Biology Department

Seminars

All Biology Department Seminars are free and open to the public. Seminars take place Fridays at 4:10 PM in B-19 in the basement of the Biology Building on the Reed College Campus (unless otherwise noted on the schedule). Seminars are immediately preceded by a service of coffee, tea, and other refreshments.

The Reed College campus is located in southeast Portland at 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. (Online maps are available for getting to Reed and for the Campus).

2015-16 Schedule

Fall

4:10-5:00 in Biology B-19 (unless otherwise noted).
Directions to Reed.

Sept 4
Location: Vollum Lounge
Summer Research Poster Session
Summer '15 Research Assistants, Biology Dept, Reed College
Sponsor: TBA
Sept 11"Natural genetic variation: ecological processes and food security"
Thomas Mitchell-Olds, Department of Biology, Duke University
Sponsor: The Ellis Fund
Sept 18"The genetic basis of adaptation and speciation in house mice"
Michael Nachman, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology & Dept of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: The Ellis Fund
Sept 25"Division of power: MY019 in mitochondrial segregation during mitosis"
Omar Quintero, Dept of Biology, University of Richmond
Sponsor: The Lamfrom Fund
Oct 2"Dissecting the mechanistic basis of behaviour variation in fishes using an integrative approach"
Nadia Aubin-Horth, Departement de Biologie, Institut de Biologie Integrative et des Systemes, Universite Laval
Sponsor: The Liu Fund
Oct 9"Genomics of speciation driven by hybridization and chromosomal plasticity"
Christian R. Landry, Departement de Biologie, Institut de Biologie Integrative et des Systemes, Universite Laval
Sponsor: The Lamfrom Fund
Oct 16No seminar, Friday before Fall break
Oct 23No seminar, Fall break
Oct 30"Comparative transcriptomics and the evolution of the monogamous brain"
Hans Hofmann, The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Integrative Biology
Sponsor: The Liu Fund
Nov 6"Larkspurs in the wake of the flood: evolutionary diversification of a PNW wildflower"
Keith Karoly, Biology Dept, Reed College, followed by CAT rep visit
Sponsor: The Ellis Fund
Nov 13"Forest diversity, disease & disturbance: cascading effects of an emerging pathogen in western forests"
Margaret Metz, Biology Department, Lewis & Clark College
Sponsor: The Ellis Fund
Nov 20"Genomics-assisted breeding for stress adaptation in cereals"
Patrick J. Brown '99, Dept of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois
Sponsor: The Lamfrom Fund
Nov 27No seminar, Thanksgiving break
Dec 4No seminar - S/F '15 Thesis celebration

Spring

4:10-5:00 in Biology B-19 (unless otherwise noted).
Directions to Reed.

Jan 29Bacteria-phage coevolution in a long-lived tree host
Britt Koskella, Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: The Liu Fund
Feb 5An informal discussion with Mark Ptashne '61
Mark Ptashne '61, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

An additional short information session on Reed's summer research fellowship opportunities will be presented at the beginning of the seminar.

Feb 12Exploring dark regions of the genome: Genome architecture via single molecule technologies
Ali Bashir, Dept of Genetics & Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Sponsor: The Liu Fund
Feb 19Dynamics of color-coded dividing cells in the zebrafish brain
Tamily Weissman-Unni, Dept of Biology, Lewis & Clark College
Sponsor: The Liu Fund
Feb 26Using an ancient virus to fight infectious diseases and cancer
Klaus Frueh, Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute, Oregon Health & Science University
Sponsor: The Lamfrom Fund
Mar 4Biology Post-doc Talks

Kayla Hardwick (Schlenke/Schaack Labs)
The Genomics of Adaptive Divergence in White Sands Lizards.

Maia Benner (Renn/Schaack Labs)
How Selenium Affects the Brain and Behavior: A Nutritional Genomics Approach Using a Zebrafish Model

Mar 11Epidemiology in Action: Communicable Disease Surveillance, Outbreak Investigation, and Prevention in Oregon
Kate Ellingson, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Sponsor: The Liu Fund
Mar 18No seminar, Friday before Spring break
Mar 25No seminar, Spring break
Apr 1You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut – what you can (and can’t learn) about biology using a microscope.
James and Catherine Galbraith, OHSU Center for Spatial Systems Biomedicine
Sponsor: The Lamfrom Fund
Apr 8
S.T.A.R.s: Students Talking About Research seminar, Biology Department, Reed College
Sponsor: TBA

Hanna Dornhofer
"From feces to family trees: Genotyping beavers in the Reed Canyon.”

Meghan O'Connell
Characterization and in vivo kinetic analysis of Drosophila CG10915

Michael Weiss
"Non-Kinship Social Bonds in Resident Killer Whales.”

Apr 15
Location: CANCELLED
Coordinating auditory and vocal development for communication
Sarah M.N. Woolley, Psychology Department, Columbia University
Sponsor: The Lamfrom Fund

Social communication exerts strong selective pressure on brain evolution; information exchange among individuals and groups is important for fitness-related behaviors such as mating, parenting and predator escape. At the species level, the brains of communication signal senders and receivers must be functionally coupled to produce and perceive the same signals. We study vocal behavior and auditory processing in multiple species of estrildid finches whose species-specific songs differ dramatically in spectral and temporal acoustics. Our goal is to understand how species identity and experience interact to shape the neural systems that underlie complex vocal communication. Young male finches develop songs by copying the songs of adult tutors and using auditory feedback to practice and hone their own songs. Both sexes rely on auditory processing to recognize conspecific song and to learn to recognize the songs of individuals in a social group. I will describe current experiments that examine relationships between: 1) the acoustic features of songs and the tuning properties of auditory cortex neurons across species; and 2) the influence of learning to sing on song representation and spectrotemporal tuning in the auditory cortex.

Apr 22Circuit assembly, disassembly and reassembly in the vertebrate retina
Rachel Wong, Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington
Sponsor: The Lamfrom Fund