Neurotech 2021
2021-12-15 10:00 - 16:00 (America/Vancouver) | Online
The Neurotech 2021 virtual symposium presents six talks by neurotechnology pioneers whose cutting-edge innovations are changing the face of neurobiological research from molecules to cognition. The program will also include a one-hour session for short presentations by select students and postdocs from the MIT neurotechnology community. The Symposium is open to the MIT community and registration is required. For more information, and to register for this event, please visit https://neurotech.mit.edu/ and click “Register Now.” Please use your @mit.edu email address to register.

Special Seminar in Chemical Biology: Dr. Juan Pablo Maianti
2021-12-17 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Toronto) | MIT & Online
Title: “Substrate-Selective Control of Insulin-Degrading Enzyme Reveals the Untapped Enzymology of Exosite Inhibition”
This is a hybrid seminar. Join us in person in bldg. 6-120 or via Zoom: https://mit.zoom.us/j/97566716429 (MIT Touchstone authorization required). In-person attendees are required to check in via MIT’s Tim Ticket system (MIT ID required).

Unresolved Challenges in the Clinical Care of the Patient with Epilepsy
2022-01-05 16:00 - 17:30 (America/Toronto) | Online
Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, occurring in 1% of the population and is defined as recurrent unprovoked seizures. Epilepsy is a chronic and often progressive disorder that carries a tremendous burden for the individual with seizures, but also their family, and society. The cause of epilepsy is heterogeneous and may include both genetic and acquired etiologies. Seizures are difficult to predict and may be associated with serious injury or even death. Medications cause side effects and are not always effective. There are many challenges in the etiology, the diagnosis, the monitoring, and the outcomes from this disorder that Barbara Dworetzky, MD and Jong Woo Lee, MD, PhD will discuss and challenge the Wyss engineers to partner in solving.

Nano Explorations: Peptide Beacon Integrated Planar Waveguide Sensor for Low-Cost, Rapid and Highly Sensitive Detection of COVID-19
2022-01-11 11:00 - 11:45 (America/Toronto) | Online
Tuesday, January 11, 2022
11 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. EST
>>Register for this Zoom webinar.
Soumya Pratap Tripathy, PhD student
Media Arts and Sciences
MIT Media Lab
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 continues to pose a significant global health threat. Along with vaccines and targeted therapeutics, there is a critical need for rapid diagnostic solutions. In this work, we employ a deep learning-based protein design to engineer molecular beacons that function as conformational switches for high sensitivity detection of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor-binding domain (S-RBD). The beacons contain two peptides, together forming a heterodimer, and a binding ligand between them to detect the presence of S-RBD.
In the absence of S-RBD (OFF), the peptide beacons adopt a closed conformation that opens when bound to the S-RBD and produces a fluorescence signal (ON), utilizing a fluorophore-quencher pair at the two ends of the heterodimer stems. We integrated these beacons on a planar waveguide-based fluorescence sensor to construct a point-of-care diagnostic platform for SARS-CoV-2. The device can detect the S-RBD with limits of detection (LoD) in the sub-femtomolar range. We envision that the platform will be a rapid at-home diagnostic device in the future.
Attendees can join and participate in the series via Zoom.

Frontiers in Biostatistics: Studies on COVID-19 and Cancer Using National Real-World VA Data
2022-01-11 13:00 - 14:00 (America/Toronto) | Online
Nathanael Fillmore is the Associate Director for Machine Learning and Advanced Analytics at the VA Boston Healthcare System’s Cooperative Studies Program Informatics Center. He leads a data science team focused on using machine learning and data science methods, in combination with the VA’s large clinical, genomic, and imaging databases, to generate knowledge and resources that will improve care for Veterans with cancer. He also holds a faculty position at Harvard Medical School and is site director for the VA/NCI Big Data-Scientist Training Enhancement Program. Previously, he was a post-doctoral fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard School of Public Health under the direction of Giovanni Parmigiani and Nikhil Munshi.
Register for this seminar at bit.ly…

Amyloid PET Ordering and Implications in VA Boston Memory Disorders Clinic with Dr. Turk
2022-01-12 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Toronto) | Online
BU ADRC Lecture Series covers the fundamentals and clinical science of neurodegeneration research, with an emphasis on AD/ADRD. Speakers include local, national, and international experts in AD/ADRD, as well as researchers from the FHS.

