Fred Hutch Basic Sciences Division

Dr. Gottschling, Calico Life Sciences LLC. Dr. Gottschling’s seminar is hosted by the Division of Basic Sciences. Daniel Gottschling, PhD Distinguished Fellow Calico Life Sciences LLC Title: "Disentangling the complexity of cellular aging: It’s complicated…"

"Disentangling the complexity of cellular aging: It’s complicated…"

Looking forward to a great Current Biology Seminar! We’re excited to have Dr. Daniel Gottschling joining us from Calico Life Sciences to give a talk. For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, don’t miss it today at noon in Pelton!

We have some genetic sleuth work to share with you! What started as a rotation project turned into nothing short of an amazing collaboration between 4 labs in the zoo that is @basicsci.fredhutch.org. We found an essential histone chaperone long thought to be missing in most animals 🕵️‍♂️
bit.ly/4uf8sxz

Friday Afternoon Seminars (FAS), this Friday 3/6 at 4pm in Pelton. Yihua Zhu, Smith Lab Conformational changes in E. coli RecBCD helicase/nuclease during DNA break repair Serwah Danquah, Sullivan Lab Replication stress as a therapeutic vulnerability in SDH-deficient cancers

We have two fantastic speakers lined up for Friday Afternoon Seminars!

For everyone @FredHutch.org, join us at 4:00 in Pelton to hear Yihua Zhu from the Smith Lab and Serwah Danquah from Human Biology’s @lucasbsullivan.bsky.social Lab share their latest discoveries!

Current Biology Seminar presented by Dr. Alvarez, Fred Hutch. Dr. Alvarez’s seminar is hosted by the Division of Basic Sciences. James Alvarez, PhD Associate Professor Public Health Sciences Fred Hutch Title: "Between Therapy and Relapse: The Hidden Life of Persistent Cancer Cells" 12:00pm on Tuesday, March 3, 2026 Pelton Auditorium, Weintraub Building, Fred Hutch

"Between Therapy and Relapse: The Hidden Life of Persistent Cancer Cells"

We’re excited to have Dr. James Alvarez sharing his latest research at today’s Current Biology Seminar! For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, don’t miss a great talk at noon in Pelton!

Wendy Valencia Montoya Receives Weintraub Graduate Student Award for Groundbreaking Thesis on the Evolution of Sensory Worlds - Harvard University - Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology Wendy Valencia Montoya has been named a recipient of the prestigious 2026 Harold M. Weintraub Award in recognition of her doctoral thesis, an ambitious and interdisciplinary body of […]

Wendy Valencia Montoya Receives Weintraub Graduate Student Award for Groundbreaking Thesis on the Evolution of Sensory Worlds 🧠 🧪🧬 #AcademicSky #higherEd
www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @nbellono.bsky.social @rachellegaudet.bsky.social @basicsci.fredhutch.org @harvardoeb.bsky.social

Congrats to Wendy Valencia-Montoya on a superstar PhD co-advised by Naomi Pierce. By seamlessly integrating molecular biology with ecology + evolution, Wendy truly transformed how our lab approaches science - can’t think of better compliment than that! @harvardmcb.bsky.social @harvardoeb.bsky.social

Congratulations to our grad student Lifei Jiang!!!!! Well deserved

Friday Afternoon Seminars (FAS), this Friday 2/27 at 4pm in Pelton. Xuhui Jin, Adeyemi Lab SCAI at the crossroads of fork protection and replication stress Niyati Rodricks, Salama Lab Investigating the interplay between bacterial and host factors associated with Helicobacter pylori-driven inflammation

We have two great talks lined up for Friday Afternoon Seminars!

For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, join us at 4:00 in Pelton to hear about the latest discoveries from Xuhui Jin in the Adeyemi Lab and Niyati Rodricks in Human Biology’s Salama Lab.

Jiang awarded Weintraub Graduate Student Award Graduate student Lifei Jiang, is one of 12 recipients of the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, announced today by the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, honoring the exceptional achievements of gradu...

