Meet the incoming class of 2010!

Lara Backman
Scripps College 2010, Molecular Biology
From: Bedford, MA (near Lexington and Concord)
Research background: protein folding in E. coli, genetic responses to estrogen in zebrafish development, the integrin VCAM-1 in immunity, HDACs in Tetrahymena
Research interests: developmental biology
Fun facts: once taught archery to kids—sounds dangerous!, wanted to be a knight or a marine biologist when she grew up, plays the cello


Jacob Bale
UW 2009, Biochemistry
From: Spokane
Research background: nitrogen fixing bacteria (and possible first nitrogen fixing Eukaryote!), phenotypic robustness in plants
Research interests: renewable energy, metabolic engineering, synthetic biology
Fun facts: spent a summer building hovercrafts in his garage, worked for the UW Office of Annual Giving as a student caller, considering kayaking to school



Angela Barr
MIT 2008, Biology
From: Burnsville, MN (suburb of the Twin Cities)
Research background: Developmental timing in C. elegans, zebrafish nervous system development
Research interests: cancer and translational research
Fun facts: worked at a Michael’s Arts and Crafts store (and discovered that crafters can be kind of crazy!), childhood dream jobs included paleontology and operating a hot air balloon


Christopher Bennett
McGill University 2010, Biochemistry
From: Carlsbad, CA (part of San Diego County)
Research background: control of pre-mRNA splicing and the mTOR pathway
Research interests: unsure
Fun facts: has always wanted to be a scientist or a zoologist, likes to snowboard, wants to visit the Amazonian rainforest





Jen Cech
Dartmouth College 2008, Biological Sciences
From: Boulder, CO, went to high school in Maryland
Research background: screening chemicals that affect pigment production in zebrafish and may affect melanomas, mapping a gene important in blood stem cells
Research interests: no idea!
Fun facts: has visited the Galapagos, wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up, loves outdoor activities





Ryan Davis
Hope College 2009, Biology
From: the Detroit area and Holland (western Michigan)
Research background: medicinal chemistry and small molecules, cell biology and signal transduction
Research interests: cancer biology
Fun facts: owned vending machines in high school (and spent lots of time counting change), studied ecology in Australia after college

Emily Fawcett
Saint Mary’s College of Maryland 2010, Biology
From: Hagerstown, MD (about an hour west of DC)
Research background: membrane trafficking in yeast, transient protein expression in tobacco, effects of organic farming on bacterial biodiversity in soil
Research interests: biochemistry, microbiology, yeast
Fun facts: major Yankees fan (see profile picture), expert muffin baker, says that everyone at MCB recruitment seemed happier than anywhere else



Mike Fiske
Lake Forest College 2010, Biology
From: Northbrook, IL
Research background: Parkinson’s disease research using yeast as a model organism
Research interests: loves neurosciences, but is interested in branching out
Fun facts: was a writing tutor in college, is a “huge music nerd” and loves going to concerts, wanted to be a tornado chaser when he grew up





Claire Gonzalez
Indiana University 2005, Biology and French
From: Hammond, IN (near Chicago)
Research background: Huntingtin-Interacting Protein 1 in Clathrin-mediated endocytosis and Huntington’s disease, spindle assembly checkpoint in yeast meiosis
Research interests: cell cycle, Cystic Fibrosis, genomics
Fun facts: worked as a founding teacher at an elementary school for disadvantaged youth, wanted to be a detective as a kid, getting to Seattle by a road trip though lots of awesome national parks (Badlands, Glacier, Yellowstone)


Erica Hildebrand
Connecticut College 2010, Biological Sciences
From: Montpelier, VT
Research background: regulation of Notch signaling in Drosophilia, ammonia oxidizing archaeal communities in a salt marsh, deep sea hydrothermal vent microbial communities
Research interests: cellular regulation, from how transcription is controlled to epigenetics, cell signaling, and cell cycle regulation
Fun facts: went on a road trip to Ayer’s Rock in Australia, wanted to be a professional book reviewer, lived in a lean-to in the woods for a month


Andrew Mathewson
Whitman College 2009, Biology
From: Tigard, OR
Research background: chloroplast development and embryogenesis in Arabidopsis, agricultural research company developing new varieties of vegetables
Research interests: open to anything
Fun facts: spending the summer backpacking around the western US, weirdest job: “I had to help watermelon plants have sex with themselves”, spent a semester studying in New Zealand


