Session V: September 26, 2024
Volume EM 101
Session V Speakers and Panelists
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Christopher Westlake
Totally tubular organelle membrane assembly revealed by vEM
Chris obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Queen's University in Canada. While there, he investigated the structure/function and trafficking of multidrug resistance proteins (MRP) that are important in resistance to chemotherapeutics. He did his postdoc training in Dr. Richard Scheller’s lab at Genentech investigating membrane trafficking regulation by the Rab small GTPase family. Chris joined the Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Signaling at the Center for Cancer Research In 2011 and was awarded tenure from NIH in 2020. Chris’s laboratory uses advanced fluorescence and electron microscopy imaging techniques, biochemical approaches and mouse and zebrafish models to investigate membrane trafficking processes regulated by the Rab small GTPase family that are important in development and disease.
Valentina Baena
Valentina received her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut in 2020, where she conducted research under the guidance of Dr. Mark Terasaki. Her work focused on ATUMtome-assisted array tomography, leading to the publication of several protocols and research articles in cell and reproductive biology. She then joined the NCI Center for Molecular Microscopy, working with Dr. Kedar Narayan to develop advanced workflows for correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM), utilizing FIB-SEM and cryoLM techniques on cells and tissues. Currently, Valentina serves as the Co-Director of the Electron Microscopy Core Facility at the NHLBI. In this role, she oversees a range of services including TEM, volumeEM, and CLEM, supporting numerous clinical and basic science researchers across the NIH.
Discussion Forum:
Performing Advanced EM Techniques in a Core Facility Setting
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​​Moderator: Ru-ching Hsia
​Head of Electron Microscopy Laboratory, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. Program Director of BioEMTalks webinar
Dr. Hsia is the Principal Scientist and Head of the Electron Microscope Laboratory at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. She was the Director of the EM research services facilities at the University of Maryland Baltimore and Carnegie Institution for Science before she joined FNL. Dr. Hsia was the Program Chair of M&M2023 in Minneapolis. She has many years of experience running EM techniques workshops, training courses and organizing symposia.
​​Panelist I: Abigail Lytton-Jean
Scientific Director, Nanotechnology Materials Lab. Koch Inst. for Integrative Cancer Research. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abigail Lytton-Jean is the founder and Scientific Director of the Peterson (1957) Nanotechnology Materials Core Facility at the Koch Institute at MIT in Cambridge MA, USA. Her core facility addresses nano and materials characterization of bio-relevant materials with a strong emphasis on multiscale cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM). Of particular significance are bespoke, cutting-edge sample preparation and workflows that enable volumeEM, cryoEM, correlativeEM and immunoEM. These sample preparation and imaging workflows allow for the orchestration of multiscale structural imaging of cells, tissue, and synthetic materials while providing pinpoint accuracy of desired regions of interest with nanometer scale resolution. ​
​​Panelist II: Kristen White ​
​Lead Electron Microscopist , Microscopy Services Lab . University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Kristen White has a BS in Clinical Laboratory Science and an MS in Molecular and Cellular Pathology from UNC Chapel Hill and is a certified medical technologist (ASCP). She has experience in diagnostic microbiology and translational research in carcinogenesis. Kristen has a decade of experience in electron microscopy (EM) techniques at UNC-Chapel Hill Microscopy Service Laboratory (MSL). As the lead electron microscopist, she manages project planning, preparation of samples for both transmitted and scanning electron microscopy, and imaging with those modalities.​
