Graduate Program Research Retreat Highlights

Faculty, new and current graduate students and post-docs from these University Park graduate programs spent August 22 at Tussey Mountain Resort listening to a wide range of biomedically oriented research presentations by faculty and graduate students. Speakers included Gary Perdew: Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences (VBSC) “Selective Ah receptor ligands exhibit anti-inflammatory activity” Douglas Cavener, Biology, “You are what your mother ate: maternal programming of hepatic fat metabolism mediated by the perinatal brain”; Joseph Reese, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) “Regulation of gene expression by stress response pathways” Shan Yu graduate student Hankey Lab, VBSC: “The Ron receptor attenuates the progression of atherosclerosis” Vandana Kalia, VBSC “microRNA-17~92 regulates effector and memory CD8 T cell fates by modulating proliferation in response to infection.”  In the afternoon 17 research posters were presented by graduate students and judged by a faculty committee. The following students were awarded cash prizes for best posters: Anand Ravindran (Glick lab), Laura  Penney (Kalia and Sarkar Labs), Liron Bender (Harvill lab) and Jing Chen(Cantorna lab).   

In addition to being a great forum for current graduate students to show off their thesis research in a collegial environment, the retreat also offers an opportunity for incoming graduate students in the different programs a chance to meet with faculty to plan research rotations, and to meet and discuss science and life at Penn State with current graduate students.