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: March 4th, 2025

9-10am Pacific timezone converter

Add these events to your calendar

Zoom Link

Upcoming Speakers:

MARCH 4th, 2025

 

Malvika Tejura

Pronouns: she/her

University of Washington

Presentation Date: March 4th, 2025

Title: Reassessing the Calibration of Variant Effect predictors for Clinical Interpretation (Co-presenting with Shawn Fayer)

Bio: Before beginning Malvika’s graduate studies at UW Genome Sciences, where she is co-advised by Dr. Lea Starita and Dr. Douglas Fowler, she earned a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UC Berkeley. After undergrad, she worked at Ultima Genomics and Maze Therapeutics, two biotech companies that deepened her interest in genomics and ultimately inspired her to pursue graduate research. Her work focuses on developing innovative algorithms to reinterpret variant effects. In the lab, she writes code to analyze variant effect data, quantify the likelihood of pathogenicity across diverse variants, and advance the democratization of MAVE data interpretation. Beyond research, she is passionate about science communication and fostering curiosity in others. Through her work, she strives to bridge the gap between data-driven insights and real-world clinical impact.

Shawn Fayer

Pronouns: he/him

University of Washington

Presentation Date: March 4th, 2025

Title: Reassessing the Calibration of Variant Effect predictors for Clinical Interpretation (Co-presenting with Mallvika Tejura)

Bio: Shawn is a genetic counselor who recently completed his PhD at the University of Washington with co-advisors Doug Fowler and Lea Starita. His work focuses on the clinical integration of multiplexed functional assay data and generation of multiplexible assays in pluripotent stem cells.

Social: @ShawnFayerGC

Zachary Walsh

Pronouns: he/him

Columbia University

Presentation Date: March 4th, 2025

Title: Massively scalable assessment of variant effects in primary human T cells.

Bio: Zach is a 5th-year MD/PhD candidate at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is currently completing his PhD in Benjamin Izar's lab, where he works at the intersection of T cell engineering and human genetics. His current work involves the scalable generation and discovery of variants that enhance T-cell based cancer therapies using CRISPR base editing screens.

Social: @zwalsh96

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)