2020-2021 M.R. Bauer Foundation Summary
The 2020-2021 M.R. Bauer Foundation Colloquium Series, Distinguished Lecturer Series, Annual Scientific Retreat, and Summer Science Research Fellowship
I hope that this letter finds you in good health and good spirits, having made fresh discoveries and unearthed new interests during an unforgettable and unrelenting year.
Throughout, Brandeis scientists and students pressed forward. While our daily lives and work schedules rarely settled on a straight line, we toiled at home and, when possible, in the lab. The pandemic restricted connections to family and colleagues and, for some, paused research activity. Still, teaching and learning, unconventional to be sure, was still undertaken with rigor, pluck, and good humor. It was an equally humbling and inspiring experience for us all.
This unprecedented challenge required incredible adaptation. I am proud of the university: Brandeis has proven, once again, its resourcefulness and resilience. Such is the spirit of this distinctive institution.
The social solidarity that guided the university through these difficult months is familiar to those of us in the Volen Center and across the Brandeis research enterprise. A shared sense of purpose is the hallmark of science at Brandeis. We place the highest value on collaboration. It is the animating characteristic of the research culture. Undergraduates and graduate students as well as faculty and visiting scientists rely upon each other for intellectual guidance, professional mentorship, or friendship. Whether quarantined or working across the bench, we care for and protect each other. This community is special.
The year ahead is going to require adjustments and reorientation, but our sightline is clear and focused. We will continue to push the boundaries of foundational research, developing new knowledge and methods and reasserting the Volen Center’s reputation for making consequential contributions to science.
To do so, we will continue to rely on our supporters, including the irreplaceable M.R. Bauer Foundation, and the many others who believe that our investigations enhance understanding of the human condition. We look forward to joining you, in person, and soon, to pursue our shared scientific pursuits.
Leslie C. Griffith, MD, PhD
Nancy Lurie Marks Professor of Neuroscience and
Director, Volen National Center for Complex Systems
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In 2020-2021, Covid-19 changed the face of how research was conducted and many shifted topics to virus research. Over time, however, we realized that life, and science, must still go on. Questions on learning and behavior, adaptation, how biological changes lead to societal changes – these are topics that are important in pandemic times and beyond.
How does the brain adapt to changing circumstances? How do memories specify and alter behavior? The answers to these types of questions can help us to understand and adapt to an ever-changing world. As we have seen over the past year or two, the ability to adapt to varying circumstances is essential for long-term survival, and for those who are unable to adapt their behavior, survival and their place in society may take a different course.
The eight distinguished speakers who took part in the 2020-2021 M.R. Bauer Colloquium Series are working to explain how biology affects behavior; how the senses guide survival, how development can get off course, and how proteins and chemical signals can help societies to form. Each speaker presented a summary of their work, which is preceded by a brief introduction set in italics, explaining in a more general framework the focus of the speaker’s research.
Carlos Aizenman, PhD
Professor
Department of Neuroscience
Brown University
Daniel Colón-Ramos, PhD
Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor
of Neuroscience and Cell Biology
Department of Neuroscience
Yale Univeristy
Carlos Lois, PhD
Director, Chen Center for Neuroscience Education
Division of Biology & Biological Engineering
California Institute of Technology
Joseph McCarty, PhD
Professor
Department of Neurosurgery
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Nirao Shah, PhD
Professor
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Department of Neurobiology
Stanford University
Hongkui Zeng, PhD
Executive Vice President and
Director Allen Institute for Brain Science
Every year the M.R. Bauer Distinguished Lecturer program brings to campus two distinguished visitors who spend a full week at Brandeis. These weeklong visitors present talks to small and large groups, visit Center laboratories, and engage students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty in informational and highly interactive conversations about shared areas of research interests. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic this looked a bit different. However, George Bard Ermentrout from the University of Pittsburgh made a weeklong virtual visit where he was able to give two lectures, connect with various faculty and spend time with students and postdocs.
