Calendar of events, awards and opportunities

Every week, we update this list with new meetings, awards, scholarships and events to help you advance your career. If you’d like us to feature something that you’re offering to the bioscience community, email us with the subject line “For calendar.” ASBMB members’ offerings take priority, and we do not promote products/services. Learn how to advertise in ASBMB Today.

Jan. 18: Workshop on technology to improve maternal health

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering is hosting a half-day virtual workshop on biomedical technologies to improve maternal health. It will run from noon Eastern until 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 18. There will be panel discussions on the topics of technology, clinical outcomes and community; moderated networking sessions; and a plenary session hosted by Elizabeth Howell, who chairs Perelman School of Medicine's obstetrics and gynecology department, part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. The workshop website says the organizers seek "to further advance interdisciplinary collaborations in maternal health technology by bringing together researchers, technology developers, and community partners to identify technology gaps and consider how new technologies can be used to improve maternal health and ultimately treat and/or prevent" maternal morbidity and mortality.  See the agenda and register.

Jan. 19: Matricellular proteins in respiratory-tract immunomodulation and infection

This FASEB Catalyst Conference "will cover immunomodulatory mechanisms, matricelluar protein effects on pathogens, and clinical observations about matricellular proteins," according to the event webpage. It's being organized by Douglas Hamilton of the University of Western Ontario in Canada and Kurt Hankenson of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Learn more and see the preliminary agenda.

Jan. 20: Recent advances and applications in cryo-EM

The second installment of the ASBMB Publications Technique Talks webinar series has a great lineup of speakers:

Sriram Subramaniam of the University of British Columbia: "Recent technical advances cryo-EM and cryo-ET and their relation to machine learning and structure prediction"

Eva Nogales of the University of California, Berkeley: "Efficient graphene oxide coating improves cryo-EM sample preparation and data collection from tilted grids"

Shang-Te Danny Hsu of Academia Sinica Institute of Biological Chemistry: "Insights into structure-function relationships of SARS-CoV-2 spike variants by cryo-EM"

This event is free but for ASBMB members only. Sign in to register.

Jan. 23: Papers about STEM education and workforce due

The Journal of Science Policy & Governance and Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, have launched a call for papers on "Re-envisioning STEM Education and Workforce Development for the 21st Century." The journal will produce a special issue with the winning submissions. The deadline is Jan. 23. ASBMB Today contributor Adriana Bankston is the journal's CEO and managing publiusher. She told us in an email: "For the issue, we are seeking op-eds and policy position papers for re-envisioning the landscape in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and building forward a future that is focused on equity and inclusion, access to technology, and aligning training opportunities with workforce demands. First, second and third place competition winners will be awarded cash prizes." Here's the call for submissions.

Jan. 26: Immune repertoire decoding

This FASEB Catalyst Conference will cover "recent advances in decoding the specific T cell clonotypes mediating or protecting from disease along with their recognized antigen epitopes in the context of human HLA haplotypes," according to the event webpage. It's being organized by Karsten Sauer, vice president of Repertoire Immune Medicines in Massachusetts. Learn more and see the preliminary agenda.

Important #ASBMB2022 dates

The ASBMB annual meeting will be held in person in Philadelphia in April. We're looking forward to seeing you! 

• Jan. 27: Last-chance abstract submissions end
• Feb. 7: Early registration (largest discount) ends
• Feb. 8: Advance registration (smaller but still significant discount) begins
• March 18: Advance registration ends
• March 19: Regular registration begins

Jan. 27: Intersectionality and the health of women

The National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women's Health is hosting a virtual lecture at 2 p.m. Eastern on Jan. 27 titled "Cancer in Women." It's part of the office's quarterly lecture series, "Diverse Voices: Intersectionality and the Health of Women." Learn about the speakers and register.

Jan. 28: Webinar on science identity among Latinx students

The American Society for Cell Biology is hosting an event titled "Science Identity Among Latinx Students in the Biomedical Sciences: The Role of a Critical Race Theory-Informed Undergraduate Research Experience" on Jan. 28. Here's how ASCB describes the event: "Tissyana Camacho will discuss findings and provide insights into the background, development and research process behind her recent publication Science Identity Among Latinx Students in the Biomedical Sciences: The Role of a Critical Race Theory-Informed Undergraduate Research Experience." Register.

Jan. 31 & March 31: Apply to host symposium for grad students and postdocs

The Federation of European Biochemical Societies and its partners are looking for institutions to host the FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE Symposium in 2023 and in 2024 for graduate students and postdocs. Institutions interested in hosting the 2023 event must apply by Jan. 31. Those interested in hosting the 2024 event have until March 31. Note that the symposia are to be organized by the students/postdocs. Learn more.

Feb. 1: Registration deadline for the ASBMB Deuel Conference on Lipids

The ASBMB Deuel conference — to be held March 1–4 in Monterey, Calif. — is a must-attend event for leading lipids investigators.

“We'd love to bring in people who might not have cut their teeth in the lipid metabolism field but have found their way to studying lipids. In many cases, that's where you get the most exciting, unusual and off-the-wall presentations, and that can spark collaborations that may have otherwise not have happened,” co-organizer Russell DeBose–Boyd told ASBMB Today.

This year's theme is "Location, location, location: How lipid trafficking impacts cell signaling and metabolism." In an interview, co-organizer Arun Radhakrishnan explains it this way: “In recent years, we have begun to gain deep insights into the mechanisms of lipid trafficking. We thought it would be great to have a meeting focusing on that aspect and what those what these new insights are telling us about cell signaling and metabolism.”

