1. Logistics
2. General guidance regarding presentations
3. Schedule of Panels
4. Panels from past years

A. Logistics

• Where and When: All presentations are in the Harris Hall Computer Lab, Room 3112 (see map). See Schedule below for days and times.
   
• What: A presentation is a coherent story about a portion of a research proposal or an article translation. See description below as to the nature of these two types. You might also see, if you like, the instructions given to presenters on how to compose a presentation.
   
• Who: Presentations are open to the public, but in practice the only people there are usually presenters and panelists.
   
• Loading presentations: There won't be time to download your presentation. It must be on the computer before the panels begin. This can be done in either of two ways:
   
  • E-mail your presentation to me by 15 minutes before the first presentation of your session (probably MORE than 15 minutes before your presentation)
  • Bring your presentation on a memory device by 15 minutes before the first presentation your session
  
  Do not expect to download it from your e-mail or upload it on the spot from your memory device.
   
• Duration of presentation: Up to seven minutes and no more. At six minutes, presenters will hear a courteous tinkle of a bell. At seven minutes, a bone-shaking clang will stop the presentation if it has not already concluded. Presenters may complete the sentence in progress (with no more than one conjunction), but that's it.
   
• Duration of question and answer period: Up to eight minutes. Questions will be posed by the panel concerning the presentation and the written proposal. The primary reviewer (underlined below) initiates the discussion.
   
• Feedback: The eight minutes of questioning will by itself provide valuable feedback to the presenter. Reviewers are free, if they wish, to provide written feedback as well.
   
• Revision: Presenters will have an opportunity to revise their work (due Monday, December 17) in response to insights gained during the review. The date has been extended owing to VCU's weather-related extension of the deadline to submit grades.
   

B. General guidance regarding presentations

• Objects of Review: Reviewers will consider both the proposal or website (link below) and the presentation (link to be active just before presentation). Be prepared to speak about both.
   
• Overall: The goals of a proposal or translation may be seen as part of the course objectives.
   
• Audience: If you are presenting a proposal, your audience is your peers, those who are not familiar with the field. If you are presenting a translation, your audience are those with a good high school biology education (or, if you prefer, Nobel Prize winners in physics who don't know much about biology). This isn't an exercise of dumbing something down but rather including more people in the essential experience of the work you're presented.
   
• Context: The presenter should make clear what big problem surrounds the presented experiment, a problem understandable to a general audience. Through a series of logical steps, citing prior work, the proposer should proceed from the big picture to the experiment, which should be presented as a small part of the effort to solve the big problem.
   
• Focus: The presenter should present a question sufficiently focused so that it can be addressed by a single experiment. This is true even if you are translating an article. The presentation should be an interesting slice of your website.
   
• The Experiment: The proposer should describe the principles behind every essential aspect of the presented experiment. Details needed to reproduce an experiment (e.g. buffer, temperature of incubation, etc) are neither needed nor desirable, but the specifics of the procedures and materials necessary to conduct the experiment should be described. If the experiment uses q-RT-PCR, how does it work? What is the sequence of the primers used? Why them? (a map would be useful)
   
• Observation/measurement: The proposer should make clear what is or will be the nature of the primary observation. It is not enough to say "...measured enzyme activity". Measured how?
   
• Graphics: Use lots. It is seldom appropriate to use graphics directly from an article. Adapt them so that they are comprehensible to your audience.
   
• Depth, not breadth: Go deeply into the experiment, how it works. That means that much will be left behind. Fine.
   
• More advice: Please see How to Give a Presentation Focused on an Experiment.

C. Schedule of Panels

Titles link to the written proposals (active Sunday, Dec 8)
Presentation links to the corresponding powerpoint presentation (active the day of the presentation).

Panel I: Tuesday, Dec 10, 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM
Panelists: Jill Bettinger, Shozo Ozaki, Derek Prosser

Amrita Kondeti	Whether the ethanol effect of BK channel is affected by the presence of EPA   (original) Primary: Jill Bettinger, Secondary: Derek Prosser       (Presentation)
Hanna Kwon	Comparison of FGL2 protein and IGFBP2 protein in order to create a new antibody for glioblastoma Primary: Shozo Ozaki, Secondary: Derek Prosser       (Presentation)
Nathaniel Smith	To determine if BMP-2 regulates RARγ and Wnt1 in craniofacial development Primary: Derek Prosser, Secondary: Jill Bettinger       (Presentation)
Muskan Bansal	Understanding endothelial permeability in the blood brain barrier: Identifying potential mechanism between HIF-1 and Apold 1 (original)   Primary: Shozo Ozaki, Secondary: Jill Bettinger       (Presentation)