Congrats🥂 to grad student Lifei Jiang, a Fred Hutch Cancer Center’s Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Awardee. Advised by Kang and Brangwynne, her research is to understand the biological functions of biomolecular condensates in the context of cancers. molbio.princeton.edu/news/2026/ji...

Huge congratulations to Gabriella Chua ( @gnlchua.bsky.social) and Andrea Terceros, 2026 recipients of the Weintraub Award! The award, given by @fredhutch.org, is considered among the most prestigious prizes for graduate students in the biosciences: https://bit.ly/4sfaxI9

🤩 @fredhutch.org announced 12 recipients of the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, which honors the exceptional achievements of #biosci grad students.

Congratulations to the two Boston awardees: Keene Abbott from @mit.edu and Wendy Valencia Montoya at @harvard.edu! https://bit.ly/3P4eelv

Keene Abbott, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Congratulations to Keene Abbott, PhD, of @danafarbernews.bsky.social and @bostonchildrens.bsky.social who received the 2026 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award for his outstanding achievement during graduate studies in the biological sciences.

Huge congratulations to my student Rohith Rajasekaran @born2raisecell.bsky.social (now a postdoc in Kole Roybal's lab at UCSF) on being selected for a Weintraub award! Super proud of you and all the work you've done!

If you want a science cleanse today, read and celebrate the accomplishments of these amazing young scientists

Congrats to all the Weintraub awardees! I spy UCSF’s own Ayush Midha on this list - very cool!

Top row, left to right: Keene Abbot, Gabriella Chua, Lifei Jiang, Won Jun Kim, Ruchita Kothari and Ayush Midha. Bottom row, left to right: Rohith Rajasekaran, Yusha Sun, Andrea Terceros, Wendy Valencia Montoya, Zachary Walsh and Peter Yoon.

“These awardees stood out for their scientific originality, rigor and dedication to asking important scientific questions. They reflect the strength and promise of the next generation of scientific leaders.” - Dr. Bai, director of the Weintraub Award. www.fredhutch.org/en/news/rele...

Top row, left to right: Keene Abbot, Gabriella Chua, Lifei Jiang, Won Jun Kim, Ruchita Kothari and Ayush Midha. Bottom row, left to right: Rohith Rajasekaran, Yusha Sun, Andrea Terceros, Wendy Valencia Montoya, Zachary Walsh and Peter Yoon.

Huge congratulations to the recipients of the 2026 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award! These twelve exceptional graduate students exemplify the bold, creative, and pioneering spirit embodied by Dr. Hal Weintraub. www.fredhutch.org/en/news/rele...

MCB Student Violet Sorrentino's Dissertation Defense Announcement

Join us for Violet Sorrentino's (@wormentino.bsky.social ) dissertation defense!
Title: Investigating the role of phospholipid flippases in glial pruning of neuron endings
Lab: Singhvi Lab, FH
When: Wednesday, March 11, 1 p.m. PST
Where: FH Pelton Auditorium & Zoom (email mcb@uw.edu for link)

Congratulations to Dr. Irini Topalidou on winning the 2026 @genetics-gsa.bsky.social Mentorship Award! She was selected in recognition of her exceptional mentorship of more than 30 trainees and her published work on mentorship, STEM education and career choice. @basicsci.fredhutch.org

Functional and antigenic constraints on the Nipah virus fusion protein | PNAS Nipah virus is a highly pathogenic virus in the family Paramyxoviridae that utilizes two distinct surface glycoproteins to infect cells. The recept...

