Virtual North East Regional IDeA Conference (v-NERIC)
New IDeAs, New Discoveries
RI-INBRE hosted the 2021 virtual North East Regional Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Conference (vNERIC) on August 16-18, 2021, which attracted over 650 researchers from the National Institutes of Health IDeA programs throughout Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The conference included keynote addresses, scientific sessions, and lightning talks that highlighted exciting IDeA research and discoveries. You can view individual videos from v-NERIC on our webpage or our YouTube channel.
Keynote Speakers
- Barney S. Graham, MD, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. “Rapid COVID-19 Vaccine Development”
- Charlie Enright, Skipper, 11th Hour Racing Team. “Racing with Purpose: When Professional Sport and Citizen Science Go Hand-in-Hand”
- Rodolphe Barrangou, Ph.D., Professor of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, North Carolina State University. “Catching up with the CRISPR Craze: Applications and Implications of a Disruptive Technology”
Lightning Talk Awardees
Twelve Lightning Talk Awards were presented to undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars by NERIC/NAIPI (The National Association of IDeA Principal Investigators) and DRIVEN (The Northeast’s New Biomedical Accelerator Hub). Six additional individuals received honorable mentions. View all v-NERIC Lightning Talk award winners and honorable mentions!
Emma Noel
Biochemistry and History Major
Honeycutt Lab
Bowdoin College
“The [v-NERIC] format was very conducive to attending a multitude of talks from keynote speakers and students alike. I really enjoyed listening to the other undergraduate presentations. Since v-NERIC, I received the Grua/O’Connell Research Award from Bowdoin College to continue my work with early life adversity and DNA methylation. Additionally, I received NESCAC All-Academic accolades for Cross Country.”
Arvin H. Soepriatna, Ph.D.
AHA Postdoctoral Fellow
Coulombe Lab for Heart Regeneration
School of Engineering
Brown University
Arvin is an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellow (since April 2021) at Brown University. His AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship work focuses on utilizing cutting-edge imaging tools (4D ultrasound to quantify 3D myocardial strain and optical mapping to map electrophysiology) to reveal the complex interplay between mechanical and electrical remodeling driving cardiac disease progression. “v-NERIC provided me with the opportunity to network with researchers across multiple disciplines to learn of their exciting new innovations and how to strategize a high-risk high-reward grant application to fund these ideas.”
“The atrial microtissue work that I presented at v-NERIC’s lightning talk is now published in the Young Innovators Issue of the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering journal (link here) [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12195-021-00703-x]. I was also recently selected as a 2021 Rising Star in Engineering in Health by Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University (https://www.bme.columbia.edu/announcing-2021-rising-stars-engineering-health) for my scientific contribution in improving cardiovascular health, part of which covers the atrial work and my current AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship work.”
Debora Kamin Mukaz, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate
Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry Research, Larner College of Medicine
University of Vermont
“NERIC helped me summarize my research better. I also appreciated the interdisciplinary nature of the meeting.”
Since the conference, Dr. Kamin Mukaz Published 2 papers:
Kamin Mukaz D, Gergi M, Koh I, Zakai NA, Judd SE, Sholzberg M, Baumann Kreuziger L, Freeman K, Colovos C, Olson NC, Cushman M. Thrombo-inflammatory biomarkers and D-dimer in a biracial cohort study. Res Pract Thromb Haemost. 2021;5(8): e12632.
“I am a co-founder of BlackInCardio, an organization to celebrate Black people in cardiovascular fields and raise awareness about cardiovascular diseases in Black communities. We just organized our second #BlackInCardioWeek from December 6th to December 12th. You can check us out at https://blackincardio.com/.”
Hannah E. Laue, ScD.
Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program
Department of Epidemiology
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College
“NERIC is such an inspiring conference because of the breadth of research presentation and the number of opportunities for trainees at all levels to share their work. It is always interesting to see how our work connects.”
The work Hannah presented at v-NERIC was recently published in Pediatric Research (https://rdcu.be/cCubJ).
Bader Jarai
Ph.D. Candidate
Catherine Fromen Research Group
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
University of Delaware
“My highlight from v-NERIC was when Barney Graham (from NIAID) answered my question!”
Bader is excited to share that he has accepted an offer with —- and will be starting his new role after graduation.
Cole Davidson
Cellular Molecular and Biomedical Sciences
Carr Lab
University of Vermont
“I was thrilled to have the opportunity to not only present my research highlights to a wide audience, but to also learn about exciting, ongoing research from a diverse panel of disease experts. I have since been published in Cancers [https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13174254] and I very recently submitted my work presented at NERIC! I am grateful to represent UVM at NERIC, and I owe my success to the interdisciplinary nature of my CMB program and collaboration between my mentors Frances Carr and Eyal Amiel.”
Sydney Bonauto
Neuroscience Major
Honeycutt Lab
Bowdoin College
“One of my favorite parts about NERIC was that undergraduates were encouraged to participate and recognized for our work. Not only did I appreciate the opportunity to present my own research, but I also enjoyed supporting my peers as they shared their research experiences.”
In September 2021, Sydney received a Grua/O’Connell Mini-Grant from Bowdoin College.
Christine Schremp
Neuroscience
Carpenter Butler Hospital Mood Disorders Research Program
Brown University
“My favorite part of v-NERIC was feeling connected to and learning more about other student researchers, especially in a time when the COVID-19 pandemic limited interaction and exploration beyond my lab group.” Schremp is currently completing her undergraduate honors thesis on the same topic as her v-NERIC Lightning Talk [Large-Scale EEG Neural Networks Change in Response to Therapeutic TMS] and is planning to apply to medical school in the spring.