Events

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center (SQBRC)
303 E. Superior Street, Chicago, IL

2:00 PM Keynote Presentation "Regulation of innate immune signaling by RUNX1” 

              Nancy Speck, PhD
              John W. Eckman Professor of Medical Science II
              Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
              University of Pennsylvania

              Simpson-Querrey Auditorium, SQBRC 1-230

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM Scientific Poster Session & Networking Reception

              Potocsnak Family Atrium, SQBRC First Floor Lobby

View Symposium flyer

We are thrilled to welcome our keynote speaker, Dr. Nancy Speck of the University of Pennsylvania where she is the John W. Eckman Professor of Medical Science II, an Investigator at the Abramson Center Cancer Research Institute and Chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. Dr. Speck is an internationally-recognized leader in the field of hematology. She is best known for her identification of the identification of the transcription factors RUNX1 and CBFß and their roles in hematopoietic stem cell formation and function. Dr. Speck will share her work, “Regulation of innate immune signaling by RUNX1.” 

Abstract: Familial platelet disorder with associated myeloid malignancy (FPDMM) is caused by monoallelic mutations in the RUNX1 gene, which confer an elevated lifetime risk of leukemia. In addition, many FPDMM patients have an increased incidence of immune regulatory disorders that we propose may contribute to the elevated leukemia risk. We found that pan-hematopoietic RUNX1 deletion in mice causes a hyper-inflammatory state in neutrophils, whereby they overproduce inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in response to toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) stimulation. Dr. Speck will discuss the mechanism by which RUNX1 restrains inflammatory cytokine production by neutrophils and how its loss results in a state of “fixed maladaptive innate immunity”.

About Dr. Speck  

Nancy Speck earned her PhD in biochemistry from Northwestern University and completed postdoctoral research fellowships in retroviral pathogenesis and eukaryotic gene regulation at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Center for Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1989 she started her own laboratory at Dartmouth Medical School, where she was a Professor of Biochemistry and held the James J. Carroll Chair of Oncology. She joined the University of Pennsylvania in 2008, where she is the John W. Eckman Professor of Medical Science II, an Investigator at the Abramson Center Cancer Research Institute and Chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. 

As a postdoctoral fellow, Nancy Speck determined that the disease specificity of a mouse retrovirus was most strongly influenced by a single transcription factor-binding site she named “core”. She began her independent career by purifying a core-binding factor (CBF) from calf thymus, and cloned the genes encoding its subunits. She showed that CBF consisted of a DNA-binding (RUNX1) and a non-DNA binding (CBFβ) subunit, and that CBFβ allosterically regulated DNA binding by RUNX1. The genes encoding RUNX1 and CBFβ were contemporaneously cloned from the breakpoints of the t(8;21) and inv(16) in acute myelogenous leukemia; Speck’s biochemical studies established that the genes disrupted on chromosomes 21 and 16 encoded two subunits of a single transcription factor. 

In collaboration with structural biologists, Speck determined the structures of the CBF subunits. She also demonstrated that both RUNX1 and CBFβ were obligate partners in vivo and were required for the formation of definitive blood cells, including hematopoietic stem cells, in the embryo. In searching for an explanation for why hematopoietic stem cells failed to form, Speck discovered that RUNX1 expression marks a small population of endothelial cells in the embryo called “hemogenic endothelium”, and that blood cell formation from endothelium did not occur in the absence of RUNX1. The existence of hemogenic endothelium was not widely known or accepted at that time; Speck’s identification of a transcription factor specifically expressed in hemogenic endothelium, and required for blood cell formation from hemogenic endothelium, were important for establishing this concept. 

Enjoy light refreshments, view posters, and network with other KUH researchers.  

The Scientific Poster Session & Networking Reception is a wonderful opportunity for physician and basic scientists across Chicago who are engaged in KUH research to gather and make connections and discuss current research in their fields. Moreover, it gives researchers at all career stages valuable experience presenting their research and communicating science to an interdisciplinary audience. 

CALL FOR POSTERS!

We invite graduate and medical students, postdoctoral scholars, residents, fellows, and junior faculty to present a poster showcasing their clinical or basic research in the fields of kidney, benign urology, or benign hematology research.   

• See "Instructions for Poster Presentations" for details about signing up to present.
• Sign up by May 1st
• Posters with a cancer focus will not be accepted.  
• For Chicago KUH FORWARD appointed trainees, presenting a poster is mandatory.

We are glad that you will be presenting your KUH research at this year's symposium! Please follow these instructions to help ensure your poster registration and presentation are successful.

  1) Before registering your poster, please create a Poster Abstract using the Abstract Template

• CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ABSTRACT TEMPLATE

   2) Submit your Poster Abstract by May 1st 

• Save your Poster Abstract file as a .pdf file prior to submitting.
• CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT POSTER ABSTRACT & REGISTER YOUR POSTER

   3) Prepare your poster

• The maximum poster size allowed is 60 inches wide x 60 inches high.
• Push pins will be provided.

   4) Present your poster on symposium day!

• Check-in begins at 1:00 PM. Posters should be hung between 1:00 and 1:45 PM.
• The Poster Session & Networking Reception begins immediately after the keynote presentation and ends at 5:00 PM.
• At the end of the event, please take your poster down. Any posters left hanging will be disposed.

Questions? contact chicago.kuhforward@northwestern.edu

The Symposium will be held at the Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center (SQBRC), 303 E Superior St, Chicago, IL 60611.

• Driving: The nearest Northwestern parking garage is the Erie Ontario Parking Garage located at 321 E Erie St with entrances on either Erie or Ontario. Attendees who requested a discounted parking voucher when registering for the symposium can pick up their voucher at the symposium check-in table.

• Taxi or Rideshare: The drop off location is 303 E Superior St, Chicago, IL.

• Public transportation: The closest CTA train stop is the Red Line–Chicago stop (Chicago and State). From there it is about a 20-minute walk to SQBRC. CTA Buses 3, 66 120, 121 and 157 all stop directly across the street from SQBRC.