Forsyth Postdoctoral Symposium
2022-01-14 08:00 - 2022-01-16 17:00 (America/Vancouver) | Forsyth Institute, 245 First Street, Cambridge, MA, 02142, United States
The Forsyth Institute, the nation’s leader in oral, dental and craniofacial research, is seeking high caliber applicants to participate in its 2022 Postdoctoral Symposium. Eligible applicants who are chosen for the symposium will be invited to The Forsyth Institute to present their work, meet the faculty, and tour the world-class facilities. Exemplary candidates who match well with the Institute and faculty will be recruited for postdoctoral careers. Travel and lodging costs will be covered for applicants who are invited to attend the symposium.

Barry Paw Lectureship with Dr. David Langenau
2022-01-14 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Toronto) | Online
David M. Langenau, PhD is awarded second recipient of the Barry Paw Lectureship.
Join us Thursday, January 14th at 4pm for the Barry Paw Lectureship with Dr. David M. Langenau hosted by the Dept. of Pediatrics Hematology/ Oncology Series!
Please click this link to join the webinar: https://bostonchildrens.zoom.us/j/95419829914
Passcode: [REDACTED]

FASI 4th Annual Symposium
2022-01-18 | Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street Auditorium, Cambridge, MA, 02142, United States
FASI Symposium
The FASI symposium connects experts from around the globe to accelerate the development of breakthrough scientific discoveries that will transform the lives of people living with food allergies.
Date
June 3, 2022
Location
Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard
415 Main St. Cambridge, MA 02142
Organizer
Ruslan Medzhitov, Ph.D
Sterling Professor of Immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Chief Scientific Officer, FASI

Using Philanthropy to Spark Government Innovation
2022-01-18 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Toronto) | Online
Jill Shah, President, Shah Family Foundation
Jill Shah is the President of the Shah Family Foundation, which supports transformative work at the intersection of education, healthcare and community. The foundation focuses on demonstrating how private and philanthropic funding can be used to test and accelerate innovation in government programs. In particular, the foundation’s work in school food, has shown that with small capital investments, and the transformation of operations, the USDA school meals program can be used to serve delicious, nutritious, culturally preferred meals to students, while increasing participation, and creating new jobs. A documentary film, called Eat Up, follows Jill and her team during their collaboration with Boston Public Schools and the City of Boston to roll out a deeply impactful new school food program called My Way Café.
The Shah Foundation has extended their school food work during the pandemic through partnerships with the YMCAs across the State of Massachusetts and local restaurants, to tackle both the issues of unemployment and student food access using the federal USDA subsidy. The foundation is also funding a Guaranteed Income program in the City of Chelsea which aims to help its most vulnerable residents fight the unrelenting impact of Covid-19.
Additionally, Jill and her team lead deep research into Covid-19 testing for K-12 students in collaboration with the State of Massachusetts, which has resulted in a comprehensive testing program for schools. No other state in the country has a program that is this comprehensive. Jill hosts the national podcast Catalysts for Change, and co-hosts the hyper-local Boston podcast Last Night at School Committee. She is also currently producing a documentary film about Guaranteed Income.
Jill’s interests include optimized access to fresh and healthy food, improving food access in high-needs neighborhoods, rigorous and successful public schools for all kids, and a deeper collaboration between education and healthcare around issues of physical, mental, emotional and social health.
Jill is a graduate of Providence College where she earned a B.A. in English. Before launching the foundation, Jill was an entrepreneur in Boston and New York, involved in internet start-ups. She also served on the executive team during the turn-around and sale of Mercator Software. She sold her last company, Jill’s List, which focused on the collaboration of traditional and integrative medicine modalities to MINDBODY in 2013.
Jill is currently serving as a Co-chair of the Commonwealth’s Covid-19 Command Center Food Access Task Force. She is a recent recipient of the Boston Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Bostonian award, and the Playworks Game Changer award. She was cited as one of Boston’s 100 most influential Bostonians in Boston Magazine, and she serves on the boards of the Red Sox Foundation, the Overseers of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Overseers of the Museum of Fine Arts, the Belmont Hill School and the Winsor School. Jill and her husband, Niraj, reside in Boston with their two children.

