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Dr. Jason Burdick is the Bowman Endowed Professor in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering and the BioFrontiers Institute at the �鶹ӰԺ. His group engineers new biomaterials and fabrication technologies to address biomedical problems, particularly to model or treat diseases and injuries of cardiovascular and musculoskeletal tissues. The group is highly collaborative with biologists, engineers, and clinicians and several companies have been founded to translate technology from the group into the clinic.

Science fiction or reality?�� Imagine a future where you can fabricate organs and tissues on-demand using the precise placement of materials and cells into configurations that mimic features of your own body. Well, the future is here…. almost. 3D printing is a general term used to describe a class of additive (meaning an object is built up by adding more material) manufacturing technologies, where various components such as materials (metals, ceramics, plastics) and biologics (cells, proteins) are placed into specific patterns based on a computer aided design. These automated technologies are already impacting medicine, including in the construction of anatomical models that are being used in surgical planning or in the design of personalized implants based on the imaging of tissue defects. 3D bioprinting is a specific type of printing, which brings in cells directly to the process. There are many challenges to bioprinting, from keeping cells alive to providing them the right environments to grow into functional tissues and organs, but the future of these advanced therapies is very promising. This lecture will discuss the various types of 3D printing that are being developed for medical applications, provide examples where 3D printing is impacting medicine, and look towards the future of organ manufacturing using 3D printing technologies.

Dr Jennifer Hill is a new Assistant Professor in the BioFrontiers Institute and the Department of Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology at CU �鶹ӰԺ. During her scientific career, Dr. Hill amassed unique expertise in both the microbiome and pancreatic diseases. Her lab pairs these seemingly disparate topics to find creative ways to harness microbial functions to fight diabetes and other pancreatic illnesses. ��The lab primarily utilizes germ-free or sterile mice that live in vinyl isolation “bubbles” to tackle this challenge.

We evolved in a microbial world. As a result, resident microbial communities (collectively referred to as the microbiota) are dynamic and integral components of our health. Even in early life, the microbiota can have outsized impacts, and the outcomes of these “host-microbe” interactions have important implications for long-term health. Despite their microscopic size, the commensal organisms (such as bacteria and fungi) that inhabit our bodies in droves can have far-reaching effects–from the gut to the brain. Although the influence of the microbiota on host biology is extensive, a large percentage of microbial genomes are unexplored, often termed “microbial dark matter.” Given the millennia that microbes have spent interacting with animal cells, the functions hidden within their genomes likely hold the key to unlocking novel biochemical mechanisms that impact human health. By mining this underappreciated source we’ve uncovered a network of microbial signaling cues that mammals have evolved to detect to tune the development of their insulin-producing beta-cell cells. We’ve identified specific microbes that can promote beta-cell development in the infant pancreas. By studying how the host senses these unique microbial cues, we hope to develop novel approaches to prevent or reverse diabetes, a disease characterized by beta-cell loss.

Dr. Zoe Donaldson is a Professor at the���鶹ӰԺ. She studies how close social bonds, such as those that mediate friendships and romantic love, are encoded in the brain. Her lab studies monogamous prairie voles. Unlike rats and mice, these rodents form lifelong pair bonds between mates akin to human romantic partnerships. By examining the neurobiology underlying these bonds and what happens when they are lost, she hopes to identify novel treatments for psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.��

Social bonds live in our biology. To understand the computations that allow our brains to form social bonds, my lab studies monogamous prairie voles. Unlike laboratory mice and rats, these rodents often mate for life, parenting together and defending a shared home. We have found that social information is organized at multiple scales in the brain's reward center—from stable encoding in individual neurons to coordinated ensembles—to enable bond formation. Once these bonds are formed, they lead to an alignment of brainscapes between partners, evident in patterns of neural activity and molecular alignment. Ultimately, this work delineates how social relationships change the brain beginning with their initial encoding mechanisms and then establishing a framework that facilitates connectedness and may help pairs effectively navigate the world together.

Kristi Anseth is a Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Associate Faculty Director of the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado at �鶹ӰԺ.��Her research interests lie at the interface between biology and engineering where she designs new biomaterials for applications in drug delivery and regenerative medicine. Dr. Anseth’s research group has published over 400 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and she has trained more than 150 graduate students and postdoctoral associates. She is the youngest woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering (2009), the National Academy of Medicine (2009), the National Academy of Sciences (2013), the National Academy of Inventors (2016) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2019).��Most recently, she received the L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award in the Life Sciences (2020).��Dr. Anseth has served on the Board of Directors and as President of the Materials Research Society, Board of Directors for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Board of Governors for Acta Materialia, Inc, Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Gordon Research Conferences, the NIH Advisory Council for NIBIB, and as Chair of the NAE US Frontiers of Engineering meetings and NAE Bioengineering Section.

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Ryan is an Assistant Professor at the BioFrontiers Institute and Computer Science Department in �鶹ӰԺ. He got his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Virginia and did a postdoc at the University of Utah in the Human Genetics Department. His research focuses on developing methods to explore large-scale genetic datasets and is particularly interested in structural variation in cancer and rare diseases. He is also committed to improving the reliability and reproducibility of scientific software and teaches a Software Engineering for Scientists class every fall.

Healthcare providers base their treatment decisions on a combination of their experience, patient concerns, and data from clinical trials. Although clinical trials are the gold standard for assessing the safety and effectiveness of medical interventions, they are designed to measure how well a treatment works on average. However, what providers really want to know is the best treatment for their individual patients, which can be difficult to determine from trial data for patients who deviate from the average. As a result, many people do not benefit from medical advances. Our goal is to use advanced machine learning methods to identify representative research cohorts dynamically from large patient databases, from which we can to determine the best treatments for all patients.