George Bard Ermentrout, PhD
Distinguished University Professor
Department of Mathematics
University of Pittsburgh
2020 was a challenging year to say the least. The immense success of the Volen Retreat in 2019, when a large group of students, postdocs and faculty went to West Dennis to spend time talking about science and building social ties impelled us to plan a similar off-site retreat for 2020. That plan, however, had to be scrapped in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic and the resultant shut-downs left the Brandeis community hungry for both science and social interactions and it was clear that we needed to try to do something to bring people together. To fill the gap left after the fall cancellation, we designed a one-day virtual retreat and to widen the circle of participants we decided to have the Volen retreat as a joint endeavor with the Molecular and Cellular Biology program.
The virtual retreat, on September 25, 2020 was kicked off by a keynote talk from Dr. Daniel Kronauer of Rockefeller University. Dr. Kronauer described the amazing and sophisticated studies of the genetic underpinnings of complex social behaviors in ants. This talk greatly appealed to our very broad audience of 186 students, postdocs, staff members and faculty. The keynote was followed by a panel discussion on COVID-19. The panel consisted of Brandeis scientists who had actively pivoted their research programs to grapple with the pandemic and was fueled by questions submitted from the audience. The next talk was from Dr. Maria Madison who challenged the audience to think about the social issues that history and recent events have brought to the fore. The rest of the day was devoted to hearing from our wonderful trainees in both long talk and data blitz format.
The retreat, while not what we had planned, was critical as a check-in and morale-lifter for the Volen community. We are still doing science, we are still engaged and eager. Hopefully next year will allow us to actually meet in person.
The Volen National Center for Complex Systems Scientific Retreat Schedule
September 25, 2020
10:00 AM
Dr. Daniel Kronauer (Keynote)
"Differentiation, Communication, and Emergence in Ant Societies"
11:00 AM
COVID19 Research Panel
12:00 PM
Break for Lunch
1:30 PM
Dr. Maria Madison (Special Seminar)
"Bias in Science: Race, Origin, & Impact from Dubois (1906) to Venter (21st century).
The legacy of Enlightenment."
2:30 PM
Data Blitz Talks:
3:10 PM
Postdoc Talks
Over the past 18 months the landscape of research was changed radically as the spread of SARS-CoV-2 led to severely restricted access to scientific laboratories. As the pandemic progressed and the University implemented policies to allow laboratories to safely ramp up operations, labs were faced with the reality of de-densified spaces. An unfortunate consequence of the lowered density requirements was the decrease in time postdocs, staff, and students were able to spend in the lab. Undergraduate researchers were disproportionately impacted by the COVID restrictions through the 2020-2021 academic year and they entered summer 2021 anxious to make up for lost time. The M.R. Bauer Foundation's support of the Summer Fellowship program allowed many of our students the opportunity to reenter the laboratory full time in May 2021, reigniting the passion these students have for scientific research and discovery and reintegrating them into the fabric of research at Brandeis.
Emma Barash
Katz Lab, Department of Psychology
Julia Birnbaum
Griffith Lab, Department of Biology
Rachel Busby
Garrity Lab, Department of Biology
Elizabeth Chernobelsky
Rodal Lab, Department of Biology
Sander Cohen-Janes
Gieseking Lab, Department of Chemistry
Katie Ferguson
Theobald Lab, Department of Biochemistry
Emma Johnston
Jadhav Lab, Department of Psychology
Matthew Knotts
Oprian Lab, Department of Biochemistry
Zhilin Luo
Street Lab, Department of Biochemistry
Max Melnikas
Xu Lab, Department of Chemistry
Acknowledgments
As always, we thank the speakers who adapted and made virtual visits this past year to share their research with us and to engage us in many hours of stimulating discussion and exchanges of ideas with Volen Center faculty, students, and postdoctoral fellows. We are also grateful to our visitors for forwarding to us their lecture summaries that form the basis of this report.
We especially acknowledge Kim MacKenzie, a past neuroscience PhD graduate, for her valuable contributions and editorial assistance in the preparation of this report.
