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Cornell University

Nature’s Metabolites Symposium

May 31-June 1, 2023 | Statler Hotel | Cornell University | Ithaca, N.Y.

Program

Printer-friendly .pdf version of the program agenda. – Updated 5/25/2023

May 31

  • 7:30 a.m.: Bus departs Weill Cornell location TBD
  • 12:00 p.m.: Bus arrives Statler Hotel, Ithaca campus

12:00 p.m.- 1:00 p.m.:

  • Registration, Amphitheater lobby
  • Brown bag lunch for NYC attendees only, Terrace Lounge (Ground Floor)

1:00 p.m.- 1:30 p.m.:  Welcome and Introductions, Amphitheater

  • 1:00 p.m.- 1:15 p.m.: Gaurav Moghe, Assistant Professor, Plant Biology, Ithaca
  • 1:15 p.m.- 1:30 p.m.: Paula Cohen, Professor (Genetics), Associate Vice Provost for Life Sciences, Office of Academic Integration

1:30 p.m.- 3:10 p.m.: Session 1: Diversity and effects of metabolites in natural extracts, Amphitheater

  • 1:30 p.m.- 1:50 p.m.: Biosynthetic pathways for cardiac glycosides in plants
    Georg Jander, Professor, Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca
  • 1:50 p.m.- 2:10 p.m.: Psychoactive drugs of fungal origin and their effects on perception and cognition
    Alex Kwan, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Ithaca
  • 2:10 p.m.- 2:30 p.m.: Modulating microbiome networks in the human gut
    Ilana Brito, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Ithaca
  • 2:30 p.m.- 3:15 p.m.: Keynote: Methods to Evaluate the Safety of Botanical Dietary Supplements: Work within the Botanical Safety Consortium
    Michelle Embry, Deputy Director, Health and Environmental Safety Institute, Washington DC

3:15 p.m.- 3:45 p.m.: Break, Foyer

3:45 p.m.- 5:30 p.m.: Session 2: Drug discovery: Processes, opportunities, and
challenges, Amphitheater

  • 3:45 p.m.- 4:05 p.m.: Food as medicine, herbs, botanicals, supplements applied to patient care
    Michelle Loy, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Weill Cornell
  • 4:05 p.m.- 4:25 p.m.: Sesquiterpene lactones from plants for hememalignancies
    Monica Guzman, Associate Professor, Pharmacology, Weill Cornell
  • 4:25 p.m.- 4:45 p.m.: Developing cellular therapies to activate natural product-based prodrugs at tumor sites
    Broderick Corless, Graduate student, Derek Tan Lab, Chemical Biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Institute
  • 4:45 p.m.- 5:05 p.m.: A metabolomics-based approach to study immune regulation
    Mohammad Arifuzzaman, Postdoctoral Associate, Weill Cornell
  • 5:05 p.m.- 5:30 p.m.: Metabolic interactions between host and their microbiomes
    Wenbing Jin, Postdoctoral Associate, Chun-Jun Guo lab, Weill Cornell

5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.: Posters, Wine-and-Cheese Reception, Terrace Alcove (Ground Floor)

7:00 p.m. onwards: Dinner on your own – Collegetown, Commons, Downtown Ithaca – Explore Ithaca! (Arrange transportation on own.)

June 1

7:30 a.m.- 8:30 a.m.: Continental Breakfast, Foyer

8:30 a.m.- 9:15 a.m.: Keynote: Nematode metabolites with medicinal and agrochemical potential, Amphitheater
Frank Schroeder, Professor (Boyce Thompson Institute, Chemistry and Chemical Biology Program), HHMI Faculty Scholar, Board of Directors (Ascribe Bioscience)

9:15 a.m.- 9:30 a.m.: Break, Foyer

9:30 a.m.- 11:10 a.m.: Session 3: Technologies for mining and engineering metabolism, Amphitheater

  • 9:30 a.m.- 9:50 a.m.: Discovery and biomanufacturing of medicinal alkaloids and halogenated derivatives in yeast
    Sijin Li, Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering, Ithaca
  • 9:50 a.m. – 10:10 a.m.: Screening platforms for drug discovery for solid tumors
    Valerie Galegos, Englander Institute of Precision Medicine, Weill Cornell
  • 10:10 a.m.- 10:30 a.m.: Computational approaches for parsing complex natural extracts
    Gaurav Moghe, Assistant Professor, Plant Biology, Ithaca
  • 10:30 a.m.- 10:50 a.m.: Functional Synthetic Materials to Regulate Metabolic Activities of Living Systems
    Rong Yang, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Ithaca
  • 10:50 a.m.- 11:10 a.m.: High-throughput detection of protein-ligand interactions using proteomic strategies
    Aleksandra Skircyz, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Ithaca

11:10 a.m.- 11:30 a.m.: Break, Foyer

11:30 a.m.- 12:30 a.m.: Session 4: Resources and commercialization pathways, Amphitheater

  • 11:30 a.m.- 11:50 a.m.: Cornell Botanic Gardens
    Emily Faye Detrick, Research Director, Cornell Botanic Gardens
  • 11:50 a.m.- 12:10 p.m.: Center for Regional Economic Advancement (CREA)
    Tom Schryver, Director, CREA
  • 12:10 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.: Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute (virtual)
    Peter Meinke Director, Tri-Institutional Therapeutic Discovery Institute

12:30 p.m.- 1:30 p.m.:  Buffet Lunch, Terrace Lounge (Ground Floor)

1:30 p.m.- 3:00 p.m.: SESSION 5: Panel discussion on funding opportunities (Speakers: 5-10 minutes followed by Q&A)

  • 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.: Amphitheater, Lou Walcer, Center for Life Science Ventures (on initiating commercial startups at Cornell)
  • 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.: Amphitheater, T32, NRT training grants panel, Hening Lin (NIH Chemistry Biology Interface Training Grant), Michael Scanlon (NSF Digital Plant
    Sciences Training Grant)
  • 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.: Amphitheater, Internal Cornell grant opportunities, Paula Cohen (Vice Provost – Research, Office of Academic Integration)
  • 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Assemble in Statler Lobby, Tour of Cornell Botanic Gardens, Emily Faye Detrick

3:00 p.m.- 3:15 p.m.: Break, Foyer

3:15 p.m.- 3:30 p.m.: Closing Remarks & Survey
Monica Guzman Associate Professor, Pharmacology, Weill Cornell
Amphitheater

NYC attendees:

  • 3:30 p.m.- 4:30 p.m.: NYC attendees: Collect Dinners-to-go, Foyer
  • 4:30 p.m.: Statler Hotel courtyard, Bus departs
  • 9:30 p.m.: Weill Cornell Bus reaches NYC