2024 CONFERENCE AGENDA

2023 Symposium HIGHLIGHTS

Dr. Aaron T. Griffin is a physician-scientist and Internal Medicine resident at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. Dr. Griffin obtained a B.S. from Texas A&M University with a double-major in Biochemistry and Genetics and double-minor in Chemistry and Mathematics. As an undergraduate, Griffin conducted research in the lab of Dr. Vishal Gohil in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and was named a Goldwater Scholar in 2015. Dr. Griffin then obtained a MD-PhD in Systems Biology from Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at New York Presbyterian Hospital in May of 2024. Griffin’s doctoral research at the Califano Laboratory of Systems Biology leveraged tumor transcriptomic data and novel computational algorithms to identify and target transcriptional regulatory proteins involved in treatment resistance and thoracic malignancies. Dr. Griffin has integrated training in both clinical medicine and biomedical research. In addition to his commitment to STEM outreach as a mentor through the GSC, his continued clinical and scientific training combines clinical oncology and computational biology to advance personalized cancer diagnosis and treatment strategies.

Dr. Austin D. Swafford, is a scientist whose expertise spans a wide range of fields critical to the advancement of science, technology and healthcare. He has led multiple private-public partnerships focused on automation, artificial intelligence, drug discovery, immunology, genetics, microbiology, and nanotechnology, as well as curriculum, business, and software development. Dr. Swafford graduated with a PhD in Medical Genetics and Immunology from the University of Cambridge through the NIH-Oxford-Cambridge (OxCam) Scholars Program and is a former NSF Graduate Research Fellow and Goldwater Scholar. He is a co-author on several patent applications and >50 publications with >12,000 combined citations on a wide range of subjects including basic and applied biology as well as novel diagnostics, data and sample processing methods and data analysis tools. Since 2023, Dr. Swafford has served as President of the International Biomedical Research Alliance (IBRA), whose mission is to help alleviate human suffering and disease by supporting the training of a new generation of top biomedical researchers.

Dr. Melody Neely is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Maine. She earned her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Michigan studying the role of toxin-producing bacteriophages in human bacterial pathogens.  She then completed a postdoc in Molecular Microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO where she developed the zebrafish model of infectious disease to study how human streptococcal pathogens interact with the host immune system. Current research going on in her lab includes analysis of the interactions that occur between two human pathogens, group B streptococcus and Candida albicans, which co-colonize the same tissue environment in humans, to determine how microbial interactions affect infectious disease.  We are also identifying prophages (bacterial viruses) that reside in the genome of clinical strains of group B streptococcus and studying how these resident phages affect bacterial fitness and pathogenesis of the bacterial host. In addition to running a research lab, Dr. Neely is passionate about supporting and introducing students to the STEM fields, teaching in coming undergraduates about the wonders of microbial genetics.

Dr. Jeremy Blitzer is a physician, scientist, and entrepreneur with a passion for drug discovery and development. As the co-founder and Managing Director of Potrero Hill Therapeutics (PHT), he is addressing several disease areas with significant unmet needs, including kidney disease, heart failure, liver disease, and oncology. Dr. Blitzer’s industry team at PHT identifies novel therapeutic candidates against validated targets and advances them through the IND pathway into clinical development. Before founding PHT, Dr. Blitzer served as a Partner and Vice President of Product Development at Synergenics. His work included evaluating new drug discovery and development opportunities, forming new companies, and managing nearly all aspects of advancing new drug candidates from inception through IND and clinical proof-of-concept. He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University and holds an B.A. in Chemistry from Duke University. During his undergraduate studies at Duke, he conducted undergraduate research in the lab of Nobel laureate Robert J. Lefkowitz and was awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in 1998.