Laufer Center Spring Retreat - 2026
86 West Meadow Road, Setauket, New York, 117331
Thursday, April 23, 2026
*By invitation only
Check-in & Continental Breakfast 8:30 – 8:55
MORNING SESSION 9:00 - 12:15
9:00 – 9:30 am Opening Remarks - Dr. Ivet Bahar, Center Overview and Introductions
9:30 –10:15 am Keynote Speaker – Dr. Lina Carlini, Laufer Center & Biochemistry & Cell Biology, TBA
Presentation by LC Students:
10:15–10:28 am – Zachary Alseika, PhD student, Simmerling lab, Building a model for E. coli chaperone-usher secretion mechanism
10:30–10:43 am - Chris Corbo, PhD student, Rizzo lab, Benchmarking Pose Accuracy and Score Ranking for DOCK6, Vina, and AutoDock 4 Including Approved Drugs
10:45–10:58 am – Evan Denis, PhD student, Coutsias lab, A mathematical model of hydrogen bond formation near nonpolar solutes
11:00–11:13 am - Aparna Dileep, PhD student, Serebryany lab,Biophysical adaptations for longevity in lens crystallins
11:15-11:28 am - Emma Gebauer, PhD student, M Seeliger lab, Shoot First, Ask Later: High Throughput Crystallography Screens Towards the Identification of Novel Inhibitor Fragments
11:30–11:43 am Chris Helenek, PhD student, Balazsi lab, Title TBD
11:45 – 11:58 am Satyaki Saha, PhD student, Bahar lab, Distinguishing between positive and negative modulators of allostery: Application to Class B1 GPCRs
12:00 – 12:13 pm Zahra Wray, PhD student, Nagan lab, Challenges in Making Reliable Lab-Level Code for Worldwise Production Use.
GROUP PHOTO & LUNCH - 12:15 – 1:15
AFTERNOON SESSION 1:20 - 3:03 pm
Presentation by LC Postdoctoral Fellows & Research Scientists:
1:20-1:33 pm - Anupam Banerjee, Research scientist, Bahar lab, Title TBA
1:35 -1:48 pm - Marco Barone, Postdoc, Tonge lab, Dissecting the kinetic architecture of BTK degraders
1:50–2:03 pm - Neetika Jaisinghani, Research Scientist, J Seeliger lab,Tracking the composition and transport of the mycobacterial lipoproteome
2:05-2:18 pm Justin Palermo, Postdoc, Lin lab, Title TBA
2:20-2:33 pm - Anand Pathak, Sr Postdoc, Mujica-Parodi lab, Mechanistically Derived Biomarkers for General Anesthesia Using Computational Modeling
2:35-2:48 pm Darya Stepanenko, postdoc, Kozakov lab, Title TBA
2:50-3:03- Mohamed Swailem, Postdoc, Dill lab, RNA–Protein Association at the Origin of Life: Insights from the Central Dogma
3:03 – 3:20 pm Coffee Break (and Poster set up and 2nd round of votes) Poster Presentations 3:20 – 4:50 pm (followed by 3rd round of votes).
AWARDS CEREMONY 5:00 – 5:20 PM
Best students (2)
Best postdocs/research associate (2)
Best poster presenters (2).
Buffet Dinner 5:20-7:00 pm