In new study led by Brendan Larsen, we map functional constraint across the Nipah virus F protein to define constrained epitopes for antibody targeting and identify mutations that stabilize the prefusion conformation for vaccine immunogens.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Big thanks to Aakanksha @singhvilabglia.bsky.social for the nomination, to J. Bai and @nlehrbach.bsky.social for supporting it, to A. Calixto, S. Karimzadegan, P. Gurung, J. Cattin-Ortola, M. Crawford, for their supportive letters and to all my mentees for making this job colorful and meaningful ♥️

Congratulations to @irinakitop.bsky.social on winning the 2026 @genetics-gsa.bsky.social Mentorship Award. She was selected in recognition of her exceptional mentorship of more than 30 trainees and her published work on mentorship, STEM education, and career choice. buff.ly/6zAwQQ1

Current Biology Seminar presented by Dr. Lacy-Hulbert, Benaroya Research Institute. Dr. Lacy-Hulbert’s seminar is hosted by the Division of Basic Sciences. Adam Lacy-Hulbert, PhD Director Center for Systems Immunology Benaroya Research Institute Title: "Integrins and Internalization – promoting tolerance and resilience against attack"

"Integrins and Internalization – promoting tolerance and resilience against attack"

We’re excited to have @adamlh.bsky.social joining us from @benaroyaresearch.bsky.social to speak at today’s Current Biology Seminar! For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, don’t miss a great talk at noon in Pelton!

Friday Afternoon Seminars (FAS), this Friday 2/20 at 4pm in Pelton. Riku Yasutomi, Moens Lab Developmental mechanisms underlying facial motor neuron diversification Mohamed Adil, Haffner Lab Decoding gene expression from cell-free DNA methylation

We’re excited to have Riku Yasutomi from the @cbmoens.bsky.social Lab and Mohamed Adil from Human Biology’s Haffner Lab sharing their latest research at Friday Afternoon Seminars. For everyone @FredHutch.bsky.social, don’t miss two fantastic talks today at 4:00!

Gaurav Bhardwaj, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Medicinal Chemistry Institute for Protein Design University of Washington Title: "AI-enabled peptide design for diverse structures and functions" 12:00pm on Tuesday, February 17, 2026 Pelton Auditorium, Weintraub Building, Fred Hutch

"AI-enabled peptide design for diverse structures and functions"

We’re excited to have @gauravbhardwaj.bsky.social joining us from @uwmedchem.bsky.social to speak at today’s Current Biology Seminar! For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, don’t miss a great talk at noon in Pelton!

Friday Feb. 27 at 12pm CT, Prof. Steve Henikoff presents the Monthly Seminar on Physical Genomics: "Histone Overexpression In Cancer" live on Zoom!

Registration is free at tinyurl.com/2rw8n7bt

#northwestern #cancer #genomics #research #chromatin #dna #science #biology #cpge #fredhutch #research

Endocytic protein AP180 assembly domain regulates synaptic vesicle size and release in Caenorhabditis elegans The endocytic protein AP180 regulates synaptic vesicle recycling during neurotransmission, but how vesicle size and release frequency are determined remains unclear. This study shows that AP180…

The Bai Lab makes a new discovery uncovering a critical link between a neuron’s synaptic vesicle shape and the quality of neuronal communication, revealing a relationship between vesicle size and release probability.

Nobuhiko (Nobu) Hamazaki, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Genome Sciences Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine University of Washington Brotman Bay Institute for Precision Medicine Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology Title: "Reconstitution of mammalian life cycle in vitro" 12:00pm on Tuesday, February 10, 2026 Pelton Auditorium, Weintraub Building, Fred Hutch

"Reconstitution of mammalian life cycle in vitro"

We’re excited to have @nobuhamazaki.bsky.social joining us from @uwgenome.bsky.social to speak at today’s Current Biology Seminar! For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, don’t miss a great talk at noon in Pelton!

#Seattle showing up. 💙 💚 Fred Hutch's South Lake Union campus is glowing green and blue for the @seahawksofficial.com and the #12s. CONGRATS, CHAMPS! 🏈 🏆

Friday Afternoon Seminars (FAS), this Friday 2/6 at 4pm in Pelton. Heather Borror, Subramaniam Lab Systematic Investigation of Regulators of Codon Optimality Andrew Brane, Collisson Lab Parsing the direct and downstream effects of LIF – a potent effector of the tumor microenvironment

It’s almost the best part of the week: Friday Afternoon Seminars!

Excited for two great talks from Heather Borror in the @rasilab.bsky.social and Andrew Brane in Human Biology’s Collisson Lab. For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, don't miss it at 4pm in Pelton.