23rd Annual R. Bryan Miller Symposium to be Held In-Person for First Time Since Pandemic

Mark your calendars because the R. Bryan Miller Symposium returns this April for its first in-person event since 2020. Featuring a stellar lineup of high-profile speakers and leading-edge researchers in chemical biology and organic, medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry, the 23rd annual symposium creates a pipeline between academia and industry, allowing students to network, present their research and learn skills pivotal to their future professional careers. The free event is scheduled for April 13 and 14 at the UC Davis Conference Center.

“For the last two years, we had to hold the Miller Symposium over Zoom due to the pandemic,” said Shota Atsumi, a professor of chemistry and chair of the symposium’s organizing committee. “This year we’re offering the symposium in a hybrid style. It will be both in person and streamed on Zoom.”  

According to the Department of Chemistry, “the talks this year cover a wide range of science at the interface between chemistry, biology and medicine, encompassing timely topics of protein/catalyst design and engineering, epigenetics and drug discovery.”

“The beauty of this symposium is that we don’t cover a narrow area,” Atsumi said. “We want to cover a broad range of chemistry, biology and organic chemistry research for pharmaceutical applications. Usually, a symposium focuses on some specific thing, but with the Miller Symposium, we want to cover many research areas.” 

Esteemed speakers from UC Davis and beyond

This year’s plenary speakers include Paula Hammond and David Liu.

Hammond is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and head of the Department of Chemical Engineering. Hammond’s lecture is titled “Tailored Targeting of Cells and Tissues using Charged Polymer Nanosystems.”

Liu is the Richard Merkin Professor and director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, vice chair of the faculty at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Liu’s lecture is titled “Base Editing and Prime Editing to Correct Mutations that Cause Genetic Disease in Cells, Animals and Patients.”

The two will be joined by presenters from University of North Carolina, Stanford University, and industry including AMPAC Fine Chemicals, Bristol Myers Squibb and Apollomics, among other institutions. 

In addition to lectures from academia and industry, students will have the opportunity to present research posters during the Miller Symposium. The poster session is open to undergraduates, graduates and postdoctoral scholars. Student presenters will have the opportunity to win either the Francesca Miller Undergraduate Research Award or the R. Bryan Miller Summer Graduate Fellowship.   

“If you want to go to graduate school or get an industry job, this research experience is very important,” Atsumi said. “It’s our educational tool to enhance undergraduate research experiences.”

Register to attend the 23rd R. Bryan Miller Symposium and check out the full presentation schedule.