2026 meeting

Check in, coffee, and poster setup

Short Talk Session 1 - Room 234

9:30-9:35 Welcome!

9:35-9:50 How is histone acetylation kept low in quiescent cells?

Rachel Dell, Tsukiyama lab, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

9:50-10:05 Regulation of the replication stress response via CK1-mediated phosphorylation of a Claspin homologue

Sierra Cullati, Western Washington University

10:05-10:20 Investigating TOR signaling through experimental evolution of caffeine-tolerant S. cerevisiae

Sophia Ohlson-Kiehn, Geck lab, Gonzaga University

10:20-10:35 How do transcription factor assemblies determine regulatory specificity across the yeast genome?

Saket Mishra, Hahn lab, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Keynote Presentation - Room 234

Hitting the brakes on DNA breaks in S. pombe meiotic recombination

Gerry Smith, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Yeast Beyond the Research Lab - Room 234

1:40-1:55 Yeast Wrangling and Brewing Science: What I Learned Running a Beer Lab

Sean Sleight, Arzeda/Sleight Beer Lab

1:55-2:10 BUDDY: A Bioinformatic Utility for Modeling Human Clinical Variants in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to Enable Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs)

Brian Wasko, Western University of Health Sciences

2:10-2:25 Classroom experimental evolution reveals loss of paralog redundancy as a common mechanism of echinocandin resistance

Leah Anderson, Dunham lab, University of Washington

2:25-2:40 Using Educational Outreach to Discover Multiple Genetic Pathways Towards Fungal Adhesion

Sarah Heater, Dunham & Harris labs, University of Washington

Short Talk Session 2 - Room 234

3:35-3:50 Sisterly Bonds: Chromatid-biased Clustering of Meiotic DSB Hotspots and Crossover Interference

Yu-Chien Chuang, Smith lab, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

3:50-4:05 General regulatory factors coordinate chromatin architecture and transcription

Anuradha Venkatramani, Hahn lab, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

4:05-4:20 Elucidating regulatory mechanism of rDNA chromatin structure in yeast quiescent cell

Rina Hirano, Tsukiyama lab, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

4:20-4:35 Dissecting the molecular mechanisms controlling telomere-length homeostasis in S. cerevisiae

David Zappulla, Lehigh University

4:35-4:50 Mapping tRNA modifications using Nanopore direct RNA sequencing

David Garcia, University of Oregon

4:55-5:10 Discussion about PNWYC 2027 & concluding remarks