Biological membranes perform diverse functions, including molecular transport, chemical transformation, and cellular communication, through the coordinated actions of lipids and membrane proteins. Reproducing such functions with synthetic materials remains a central challenge at the interface of polymer chemistry, supramolecular science, and chemical biology. In this seminar, I will present our efforts to construct synthetic membrane functions using polymer assemblies. First, I will describe the development of polymer-based molecularly permeable vesicles, focusing on the mechanisms that govern membrane permeability and the molecular design principles required to control transmembrane transport. I will then introduce polymer-based artificial ion channels designed to mediate ion transport across lipid bilayers. Finally, I will discuss amphiphilic random copolymers that associate with lipid membranes to form polymer-rich domains. These membrane-associated polymer assemblies provide a platform for integrating molecular transport with catalytic transformation, thereby serving as synthetic analogues of multifunctional membrane proteins.  I will also highlight their extension toward cancer-related therapeutic applications.

Together, these studies illustrate how polymer assemblies can be used to create programmable membrane functions, from molecular transport to chemical transformation, in biomimetic and biological environments.

Julie Champion, faculty host

Important Deadlines

• Monday, Aug. 17 @ 5 p.m.: Abstract Submission Deadline for podium and poster presentation consideration - Submit Here
• Tuesday, Sept. 8: Registration Deadline (required for all attendees) - Register Here

View sponsorship opportunities

Symposium Agenda

• 7:30 a.m.     Registration/Breakfast
• 8:20 a.m.     Opening Remarks and Welcome
• 8:30 a.m.     Session One - 5 speakers
• 10:10 a.m.   Break
• 10:40 a.m.   Session Two - 5 speakers
• 12:20 p.m.   Lunch
• 1:30 p.m.     Session Three - 4 speakers
• 2:50 p.m.     Break
• 3:10 p.m.     Keynote Presentation - "A Novel Chemical Biology Platform for Deubiquitylases" - Sara Buhrlage, Harvard Medical School
• 4:30 p.m.     Poster Session and Networking Reception
• 6:30 p.m.     Adjourn

Keynote Lecture:
Sara Burlage
Associate Professor
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute department of Cancer Biology
Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Harvard Medical School

ABSTRACT
Deubiquitylases (DUBs) are a large family of enzymes that remove ubiquitin or ubiquitin chains from substrate proteins. Similar to other components of the UPS, DUBs have been associated with disease and pursued as drug targets. Despite enthusiasm around targeting DUBs both with inhibitors as well as DUBTACs, there remain unanswered fundamental questions around substrates and substrate scope as well as how DUBs work at a detailed mechanistic level. The overarching goal of our lab is to develop chemical tools that can be deployed to study basic function and translational potential of DUBs. Our platform integrates DUB library synthesis, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, high-throughput screening, chemoproteomics, chemical genomics, structural biology, target validation and cancer biology. I will discuss recent discoveries enabled by our platform including new mechanism-of-action ligands for DUBs and their study in rare disease as well as new insights into DUB interplay with other components of the UPS.

BIO
Sara Buhrlage is an Associate Professor holding joint appointments in the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute department of Cancer Biology and the Harvard Medical School department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. Buhrlage is a leader in harnessing deubiquitylases (DUBs) as emergent drug targets, where her lab has pioneered new approaches for interrogating DUB function, new insights into the chemical tractability of DUBs, and mapping the therapeutic potential of DUBs in cancer. In addition to research, she is dedicated to graduate education, holding leadership roles in multiple graduate programs and teaching graduate level courses. More recently, she has become involved in biotech and company creation as a scientific founder of Entact Bio. Buhrlage earned a Doctor of Philosophy in organic chemistry from the University of Michigan and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Broad Institute.

• Do you have a patentable invention and want to protect it?
• Interested in commercializing your research either through licensing to an existing company or a startup?
• Want to learn about the commercialization resources available for entrepreneurs?

Stop by the IP and Commercialization Office Hours in the IBB atrium and meet with experts from the Office of Technology Licensing and Quadrant-i. We are at your service!  