Erica Sanchez
UC Davis 2009, Biological Sciences (Molecular and Cellular Bio)
From: Hollister, CA (a small farming community in northern CA)
Research background: chromatin modification and gene expression, folate/B12 pathway in early development
Research interests: virology and host-pathogen interactions
Fun facts: likes biking and wants to start brewing beer (perfect hobbies for Seattle!), was a Resident Advisor for student housing in college



Alyssa Sheih
UW 2010, Bioengineering
From: Yangon, Myanmar, moved to Seattle when she was eight
Research background: designing drug and gene delivery systems
Research interests: immunology and cellular-based therapies
Fun facts: first job was at McDonald’s, wanted to be a doctor as a kid


Chelsea Spragg
Emory University 2009, Biology
From: northern Georgia
Research background: ecological immunology: infecting aphids with fungi as a potential method of pest control, tracking the movement of the intermediate filament vimentin in cells
Research interests: immunotherapy and cancer vaccines
Fun facts: has been doing research at the University of Edinburgh since college, wanted to be an artist when she grew up, loves animals (except cows and chickens)




Katie Thomas
University of New Mexico 2009, Biochemistry and Japanese
From: Albuquerque, NM
Research background: screening a chemical library of synthetic resveratrol analogs for anti-inflammatory activity
Research interests: signal transduction pathways
Fun facts: has wanted to live in Seattle since she was 14, worked as a meat pie vendor at a Scottish festival , wanted to be an author when she grew up


Chad Toledo
University of Minnesota 2009, Genetics, Cell Biology and Development
From: Los Angeles and Minneapolis
Research background: role of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-32 in HIV/SIV infection, DNA vaccines for HIV
Research interests: immunology, virology and apoptosis in relation to cancer
Fun facts: major sports fan (goes to Dodgers games in every city he visits, wanted to play for the Dodgers when he grew up), interested in the MBA and Molecular Medicine options in the MCB program

Newbies, we’ve got you covered

Tips for your new life in and outside of the MCB program

Hello, incoming students! If you haven’t already, you’ll soon arrive in Seattle, eager to embark on your first year in the UW MCB program. You’re a smart and talented bunch, but let’s face it: unless you’re local, you probably don’t know jack about what to do with yourself once you get here. You have tons of burning questions about what life will be like for the next [insert optimistic number here] years you’ll spend in Seattle.

In anticipation of your inquiries (like, “Where can I get a decent cupcake around here?”), we surveyed current MCB students about life in Seattle, building a collective body of knowledge and experience that we hope you’ll find useful as you settle in. Here we answer (what we assume to be) your most urgent concerns.

Newbie: How will I get to Seattle? What do I do with all my stuff?

MCB: Overwhelmingly, most current students packed up their cars and/or UHauls and drove cross-country. Others flew, and some were already living here. One took an Amtrak train.

If students had to ship, they either sent items by mail or used shipping companies (such as ABF) that allow customers to pack and unpack their items from large storage cubes, saving money on moving costs.

Newbie: What’s with all the neighborhoods? How do I decide where to live?

MCB: Seattle is known for its plethora of neighborhoods, and to be honest, you’ll have to decide for yourself where you belong. Each has its pros, cons and quirks. The U-District will be close to campus, but you might not enjoy living in the midst of UW undergrads (we are sooo grown up now). Neighborhoods like Fremont and Ballard are farther from campus but have a more unique atmosphere. Capitol Hill has a fun nightlife, while areas like Queen Anne are quieter and more residential.

Students tend to move around between neighborhoods (67% of survey respondents don’t currently live in the neighborhood where they first resided). This is especially true when you look at the U-District. It’s understandable: if you don’t know the city, you might pick a place near campus to start out, and branch out as you’re more comfortable.

However, we advise you incoming students: take a risk! If you haven’t yet chosen where to live, do a little research (there are some good Seattle neighborhood guides online) to see if another neighborhood might be a better fit. You’ll get to know the city better and you may even save some money (many apartments near the U can be a rip!—check out the rents on Craigslist).

Newbie: How will I get to lab and class?

MCB: Seattle is fairly schizophrenic when it comes to public transit. We have the bus system (beware: sometimes you pay when you enter the bus, sometimes when you leave), the touristy Monorail, the Seattle Streetcar (officials didn’t like “South Lake Union Trolley”—something to do with the acronym), and the brand new Link Light Rail.

So how do we actually get from where we live to where we work?

