On September 19–20, MCB members gathered in Falmouth for the annual MCB Research Retreat. This two-day event has long been an essential opportunity for faculty, students, postdocs, and research and teaching staff to meet, share their latest science, and forge collaborations across labs and disciplines. This year, 215 MCB members registered for the retreat.
“The retreat celebrates our research accomplishments and is a catalyst to new endeavors,” says MCB Chair Rachelle Gaudet. “The organizing committee also injected exciting connections to the arts and socially impactful entrepreneurship. I was so impressed with the engagement of all participants; the poster sessions were buzzing, and all the talks highlighted exciting new results. I came back reinvigorated, and I hope all participants share this feeling of renewed commitment to our research and teaching mission!”
Friday Highlights
Friday opened with two sessions of talks featuring exciting research across the molecular and cellular biology spectrum. Presenters included:
Sam Berry (Biophysics Graduate Student, Gaudet Lab), Determinants of metal import and specificity in a bacterial transporter
Fabiola Muro-Villanueva (Postdoctoral Fellow, Nett Lab), Independent evolution of neuroactive alkaloids in traditional medicinal plants,
Marcin Magnus (Postdoctoral Fellow, Rivas Lab), OpenRNAFold: an end-to-end approach for RNA 3D structure prediction
SueYeon Chung (Assistant Professor of Physics, Harvard University), Neural Population Geometry: From Variability to Efficient Untangling of Concepts
Vlad Denic (Professor of MCB), A divergent tubulin-like protein templates eukaryotic chaperonin assembly
Pablo Villar (Postdoctoral Fellow, Bellono Lab), A sensory system for mating in octopus
Courtney Whilden (PiN Graduate Student, Whipple Lab), Snord116 interacts with ribosomal RNA and regulates translation in the developing mouse brain
Although keynote speaker George Church had to cancel due to illness, his absence created space for a lively, impromptu discussion where faculty brainstormed potential business ideas born from lab collaborations—a rare and fruitful exchange of creativity.
The day’s intellectual energy carried over into the evening’s activities. The annual volleyball game pitted the MCO first-year graduate students against the MCB faculty. Faculty dominated the first round with a decisive 15–7 win, but students rallied impressively in the second game, ultimately falling 15–11.
MCO first-year graduate students preparing for the game…
MCB faculty preparing for the game…
After dinner, third-year MCO students debuted their skit, a Star Wars-themed parody titled Rotation Wars, Episode I – The Phantom Advisors. The performance humorously depicted the challenges of navigating rotations in the labs of various professors, with playful roasts of several faculty members—including Vlad Denic, Victoria D’Souza, Ethan Garner, Nick Bellono, and Ryan Nett—though there may have been a few more surprise cameos.
Afterward, Poster Session I included science from many MCB students. Over the course of the retreat, 71 posters were presented across two poster sessions.
Friday evening wrapped with a truly unique program: a Multiverse Concert Series in which composer David Ibbett transformed eight MCB research images into live sonifications.
Attendees then split off to beach fire pits, Brittany Walsh’s popular (and overfilled) board game lounge, and—for the night owls—a DJ party that kept the music going into the early morning.
Saturday Sessions and the Venture Sprint
Saturday morning launched with Session III talks, including:
Ahmad (Mo) Khalil (Hok Lam and Kathleen Kam Wong Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology), Synthetic reconstitution of complex cellular function
Sohaib Abdul Rehman (Postdoctoral Fellow, Prigozhin Lab), Molecular probes for multicolor electron microscopy
Ningjing Xia (PiN Graduate Student, Murthy Lab), How do mice solve an olfactory cocktail party task?
Lyle Kingsbury (Postdoctoral Fellow, Uchida Lab), Cortical configuration of context-specific integrator dynamics for flexible foraging decisions
Marissa Gredler (Assistant Professor of MCB), Dynamic cell behaviors in embryonic development
Poster Session II followed before the inaugural MCB Venture Sprint Pitches, a program co-led with the Lemann Program on Creativity & Entrepreneurship. Over the course of six summer workshops, MCB trainees developed early-stage venture concepts with a focus on societal impact, refining their ideas from inception to a polished pitch. The winning team, Bench Agent, received $1,500 in seed funding from MCB and the Lemann Program.