The Experts:

• Cynthia Sundell, Senior Director of Life Sciences and Quadrant-i Principal
• Harold Solomon, Quadrant-i Principal
• Kashmira Kulkarni, Licensing Associate Office of Technology Licensing

• Do you have a patentable invention and want to protect it?
• Interested in commercializing your research either through licensing to an existing company or a startup?
• Want to learn about the commercialization resources available for entrepreneurs?

Stop by the IP and Commercialization Office Hours in the IBB atrium and meet with experts from the Office of Technology Licensing and Quadrant-i. We are at your service!  

The Experts:

• Cynthia Sundell, Senior Director of Life Sciences and Quadrant-i Principal
• Harold Solomon, Quadrant-i Principal
• Kashmira Kulkarni, Licensing Associate Office of Technology Licensing

• Do you have a patentable invention and want to protect it?
• Interested in commercializing your research either through licensing to an existing company or a startup?
• Want to learn about the commercialization resources available for entrepreneurs?

Stop by the IP and Commercialization Office Hours in the IBB atrium and meet with experts from the Office of Technology Licensing and Quadrant-i. We are at your service!  

The Experts:

• Cynthia Sundell, Senior Director of Life Sciences and Quadrant-i Principal
• Harold Solomon, Quadrant-i Principal
• Kashmira Kulkarni, Licensing Associate Office of Technology Licensing

• Do you have a patentable invention and want to protect it?
• Interested in commercializing your research either through licensing to an existing company or a startup?
• Want to learn about the commercialization resources available for entrepreneurs?

Stop by the IP and Commercialization Office Hours in the IBB atrium and meet with experts from the Office of Technology Licensing and Quadrant-i. We are at your service!  

The Experts:

• Cynthia Sundell, Senior Director of Life Sciences and Quadrant-i Principal
• Harold Solomon, Quadrant-i Principal
• Kashmira Kulkarni, Licensing Associate Office of Technology Licensing

• Do you have a patentable invention and want to protect it?
• Interested in commercializing your research either through licensing to an existing company or a startup?
• Want to learn about the commercialization resources available for entrepreneurs?

Stop by the IP and Commercialization Office Hours in the IBB atrium and meet with experts from the Office of Technology Licensing and Quadrant-i. We are at your service!  

The Experts:

• Cynthia Sundell, Senior Director of Life Sciences and Quadrant-i Principal
• Harold Solomon, Quadrant-i Principal
• Kashmira Kulkarni, Licensing Associate Office of Technology Licensing

• Do you have a patentable invention and want to protect it?
• Interested in commercializing your research either through licensing to an existing company or a startup?
• Want to learn about the commercialization resources available for entrepreneurs?

Stop by the IP and Commercialization Office Hours in the IBB atrium and meet with experts from the Office of Technology Licensing and Quadrant-i. We are at your service!  

The Experts:

• Cynthia Sundell, Senior Director of Life Sciences and Quadrant-i Principal
• Harold Solomon, Quadrant-i Principal
• Kashmira Kulkarni, Licensing Associate Office of Technology Licensing

• Do you have a patentable invention and want to protect it?
• Interested in commercializing your research either through licensing to an existing company or a startup?
• Want to learn about the commercialization resources available for entrepreneurs?

Stop by the IP and Commercialization Office Hours in the IBB atrium and meet with experts from the Office of Technology Licensing and Quadrant-i. We are at your service!  

The Experts:

• Cynthia Sundell, Senior Director of Life Sciences and Quadrant-i Principal
• Harold Solomon, Quadrant-i Principal
• Kashmira Kulkarni, Licensing Associate Office of Technology Licensing

• Do you have a patentable invention and want to protect it?
• Interested in commercializing your research either through licensing to an existing company or a startup?
• Want to learn about the commercialization resources available for entrepreneurs?

Stop by the IP and Commercialization Office Hours in the IBB atrium and meet with experts from the Office of Technology Licensing and Quadrant-i. We are at your service!  

