Past weekly seminars 2015-2017



March 2, 2017
Dr. Jitendra Kumar, Research Associate at the lab of Dr. Michael Overduin, presented with the title 'NMR spectroscopy of membrane-associated proteins'. See poster


February 16, 2017
Presentation by Dr. Joanna Jung, lab of Dr. Marek Michalak, Department of Biochemistry, with the title 'Calnexin and Endoplasmic Reticulum Malfunction in the Nervous System'. See poster
February 9, 2017
Presentation by Dr. XiuJu Li, lab of Dr. Larry Fliegel, Department of Biochemistry, with the title 'Stop Codon Polymorphisms in the Human SLC9A1 Gene Disrupt Na+/H+ exchanger Function'. See poster



February 2, 2017
Presentation by Katherine Badior, PhD trainee at Dr. Joe Casey's lab, Department of Biochemistry, with the title 'Examining Band 3 Transport Mechanism and Biological Function'. See poster


January 26, 2017
Presentation by Dr. Christopher Cairo, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, U of A, with the title 'Human Neuraminidase Enzymes (Neu) As A Target For Anti-Adhesives'
See poster

January 19, 2017
Presentation by Dr. Nicolas Touret with the title 'Investigating Signal Transduction Within CD36 Nanoclusters'. See poster

January 12, 2017
Dr. Qian Wang, Department of Ophthalmology, Columbia University, presented with the title:
'The role of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signalling in the lacrimal gland development'. See poster.


December 15, 2016
Presentation by invited speaker Dr. Mohan Babu, Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Regina, with the title: 'A Network Map of Human Mitochondrial Protein Interactions in Health and Disease'. See poster

This visit was supported the Walter Mckenzie visiting speaker fund.

December 8, 2016
MPDRG/IRTG weekly seminar
Presentation by Laine Lysyk, IRTG trainee at the Department of Biochemistry, Dr. Joanne Lemieux lab, with the title: 'PARL-mediated intramembrane proteolysis in Parkinson's disease'. See poster

December 1, 2016
MPDRG/IRTG weekly seminar: Presentation by invited speaker Dr. Raymond J. Turner from Microbial Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, with the title: 'Exploring the multi-ligand specificity and functionality of small multidrug resistance proteins in bacteria'. See poster


November 17, 2016
MPDRG/IRTG weekly seminar: Presentation by Qiaolin Hu from Dr. Xing-Zhen Chen's lab, Department of Physiology, with the title 'Intramolecular N-C termini interaction and pore gate residues of TRPV channels'. See poster

November 10, 2016
Presentation by Gurnit Kaur from Dr. Elaine Leslie lab, Department of Physiology, with the title 'Transport Pathways Involved in Arsenic and Selenium Detoxification'. See poster
November 3, 2016
MPDRG/IRTG weekly seminar: Robin Kim and Caroline Wang from Dr. Harley Kurata's lab, Department of Pharmacology, with the title: 'Molecular mechanisms of voltage-gated potassium channel openers'. See poster

October 27, 2016
MPDRG/IRTG weekly seminar: Dr. Ensaf Almomani, Department of Physiology, presented a seminar entitled: 'Characterization of newly identified distal renal tubular acidosis mutants of the kidney anion exchanger 1'. See poster


October 20, 2016
MPDRG/IRTG weekly seminar
Dr. Patrick MacDonald, Professor at the Department of Pharmacology, will present with the title:
'Molecular mechanisms that amplify insulin exocytosis'. Poster
October 6, 2016
MPDRG/IRTG weekly seminar: Dr. Larry Fliegel, Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Biochemistry, with the title: 'NHE Drug Discovery and Research Developments'. Poster
September 29, 2016
MPDRG/IRTG weekly seminar: Darpan Malhotra from Dr. Joe Casey lab presented with the title: 'Expanding horizons in the understanding of Endothelial Corneal Dystrophies'. See poster.

September 22, 2016
Special MPDRG/IRTG weekly seminar with guest speaker Dr. Jeff Abramson, Professor at the Department of Physiology, UCLA, Los Angeles, with the title: 'pH Induced Oligomerization of VDAC1 is Driven by Glutamate 73'.


August 18 and 25, 2016
Summer student presentations, see schedule, names and titles here.
The winners are:
First prize: Matthew Saurette (Dr. Todd Alexander lab)
Second prize: Justin Lee (Dr. Todd Alexander lab)
Third prize: Xu Jing Qiang (Dr. Joe Casey lab)
June 23, 2016
Short presentations by members of Dr. Michael Overduin's lab (poster here)
Mansoore Esmaili: 'Detergent-free isolation of membrane proteins; a case study of PagP'
Cameron Smithers: 'Structure-aided drug discovery for the membrane-interactive RhoA-Lbc target'
Michael Overduin: 'Desmosomal assemblies involved in adhering cell-cell junctions to the cytoskeleton'

June 16, 2016
Invited speaker, Dr. John Klassen, Professor, Department of Chemistry, U of A, Director, Alberta Glycomics Centre, GlycoNet Principal Investigator, presented his work with the title:
'Characterizing protein-glycolipid interactions using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry'. See poster.

June 9, 2016
Katherine Badior, PhD student at Dr. Joe Casey's lab, presented with the title:
'Biochemical and Computational Approaches to SLC4A11'. See poster.

June 2, 2016
Dr. Peter Light, Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Director, Alberta Diabetes Institute, Charles A Allard Chair in Diabetes Research, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, U of A, with the title:
'Cardiac KATP channels - What do they actually do?' See poster.

