University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology

IGB Fellows Symposium

IGB Fellows Symposium

IGB Fellows Symposium
May 7th, 2026

Program

Program for Thursday, May 7, 2026

All talks will take place in 612 IGB Conference Center

8:30 a.m.	Breakfast
9:00 a.m.	Introduction - Lisa Ainsworth
9:15 a.m.	Maximizing Fluorescence and Raman Efficiencies Using Photonic Crystal Substrates Seemesh Bhaskar, Center for Genomic Diagnostics
9:45 a.m.	Biosynthesis of Nitrilobacillins: Ribosomal Peptides with C-Terminal Nitrile Warheads Lide Cha, Mining for anti-infectious Molecules from Genomes
10:15 a.m.	Raffle Drawing - Win a CMF Watch 3 Pro Smart Watch
10:20 a.m.	Break
10:30 a.m.	High yield production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid using Issatchenkia orientalis Harry Tan, Biosystems Design
11:00 a.m.	Keynote CRISPR GUIDED INSIGHTS INTO THE PHYSIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION OF ARCHAEA Dipti Nayak Assistant Professor Dept of Molecular & Cell Biology, UC Berkeley
12:00 p.m.	Lunch
1:00 p.m.	Raffle Drawing - Win a CMF Watch 3 Pro Smart Watch
1:05 p.m.	Metal and Microbes: Assessing the Influence of Urban Land Use on Metal-Microbe Interactions throughout Chicago, Illinois Sierra Raglin, Infection Genomics for One Health
1:30 p.m.	Slippery Sorghum for SAF and 2G ethanol production Narendra Naik Deshavath, Crops And Microbes for BioEconomy Resilience and Sustainability
2:00 p.m.	Spatially-Coupled Network RNA Velocities: A Control- Theoretic Perspective Boya Hou, Center for Artificial Intelligence and Modeling
2:30 p.m.	Break
2:45 p.m.	Keynote STUDYING OLD CANCER PROBLEMS WITH NEW TOOLS Todd R. Golub Director, Founding Core Institute Member Broad Institute
3:45 p.m.	Concluding Remarks, Poster Results and Final Raffle Drawing - Win a CMF Watch 3 Pro Smart Watch
4:00 p.m.	Poster Session and Reception - Open to All (Atrium, Main Lab Building)

Must register for raffle eligibility and be present to receive raffle prize.