The Experts:

• Cynthia Sundell, Senior Director of Life Sciences and Quadrant-i Principal
• Harold Solomon, Quadrant-i Principal
• Kashmira Kulkarni, Licensing Associate Office of Technology Licensing

• Do you have a patentable invention and want to protect it?
• Interested in commercializing your research either through licensing to an existing company or a startup?
• Want to learn about the commercialization resources available for entrepreneurs?

Stop by the IP and Commercialization Office Hours in the IBB atrium and meet with experts from the Office of Technology Licensing and Quadrant-i. We are at your service!  

The Experts:

• Cynthia Sundell, Senior Director of Life Sciences and Quadrant-i Principal
• Harold Solomon, Quadrant-i Principal
• Kashmira Kulkarni, Licensing Associate Office of Technology Licensing

• Do you have a patentable invention and want to protect it?
• Interested in commercializing your research either through licensing to an existing company or a startup?
• Want to learn about the commercialization resources available for entrepreneurs?

Stop by the IP and Commercialization Office Hours in the IBB atrium and meet with experts from the Office of Technology Licensing and Quadrant-i. We are at your service!  

The Experts:

• Cynthia Sundell, Senior Director of Life Sciences and Quadrant-i Principal
• Harold Solomon, Quadrant-i Principal
• Kashmira Kulkarni, Licensing Associate Office of Technology Licensing

• Do you have a patentable invention and want to protect it?
• Interested in commercializing your research either through licensing to an existing company or a startup?
• Want to learn about the commercialization resources available for entrepreneurs?

Stop by the IP and Commercialization Office Hours in the IBB atrium and meet with experts from the Office of Technology Licensing and Quadrant-i. We are at your service!  

The Experts:

• Cynthia Sundell, Senior Director of Life Sciences and Quadrant-i Principal
• Harold Solomon, Quadrant-i Principal
• Kashmira Kulkarni, Licensing Associate Office of Technology Licensing

The Bench2Market Talks series is created to provide commercialization guidance to the university research community. For more details on the series, visit our website.

• Attend in-person at the Petit Biotechnology Building (IBB) - Lunch provided, while supplies last
• Register Here to participate virtually

• One six-foot exhibit table, two chairs - electricity available upon request
• Event promotion across campus and throughout Georgia Tech's bio community
• One complimentary parking pass per vendor company registration (to be used in the Area 5 Visitor Parking Deck only)
• Lunch vouchers at IBB's Bob's Café for up to two company representatives

Note

• Exhibit tables are limited, a maximum of two company representatives may attend per vendor registration
• A maximum of three exhibitor tables per company/organization will be accepted*
  • *Additional Table Availability: If exhibitor tables remain unsold two weeks prior to the event (beginning Oct. 14, 2026), any remaining tables will be released for open registration. At that time, companies that have already reached the three-table limit may register for additional exhibitor tables on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to availability.
• Proceeds support the annual operations of the Bioengineering and Bioscience Unified Graduate Students (BBUGS)

Raffle Contribution Request:
Each exhibitor is encouraged to donate a promotional item (valued under $75) for attendee drawings throughout the event. 

C. Shawn Burke
University of Central Florida

Establishing and maintaining a productive research team is a difficult challenge across all stages of an academic’s career. The science of good teamwork applies across an academic career: from incorporating graduate students and post-docs to your first research team to crossing-boundaries in the creation and maintenance of an interdisciplinary expert team. In conjunction with Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance, we are offering a skill series to develop the skills necessary to build and maintain your research team by leveraging existing teams research. This workshop will focus on leadership within your team. Graduate students, post-docs, and all levels of academic faculty are all welcome to attend this workshop.

Team consult opportunity:

Our Team Science Skills presenters have graciously opened their schedules to provide a limited amount of attendees with direct feedback and guidance on their personal team issues. During a one-hour consulting session, attendees will be able to directly ask our experts questions and get personalized advice on how to effectively move their team forward. Requesters must attend the full session and complete the post-evaluation survey to be eligible. 

