Invited Speakers

Anne Villeneuve

Keynote Speaker, Stanford University

Anne Villeneuve is a Professor of Developmental Biology and Genetics at Stanford University. Her laboratory investigates the molecular and cellular mechanisms that ensure the faithful inheritance of chromosomes during meiosis, the specialized cell division program by which diploid organisms generate haploid gametes. Research from her lab and those of her former trainees has played a pivotal role in establishing C. elegans as one of the premier experimental systems for investigating meiotic chromosome dynamics and genetic recombination during meiosis. Recently, her lab has extended their love of worms, chromosomes, sexual reproduction, and microscopy to other nematode species and interspecies hybrids.

Barth Grant

Rutgers University

Barth Grant is Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Rutgers University. His research has focused on the mechanisms of vesicular trafficking, especially the endocytosis, endocytic recycling, and cargo sorting systems of the C. elegans germline, intestine, coelomocytes, and neurons.

Junho Lee

Seoul National University

Junho Lee is a professor of biological sciences and the director of Research Institute for Basic Sciences at Seoul National University, Korea. His lab uses the nematode C. elegans to study the developmental plasticity of the nervous system with a focus on the dauer and its nictation behavior. Other topics of his lab include alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT), signalings and diseases, and nematode collections of Korea. His lab recently has extended the ALT studies to mammals. 

Roger Pocock

Monash University

Roger Pocock is Professor of Genetics at the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute (Melbourne, Australia) where he dissects mechanisms governing nervous system development and function. Roger’s team focuses on understanding how neuronal fates are determined, how the architecture of the nervous system develops and is maintained throughout life, and how neurons coordinate behavior and physiology. 

Nathalie Pujol

CNRS, Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy

Nathalie Pujol is a research director at the CNRS. Her group at the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille Luminy (CIML) uses C. elegans to dissect the genetic basis of epidermal innate immunity and the response to wounding. They have focused recently on the role of mechanical cues from the apical extracellular matrix (ECM).