Possibly because we are environmentally-conscious, but more likely to avoid the cost of parking, most survey respondents either bus, bike or walk to lab. If you live near the Burke-Gilman Trail, a bike path that encircles the southern edge of northern Seattle, biking is probably quicker than taking the bus. You may want to keep this in mind when choosing a neighborhood—Ballard and parts of Fremont and Wallingford to the west, and Sand Point to the east, all have easy access to the trail.

There’s also a shuttle that takes you between the Hutch and UW during the day, which will be enormously helpful commuting between classes and rotation labs in your first year. If you decided to rotate/join a lab at other off-campus locations such as Children’s or SBRI, there are shuttles that go there too.

We also want to note that you absolutely can survive in Seattle without a car. Depending on where you are going, the bus system may make for a longer or more complicated trip, but you can get pretty much anywhere within the city limits if you’re willing to take the time. Additionally, city buses have front bike racks, so it’s very easy to combine biking and busing wherever you need to go (which may prove invaluable if you’re not ready to scale massive hills on your fixie).

Newbie: Do students actually participate in any of the joint programs offered by the MCB program? {Waiting on data from MCB office to get better numbers}

MCB: Our program is unique in that it recognizes that we’re not all destined for the same path after graduate school. We’re able to broaden our graduate education with a number of options, such as certificate in Molecular Medicine, MS in Epidemiology, and MBA. About a third of survey respondents have participated in at least one of these extra programs; most completed at least part of the requirements for the certificate in Molecular Medicine.

We’re also very lucky in that we have great flexibility in how we fulfill the teaching requirements of the program. You will complete at least one academic TAship, which means you TA an undergraduate course for one of a number of departments on campus. The MCB program requires a second TAship, which can be fulfilled by another academic TAship or by participating in a number of outreach-oriented programs. We’ll discuss some of these in future issues of the Transcript, and you’ll learn more details in the spring of your first year.

Newbie: Will I…um…have a life outside the lab?

MCB: Regardless of where we’ll go after grad school, we’re here now, challenging ourselves to learn, to question, to push beyond our comfort zone, to do downright amazing science. Realistically, if you want to stay highly motivated, you need to recharge from time to time. So yes, you can (and probably should) have a life outside the lab.

MCB students enjoy a variety of hobbies. We all like eating, and some like cooking, brewing, and winemaking. Many students head out of the city to the nearby mountains for hiking, skiing and snowboarding. Other students participate in various club, intramural or individual sports. Regardless of the activity, it’s great to have things you enjoy outside the lab.

Say you’ve had a long day in lab and need a mid-week boost. Not to worry: Seattle loves happy hour, which makes for happy grad students. Most pubs and restaurants offer great discounts on food and drinks for at least one happy hour a day (some offer a late-night one too!). We polled students for their favorite spots and came up with lots of great options. We’ve posted them on our ‘MCB Favorites’ Google map.

View MCB favorites in a larger map

Because sometimes we need to get away from it all, whether it’s heading to a different part of the city or beyond the city limits, we also asked current students for their favorite Seattle hangouts and northwest getaways. We’ve posted those on our map, too. Check them out—maybe some will become your new favorite spots.

Newbie: I have friends coming to visit two weeks after I get to Seattle. How do I show them around when I don’t know the city myself?!

MCB: We’ve got you covered. We asked current students for their favorite touristy spots in Seattle—places they like to go when friends and family come to visit. They’re all on our map.

Newbie: Seriously, where can I get a decent cupcake around here?

MCB: Cupcake Royale and Trophy Cupcakes, the major cupcake producers in the city, both offer delicious and delightfully creative cupcakes. It’s been pretty intensely debated which cupcake maker is superior, and we’re sorry to say we couldn’t resolve the debate with our survey: half of our cupcake lovers go for Royale, half for Trophy. However, we did find that when we threw Top Pot Doughnuts, a phenomenal doughnut shop, into the mix, we found that most students prefer Top Pot to either cupcake joint. The best way to find out for yourself is to try them all.

Newbie: Anything else?

MCB:

1. Native Seattleites do not use umbrellas. Often they don’t wear raincoats. You can be like them and get wet, or you can at least wear a jacket with a hood. It’s up to you.

