Workshops

Undergraduate student workshop: Speed networking

Students will have the opportunity to network with professionals from various biochemistry and molecular biology career fields.

Advocacy Town Hall

Join the ASBMB Public Affairs Advisory Committee to hear about the intersection of policy and science. What policies has the Biden administration enacted to support the nation’s biomedical research enterprise? And how can federal agencies support researchers still struggling with the impacts of COVID-19 and related university and laboratory shutdowns. ASBMB Public Affairs Director Sarina Neote will be joined by the PAAC chair, Rick Page, who will field your questions on politics, science policy and getting involved in advocacy.

Approaches to teaching in the biosciences using different course modalities

Organizer: Monica Rieth, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville

Become familiar with new modes of instruction. Learn to work outside of your teaching comfort zone by incorporating new exercises and lessons that align with other teaching modalities.

The workshop will include ways to incorporate new teaching modalities into biochemistry education both in the classroom and in the lab using examples and evidence-based practices reported in the current literature. Exercises and sample lessons will be implemented to help attendees adapt new techniques to their current and future practices.

For example, a lesson on amino acids and protein structure may be taught in a lecture-style format and attendees would be asked to adapt this lesson to a flipped-style classroom or problem-based learning exercise. How would each person change the format/content using examples to illustrate these changes?

Attendees will also be asked to identify and/or anticipate any advantages or disadvantages to changing to a new teaching modality, such as increased/decreased student engagement. Open discussions will further introduce attendees to teaching practices as of yet unreported in the literature.

Attendees will develop a network of peers who can provide support to them.

Target audience: Instructors teaching undergraduate- or graduate-level biochemistry courses or labs both for majors and nonmajors. Those interested in exploring different teaching styles and modalities in their courses.

Control of inflammation by dietary interventions

Organizer: Michael N. Sack, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

This workshop will explore how different dietary components and/or temporal dietary intake strategies play a role in modulating inflammation and disease pathophysiology. Explore how specific nutrients via diverse regulatory mechanisms — transcription, GPCR signaling, post-translational modification and metabolic signaling — alter immune cell responsiveness.

Attendees will learn about integration of environmental cues with intracellular regulatory pathways to drive immune cell responsiveness.

Target audience: Scientists focusing on cardiometabolic risk, nutrient signaling, inflammation and effects of dietary interventions on health.

Increasing diversity through master's degree programs

Organizer: Bob Rose, North Carolina State University

Network with other faculty members contributing to programs for research-based master's degrees.

We developed a research-based master's program in biochemistry from an NSF S-STEM training grant to fund low-income students and increase diversity of associated departments. Our funding is ending, and we are looking for ideas for continued funding of the program and developing support in a Ph.D.-focused department.

Target audience: Graduate faculty involved with STEM education.

Success in scientific publishing workshop

Will my data stand the test of time?

Is my writing clear, compelling and engaging?

Will I be able to reach an audience that will give my research its greatest impact? 

These are questions authors ask themselves when preparing manuscripts for publication. 

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is home to the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Journal of Lipid Research, and Molecular & Cellular Proteomics. In this 90-minute workshop, members of the society’s publications staff will offer insights into the publication pipeline and provide you with tips on three essential topics: presenting data, writing well and sharing your work.

Presenting:

• Ken Farabaugh, Developmental Editor
• Stephanie Paxson, Journal Marketing Associate

The power of storytelling

Storytelling is an essential component of communication. It can be used to connect with a diverse audience and make challenging subjects more accessible. Mastering storytelling requires creative flexibility, dexterity with language and willingness to get personal. Learn how to incorporate yourself as a scientist into your science story in a way that strengthens your message without sacrificing scientific integrity. This interactive session will lead participants through hands-on storytelling training that is based on one of the modules from the ASBMB course The Art of Science Communication.

Becoming the boss of your career

Organizer: Erica Gobrogge, Van Andel Institute

Establishing career goals, navigating challenging conversations associated with those goals, and working outside the laboratory to advance your career can be challenging for scientists at all career stages. In addition, these conversations can be particularly difficult for international scientists, whose cultural norms may be different than those commonly found in the U.S.

