Wyoming INBRE hosted the 2024 RAIN Collaboration Studio at the University of Wyoming, from May 28 – May 30, where faculty from all seven RAIN states met to explore interstate collaborative opportunities across the region. Participants enjoyed an evening reception on the first night.
The first day of the Studio, Wyoming INBRE Program Director and Principal Investigator (PD/PI), Dr. Scott Seville, delivered a welcome and outlined the meeting goals to help faculty gain the skills to develop interdisciplinary collaborations across the RAIN states. The keynote address by Dr. Jeffrey B. Arterburn, Regents Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at New Mexico State University, was titled “How collaboration can enhance your career”. Every participating faculty member presented a three-minute lightning talk to introduce their scientific interests and skills to the group. These sessions were moderated by Dr. Cindy Knall, Program Coordinator for Alaska INBRE and Dr. Carolyn H. Bohach, PD/PI for Idaho INBRE. The day concluded with a collaboration mixer, moderated by the ‘mix-master’ Dr. Brian Bothner, PD/PI for Montana INBRE. In this session, faculty participated in speed-dating-style conversations in small groups to find others with complimentary attributes for potential collaborations. That evening, participants were on their own for dinner to enjoy the small-town charms that Laramie, WY has to offer.
Day two of the Collaboration Studio began with an expert panel and Q&A session, moderated by Dr. Shelley Lusetti, PD/PI for New Mexico INBRE, that included topics such as, “how to identify and avoid a bad collaboration”, “what does a successful collaboration look like?”, and “tips for communicating with collaborators”, among other themes. Panelists included Dr. Ann Bertagnolli, Program Coordinator/Core Director-Community Engagement for Montana INBRE, Dr. Brian Cherrington, Professor at University of Wyoming/past Studio awardee, Dr. David Fay, Core Director for Wyoming INBRE, and Dr. Eduardo Robleto, Program Coordinator for Nevada INBRE. Next on the agenda, an open session allowed faculty to solidify their interstate teams, work together to define experimental approaches to test a hypothesis, and build a presentation to explain the collaboration. Moderated by Dr. Seville, each group of 2-3 faculty had 10 minutes to present their planned collaboration and try to win the $2,000/faculty prize. Teams drew numbers to determine the order of presentation as follows:
- Drs. Devin Drown (AK), Moustapha Harb (NM) and Ben Ma (NV) presented “Building a Better Microbial Risks Surveillance Tool”.
- Drs. Heather Ray (ID) and Utkarsh Kapoor (WY) presented “Unraveling the differences of transcriptional regulation of Hic1 and Hic2 transcription factors”.
- Drs. Scott Folkman (NM), Hasan Jamil (ID) and Garrett Roell (HI) presented “Optimizing Pharmaceutical Productions from Biomasses”.
- Drs. Brien Haun (HI), Jay Radke (ID) and John Oakey (WY) presented “Lab on a Particle (in a Droplet)”.
- Drs. Sydney Boutros (ID) and Brandon Roberts (WY) presented “Impact of maternal GBH exposure on cognitive development”.
- Drs. Joshua Burkhart (HI), Masoumeh Heidari Kapourchali (AK) and Ji Hyun Lee (MT) presented “Downstream Health Effects of Gender Affirming Hormone Therapies”.
- Drs. Brian Barth (AK), Rodolfo Tello-Aburto (NM) and Trey Todd (WY) presented “Targeting Sphingolipid Signaling in Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Circadian Dysfunction & Neurodegeneration”.
And the winner is… it’s a tie! Faculty from groups 4 and 7 will each receive $2,000 from their home INBRE state to pursue their interaction. Thanks to Dr. Peter Hoffman, PD/PI for Hawaii INBRE, for facilitating the voting, announcing the awardees, and providing closing remarks. All participating faculty were encouraged to pursue a RAIN Collaborative grant this fall to fund their ideas and scientific relationships cultivated at the Studio.
Questions, concerns, access to photos, presentations or more details may be directed to Wyoming INBRE’s Administrative Associate, Yana Nightingale, at ynightin@uwyo.edu. New Mexico INBRE will host the 2025 RAIN Collaboration Studio, dates TBD.