2025 BAD Meeting

9^th Annual BAD Meeting: June 6th, 2025

The University of Massachusetts, Boston

LOCAL ORGANIZERS:
Dr. Jens Rister (Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston)
Dr. Alexey Veraksa (Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston)
Dr. Mukulika Ray (Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston)
Dr. Juliet Girard (Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston)

With participation and expert help from James Walker (MGH) and Clark Davis (UMB)

View agenda here

9:00 am	Registration & Coffee
	Session I: Development, Immunity, and Cell Biology Moderator: Juliet Girard (UMass Boston)
9:40	Khanh Lam-Kamath (UMass Boston) Analyzing the role of a novel transmembrane protein, Mps, in Rhodopsin-deficient Drosophila photoreceptors
9:55	Noshin Nawar (Boston University) From signal to transcript: mapping heterogeneity in NF-κB spatiotemporal dynamics and transcriptional output in Drosophila innate immunity
9:55	Bao Ho (UMass Chan Medical School) The inducible expression of Diedel by multiple immune signaling pathways in Drosophila melanogaster
10:25	Guangmei Liu (Boston University) Impaired phagocytosis in draper mutants drives neuroinflammation and selective neuronal vulnerability in the aging brain
10:40	Jorel Padilla (Boston College) The post-mitotic myofiber repurposes the mitotic machinery to space nuclei
10:55	Adam N. Carte (Harvard Medical School) Leveraging Drosophila melanogaster and Sodalis praecaptivus to uncover the cellular, molecular, and genetic mechanisms of host-beneficial endosymbioses
11:10	Jillian Ness (Boston University) Exploring the functional limits and evolutionary patterns of shadow enhancers versus single enhancers
11:25	Liz Lane (Harvard Medical School) Cholinergic signaling in a Drosophila model of the Cystic Fibrosis intestine
11:40	Lightning Talk 1: Mitch McVey (Tufts University) Drosophila pol theta domain mutants provide insight into mutagenic break repair mechanisms
11:47	Lightning Talk 2: Anne Silveira (Brandeis University) Distinct and opposing functions of the dynamin isoforms at Drosophila synapses
11:52	Lightning Talk 3: Sunjin Moon (Harvard Medical School) Modeling tissue-specific Drosophila metabolism identifies high sugar diet-induced metabolic dysregulation in muscle at reaction and pathway levels
12:00 pm	Lunch *Boxed lunches will be provided per dietary requests to registered attendees only
	Session II: Neurobiology and Metabolism Moderator: Mukulika Ray (Brown University)
2:00	Kristy Jay (MGH, Harvard Medical School) Functional analysis of O-GlcNAc in sleep and circadian rhythm in Drosophila
2:15	Jennifer Dumouchel (Brown University) tRNA methyltransferase in ensheathing glial modulates neuronal development and function
2:30	Max Zinter (UMass Chan Medical School) Mbnl1, an RNA splicing factor, associates with Arc in an activity-dependent manner
2:45	Shlesha Richhariya (Brandeis University) Metabolic rewiring prevents age-dependent neurodegeneration caused by mitochondrial dysfunction
3:00	Chhavi Sood (MIT) Calcium conductance mutants of cacophony channels exhibit altered VGCC abundance and retention at active zones.
3:15	Lightning Talk 1: Rajan Thakur (Brown University) PDZD8 regulates synaptic growth by promoting autophagy at ER-Lysosome contact sites via WNT signaling
3:22	Lightning Talk 2: Ben Ewen-Campen (Harvard Medical School) The Drosophila proventriculus lacks stem cells but compensates for age-related cell loss via endoreplication-mediated cell growth
3:30	Coffee break
4:00	Keynote Address: Dr. Rachel Wilson Joseph B. Martin Professor of Basic Research in the Field of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Neural Networks for Navigation
5:00	Poster Awards (provided by 10X Genomics and The Company of Biologists) and meeting wrap-up

This meeting was kindly supported by: