The University of Florida’s 3rd Annual Chemistry-Biology Interface, or CBI, Symposium, hosted on Nov. 9 at Scott Family Hall, welcomed over 100 researchers and students for a day of interdisciplinary discovery. The event served as a platform for predoctoral trainees and graduate students to share their work in the intersecting fields of chemistry and biology.
The symposium showcased all four trainees in UF’s National Institutes of Health-funded Chemistry-Biology Interface Predoctoral Training Program, including Kaleb Broswinkle (IFAS), Emma Ellis (College of Pharmacy), Sebastian Guerra (Genetics Institute), and Noah Rakestraw (College of Medicine). Through their presentations, these trainees addressed critical scientific questions, demonstrating the impact of their training and research.
In addition to the trainee presentations, UF graduate students had extensive opportunities to connect, collaborate, and present their work. Four graduate students shared their research through oral presentations, while many others contributed through a poster session.
The event concluded with a keynote address by Angela Gronenborn, Ph.D., the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Rosalind Franklin Professor & chair of the Department of Structural Biology. Gronenborn’s presentation explored the power of fluorine nuclear magnetic resonance, or NMR, from drugs to cells. Her lab combines NMR spectroscopy with biophysics, biochemistry, and chemistry to investigate cellular processes at the molecular and atomic levels in relation to human disease. The UF CBI Predoctoral Training Program is led by Chenglong Li, Ph.D., a professor of medicinal chemistry and the Nicholas Bodor Professor in Drug Discovery, and Michael Harris, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry in the UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