DF/HCC Celebration of Early Career Investigators in Cancer Research
2022-01-19 13:00 - 16:00 (America/Toronto) | Online
Early career investigators are a unique reservoir of new ideas, innovation, and excellence in cancer research. To celebrate this, we welcome you to join the 9th Annual DF/HCC Celebration of Early Investigators in Cancer Research. This symposium will showcase the talent of early career investigators at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) who work in several areas of population science, including epidemiology, biostatistics, outcomes, diversity, and survivorship. We invite all members of the public to attend the event. We also invite students, post-docs, residents, clinical fellows, and early career investigators to submit abstracts for consideration as oral or poster presentations. We look forward to an exciting afternoon of discussion, sharing new discoveries, and building new collaborations. – Lorelei Mucci, ScD (HSPH), Meir Stampfer, MD, DrPH (BWH), Giovanni Parmigiani, PhD (DFCI), Erica Feick (DFCI) and Bailey Vaselkiv (HSPH).
This event will be 100% virtual via Zoom. The Zoom link will be sent to registered attendees prior to the event.

Biomedical Informatics Entrepreneurs Salon: Caitlin Donovan, Uber Health
2022-01-19 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto) | Online
A monthly conversation about medicine, biology, computers, and entrepreneurship.

About this event

Hosted by Harvard Office of Technology Development and the HMS Dept. of Biomedical Informatics. Open to all.
Featured speaker:
Caitlin Donovan, Global Head, Uber Health

Caitlin Donovan is the Global Head of Uber Health. She joins Uber most recently from MyOrthos, an Orthodontic Services Organization, where she served as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to that, Caitlin developed her knack for tackling obstacles to patient care as Chief Operating Officer of Circulation and Executive Vice President of Operations at LogistiCare (now ModivCare), specialty benefit managers in the non-emergency medical transportation space. She also served as the Vice President of Operations at CareCentrix with a focus on home health and post-acute care. Early in her career, she worked in finance as an investor at Bain Capital and as a member of the internal consulting group at Summit Partners. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University and lives in Dover, Massachusetts with her husband and two boys.

MassBioDrive Launch
2022-01-19 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Toronto) | Online
Join us on January 19 to celebrate the launch of MassBioDrive and network with MassBio’s innovation ecosystem! This virtual program will feature:

A fireside chat with Jen Nwankwo, Founder & CEO of 1910 Genetics and Chris Garabedian, Chairman and CEO of Xontogeny, moderated by Kendalle Burlin O’Connell, President and COO of MassBio
Topic-specific networking and Q&A about the spring 2022 application process for MassBioDrive

MassBioDrive is a next generation biotech accelerator designed to advance breakthrough science and provide opportunities to innovators from all parts of the life science ecosystem. Over the course of an intensive eight-week program, selected startups will participate in six business-focused curriculum modules taught by seasoned industry experts, partner with a small, dedicated group of mentors, and receive access to networking events, an end-of-program Demo Day to help grow visibility in the ecosystem, equity-free prizes, and 1:1 partnering meetings at MassBio’s bi-annual Partnering Week.
Apply for Drive‘s Spring 2022 cohort here.

2022 Policy Leadership Breakfast
2022-01-26 08:30 - 10:00 (America/Toronto) | Online
Please join us on January 26th for what has proven to be the must-attend event for senior industry leaders, policymakers, and life sciences government affairs executives.
During this year’s Policy Leadership Breakfast, we will virtually convene the life sciences industry with state and federal policymakers and their staff to discuss the most important policy issues facing the life sciences.
The agenda will feature a fireside chat discussing the economic growth opportunities that the life sciences industry presents to the Commonwealth. There will be a panel discussion highlighting the workforce challenges for our industry and how training programs could provide residents access to positions in the life sciences. We will also present the 2021 Legislator of the Year Award.

Research on Tap: Climate Change & Health: Understanding and Reducing Impacts
2022-01-26 16:00 - 18:00 (America/Toronto) | Online
Continued climate change threatens nearly every aspect of the way we live, move, work, and play. Across the Boston University campus, researchers are working to better understand how climate hazards such as air pollution, heat, hurricanes, and wildfires are affecting our health. Our collective goal is to develop the evidence needed to foster communities that are healthier and more sustainable, equitable, and resilient in the face of a rapidly changing climate.
At this Research on Tap, attendees will hear from BU experts across a range of disciplines working to understand and reduce the threat of climate change to human health.
