Career & Tools

Join us for Lunch & Learn, where you'll have the chance to socialize with other grad students and hear talks by students in History and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. While we won't be able to share pizza in person, all attendees will be entered into a raffle to win a $15 Target gift card.

Friday, July 30th, 2021 - 8:00am


Join us for Lunch & Learn, where you'll have the chance to socialize with other grad students and hear talks by students in History and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. Lunch & Learn is co-sponsored by the Graduate Division, the Graduate Student Association, and the UCSB Library.

While we won't be able to share pizza together in person, all attendees will be entered into a raffle to win one of ten $15 Target gift cards.

August 2021 Edition: Organelles & Oral History
August 13, 12-1:15pm
Zoom*
*RSVP here to receive the Zoom link*

Reimagining Oral History: Experiences from the Field in the Age of COVID-19

Mattie Webb
Graduate Student in History

My research on the global anti-apartheid movement broadly examines political issues--such as transnational solidarity and business diplomacy--from the perspective of South African workers, and thus deploys oral historical research as one of its central methodological approaches. The field of oral history has prioritized in-person interviews, but the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced scholars to reconsider the merits of virtual or hybrid interviews. Based on research conducted in both the United States and South Africa amid the pandemic, this presentation encourages scholars to reimagine the boundaries of their methodological approach and offers suggestions for the future of the oral history.

Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation in Cell Signaling and Development

Ryan Lach
Graduate Student in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

The complex structures we observe in multicellular organisms are carefully constructed during development using chemical signals transmitted between cells. These secreted 'morphogens' allow for tissue-level coordination of cell identity, growth and migration, allowing individual cells to act cooperatively as an ensemble, but how these signals are received and decoded by single cells remains poorly understood. A newly-appreciated form of sub-cellular organization, liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), has emerged as an important material state that cells use to process and transduce information pertinent to cellular behavior. My work focuses on how the dynamic biophysical properties of the Destruction Complex, an essential phase-separated organelle, relate to the cell's ability to respond to morphogenic signals. Implications for understanding LLPS-mediated signaling nodes range from 'made-to-order' organ transplants to novel solutions for neurodegeneration.

This event will be moderated by John Lofthus, Assistant Dean of Development at UCSB's Graduate Division.

Interested in being a presenter at an upcoming Lunch & Learn? Click here to find out more! If you have any questions about this event or Lunch & Learn in general, please email Chava Nerenberg.