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. Seminars are held on the 1st Tuesday each month from 9-10am Pacific (4-5pm UTC).

NEXT SEMINAR: December 1st, 2026

9-10am Pacific timezone converter

Add these events to your calendar

Previous Seminars

Upcoming Speakers

Mutational landscape of echinocandin resistance

Romain Durand (He/Him)

Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval (CRCHUQ)

Presentation Date: 1 December 2026

EVENT FLYER for Vess Flyer Dec 1 2026

I'm a researcher based in Québec, Canada. I was initially trained in Biological Engineering in France, then did an MSc and PhD in Sherbrooke (QC), working on bacterial mobile genetic elements. Between 2021 and early 2026, I was a postdoc in the lab of Prof. Christian Landry in Québec. I learned about yeast, antifungals and deep mutational scanning (DMS). Since April, I've been working as a bioinformatician, working mostly on spatial transcriptomics, with some DMS still.

Social: @romain-durand-phd/

Exploring the allostery of a multi domain signaling protein with deep mutational scanning

Ziyuan Jiang (He/Him)

Nankai University

Presentation Date: 1 December 2026

EVENT FLYER for Vess Flyer Dec 1 2026

I achieved my bachelor's degree in chemistry from Nankai University, China in 2019. From 2019 to 2025, I received my PhD training in Columbia chemistry in Prof. Neel Shah's lab studying the tyrosine phosphatase, SHP2, which is what my talk is about. Currently, I'm working in Prof. Olga Boudker's lab at Weill Cornell Medicine trying to apply deep mutational scanning on an intracellular membrane protein.

Social: @ziyuanjiang55b733155/

Seminar series FAQs

When is it?

1st Tuesday of each month (9am Pacific)
Start time is 9am Pacific (timezone converter)
We have members and presenters from around the globe (multiple time zones)
Our inaugural seminar was Tuesday, September 7th, 2021

Who presents?

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

What is the format?

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
AVE members can also follow / continue conversations on our VESS AVE Slack Channel (#variant-effects-seminar-series)

Who can attend?

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

Do you need to be a member of AVE to attend?

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

Who are the organizers?

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

Are the talks recorded?

If speakers consent, the recordings will be publicly available on our YouTube channel
Speakers can also now link their VESS talks to bioRxiv preprints!
You can also find a list of previous speakers and talks > HERE

Where can I find the zoom link and calendar invite link?

Here! > VESS ZOOM LINK
and here! > Add these events to your calendar.

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/)