Team consult opportunity:

Our Team Science Skills presenters have graciously opened their schedules to provide a limited amount of attendees with direct feedback and guidance on their personal team issues. During a one-hour consulting session, attendees will be able to directly ask our experts questions and get personalized advice on how to effectively move their team forward. Requesters must attend the full session and complete the post-evaluation survey to be eligible.

Jessica Wildman
Professor
School of Psychology
Florida Institute of Technology

Trust is a concept that seems like common sense at first: everyone knows what it is, everyone wants it, and yet it's all too easy to mess up. Trust is the lifeblood of any effective team, enabling many other things we know to be beneficial such as better communication, shared leadership, adaptability, and stronger performance. Knowing how to develop and maintain trust, and restore trust when it is unfortunately broken, is a critical skill for effective team management. Luckily, there is a science that can inform the most effective way to do just that.

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Define interpersonal trust as it applies within work teams.
2. Identify examples of common behaviors that build trust, break trust, and restore
   trust in work teams.
3. Develop strategies to build and maintain trust over time in work teams.

Team consult opportunity:

Our Team Science Skills presenters have graciously opened their schedules to provide a limited amount of attendees with direct feedback and guidance on their personal team issues. During a one-hour consulting session, attendees will be able to directly ask our experts questions and get personalized advice on how to effectively move their team forward. Requesters must attend the full session and complete the post-evaluation survey to be eligible. 

Shannon Marlow
Associate Professor
Management
University of Texas, San Antonio

Although communication is an inherent component of teamwork, many teams do not innately communicate effectively. Several significant difficulties complicate team members' ability to exchange information successfully. However, research consistently identifies several evidence-based guidelines and strategies that can help teams overcome these pitfalls. This 60-minute workshop will synthesize research on teams to address the fundamentals of effective team communication, common barriers faced by teams and how to overcome them, and behaviors that promote high-quality communication and, ultimately, successful teamwork.

Objectives
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Describe what effective team communication is and what it is not.
   Identify and overcome barriers that may prevent team members from constructively communicating with each other.
2. Engage in behaviors that foster productive, effective communication among team members.

Team consult opportunity:

Our Team Science Skills presenters have graciously opened their schedules to provide a limited amount of attendees with direct feedback and guidance on their personal team issues. During a one-hour consulting session, attendees will be able to directly ask our experts questions and get personalized advice on how to effectively move their team forward.  Requesters must attend the full session and complete the post-evaluation survey to be eligible. 

• Basic teamwork concepts
• Best practices when bringing your first team together
• How to manage and leverage conflict
• Building interdisciplinary collaboration
• Handling team member change/exit

Team consult opportunity:
Our Team Science Skills presenters have graciously opened their schedules to provide a limited amount of attendees with direct feedback and guidance on their personal team issues. During a one-hour consulting session, attendees will be able to directly ask our experts questions and get personalized advice on how to effectively move their team forward. Requesters must attend the full session and complete the post-evaluation survey to be eligible.

Allison Traylor
Assistant Professor
College of Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences
Clemson University

Whether your team is starting a new project, working to establish new norms, or setting expectations for new members, a team charter can help your team lay the foundation for success. A team charter is a codified plan for how a team will manage teamwork activities. Team charters are evidence-based and are associated with improved team performance. This hands-on workshop will describe the benefits of team charters and provide the resources necessary to implement an effective charter in your team.

Team consult opportunity:

Our Team Science Skills presenters have graciously opened their schedules to provide a limited amount of attendees with direct feedback and guidance on their personal team issues. During a one-hour consulting session, attendees will be able to directly ask our experts questions and get personalized advice on how to effectively move their team forward. Requesters must attend the full session and complete the post-evaluation survey to be eligible. 

• Abstract Submission Deadline (both meetings) - Monday, Aug. 17
• Registration Deadline (both meetings) - Monday, Sept. 14

For agendas and full details - Visit Meeting Website

REGISTER HERE for virtual participation link.