Roy Parker is an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Director of the BioFrontiers Institute, Cech-Leinwand Endowed Chair of Biochemistry, and Distinguished Professor at the �鶹ӰԺ. He is a global leader in the study of RNA molecules, which are both molecular machines and the messenger of genetic information. His pioneering work has revealed new aspects of the life of RNA and how abnormalities in RNA regulation contribute to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Diseases. He was President of the RNA Society and is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and Member of the National Academy of Sciences. When not exploring new territory in RNA and neurodegeneration, he can be found exploring aquatic territory, including multiple rafting runs through the Grand Canyon and rare routes on other Southwestern US rivers.

Neurodegenerative diseases are a set of common devastating, progressive diseases including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases. How these diseases are caused and spread in the human brain is an area of intense research. Progress is being made at understanding the underlying mechanisms causing these diseases, with the potential for future therapies. Dr. Parker, an internationally recognized leader in RNA biology who has recently focused his work on neurodegenerative diseases, will discuss these topics. 

Dr. Sammy Ramsey is an Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and holds a Marvin H. Caruthers Endowed Chair for Early-Career Faculty at the �鶹ӰԺ. He is also the founder and Executive Director of the non-profit Ramsey Research Foundation, whose mission is to safeguard pollinator health and diversity. Dr. Ramsey’s research has shifted the accepted paradigm of how the parasitic mite, Varroa destructor, preys on honey bees to ultimately kill them and drive the enormous annual loss of these essential pollinators. He has won a National Geographic Wayfinder Award and been recognized by the Explorers Club as one of “50 People Changing the World That You Should Know �鶹ӰԺ”. A gifted and dedicated science communicator, he is regularly featured in mass media such as NPR, CBS Mornings, PBS Nature, and Wired. You can also hear him literally singing the praises of insects: he has worked professionally as a singer and composes music.

While pesticides dominate most discussions of honey bee welfare, research has consistently shown that parasites are the most significant single driver of honey bee losses. The landscape of honey bee parasites is diverse and strange, so much so that bee parasites have earned their own ecological category "Melittophiles". Each has had to amass a suite of odd adaptations to persist with social organisms primed by millions of years of evolution to exclude any creature seeking access to their trove of biologically invaluable treasures (honey, wax, bee bread, brood, etc). This research has taken me and my team (in collaboration with National Geographic) all over Asia as we track the emergence of a new Melittophile destroying bees in each new country it spreads to carving an unsettling path westward. 

Dr. Sara Sawyer is a Professor at the �鶹ӰԺ. She has received national and international prizes in virology. In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at the White House. In 2022, she received the NIH’s Director’s Pioneer award. In 2020, she co-founded Darwin Biosciences, an infectious disease diagnostics company located in �鶹ӰԺ, Colorado. Dr. Sawyer serves on the NIH’s Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council. She studies animal viruses that infect humans.

The COVID and HIV crises illustrate the global tragedies that can arise after humans are infected with the viruses of animals. Yet COVID was met with a vaccine in less than a year while we have waited over 40 years for an HIV vaccine. How do virus characteristics and our own immune systems dictate which animal viruses make us sick, which ones cause pandemics, and which ones are harder to develop vaccines against? This talk will discuss the challenges associated with diagnosing human infections caused by rare and new animal viruses. I will also discuss new hope in the quest for an HIV vaccine.��

Dr. Tom Cech is Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry at the �鶹ӰԺ and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute where he was President from 2000-2009. He was the first Executive Director of the BioFrontiers Institute and is the Faculty Director of the Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology Ph.D. Program at BioFrontiers. In the early 1980s, his lab’s discoveries that RNA can cut and join chemical bonds expanded the Central Dogma of Biology, which originally restricted RNA to just the role of passive, transient information carrier. This  opened up an entire world of exploration that has uncovered many more essential RNA functions and therapeutic opportunities. Dr. Cech has won many awards and prizes for his work, including the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the National Medal of Science, the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, and elected membership in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine. In addition to RNA, Dr. Cech loves the Colorado mountains where he enjoys running, hiking, and skiing.

The mRNA vaccines have put RNA in the spotlight, coming out from the shadow of the DNA double helix. But RNA is more than a passive messenger of the information stored in DNA. RNA functions as the “Swiss Army Knife” of biology, from powering the immortality enzyme telomerase, with its roles in aging, cancer, and genetic bone marrow failure, to powering the biotechnology revolution of CRISPR gene editing. Dr. Tom Cech, Nobel Prize laureate for his discoveries that RNA can act as a molecular scissors, will explain this previously hidden life of RNA and discuss where untapped potential may remain as we seek biotechnology-based approaches to improve global health and welfare.��

Dr. Leslie Leinwand is Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the �鶹ӰԺ and a Professor with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She is also a founder of the BioFrontiers Institute and its Chief Scientific Officer. In the early 1980s, her lab was the first to clone and map the human genes encoding the myosin heavy chains: the proteins responsible for heart and muscle contractions. This formed the basis for the next four decades of work, involving everything from animal models of genetic heart disease to the influence of sex, diet, and exercise on heart disease to pioneering technologies for studying disease-causing myosin mutants. All of this contributed to Dr. Leinwand co-founding the company MyoKardia, which developed the first FDA-approved drug for treating genetic heart disease. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. When Dr. Leinwand is not in the lab she is often in the kitchen, where she is known as a formidable and creative chef.

Somewhat surprising to many people is that heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women. Yet most studies have focused only on men. In this talk I will discuss the large differences between male and female hearts in health and disease and how the sexes can respond differently to the same medicines. Did you know that women can have different symptoms than men having a heart attack, leading to missed diagnoses in women? Studies in women’s heart health are very important and we need to get the message out there to patients and doctors alike!��