“It was remarkable to witness the progress made by these six venture sprinters as they took molecular and cellular biology-focused ideas from early inception to polished presentations of viable ventures, all of which were aimed at making positive societal impact,” said Sam Hunter Magee, Director of the Lemann Program on Creativity & Entrepreneurship. “I am eager to see where their ideas go as they continue to evolve and refine them.”
Saturday concluded with a final session of science talks followed by awards and prizes:
Yash P. Rana (Postdoctoral Fellow, Needleman Lab), Actin-driven cytoplasmic flows and microtubule transport organize metabolically distinct mitochondria during mouse oocyte maturation
Chandrashekar Kuyyamudi Ashwinikumar (Postdoctoral Fellow, Extavour Lab), From Granules to Gonads: Modeling Germ Plasm Effects on Pole Cell Development
Awards and Recognition
This year’s retreat also celebrated outstanding contributions from MCB trainees:
Jen Yi and Courtney Whilden
Meselson Award: Courtney Whilden, PiN Graduate Student in the Amanda Whipple lab, and Jennifer Yi, now an MCO Graduate Student in Michael Segel’s SCRB lab and formerly of the Whipple Lab, earned this year’s honors, with each winning $500 + Crystal Award.
The Meselson Award celebrates exceptionally “beautiful” experiments conducted by trainees in MCB labs. Their work tackled an extremely difficult project that has eluded decades of dedicated research in many labs, including large, famous, senior groups. It is also highly medically relevant, having to do with the molecular basis of a well-known and still mysterious imprinting disease, the Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), that has very debilitating effects on infants, including growth defects and insatiable hunger. It has been known for some time that PWS results from the loss of the paternally expressed small RNA, Snord116. However, despite years of effort, nobody has yet been able to identify the molecular target(s) of Snord116, thus hindering a mechanistic understanding of the disease.
“Courtney’s thesis project was to identify Snord116 molecular targets, and she has indeed identified a set of promising candidates using a novel sophisticated sequencing-based method capable of capturing RNA-RNA interactions and found that Snord116 interacts with ribosomal RNA,” says Whipple. “The work embodies the very spirit of the Meselson Award – a truly beautiful experiment whose simplicity and creativity illuminate new biology and methodology.”
Catherine Dulac adds “This result is striking and highly consequential for the understanding of PWS as it provides both the elusive target of Snord116 but also a direct mechanism underlying the disease.”
Whipple comments that Whilden led the project with creativity, determination, and an unrelenting persistance—proposing new directions and overcoming every technical challenge along the way. Yi worked under Courtney’s mentorship and performed most of the follow-up experiments, including all the critical controls.
Peralta Award: Ekaterina Osipova, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Meselson Lab, received $1,000 + Crystal Award for her essay, Where Flowers Feed Flight
The Peralta Essay Award recognizes excellence in science and science communication through an essay based on the recipient’s research project.
Special thanks go to the retreat planning committee: Takao Hensch (Chair), Ethan Garner, Craig Hunter, Polina Kehayova, Rebecca LaCroix, Jessica Manning, and Francisco Arellano. Additional appreciation goes to MCB administration staff members Renate Hellmiss (for the T-shirt design and graphics for the retreat, electronic retreat booklet, and poster printing), Audrie Cortes, Julia Fannon, Lindsey Guest, Ronnie Mugimu, Katie Scrocca, and Victoria Woodward, all of whom did whatever needed to be done!
(l-r) Ronnie Mugimu, Victoria Woodward, Julia Fannon, Audrie Cortes, Jessica Manning, Katie Scrocca, Lindsay Guest, and Francisco Arellano
“Glad we could still properly welcome the newest members to our community despite recent financial woes,” said Hensch, who otherwise would spend his weekends on neurodevelopmental outreach like Harvard’s Project Swim. “Science is about people, so we tried to recapture the wonderment, creativity, and impact of our research in various dimensions. My thanks to all who helped prepare for months in advance to share their collaborative journeys and seed new ones.”
Save the date: next year’s MCB retreat will be held September 18-19, 2026.