Panel II: Thursday, Dec 12, 9:30 - 10:45 AM
Panelists: Wan-Ling Chiu, Andrew Davies, Joyce Lloyd, Rita Shiang

Sohail Syed	Mapping functional domains of ORP3 required for suppression of ER aggregation in ALS8 Primary: Joyce Lloyd, Secondary: Wan-Ling Chiu       (Presentation)
Rashmi Naidu	The regulation of γ-globin and LRF/ZBTB7A by Krüppel-like transcription factor KLF-1 in human erythroid cells Primary: Rita Shiang, Secondary: Andrew Davies       (Presentation)
Nana Twumasi-Ankrah	Assessing the relative functions of two putative collagenase genes extracted from a clinically relevant vaginal microbe Primary: Wan-Ling Chiu, Secondary: Rita Shiang       (Presentation)
Dylan Lee	BK channel clustering in Slo-1 mutants   (original) Primary: Andrew Davies, Secondary: Rita Shiang       (Presentation)
Linda Do	Role of a putative transcription factor Zbtb14 on production of treacle protein in mice Primary: Joyce Lloyd, Secondary: Andrew Davies       (Presentation)

Panel III: Thursday, Dec 12, 11:00 AM - 12:00 noon
Panelists: Allison Johnson, Becca Martin, Andrey Matveyev

Sophia Fehrmann	Determining the role of a chemokine receptor in a T cell subset marked by the expression of GM-CSF in the mouse model for multiple sclerosis, EAE Primary: Becca Martin, Secondary: Allison Johnson       (Presentation)
Cash Frost	The mechanism by which Pseudomonas chlororaphis phage 201φ2-1 proteins are sorted within the phage-formed proteinaceous shell Primary: Allison Johnson, Secondary: Andrey Matveyev       (Presentation)
Jada Wilson	Regulating Crp protein levels with the use of sRNA Primary: Andrey Matveyev, Secondary: Allison Johnson       (Presentation)
Kyle Vo	Disruption of Angiopoietin-1 and αvβ3 Integrin Interaction in Tie1, Tie2, Ang-1 and αvβ3 Integrin complexes   (original) Primary: Becca Martin, Secondary: Andrey Matveyev       (Presentation)

Panel IV: Friday, Dec 13, 12:00 noon - 1:15 PM
Panelists: Peter Hamilton, Suyun Huang, David Straus, Binks Wattenberg

Evan Korade	A possible treatment method of malignant breast cancer using modified adeno-associated virus 2 and the Nur77 gene Primary: Binks Wattenberg, Secondary: Suyun Huang       (Presentation)
Kathy Saravane	Measurement of TGIF1 expression levels due to TGF-β overexpression Primary: David Straus, Secondary: Suyun Huang       (Presentation)
Sahana Tharakan	The long-term effects of exposure to lipopolysaccharides on the epigenetic modifications to the CXCL-8 gene from chronic wound samples Primary: Peter Hamilton, Secondary: Binks Wattenberg       (Presentation)
Preksha Jerajani	Measurement of recurrence in TNBC cells containing the BRCA1 gene Primary: Suyun Huang, Secondary: Binks Wattenberg       (Presentation)
Perray Saravanane	GRP78 inhibition by subtilase cytotoxin and interleukin-6 gene expression   (original) Primary: Peter Hamilton, Secondary: David Straus       (Presentation)

Panel V: Friday, Dec 14, 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Panelists: Bill Barton, Glen Kellogg, Lei Zhou

Sukhleen Kaur	The effect of the A341V mutation in KCNQ1 associated with long QT syndrome on Iks channel trafficking Primary: Lei Zhou, Secondary: Bill Barton       (Presentation)
Arash Singh	The effects of mutations on the functionality of the HCN4 channel Primary: Glen Kellogg, Secondary: Bill Barton       (Presentation)
Pete Bowry	Comparative docking study of stilbene derivatives in the colchicine site of β-tubulin Primary: Lei Zhou, Secondary: Glen Kellogg       (Presentation)
Suha Minai	The effect of RNA splicing on opioid tolerance Primary: Bill Barton, Secondary: Lei Zhou       (Presentation)

D. Panels from previous years
You can see how previous years' panels worked out (including links to actual proposals) by clicking your favorite year:
      2018,   2017 (fall),   2017 (spring),   2016,   2014,   2013,   2012