a focus on regeneration, patterning, genomics and the molecular foundations of this remarkable organism’s biology. A UC Irvine faculty member since 1986, Rob was corresponding author on the landmark Hydra genome paper published in Nature in 2010 and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Workshops:
Non-Academic Industry Job Search Strategies
Description: Most graduate students are trained for academic opportunities, but industry employers often evaluate candidates through a very different lens. In this workshop, participants will learn practical strategies for navigating the non-academic job market, including how to identify transferable skills, build professional networks, tailor application materials, and approach the job search with a targeted, industry-focused strategy.
Speaker: Jill Wells
After PostDoc: The Next Steps
Description: This Panel is aimed at PostDocs and Grad Students planning the next step of their career in academia and will consist of recently hired faculty members sharing their experience throughout the hiring process. This will be followed by a Q&A session.
Speakers: Dr. Ken Cho, Dr. Katherine Xue, Dr. SeungSoo Kim, Dr. Huixin Xu
Poster Details:
Recommended Size: 36”x 48”
Poster Sessions will last 1 hour each
Those who wish to participate in the poster session are welcome to bring a poster they have previously presented at another conference or research event.
Oral Presentations:
15 Minute presentation (10 minutes for talk, 5 minutes for Q&A)
Agenda
| 8:00 a.m. | Guests Arrival |
| 8:30 a.m. | Welcome Introduction |
| 8:45 a.m. | Keynote Speaker Aileen Anderson |
| 9:30 a.m. | Talks Vincius Duarte — Developmental & Cell Biology Talk title: Give it your best Shot: How Spectraplakins Drive Dendrite Arbor Repair Casey Vanderlip — Neurobiology & Behavior Talk title: Digital Cognitive Phenotyping Identifies Imminent Risk in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease Marie-Désirée Schlemper-Scheidt — Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Talk title: Harnessing Cyanobacterial Secondary Metabolites as Novel Drug Scaffolds Marina Suarez Pizarro — Developmental & Cell Biology Talk title: UHRF1 as an epigenetic driver of tumorigenicity and immune evasion in triple negative breast cancer Lien Reolizo — Molecular Biology & Biochemistry Talk title: A Tiny Chip Takes On Brain Cancer’s Biggest Challenge |
| 10:45 a.m. | Break |
| 11:00 a.m. | Poster Session |
| 12:00 p.m. | Lunch break |
| 1:00 p.m. | Talks Madison Nguyen — Molecular Biology & Biochemistry Talk title: A Deletion of Drak2 Induces Regulatory T Cell Differentiation via Metabolic Reprogramming of Fatty Acid β-Oxidation Ghazaleh Eskandari-Sedighi — Neurobiology & Behavior Talk title: Leveraging stem cell and chimeric modeling platforms to understand protective human microglia responses in the context of Alzheimer’s disease Kathleen Leon Parada — Developmental & Cell Biology Talk title: Environmental Pollutant Benzo[a]pyrene Disrupts the Meiotic Spindle in Mouse Eggs Mirjam Zuend — Molecular Biology & Biochemistry Talk title: Keeping the Peace: How Bacterial Capsules Stabilize Temperate Phage–Host Symbioses Rachel Sousa — Systems Biology Talk title: Mathematical and Mouse Models Identify T Regulatory Cell Influx as A Key Determinant of Acquired Resistance to PD-1 Immunotherapy |
| 2:15 p.m. | Workshop 1 |
| 3:15 p.m. | Workshop 2 |
| 4:20 p.m. | Keynote Close Robert Steele |
| 4:45 p.m. | Awards & Closing remarks |
| 5:00 p.m. | Reception |
Register for the 2026 Graduate Research Symposium
If you have questions about this event, please email biosci-events@uci.edu.