2. No one calls it “The Emerald City.”

3. Welcome to Seattle and the MCB Program!

Important Dates for Autumn Quarter 2010

First years: begin establishing residency as soon as you move to Seattle! This includes:
-Get a WA driver’s license
-Register to vote in WA
-Register your car here (if you have one)
-Open a bank account in WA

September 10th: MCB Orientation for incoming students

September 12th: MCB Welcome BBQ @ Gas Works Park

September 27th: Safety training for incoming students

Retreats:
-
Immunology: September 13th and 14th
-Physiology and Biophysics: September 16th and 17th
-Human Biology: September 20th
-Basic Sciences: September 21st
-Biochemistry: September 21st
-Genome Sciences: September 22nd- 24th
-Pharmacology: September 23rd and 24th
-Microbiology: September 24th
-Pathology: September 24th
-Developmental Biology: September 30th

September 29th: First Day of Autumn Quarter
-First year students should have your first rotation chosen by this date
-Register for classes/research credits by September 28th to avoid late fees

October 15th: Autumn Quarter fees due

October 18th: MCB Symposium, Theme: BIOPLASTICITY: elements beyond genetic sequence

November 5th: Registration for Winter quarter is available

November 11th: Veterans Day, UW official holiday

November 25th and 26th: Thanksgiving and black Friday, UW official holidays

December 1st: Deadline to apply to the joint MS in Epidemiology program

December 10th: Last day of classes for Autumn quarter

December 13th-17th: Finals week

December 14th: Rotation talks

December 17th: End of Autumn Quarter
-3rd year students should have their General Exam scheduled

December 19th-January 2nd: Winter Break

January 3rd: First day of Winter Quarter

Recent graduate profile - Semih Tareen

Viruses, films and octopi, oh my!

When asked what they would bring to a desert island if they could only bring one thing, most people have a funny response. Semih Tareen, a recent graduate of the MCB program, has a most intriguing response; he would bring his “snorkel, so that [he] can continue hunting octopus.” Semih learned how to hunt octopus where he grew up, in Turkey. He hunts by diving, scanning for nests (identifiable because octopi drag rocks and shells into the opening to close it off), looking inside the nest to determine whether the octopus is big enough to hunt (he never hunts infants or during mating season), and then grabbing the octopus and killing it. He then prepares the octopus for cooking, and always saves the ink sack because “that ink is one of nature's most beautiful creations.” While octopus hunting is enough to set Semih apart from other MCB students, he is also an award-winning film composer as well as an MCB success story.

Semih chose his field of study quite early in life, as the Turkish education system places students in a track of natural sciences, math, or social sciences in the sixth grade. Natural sciences appealed the most to him because of his curiosity about biology. He first moved to Seattle when his parents decided to immigrate here in 1995. He says that “over the years Seattle has become my home away from home ... I do not see myself living in another city in the USA.”

For his thesis project in the Emerman lab, Semih studied the protein Trim 5 alpha. Trim 5 alpha is a protein found in mammals that blocks retroviral function. Semih found that in addition to this function, Trim 5 alpha also regulates innate immunity. This is exciting because it introduces a previously unknown major regulator of innate immunity and suggests that innate immunity could be an important aspect of the antiretroviral response.

Now that he has graduated, Semih plans to stay in Seattle and work at a biotech called Immune Design Corporation, which uses dendritic cells as antigen presenting cells to produce immunity. The antigens will be incorporated into dendritic cells using lentiviral vectors, and Semih will use his expertise from the Emerman lab to design these vectors.

In addition to his studies, Semih has another career as a film composer. He originally became interested in film music during his childhood when he found that many musical scores to cartoons, in particular those of Carl Stalling, “became an unconscious part of [his] childhood.” Over time he began paying more attention to scores. He also has spent a great deal of time studying both film and music (he plays piano, guitar, and Turkish oud), making film composing a logical thing for him to explore. His favorite film that he composed for is Gomeda, a “Turkish horror/surrealist feature film,” for which he won two best original score awards. A clip from Gomeda can be found on Semih’s film website, www.SemihTareen.com, along with information on all his other films. His favorite film that he made is Yellow, “which is an homage to a genre of Italian horror films from the 50’s and 60’s known as Giallo.” Like Gomeda, this film was also honored, specifically with nominations for best short film and three other awards. Yellow can be viewed online through Semih’s website: http://www.semihtareen.com/yellowsynopsis.html. In addition to making his own films, Semih also takes the time to enjoy other films. His favorite? Conan the Barbarian, directed by John Milius.