Regular registration ends Feb. 1. See the program.

Feb. 9: Lasker essay contest time

The Lasker Foundation will begin accepting essays for its annual contest Feb. 9. The contest is open to medical school students, interns, residents and fellows; doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows in biomedical sciences; and graduate students in public health or other health professions programs. Winners will receive up to $5,000. Monetary prizes will be directed to the winners' institutions to be used toward the winners' educational expenses. The topic will be announced in early February, and winners will be announced in early July. Learn more.

Feb. 15: RNA summer internship program in Colorado

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is advertising its RNA Bioscience Initiative Summer Internship Program. This 10-week internship runs from June to August and offers a $4,000 stipend, roundtrip travel expenses and housing. Half of the participants are selected from applicants affiliated with the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. The application deadline is Feb. 15. Learn more.

Feb. 16: Webinar on best practice for clinical relevance

The American Physiological Society, ADInstruments and InsideScientific are hosting a one-hour translational science panel discussion featuring three international researchers. It will include presentations and live Q&A that address topics for researchers who want to progress their preclinical research models into the translational and clinical sectors. Learn more.

Feb. 17: Unconscious bias webinar by the ASBMB

The ASBMB is committed to promoting a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture in biochemistry and molecular biology. Timely conversations centering subjects such as unconscious bias are critical to our collective DEI efforts. Recognition of one's own unintentional bias is as essential as understanding the negative impact and harm of bias. The ASBMB Women in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Committee and Minority Affairs Committee will host an unconscious bias webinar at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Feb. 17. It will be led by Darin Latimore, deputy dean and chief diversity officer at the Yale School of Medicine.  Latimore’s presentation will take place during the first hour, followed by a panel discussion and questions from the audience. Come learn about unconscious bias and share strategies to combat it!

April 26: Abstract deadline for ASBMB's O-GlcNAc meeting

This conference, to be held in person in Athens, Ga., will address the multitude of roles that the O-GlcNAc protein modification has in regulating nuclear and cytosolic proteins. It will bring together researchers from diverse fields to share their research, tools and experience in O-GlcNAc biology. The organizers are Gerald Hart and Lance Wells, both of the University of Georgia. Learn more.

May 17–20: Save the date for our ESCRT biology meeting

This in-person meeting will be held in Madison, Wisconsin. It'll be a unique, open, inclusive and interactive forum for the international and domestic research community working on ESCRT biology and be an effective learning environment for all participants, especially graduate students, postdocs and other researchers from diverse backgrounds. This meeting will bring together experts in disciplines as diverse as biophysics, plant biology, cell biology, biochemistry and structural biology from around the world to cover key aspects of ESCRT biology. Stay tuned for abstract and registration deadlines.

July 21–24: Evolution and core processes in gene expression

Coming to an in-person venue in the summer of 2022: The focus of this meeting is to discuss the most recent insights into the cis-regulatory code, how cis-regulatory information is read out by transcription factors, signaling pathways and other proteins, how cellular diversity is created during development and how we can study this problem using cutting-edge genomics technology and computational methods.

The meeting will simultaneously examine the problem from an evolutionary perspective: how cis-regulatory elements evolve, how regulatory variation affects gene expression and phenotypes, how these changes have shaped development and parallel evolution, and how noise affects regulatory circuits and their evolution.

Stay tuned for abstract and registration deadlines.

Aug. 14–18: Mass spectrometry in the health and life sciences

This five-day conference will be an international forum for discussion of the remarkable advances in cell and human protein biology revealed by ever-more-innovative and powerful mass spectrometric technologies. The conference will juxtapose sessions about methodological advances with sessions about the roles those advances play in solving problems and seizing opportunities to understand the composition, dynamics and function of cellular machinery in numerous biological contexts. In addition to celebrating these successes, we also intend to articulate urgent, unmet needs and unsolved problems that will drive the field in the future. Registration and abstract submission begins Nov. 1. Abstracts are due May 16. Learn more.

Sept. 28–Oct. 2: Epigenetic regulation and genome stability

Save the date! Most meetings on epigenetics and chromatin focus on transcription, while most meetings on genome integrity include little attention to epigenetics and chromatin. This conference in Seattle will bridge this gap to link researchers who are interested in epigenetic regulations and chromatin with those who are interested in genome integrity. Stay tuned for abstract and registration deadlines.

Sept. 29–Oct. 2: Chromatin and RNA polymerase II

Save the date for this in-person meeting in Snowbird, Utah! Sessions will cover recent advances and new technologies in RNA polymerase II regulation, including the contributions of non-coding RNAs, enhancers and promoters, chromatin structure and post-translational modifications, molecular condensates, and other factors that regulate gene expression. Patrick Cramer of the Max Planck Institute will present the keynote address on the structure and function of transcription regulatory complexes. Stay tuned for abstract and registration deadlines.

Call for virtual scientific event proposals

The ASBMB provides members with a virtual platform to share scientific research and accomplishments and to discuss emerging topics and technologies with the BMB community.

The ASBMB will manage the technical aspects, market the event to tens of thousands of contacts and present the digital event live to a remote audience. Additional tools such as polling, Q&A, breakout rooms and post event Twitter chats may be used to facilitate maximum engagement.

Seminars are typically one to two hours long. A workshop or conference might be longer and even span several days.

Prospective organizers may submit proposals at any time. Decisions are usually made within four to six weeks.

Propose an event.