Blue Sky Groups are unstructured meetings that provide a unique opportunity for attendees to drive the agenda and catalyze future collaborations and research opportunities.

The discussion will be opened by a panel discussion featuring five researchers from across the CTSA in this field: Thom Orlando, William Dynan, Binu Tharakan, Chunhui Xu, and Phillip Stancil.

Discussion topics may include, but are not limited to:

• What are the burning research questions in this area?
• What are the known funding opportunities?
• What are the cross-institutional collaborative research opportunities
  in this field?

Share your experience, learn from others, enjoy opportunities for interdisciplinary networking and find potential collaborators!

Register HERE to participate virtually

Ashish Ranjan is an Endowed Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology. He also serves as Vice Chair for Comparative Oncology and Research Innovation and Director of the Veterinary Research and Oncology Clinic. He earned his B.V.Sc. degree (DVM equivalent) from Madras Veterinary College, in Chennai, India, followed by a Ph.D. in biomedical and veterinary sciences from Virginia Tech. Ranjan was then a visiting fellow at the Center for Interventional Oncology, Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Ranjan's research interests are in the application of device-directed nanoparticles for solid tumor chemo-immunotherapy. His lab is actively engaged in preclinical and bench-to-bedside veterinary clinical trials and has received funding from several federal, state, and private sources. Ranjan has received several distinguished awards, including the NIH Merit Award. He also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Focused Ultrasound Foundation, UK's Humanimal Trust, and NIH panels.

Faculty host: Yue Chen

 

Register HERE to participate virtually

Bianxiao Cui is the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor of Chemistry and a fellow of the Wu Tsai Stanford Neuroscience Institute at Stanford University. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the University of Chicago and a BS degree from the University of Science and Technology of China. Cui develops new tools to study the nano-bio interface, membrane curvature, electrophysiology, and signal transduction in cells at normal and disease conditions. As a scientist and a teacher, she enjoys working with young scholars to explore the natural world with scientific innovations. Research in her group spans the disciplines of biophysics, cell biology, chemistry, material science, nanotechnology, and neurobiology. Her awards and distinctions include Ono Pharma Breakthrough Science Initiative award, Barany Award from the Biophysical Society, NIH New Innovator Award, NSF CAREER award, NSF Inspire award, Packard Fellowships in Science and Engineering, Hellman Scholar, Searle Scholar Award and Dreyfus New Faculty Award.

Faculty host: Cheng Zhu

 

Direct inquiries to connect@ibb.gatech.edu

• Informative lectures from leading experts
• Hands-on training in small groups
• Proteomics and metabolomics applications
• Native mass spectrometry and UHMR
• HDX-MS and cross-linking MS
• Data analysis using multiple software platforms (e.g., MaxQuant, Compound Discoverer, Proteome Discoverer, etc.)

AGENDA OUTLINE
Oct. 7: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Oct. 8: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Oct. 9: 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Meetings are open to Members, Guests, Sponsors, Partners, and presenting Entrepreneurs from any of our Keiretsu Forum Global chapters and regions.

Due to SEC 506(c) regulations guests MUST pre-register to attend our meetings.

Meetings are open to Members, Guests, Sponsors, Partners, and presenting Entrepreneurs from any of our Keiretsu Forum Global chapters and regions.

Due to SEC 506(c) regulations guests MUST pre-register to attend our meetings.

Meetings are open to Members, Guests, Sponsors, Partners, and presenting Entrepreneurs from any of our Keiretsu Forum Global chapters and regions.

Due to SEC 506(c) regulations guests MUST pre-register to attend our meetings.

Meetings are open to Members, Guests, Sponsors, Partners, and presenting Entrepreneurs from any of our Keiretsu Forum Global chapters and regions.

Due to SEC 506(c) regulations guests MUST pre-register to attend our meetings.

Meetings are open to Members, Guests, Sponsors, Partners, and presenting Entrepreneurs from any of our Keiretsu Forum Global chapters and regions.

Due to SEC 506(c) regulations guests MUST pre-register to attend our meetings.

