COSAM News Articles 2021 March Three students elevated their graduate experience at RNA Institute Mini Symposium

Three students elevated their graduate experience at RNA Institute Mini Symposium

Published: 03/30/2021

By: Maria Gebhardt

RNA Institute Mini Symposium banner featuring Joanna Sztuba-Solinska's lab team

Huachen Gan, Devadatta Gosavi and Sarah Martin are graduate students in the College of Sciences and Mathematics.

In addition to the rigors of studies for their doctoral degrees, they conduct research in the lab of assistant professor Joanna Sztuba-Solinska in the Department of Biological Sciences.

On March 4, these future RNA scientists presented virtually at the RNA Institute Mini Symposium. The event gave these students opportunities to share their research while also listening to other researchers who are encouraging graduate students to continue work in this field and make scientific discoveries with the potential for life-changing impact.

Huachen Gan and Devadatta Gosavi working in the lab.

Huachen Gan and Devadatta Gosavi working in the lab.

Gan’s student presentation, Towards elucidation of the mechanism guiding pseudouridylation of Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus long non-coding PAN RNA, was selected to win a $150 award. Read Gan’s award-winning abstract.

Devadatta Gosavi presented a speed talk titled Insight into the secondary and tertiary structure of the Bovine viral diarrhea virus Internal Ribosome Entry Site.

“It was a great experience to present my research at RNA Institute Mini Symposium held at University of Albany, SUNY,” said Gosavi. “I was also excited as it was also my first conference which I attended being a graduate student in Dr. Joanna’s lab. I got to know interesting research people are doing and it definitely helped me getting more ideas for the research I am doing in the lab. I also had a great opportunity to listen to Nobel laureate Dr. Michael Rosbash and understand the research he is doing.”

Sarah Martin also gave a speed talk, The dynamic status of N6-methyladenosine modifications of polyadenylated nuclear (PAN) RNA lncRNA and its methylome throughout KSHV replication.

Sarah Martin using a pipette in the lab.

Sarah Martin using a pipette in the lab.

“The RNA Mini Symposium was an awesome experience! It was made completely of 10-minute presentations or 3-minute speed talks. I had the challenge of presenting almost 4 years of research in 3 minutes while making it understandable and clear to my audience,” said Martin.

“The quick nature of the talks was very beneficial in the amount of interesting content that could be covered, and many of the talks inspired me to further my research. During the pandemic, it has been challenging to communicate with other scientists and even practice our own scientific communication, so I really valued this experience,” she added.

These graduate students show how students can elevate their experience at Auburn University and prepare for rewarding careers.

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