Department Retreat

  September 12-13, 2025

   Snow Mountain YMCA, Granby, CO

The CU Boulder Biochemistry Department holds the Department Research Retreat annually as a means to connect faculty and graduate students with other research in the department while fostering relationships that bring the department together. Each retreat offers activities - e.g., hikes, kickball, trivia, and more - to be supportive outside of the research laboratory environment. We live in Colorado after all, let's celebrate being outdoors!

• Friday, September 13, 2025:
  • (2) Faculty Research Talks:
    • "Electrifying Secrets of Directed Cell Migration " - Nathan Belliveau, Assistant Professor, New to BCHM in 2025!
    • "Real-time Visualization of RNA polymerase II transcription at individual gene promoters" - Dylan Taatjes, Professor
  • (7) Graduate Student Research Talks:
    • "Domains of Unknown Function Mediate an Anti-Viral Response in Bacteria" - Laurel Robbins (Aaron Whiteley Laboratory)
    • "A Nanobody-based toolkit for studying ERK" - Andie Doak (Ahn Laboratory)
    • "Investigating the role of the domesticated retroelement, PEG10, on neuronal gene expression" - Autumn Matthews (Alex Whiteley Laboratory)
    • "Lysosomal Remodeling regulates Zn and Cu homeostasis in C. elegans" - Joy Armendariz (Mendoza Laboratory)
    • "Leveraging rabies virus neurotropism to engineer an efficient cell-type specific delivery system" - Daniel Nwankwo (Liu Laboratory)
    • "CDC7 and CDK2 Primate Cyclin D1 for Degradation at the Restriction Point" - Max Keller (Spencer Laboratory)
    • "The Structure and Function of the Human Histone Chaperone HIRA" - Wei Tian (Luger Laboratory)

• Saturday, September 13, 2025:
  • (2) Faculty Research Talks:
    • Marcelo Sousa, Professor
    • Amy Palmer, Professor • Director of the Arts and Sciences Honors Program
  • (5) Graduate Students Research Talks:
    • "Discovery of novel RNA-binding small molecules with a highly efficient chemical library" - Lukasz Olenginski (Batey Laboratory)
    • Angie Liu (Wuttke Laboratory)
    • "Defining the mechanistic roles of miR-1 and miR-206 during skeletal muscle cell differentiation" - Shamira Gonazalez (Goodrich/Kugel Laboratory)
    • "rG4 and DHX36: Stress Granule Modulators?" - Liyi Cheng (Parker and Cech Laboratories)
    • "A sequencing approach to measuring DNA methyltransferaase 1 productivity" - Ella Tomer (Cech Laboratory)

  Pictures from 2025!

   September 8, 2023

   Chautauqua Park & Dining Hall, Boulder, CO

• Intro and welcome
  • 1st year cohort introductions
  • Department Organizations and Updates
  • Supergroups
• State of the Department Address and Awards
• Lab Flash Talks, Session I
• Lunch
• Lab Flash Talks, Session II
• Technique Talks
• Break
• Trivia
• Dinner
• Closing Remarks and Goodbyes

  Pictures from 2023!

   September 9–10, 2022

   YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch, Winter Park, CO

• Intro and welcome
  • 1st year cohort introductions
  • New faculty, postdocs, employee introductions
  • Department organizations: DEI, FLC, P2P, SCOPE, PAC
• Trivia
• Poster session
• Departmental Awards
• Social/activities/games
• Technique talks #1
• Technique talks #2
• Optional Hike/Field Day

  Pictures from 2022!

   September 10–11, 2021

   Chautauqua Park & Dining Hall, Boulder, CO

• Welcome/Introduction
• Departmental Awards & Committee Updates
• DEI Council-led Activity
• Faculty Talks
• Poster Sessions by Biochemistry Faculty & Graduate Students
• Lawn Games & Board Games
• Optional Flatirons Hike

  Pictures from 2021!

   Canceled due to COVID-19

   September 14–15, 2019

   YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch, Winter Park, CO

   Keynote Seminar by Dr. Ian Cheeseman (MIT)

  Pictures from 2019!

   September 14–15, 2019

   YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch, Winter Park, CO

   Keynote Seminar by Dr. Marv Caruthers

• Keynote Seminar by Marv Caruthers
• Lightning Talks
• Poster Session
• Lab Olympics
• Talks on the Fly
• Themed Hikes
• Career Panels
  • "Diverse career options in science."
    • Ben Lunstad, Kyle Butler, Maureen Bjerke, and Joel Basken
  • "How to re-ignite excitement about science when research is at a stand-still."
    • Amy Palmer, Natalie Ahn, Jeff Cameron, and Johannes Rudolph

  Pictures from 2018!