Can’t ChatGPT These Discoveries: 2024 MCDB Retreat Recap

The 2024 MCDB Department Retreat was held this past week on September 13 &14. Led by Binyam Mogessie and Jake Musser, the event featured talks by various members of the department, poster sessions, and culminated in an awards ceremony.

Held for the first time at the Heritage Hotel in Southbury, the goal of the retreat is, “to share our science and building connections across the department,” says retreat organizer Jake Musser, Ph.D.

Attendees were treated to fascinating presentations on various on-going research within the MCDB labs. “I’m always impressed by breadth of research in our department,” says Musser. “We study so many different topics yet are still able to find common ground around basic biological questions.”

A highlight of the retreat was the exciting talks from MCDB’s three newest faculty members. Kirstin Meyer spoke about her work dissecting how machinery in cell nuclei comes together to activate specific genes. Harry McNamara highlighted his plan to explore how cells self-assemble into multicellular structures, and the role of electrical signaling in this process. Alex Cantó-Pastor spoke about his work in tomato plants look at how they regulate their interactions with beneficial and harmful microbes.

Many of the MCDB trainees were also able to present on their work. Lisa Baik from the Carlson Lab spoke about her pioneering work looking at taste preferences and how this influences biting behavior in the invasive Asian tiger mosquito. Sofia Sepúlveda Jacobson from the Bahmanyar Lab showed some stunning new microscopy images revealing how nuclear formation can reshape the nucleus.

Due to the new location at the Heritage Hotel, more people from across the department were able to attend. “We had 3 faculty members that had scheduled international flights on the same day that were able to attend (one of them even gave a talk!),” says retreat organizer Binyam Mogessie, Ph.D. By staying local, more labs were able to present their work and more department members could come for short stays.

With more people attending, there were more opportunities for thoughtful discussion and relationship building. Faculty & Academic Affairs Administrator Amy Gibbs noted that the hotel layout made transitions between sessions, meals and breaks smooth and efficient. These meal and coffee breaks were a fantastic time for department members to mingle and discuss research projects on a one-on-one basis. Friday night was capped off by an evening mixer with entertainment provided by the 2^nd year students. A round of MCDB Faculty trivia was organized to the delight of the department.

To finish off a second day of invigorating talks, awards were given to several attendees. Awardees were:

• Flash talk winner: Ivy Lin (Irish Lab)
• Grad Student poster winners: Arcadia Kratkiewicz and Ruben Warkentin (Pyle Lab)
• Postdoc poster winners: Todd Douglas (Crews Lab) and Sarah Barger (Bahmanyar Lab)
• Raffle Winners: Jimin Hwang (Pyle Lab); Skye Montoya (Crews Lab); Sabrina Ghadaouia (Mogessie Lab)

“The goal [of the retreat] is to share our science and build connections across the department,” says Mogessie. Both Musser and Mogessie agree that the 2024 MCDB retreat was a great success. Here’s to another year of exciting scientific discoveries and new connections within the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.

If you have any photos from this year’s retreat, please send them to mcdb.communications@yale.edu so they can be added to the photo gallery.