We are delighted to welcome you to the annual Barnard Biology Research Symposium! This symposium is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating the exemplary work of our Guided Research & Seminar and Senior Thesis Research & Seminar students. Under the guidance of their dedicated mentors, both at Barnard and throughout New York City, our students have spent the 2020–2021 academic year working independently on projects ranging from those in cell biology to bacterial antibiotic resistance to clinical trials.

This page is your guide to today's event. Today, we feature the meticulous and painstaking work of our presenters and congratulate them and their mentors on their steadfast commitment to their research! We hope today’s presentations and posters will inspire the next generation of Barnard Biology majors to follow boldly in their footsteps in the pursuit of knowledge across biological disciplines. 

The presentations during session one will be hosted on a 'main' Zoom room as will the poster abstracts after the 15 minute break at 2:00 pm. Then, poster presenters will break out and host breakout rooms where they will discuss their posters and answer visitors' questions. The link to today's event is provided below.

Want a copy of today's program? Download it here. Questions or difficulties accessing the Zoom Meeting on the day of the event can be sent to the department administrator, Melissa Flores (mflores@barnard.edu).

Note: A brief how-to-use Zoom guide is provided on pages 10–20 of this program. Please make sure you have updated to the most recent version of Zoom (see pages 11–12 for how to update your Zoom BEFORE joining the symposium). This will be important for the poster session.

Biology majors enroll in Senior Thesis Research & Seminar to satisfy their senior capstone requirement for the major. This yearlong course requires students to work on independent research projects under the guidance of their mentors. It culminates in both a scientific paper and a 15-minute research talk presented in today’s first session. 

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(From left to right.) Top: Sophia Howard and Abigail R. Schreier.
Bottom: Ornella Pedrozo. 

Zoom Meeting ID: 954 3027 0486 | Passcode: 473764
(click here to join the meeting)

As you join the meeting, please ensure that your microphone is on Mute. Questions at the end of a presentation will be moderated by Professors Miranda and Pischedda in the chat (see pg. 19; please send questions to 'Everyone', which is the default, rather than to a specific presenter). To clap at the end of a presentation, use the clap emoji under the reactions button (see pg. 19).

1:00 pm Opening Remarks by Professors JJ Miranda and Alison Pischedda

1:15 pm Abigail R. Schreier

Exploratory analysis of targeted trunk training in Dance for PD® classes
Lori Quinn, Hai-Jung Steffi Shih, and Miriam King (Department of Behavioral Sciences, Teachers College, Columbia University)

1:30 pm Ornella Pedrozo

A molecular and cellular identification of neuronal cell types in Xenopus laevis and Xenopus petersii
Darcy Kelley (Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University)

1:45 pm Sophia Howard

Fear expression modulates activity in the ventral subiculum-BNST pathway in male and female rats
Elizabeth Bauer (Department of Biological Sciences, Barnard College)

2:00 pm Break

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Biology majors enroll in Guided Research & Seminar to satisfy the upper-level biology labs required for the major. This yearlong course requires students to work on independent research projects under the guidance of their mentors. It culminates in both a scientific paper and the poster presented in today’s second session.

Image

(From left to right.) Top: Lina A. Ariyan, Emaan Hassan, Gabriella Chefitz, and Kayla Kaplan. 
2nd row: Aneeza Asif, Alana Palomino, Abi Spingarn, and Alyssa Semmelman. 
3rd row: Clara Levrero, Sarah Braner, Hannah Prensky, and Athena Chin.
Bottom: Karolina Szenkiel and Erin Parsons.

Student Poster Session A Welcome and Abstracts (2:15 pm to 2:30 pm)

Zoom Meeting ID: 954 3027 0486 | Passcode: 473764
(click here to join the meeting)

As you join the meeting, please ensure that your microphone is on Mute.

Student Poster Session A (2:30 pm to 3:15 pm)

Attendees will be invited to self-selecting breakout rooms after the abstracts where each student will be hosting their poster session for 45 minutes. Never used this feature below? See the guide on pg. 15–18 of the program. In order to move between poster rooms, you’ll need to update your Zoom to version 5.3.0 or higher (see pg. 11–12 for a guide on how to ensure that your Zoom has been updated to the most recent version).

Poster 1 Lina A. Ariyan

The nuclear lamina does not maintain human herpesvirus gene repression
JJ Miranda (Department of Biological Sciences, Barnard College)

 

Poster 2 Aneeza Asif

pPyk2 affects cell motility in natural killer cells
Emily M. Mace (Department of Pediatrics, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

 

Poster 3 Sarah Braner

Targeting Epstein-Barr virus-associated oncogenes and superenhancer components in Burkitt lymphoma with JQ1
JJ Miranda (Department of Biological Sciences, Barnard College)

 

Poster 4 Emaan Hassan

The role of mitochondrial dynamics in the transformation of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) to acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
Stavroula Kousteni and Rossella Labella (Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

 

Poster 5 Kayla Kaplan

Telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic: The headache provider experience
Mia T. Minen (Division of Headache Research, Department of Neurology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine)

 

Poster 6 Hannah Prensky

Characterizing the generality of the plasmid acquisition cost
Allison J. Lopatkin (Department of Biological Sciences, Barnard College)

 

Poster 7 Abi Spingarn

Oral stimulation from glucose is sufficient in eliciting cephalic phase insulin release
John I. Glendinning (Department of Biological Sciences, Barnard College)

 

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Student Poster Session B Welcome and Abstracts (3:30 pm to 3:45 pm)

Zoom Meeting ID: 954 3027 0486 | Passcode: 473764
(click here to join the meeting)

As you join the meeting, please ensure that your microphone is on Mute.

Student Poster Session B (3:45 pm to 4:30 pm)

Attendees will be invited to self-selecting breakout rooms after the abstracts where each student will be hosting their poster session for 45 minutes. Never used this feature below? See the guide on pg. 15–18 of the program. In order to move between poster rooms, you’ll need to update your Zoom to version 5.3.0 or higher (see pg. 11–12 for a guide on how to ensure that your Zoom has been updated to the most recent version).

Poster 8 Gabriella Chefitz

Uncovering transcriptional crosstalk between two cancer-causing viruses
JJ Miranda (Department of Biological Sciences, Barnard College)

 

Poster 9 Athena Chin

γδ T cell subsets display tissue-specific effector functions throughout infant immunity
Donna Farber and Joshua Gray (Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

 

Poster 10 Clara Levrero

Fes/Flt3 kinase pathway function in KSHV-associated primary effusion lymphoma
JJ Miranda (Department of Biological Sciences, Barnard College)

 

Poster 11 Alana Palomino

The mobile metabolome of prevalent Escherichia coli pathogens
Allison J. Lopatkin (Department of Biological Sciences, Barnard College)

 

Poster 12 Erin Parsons

Exploration of Atm/Msh2 dKO embryonic lethality
Mark Emerson and Miruna Ghinia (Department of Biology, City College of New York)

 

Poster 13 Alyssa Semmelman

The N308S mutation in SHP-2 alters the RAS cell signaling pathway
Neel Shah and Anne Elise van Vlimmeren (Department of Chemistry, Columbia University)

 

Poster 14 Karolina Szenkiel

Modeling the population dynamics of metabolism-based antibiotic selection
Allison J. Lopatkin (Department of Biological Sciences, Barnard College)

Closing Remarks (4:30 pm to 4:45 pm)

Thank you for your support of our students today!