Participants will develop their own goals, draft plans for achieving them and practice navigating conversations they might encounter while advocating for those goals. The mission of this workshop is to encourage, support and empower scientists to take charge of their careers.

Target audience: This workshop primarily will be of interest to undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, but scientists at career stages are welcome.

RNA export at the nuclear pore complex

Organizer: Mary Dasso, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

RNA export is a complicated and critical stage of gene expression, which remains poorly understood. It involves components of both the RNA processing and nuclear trafficking machinery. This workshop seeks to bring together different emerging approaches and model systems that are being applied to untangle the sequence and logic of RNA processing and export events.

The focus of this workshop will be on nuclear pore proteins as guardians of mRNA export and their role in the selectivity of RNA export in health and disease. The workshop will bring together laboratories using cryo-EM, X-ray crystallography, biochemistry, nuclear microinjection, genetics, cell biology, CRISPR/Cas9-AID gene editing, live imaging, viral and animal models to elucidate interactions between nucleoporins, mRNA and RNA-accessory proteins at the nuclear pore complex.

Attendees will learn about cutting-edge tools and techniques and their application to the process of mRNA export. They will learn up-to-date progress, explore unresolved questions in the field and meet world-class experts.

Target audience: This workshop will appeal to a diverse group of scientists (students, postdoctoral researchers and group leaders) who are interested in RNA processing and export, the regulation of gene expression, nuclear trafficking and nucleoporins.

Pedagogical lessons learned during the time of COVID-19

Organizer: Phillip Ortiz, State University of New York

This workshop will include a presentation of and discussions about pedagogical approaches used during the shift to teaching at a distance during the COVID-induced closing of some campuses. As we often learn more from failure than success, this workshop will include approaches that worked and that didn't.

Attendees will hear about creative and innovative approaches to teaching and learning. In addition, as it has been noted by people who were successful at shifting some or all of their teaching to different modalities that some content is better taught by those modalities (which leaves time in their courses to expand the content that requires face-to-face instruction), the workshop may lead to productive conversations about educational innovation.

Target audience: Primarily BMB educators, but also all educators at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including new and established faculty members at all types of colleges and universities, teaching assistants and postdoctoral researchers who are interested in careers at primarily undergraduate institutions. Undergraduate and graduate students also are welcome attend so that they may share their insights and experiences during the Q&A and open discussion portions of the session.

Transforming scientific research into equitable outreach

How do you transform your passion for science into equitable outreach? This interactive session will cover the importance of science outreach and its impacts on enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion within the biomedical science research workforce. Chelsey Spriggs, co-founder of Black in Microbiology (#BlackInMicro) and a member of the first cohort of the ASBMB MOSAIC program, will share her journey as a role model for underrepresented students interested in biological research. She will describe how she has engaged in outreach and mentorship and how, through her work as a board member of the Black in Microbiologists Association, she aims to enhance the visibility of Black scientists in the field. Be ready to have a thoughtful discussion with your peers and brainstorm ways to use science outreach as a vehicle to equity and inclusion.

Thermodynamics in the everyday life of biologists

Organizer: Assen Marintchev, Boston University School of Medicine

This workshop will introduce the concepts of thermodynamic coupling and binding kinetics in the context of biochemical experiments, with emphasis on practical applications and common mistakes.

Learn how to properly plan, perform and analyze binding experiments and avoid everyday errors:

• How to use thermodynamic coupling to indirectly calculate a binding K_D from the K_D's of coupled interactions, if direct determination is impossible or difficult.
• How to compare binding constants to determine whether they are mutually consistent.
• How to determine whether and when two or more molecules bind to each other in vivo.
• How to quantitatively evaluate experimental binding constants: what they mean for the underlying biological process and whether they are physically possible.

Target audience: Ph.D. students, postdocs and faculty members.

Race and mental health in STEM

STEM graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, particularly those of color, often experience microaggressions, discrimination and harassment in the workplace, which can lead to adverse mental health outcomes. We must support these scientists by encouraging dialogue and taking action. In this session, sponsored by the ASBMB’s Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers program, or MOSAIC, panelists Cirleen DeBlaere of Georgia State University, Carlota Ocampo of Trinity Washington University and Stephen Quaye of Ohio State University will lead insightful discussions pertaining to the intersectionality of race and mental health of STEM trainees.