{"383571":{"#nid":"383571","#data":{"type":"news","title":"2015 Suddath Symposium Hits Full Speed","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEvery year in Atlanta, around the time winter is dragging out its transition into spring, some of the world\u2019s top researchers gather at the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience to present their work in a wide range of topics at the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/petitinstitute.gatech.edu\/suddath-symposium\u0022\u003ESuddath Symposium\u003C\/a\u003E. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis annual meeting of the minds, which opened yesterday, changes topics every year. This time it\u2019s \u201cImmunology \u0026amp; ImmunoEngineering,\u201d which is particularly timely, according to M.G. Finn, co-chair of the event with Krishnendu Roy. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThis year\u2019s symposium brings immunologists and bioengineers\u0026nbsp;from all over the country to kick off a new initiative,\u201d says Finn, professor in and chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. \u201cGeorgia Tech, Emory, and the Georgia Research\u0026nbsp;Alliance have joined forces to help create the field of\u0026nbsp;ImmunoEngineering \u2013\u0026nbsp;the\u0026nbsp;real-time analysis and manipulation of the immune system.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EImmunoEngineering is an emerging field that builds\u0026nbsp;on\u0026nbsp;traditional immunology and the latest tools of biochemistry, molecular biology,\u0026nbsp;biophysics, and\u0026nbsp;bioinformatics. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThere has been a real revolution in the past decade concerning our\u0026nbsp;molecular-level understanding of immunity, and Atlanta is fortunate to be the home\u0026nbsp;of many outstanding research\u0026nbsp;and clinical immunologists,\u201d says Finn. The hope, he adds, is that \u201cstudents, postdocs, and\u0026nbsp;faculty will learn from our speakers about these\u0026nbsp;newly-complementary endeavors,\u0026nbsp;and be inspired to join the effort.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/petitinstitute.gatech.edu\/suddath-symposium-program\u0022\u003EThis year\u2019s lineup\u003C\/a\u003E includes speakers from Emory and Georgia Tech, as usual, in addition to the University of Georgia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), University of Chicago, Stanford, the National Cancer Institute and The Scripps Research Institute. So attendees have plenty to be inspired by, including one of the event\u2019s final speakers, Julie Babensee.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cI will present on strategies to direct immune responses through key immunoregulatory cells called dendritic cells,\u201d says Babensee, whose presentation is entitled, \u201cBiomaterials for ImmunoEngineering.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo, there\u2019s plenty to discuss and learn today as the symposium continues. Just a sampler: Mark Davis of Stanford will present \u201cThe Nature (and Nurture) of the Human Immune System,\u201d Cheng Zhu of Emory and Georgia Tech will present, \u201cMechanical Regulation of T-Cell Biology,\u201d and Dennis Burton of The Scripps Institute will talk about HIV vaccine design. In other words, the 23rd edition of the symposium (it actually precedes the existence of the Petit Institute) is a fitting tribute to its namesake, F.L. \u201cBud\u201d Suddath.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cBud would be in awe,\u201d says Lee Suddath, whose late husband was one of the pioneers of biochemistry research and study at the Georgia Institute of Technology. \u201cI think he would be pleased. My children and I are astonished that this continues year after year, that it remains such a popular event where great science is discussed.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAfter Suddath died suddenly in 1992, a couple of things happened to keep his memory alive. For one thing, his family, friends and colleagues established the Suddath Memorial Award, given annually to a doctoral student at Georgia Tech who demonstrates significant research achievement in biology, biochemistry or biomedical engineering. Around the same time, Suddath\u2019s fellow biochemist, Loren Williams, started the symposium. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EEach year at this time both programs merge together at the Petit Institute. The 2015 edition opened Monday with a presentation from this year\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/petitinstitute.gatech.edu\/suddath-memorial-award-0\u0022\u003ESuddath Memorial Award\u003C\/a\u003E winner, Havva Keskin, who was first author on a recently published paper, \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.nature.com\/nature\/journal\/v515\/n7527\/abs\/nature13682.html\u0022\u003E\u201cTranscript-RNA-templated DNA recombination and repair,\u201d\u003C\/a\u003E in \u003Cem\u003ENature\u003C\/em\u003E. She kicked off the two-day celebration of science with a presentation of that research.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThe quality of the science recognized by the Suddath Memorial Award is always high quality. It\u2019s almost like, if you don\u2019t have a paper in \u003Cem\u003ENature\u003C\/em\u003E, you don\u2019t get the Suddath Award,\u201d says Williams, who notes that the first Suddath Memorial Award winner, Mary Peek, now works in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech (she\u2019s the Biochemistry Laboratory Program Coordinator).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe science changes every year, but it\u2019s always solid, it\u2019s always cutting edge. Twenty-three years ago, Loren Williams couldn\u2019t have imagined that the event he organized for a fallen friend would still be going. It wasn\u2019t part of the plan.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cBack then, we thought it would be a one-off event,\u201d says Williams, who credits former and founding Petit Institute Executive Director Bob Nerem with keeping the event alive as an annual thing. \u201cBob said, \u2018let\u2019s just keep this going.\u2019 We did, and now it has a life of its own.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Researchers put spotlight on Immunology and ImmunoEngineering"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers put spotlight on Immunology and ImmunoEngineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers put spotlight on Immunology and ImmunoEngineering"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2015-03-03 09:47:25","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:02:51","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-03-03T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2015-03-03T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"383561":{"id":"383561","type":"image","title":"Havva Keskin, Lee Suddath","body":null,"created":"1449246246","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:24:06","changed":"1475894395","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:39:55","alt":"Havva Keskin, Lee Suddath","file":{"fid":"75339","name":"havva_and_lee.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/havva_and_lee.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/havva_and_lee.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3181093,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/havva_and_lee.jpg?itok=gPmm0Hgl"}}},"media_ids":["383561"],"groups":[{"id":"1254","name":"Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"6500","name":"Petit Institute"},{"id":"169343","name":"suddath"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}