The first seminar of the 2017 Biochemistry Summer Seminar Series, organized by the Biochemistry Graduate Student Association (gBSA), was held on July 7, 2017.
Dr. Xiaoyu Xia, Precision Medicine Project Manager at City of Hope (Duarte, CA), was the first speaker. Dr. Xia, who received her Ph.D. in 2015 at UCLA working with Professor Jorge Torres, discussed her career path, starting with a B.S. degree in Biochemistry at UCLA to her current position at City of Hope. She offered advice to the students and faculty in the audience on how to find a job and what skills she’s taken out of graduate school into the “real world.”
Organizers of the seminar series, graduate students Orlando Martinez (mentor: Professor Rob Clubb) and Joseph Ong (mentor: Professor Jorge Torres), and Dr. Xiaoyu Xia (City of Hope).
The first ever Biochemistry Summer Seminar Series is being organized and hosted by the newly formed Biochemistry Student Association (gBSA) to highlight department-wide research being conducted by UCLA biochemistry graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Alumni working in industry and government institutions, such as Dr. Xia, have also been invited to speak. In addition to giving biochemistry graduate students and postdocs the opportunity to practice their speaking skills in a low-stress environment, the seminars also provide an opportunity for the UCLA scientific community to learn about the research being conducted in UCLA biochemistry labs. The alumni seminars give current students great insight into life after graduate school.
The seminars will take place on Friday afternoons in the summer from 3:30 to 4:30 in Young Hall 2033. Each seminar is followed by a social hour with refreshments. The series will take place every Friday during the summer with the last seminar taking place on Friday, September 8, 2017. All are invited to attend.
Future seminars include on July 14, a seminar by biochemistry graduate student Kanishk Jain (mentor: Professor Steven Clarke) titled “Epigenetics and Regulation of Mammalian Methyltransferases”. On Friday, July 21 biochemistry graduate student Michael Conti (mentor: Professor Carla Koehler) will give a seminar titled “Mitochondrial Protein Translocation Attenuate Parkin Trafficking ”. On Friday, July 28, alumnus Darren Dumlao (mentor: Professor Steven Clarke, Ph.D. ‘07) will discuss his career path to Pfizer. A PDF of the complete schedule for 2017 Summer Seminar series can be obtained here.
For more information contact the series organizers Orlando E. Martinez, oemartinez@ucla.edu and Joseph Ong, jong2@ucla.edu.
