VARIANT EFFECTS SEMINAR SERIES (VESS)

In this series, early-career scientists from around the globe share and discuss their research related to interpreting human genetic variation.

NEXT SEMINAR: April 1st, 2025

9-10am Pacific timezone converter

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Upcoming Speakers:

Joyce Kang

Harvard-MIT

Presentation Date: April 1st, 2025 - 1st speaker

Mapping the dynamic genetic regulatory architecture of HLA genes at single-cell resolution

Joyce Kang is an MD/PhD Candidate at Harvard-MIT. She recently completed a PhD in Biomedical Informatics, where she developed computational methods to analyze large-scale single-cell genomics and human genetics data in the context of immune-mediated diseases, advised by Soumya Raychaudhuri. Previously, she graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Computer Science, where she received the Henry Ford II Scholar Award and Firestone Medal. She has co-authored over 20 publications and received numerous grants including an NIH F30 Ruth L. Kirschstein Fellowship.

 

Social: https://x.com/joycebkang

Yiyun Rao

Penn State University

Pronouns: She/Her

Presentation Date: April 1st, 2025 - 2nd speaker

High throughput experimental validation of pervasive synonymous mutation neutrality in the human genome 

Yiyun Rao is a Ph.D. candidate in the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences program at Penn State. She is co-advised by the Pritchard and O’Brien labs and focuses on exploring the functional impact of synonymous mutations in cancer and fitness contexts. Her research spans computational biology and functional genomic screens: in the former, she applies statistical models to identify cancer genes enriched with synonymous mutations; in the latter, she employs CRISPR base-editing screens to characterize their functional effects in human populations. The latter will be the focus of her talk. Additionally, as part of her Ph.D., she has studied complex combinatorial genotype-phenotype maps to investigate the genetic architecture underlying the evolution and function of the kinase phosphate-binding loop.

 

Timothy Tan

University of Illinois

Pronouns: He/Him

Presentation Date: May 6th, 2025 - 1st speaker

Engineering SARS-CoV-2 spike protein for vaccine immunogen design

Tim is a graduate student in the lab of Nicholas Wu at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He studies adaptive immune responses to rapidly evolving antigens.

Social: timothyjtan.bsky.social


Mustafa Tekpinar

Van Yüzüncü Yıl University 

Presentation Date: May 6th, 2025 - 2nd speaker

Variant Effect Prediction for Human Proteins with PRESCOTT

Mustafa Tekpinar earned his PhD in Physics from the University at Buffalo and completed two postdoctoral fellowships in France—one at the Institut Pasteur and the other at Sorbonne University, where he focused on studying the pathogenicity of variants in the MEFV gene. He is currently an associate professor at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University in Turkey.


Shelby Hemker

University of Michigan

Pronouns: She/Her

Presentation Date: June 3rd, 2025 - 1st speaker

Saturation mapping of MUTYH variant effects using DNA repair reporters

Shelby Hemker is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan and is funded by the American Cancer Society. Shelby's work in the Dr. Jacob Kitzman Laboratory has included development of a new functional assay to measure DNA damage repair by the adenine glycosylase MUTYH, of which the pre-print is available on bioRxiv. Other projects include assaying other DNA repair factors linked to inherited cancers. Shelby's previous research experiences include her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied the effects of hypoxia and microRNAs on kidney development under the mentorship of Dr. Jacqueline Ho and her BS from Michigan State University, where she studied inherited genetic disease in dogs and cats in Dr. John Fyfe's Laboratory of Comparative Medical Genetics. She is finishing up her tenure as a postdoc and will soon enter the academic job market, looking for opportunities to build upon past experience to develop new assays to resolve unknowns about inherited disease.

 

Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelby-hemker-48b06813b/


Julien Dilly

Presentation Date: July 1st, 2025

Pronouns: He/him

Title:  Deep mutational scanning reveals gain- and loss-of-function mechanisms impacting oncogenic KRAS activity

BIO: Julien is a PhD candidate in the Biological and Biomedical program at Harvard University. He is conducting his graduate work in the laboratory of Dr. Andrew Aguirre at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute. His research aims to understand response and resistance to RAS-targeted therapies in pancreatic cancer through large scale variant screens, single-cell RNAseq and genetically engineered models

Social: @Julien__Dilly (twitter)

Nurdan Kuru

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Pronouns: She/her

Presentation Date: August 5th, 2025 - 1st speaker

Phylogeny-Driven Approaches for Variant Effect Prediction

Nurdan Kuru is currently a postdoctoral researcher in Siepel Lab at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher from 2021 to 2024 at Adebali Lab at Sabancı University, Turkey. Her talk will discuss her work at Adebali Lab, where she developed phylogeny-aware algorithms for variant effect prediction and coevolution. She holds BSc and MSc degrees in Mathematics and a PhD in Industrial Engineering. Her current research focuses on computational evolution and population genomics, specifically developing a multi-ancestry polygenic risk score prediction approach.

 

Social: @nurdankuru.bsky.social

 

SEMINAR SERIES FAQs

    • 1st Tuesday of each month (9am Pacific)

    • Start time is 9am, 12pm, 2am, 4pm (Pacific, Eastern, Australia East, UTC)

    • We have members and presenters from around the globe (multiple time zones)

    • Our seminars are one hour long and are free and open to the public.

  • Early career scientists: Students, postdocs, and new faculty (<1 year in position)

    If you are interested in presenting or would like to recommend someone, please fill out this online > SPEAKER NOMINATION FORM

    • One hour long virtual meetings (zoom)

    • Each month, two presenters discuss their work in 20-minute talks, followed by lively Q&A sessions.

    • Questions from the audience can be asked using chat or Q&A during the webinar

    • Our meetings are over Zoom and anyone is welcome to attend.

    • We use the webinar format, but participants can ask the speaker questions using the chat or Q&A

    • Anyone can attend. However, if you are interested in becoming a member of the Alliance, please sign up > HERE

  • The Variant Effect Seminar Series Committee members are listed here https://www.varianteffect.org/vess-committee

    • Speakers can also now link their VESS talks to bioRxiv preprints!

    • You can also find a list of previous speakers and talks > HERE

Future Seminars:

We are looking for speakers, including students, postdocs, and new faculty (<1 year in position)!!

If you are interested in presenting or would like to recommend someone, please fill out this online >> SPEAKER NOMINATION FORM

or contact one of the VESS Organizers on our AVE slack channel!

(sign up to become a member and join conversations on slack https://www.varianteffect.org/membership)