BIO
Marcela Maus grew up in New York, NY and attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her undergraduate degree in Biology and Literature. She then earned her MD, PhD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where she studied the biology of human T cell activation under the direction of her PhD mentor, Dr. Carl June. After completing her doctorate degrees, Marcela did a one-year postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Kathy High at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia studying patient immune responses to liver-directed AAV-mediate gene transfer as a treatment for hemophilia. She then completed her clinical training in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology as a resident at the University of Pennsylvania Health System and a fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. While at Memorial Sloan Kettering, she worked in Michel Sadelain’s lab to engineer new genetically modified T cells to target the cancer-testis antigen NY-ESO-1 and received specialized training in Phase I developmental therapeutics. She was also awarded a K08 grant by the NIH to facilitate her transition to a faculty position.

Following her extensive training (11 years), Marcela returned to the University of Pennsylvania in 2012, where she was recruited by her former PhD mentor, to expand their research efforts in the development of CAR T cells for lymphoma, myeloma, and other cancers. While there, Marcela continued her efforts on preclinical development of CAR T cells and correlative studies of CAR T cell-related toxicities and resistance to therapies. They discovered and reported on the first cases of anaphylaxis to CAR T cells and off target cross-reactivity. She also led an entire arc of translational research, from preclinical testing to a first-in-human clinical trial of EGFRvIII CAR T cells for treatment of recurrent glioblastoma. Correlative data collected from this trial led to an understanding of CAR T resistant mechanisms that have led further refinement of these CAR T cells, which is one current area of focus in her current laboratory and has led to the development of another Phase I clinical trial for GBM patients.

Now, Dr. Maus is a Professor of Hematology and Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where she runs a laboratory focused on developing and improving CAR T cell therapy for cancer patients while also periodically attending for the bone marrow transplant service. Marcela is the Paula O-Keeffe Endowed Chair of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and the Director of the Cellular Immunotherapy Program. She has won numerous awards for her transformative research and is achieving her goal of using science to determine the best way to treat patients by harnessing the power of the immune system to solve intractable problems like cancer. She also enjoys training clinicians and scientists and watching her mentees succeed and become independent scientists and collaborators.

He is Professor of Bioengineering and Materials Science at UC Berkeley and Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the Materials Research Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition to his research, he mentors and teaches students in the fields of biomaterials design, materials science, polymer science, and nanomedicine.

Faculty host: Felipe Quiroz

 

Special emphasis is given to Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine and particular applications and more details are described on the lab web page.

Faculty host: Alexander Vlahos

 

BIO
Jeffrey Hubbell is a pioneer in the field of immuno-modulatory materials whose research spans biology, chemistry, and engineering to generate novel solutions to common health problems. His work focuses on using biomaterials and engineered proteins to enhance the body’s own immune system to fight inflammatory and autoimmune disorders, allergies, and disease states like cancers. With more than 400 papers and 100 issued US patents, Hubbell uses biomaterials and protein engineering approaches to investigate topics in regenerative medicine and immunotherapeutics. In regenerative medicine, he develops both materials and protein therapeutics to address issues such as chronic wound healing in diabetes and bone repair after trauma. In immunotherapeutics, he pursues nanomaterials in vaccination for infectious disease and cancer as well as targeted therapy with RNA, protein-material conjugates for inverse vaccines to induce antigen-specific tolerance in autoimmunity and allergy, and in protein therapy to tip immune balances toward aggression in immuno-oncology and toward tolerance in inflammatory disease. His interests are both basic and translational, having founded or co-founded six biomedical companies based on his technology.

Before moving to New York University, Hubbell was at the University of Chicago in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, where he helped build its strength in immunoengineering. Prior to that, he was on the faculty of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL, where he served as founding Director of the Institute of Bioengineering and Dean of the School of Life Sciences), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) and University of Zurich, the California Institute of Technology, and the University of Texas in Austin. He was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2010, the National Academy of Medicine in 2019, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021, and the National Academy of Sciences in 2023.