While successful careers in science and film should be enough to qualify a person as well-rounded, Semih also has several other hobbies. He enjoys reading horror, fantasy, and non-fiction, and attending concerts from musical genres as diverse as heavy metal, classical music, and opera. He also enjoys soccer to such an extent that in the negotiations for his upcoming biotech job, he stipulated that he be able to begin after World Cup is over. He balances between these disparate aspects of his life by a very simple method: “making sure I devote time to all the things that I love to do and that make me who I am.”

Looking back at his time in the MCB program, Semih says that he enjoyed being in such a large and diverse program because “the large number of students and faculty in MCB gave me the opportunity to meet lots of brilliant people and to be exposed to all kinds of research. Even though I was focused on virology and evolution, I could learn about other topics from fellow students and faculty.”

Semih’s success in both film and science prompts the question, why science? He acknowledged that part of the attraction of science is the stable employment, but he said that while he “would not mind only making films for a living ... I would not cancel my subscription to the journals Science and Nature.” Even if he could achieve equivalent levels of salary, job security, and creative freedom in both careers, he would not leave science. He says that “one day I hope to start making science documentaries; hopefully that way I can bring my love for science and film together.”

Faculty profile - Amy Weinmann

Whether she’s doing research or moving across the country, Amy Weinmann lets her passion drive her wherever it sees fit. “I never plan where I want to be five years from now,” says the immunology professor. Yet it’s clear that the one place she does not want to be is stuck in an office – every day she does experiments alongside the rest of her lab.

“I work really hard because I love it,” says Amy. “I never want to wait to see the answer, I want to know now…. How many people can actually say they love what they do?”

Born in small town Minnesota, Amy felt drawn to science after being inspired by a chemistry teacher. “I always liked the discovery,” she says, although research was a dream she had to defer due to a lack of opportunities at her small university. But after completing an undergraduate summer project at the Mayo Clinic – her only formal research experience – she applied to and was accepted into UCLA’s graduate program. “I had no idea what I was doing,” she says, wearing her Bruins sweatshirt. “I just had a gut feeling that this was where I needed to be.”

After completing her Ph.D. and a postdoc, Amy had always assumed she’d return to Minnesota and teach at a small college. But when the time came to choose between that and research, UW made her an offer she couldn’t refuse: a tenure track position at the age of 29. “It was just such a great university,“ she says, adding that she had never even been to Seattle before. She didn’t let that bother her though, figuring that “people are interesting everywhere.”

Her impulsive choice turned out to be a good choice. She quickly found that she enjoys Seattle’s proximity to nature and the “peacefulness of being around water.” Perhaps best of all, she was able to people her new lab with researchers as passionate about their work as she. “We’re hard working, but it’s about balance,” Amy says of her lab. “You can’t work for me, your work has to come from you, your own passions. Everyone is different and my challenge is how to push someone to reach their passion.”

The Weinmann group is studying how general transcription factors can use the same DNA to drive cellular differentiation, and uses the T-box family of developmental transcription factors as a model. What started as a question of immune cell differentiation has extended to encompass development, chromatin remodeling, and computational biology as each person in the lab chose to attack the problem from his or her own unique angle. “I think it’s more fun that way,” says Amy.

Only ten years after she herself finished graduate school, Amy’s first student, Sarah Miller of MCB, defended her thesis in April and is now off to a postdoc at Harvard after publishing a heavily cited paper in Genes & Development. Another MCB student, Albert Huang, is currently studying with her under dual mentorship at ISB. Amy says that what she loves best about mentoring students is the excitement of watching them learn how to think and to drive their own science.

“Early on, it’s much more hands-on, but eventually it starts to flip and by the end, the student knows way more than I do. It’s a proud moment when they’re on their own.” And like a proud parent, she describes her small lab as “a family,” complete with dinners on the Ave and frequent debates over everything from politics to sports. “We’re a very Minnesota Vikings-oriented lab,” she warns.

In addition to following professional sports, Amy played volleyball throughout high school and college and she cites her high school volleyball coach as one of the influential people in her life. “The mental discipline of sports fits well with science. It’s always a work in progress; you should be proud of what you’ve accomplished, but at the same time striving to do better and learn more,” she says.

Her advice to students who want to do research: Don’t let anyone scare you. “People always intimidate you: there’s no jobs, this is too hard, nobody gets grants. I don’t like not doing things because of fear. If you really want it, you should do it.“

One last question, what would she be if she weren’t a scientist? Amy has a tough time deciding, but eventually says she’d be a motivational speaker, trying to help people reach their potential. “Everybody goes through difficult times in life and it’s so sad when people let that get them down. I want to help get everyone past the hard part to what they’re meant to be.”