May 26, 2016
Visiting speaker Dr. Sergei Noskov, Associate Professor, Centre for Molecular Simulation
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, hosted by Dr. Joe Casey, presented with the title 'Molecular Mechanisms of Ion-Coupled Conformational Dynamics in Secondary Transporters'. See abstract.
Trainees met with guest speaker Dr. Noskov for lunch and discussion.
This visit was supported the Walter Mckenzie visiting speaker fund.

May 19, 2016
Victoria Baronas
from Dr. Harley Kurata's lab, Department of Pharmacology, with the title: 'Potassium channels at the interface of redox state and electrical excitability'. See poster.

May 12, 2016
Anna-Maria Miederer, PhD candidate from the Saarland University, Germany and exchange trainee at Dr. Larry Fliegel's lab, with the title: 'STIM2 - Splicing, Function and Identification of Novel Regulators'. See poster.
May 5, 2016
Dr. Rashmi Panigrahi, Postdoctoral Fellow at Dr. Joanne Lemieux' lab, presented with the title:

'Mechanistic insight into inhibition of rhomboid proteases by isocoumarins'. See poster.


April 28, 2016
Special MPDRG/IRTG weekly seminar: Visiting speaker Dr. Derek Bowie, Professor at Department of Pharmacology &Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, presented with the title 'Functional anatomy of the ionotropic glutamate receptor family'. See poster.
Trainees met with Dr. Bowie for lunch and discussion.
This visit was supported the Walter Mckenzie visiting speaker fund.

April 14, 2016
Alka Kumari, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Joe Casey's lab, Department of Biochemistry, presented with the title: 'A Personalized Medicine Approach to Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy'. See poster.


April 7, 2016
A. K. M. Shahid Ullah, Graduate Student from Dr. Emmanuelle Cordat's lab, Department of Physiology, presented with the title: 'Why does the Cl-/HCO3- exchanger SLC26A7 not compensate for the absence of kAE1 in dRTA?'. See poster.


March 31, 2016
Dr. Henrik Dimke, guest speaker from the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, hosted by Todd Alexander, presented with the title: 'Tubulovascular Cross-Talk by Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A Maintains Peritubular Microvasculature in Kidney.' See poster.


March 24, 2016
Two presentations by speakers from the laboratory of Dr. Larry Fliegel:
1. 'NHE1 Modulates Metastatic Potential and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer' by Ray Amith, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow;
2. 'Structural Analysis of Membrane Associated Regions of Na/H Exchanger Proteins' by Carmen Ka Yee Wong. See poster.

March 17, 2016
Gareth Armanious from the lab of Dr. Howard Young, Department of Physiology, presented with the title: 'Mechanistic insights into the SERCA regulatory axis in Heart Failure'. See poster.

March 10, 2016
Dr. Sylvia Yao, Research Associate in the lab of Dr. James Young, Department of Physiology, U of A, presented with the title: 'Identification of key residues involved in the Na+/H+ binding site of hCNT3'. See poster.

March 3, 2016
Shane Wiebe, Graduate student and and lab member in Dr. Todd Alexander's lab, Department of Physiology, presented with the title: 'The Role of NHE8 in Renal Proximal Tubule Calcium Reabsorption'. See poster.


February 25, 2016
Swai Mon Khaing from Dr. Nicolas Touret lab presented with the title: 'Role of the plasma membrane organization in CD36 signaling.' Poster


February 11, 2016
Rawad Lashhab, PhD student and lab member in Dr. Cordat's lab, Department of Physiology, presented with the title: 'Role of kAE1/Claudin-4 Interaction In Maintaining Acid/Base Balance & Electrolyte Homeostasis'. See poster.

February 4, 2016
Dr. Olivier Soueidan, Research Associate and lab member in Chris Cheeseman's lab, Department of Biochemistry, presented with the title: 'Stringent Stereochemical Requirement for Recognition and Transport of Hexose Derivatives by GLUT1 and GLUT5'. See poster here

January 28, 2016
Stephania Irwin, lab member in Dr. Joanne Lemieux' lab in Department of Biochemistry, presented with the title: '

Molecular analysis of PINK1 in Parkinson's Disease'

. See poster

January 21, 2016
Anil Kumar, Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Tom Hobman's lab in Department of Physiology, with the title: 'Identification of novel host factors essential for dengue virus replication'. See poster here

January 7, 2016
Wang Zheng, PhD candidate in Dr. Xing-Zhen Chen's lab in Department of Physiology, will present on Thursday with the title: 'A common mechanism for gating and PIP2 regulation of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels.' See poster.


Thursday, December 17, 2015
Special MPDRG/IRTG weekly seminar

Visiting speaker Dr. Russel Hille, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry, University of California, Riverside, US, was hosted by Dr. Joel Weiner, presented with the title 'A Tale of Two Enzymes: Xanthine Oxidase and CO Dehydrogenase'. See poster.




Thursday, December 10, 2015
Dr. Todd Alexander, Professor at Departments of Pediatrics and Physiology, presented with the title: '5 years, 1 mouse and still more questions! The physiological role of claudin-12'. See poster.





Thursday, December 3, 2015
Visiting speaker Dr. Qingcheng Mao, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics, University of Washington, Seattle, hosted by Dr. Elaine Leslie, presented with the title 'Breast Cancer Resistance Protein (BCRP/ABCG2): From Structure/Function to Drug Disposition'. See poster.
Trainees met with Dr. Mao for lunch and discussions at noon.



Thursday, November 26, 2015
Special MPDRG/IRTG weekly seminar
Presentation by visiting speaker Dr. Franck Duong, Professor at Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia, with the title:
'Example application of nanodiscs to help understand membrane protein biology'. See poster.