Mariana Silva Artur, PhD
Laboratory of Plant Physiology, Wageningen University & Research

Dr. Mariana Silva Artur received her PhD at the Laboratory of Plant Physiology (PPH) of Wageningen University & Research, where she studied the evolution, structure, and function of LEA proteins from seeds and the resurrection plant Xerophyta schlechteri. After completing her PhD, Dr. Silva Artur went on to complete her postdoctoral studies at Utrecht University where she researched development and drought responses of tomato root exodermis. Later, Dr. Silva Artur continued as a postdoctoral researcher in the Seeds for Future Initiative of the Wageningen Seed Science Centre within PPH, where she now has her own research group on plant desiccation tolerance and seed maturation, the Seed Resilience Group.

Erez Lieberman Aiden, PhD
University of Texas, Medical Branch and Rice University

Dr. Erez Lieberman Aiden is a professor of Biosciences at Rice University as well as Professor and Department Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas, Medical Branch. The Aiden Lab – also known as the Center for Genome Architecture – focuses on exploring all aspects of genome structure from 1D sequence of the bases to the 3D folding that enables them to fit inside the nucleus of a cell. In the Aiden lab, they ask: How are genomes of humans and other organisms folded in three dimensions within a functioning cell? How is this folding controlled? And how does it, in turn, regulate other cellular processes? To answer these questions, they combine the development of new molecular technologies, high-throughput DNA sequencing and powerful computational and biophysical methods. The lab is also extremely interested in the application of massive datasets – including, but not limited to, DNA sequence – as an approach to making previously intractable measurements possible.

Amy Gladfelter, PhD
Duke University

Dr. Amy Gladfelter received her PhD from Duke University, where she is now a Professor of Cell Biology at the Duke University Medical School and a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering. The Gladfelter lab studies how cells are organized in time and space by combining microscopes with math and applying computational, genetic, and biochemical approaches in fungi and mammalian placenta.

Erin Green, PhD
University of Chicago

Dr. Erin Green received her B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh, and her Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology from Tufts University, where she trained under Dr. Joan Mecsas. Dr. Green then began her postdoctoral work at Vanderbilt University, within Dr. Eric Skaar’s lab. There she studied mechanisms of stress resistance and virulence in Acinetobacter baumannii. Now she’s an Assistant Professor of Microbiology and an Assistant Professor or Medicine at the University of Chicago, where her lab is looking at discovering novel mechanisms by which bacterial pathogens sense and adapt to long-term desiccation stress.