Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology, Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence and Physical Science-Oncology Center are hosting a mini-symposium highlighting current research in these entities on Wednesday, October 24 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Clipper Room of Shriver Hall on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University. In addition to student presenters, the symposium features a faculty expert speaker and invited guest lectures from the National Institutes of Health program managers for both the CCNEs and the PS-OCs.

• 10:00 am – 10:20 am Zachary Gagnon, assistant prof. of chemical and biomolecular engineering: “Nonlinear electrokinetics at microfluidic liquid/liquid interfaces
• 10:20 am – 10:40 am Laura Ensign: Mucus-penetrating particles for vaginal drug delivery (CCNE)
• 10:40 am – 11:00 am Wei-Chien Hung: alpha4-tail-mediated Rac1 and RhoA-myosin II in optimizing 2D versus confined migration (PS-OC)
• 11:00 am – 11:20 am Iwen Wu: An adipose-derived biomaterial for soft tissue reconstruction (INBT)
• 11:20 am – 11:50 pm Sean Hanlon: NCI Physical Science–Oncology Centers (PS-OC) Program, bringing a new perspective to cancer research
• 11:50 am – 1:00 pm Break/Lunch
• 1:00 pm – 1:30 pm David Weitz: Drop-based microfluidics: Biology one picoliter at a time (INBT)
• 1:30 pm -2:00 pm Sara S. Hook, projects manager for the Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer program within the Center for Strategic Scientific Initiatives (CSSI) at the National Cancer Institute
• 2:00 pm – 2:20 pm Break
• 2:20 pm – 2:40 pm Phrabha Raman: A microfluidic device to measure traction forces during confined cancer cell migration towards chemoattractant (PS-OC)
• 2:40 pm – 3:00 pm Allison Chambliss: Single-cell epigenetics to retain cell morphology (PS-OC)
• 3:00 pm – 3:20 pm Sravanti Kusuma: Tissue engineering approaches to study blood vessel growth (PS-OC)
• 3:20 pm – 3:40 pm Benjamin Lin: Using synthetic spatial signaling perturbations to probe directed cell migration (INBT)
• 3:40 pm – 4:00 pm Stephany Tzeng: Cancer-specific gene delivery to liver cell cultures using synthetic poly(beta-amino esters) (INBT)
• 4:00 – 4:15 pm Brian Keeley: An epigenetic approach to assessing specificity and sensitivity of DNA methylation (CCNE)

The symposium talks are free and open to the Hopkins community as space allows.