RNA Institute Retreat 2025: Celebrating Science, Collaboration, and Community
The RNA institute’s annual retreat, held on June 16-17, 2025, at the Lodge at Schroon Lake, brought together faculty, trainees, alumni, and institutional partners for two days of scientific conversations, career exploration, and community engagement. The retreat kicked off with a welcome address from Director Andy Berglund and Associate Director Tom Begley, with updates on the Institute’s initiatives, new personnel, and training programs.
The first keynote session featured Dr. Dragony Fu, Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester, who shared his research on “RNA modifications in development and disease”. The morning’s session, “Get to Know Your Neighbors”, chaired by Marlene Belfort (Senior Advisor, RNA Institute) featured overviews on the RNA institute, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, and the College of Integrated Health Sciences. New research tools and infrastructure were also highlighted such as RNA Epitranscriptomics and Proteomics Resource (REPR), AI Plus Supercomputer, 10X Xenium and RNA Shape mapping for spatial transcriptomics, and the incoming LUMICKS C-Trap for combined optical tweezers and fluorescence-based molecular analysis.
Lunchtime career panel discussion brought back institute alumni who are now working in industry, academia, and federal research institutions to offer inspiration and share their insights to current trainees on their career path. Panelists included Jesus Frias (Postdoctoral fellow, Baylor College of Medicine), Nicole Ralbovsky (Associate Principal Scientist, Merck), Christopher Smith (Mid-level Scientist, ECS, SETA Advisor), and Ed Taroc (Postdoctoral fellow, NIH-NIDCR), and was moderated by Jeanette Altarriba, Dean of College of Arts and Sciences at UAlbany. A poster session at the end of day 1 featured a wide array of cutting-edge RNA research topics with over 60 posters presented by the RNA institute trainees. Both days of the retreat featured talks from RNA institute affiliated faculty showcasing the big-picture overviews of their lab’s research.
On day 2, Dr. Silvi Rouskin, Assistant Professor of Harvard Medical School delivered the second keynote on “Uncovering hidden regulatory elements in viral and human genomes”. The two-day event included social and networking activities with a hike to Severance mountain, lawn games, board games, and a social evening by the fire pits with s’mores. The retreat concluded with closing remarks by Dean Altarriba and Director Berglund along with an awards ceremony for the best posters as well as the RNA institute faculty and staff excellence awards.
Poster Presentation Award Winners - Dean’s Awards of Excellence
Undergraduate Student Category
Hailey Mulvihill (Shorrock Lab)
Graduate Student Category
Dwiti Das (Cady Lab)
Asmer Aliyeva (Berglund lab)
Postdoctoral Fellow Category
Cecilia Legare (Berglund Lab)
Poster Presentation Award Winners -RNA Institute’s Awards of Excellence
Undergraduate Student Category
Massa Masri (Berglund Lab)
Nada Elniel (Wang Lab)
Lauren Anderson (Chandrasekaran Lab)
Graduate Student Category
Amy Mascorro (Sheng & Berglund Labs)
Brianna Nelthrope (Shorrock Lab)
Jacob Schroader (Reddy & Berglund Labs)
Haley MacNeil (Fuchs Lab)
Tia Swenty (Tenenbaum Lab)
Kate Hayes (Dash Lab)
Fin Morris (Melendez Lab)
Postdoctoral Fellow Category
Ashif Bhuiyan (Shorrock Lab)
2025 RNA Institute Faculty & Staff Excellence Award Winners
2025 RNA Institute Excellence in Service
Sangeetha Selvam (Science Communications Specialist, RNA Institute)
Claudia Lennon (Bioinformatics Support Specialist, RNA Institute)
2025 RNA Institute Excellence in Mentoring
Andres Melendez (Professor and Chair, Department of Nanoscale Science and Engineering)
Ken Halvorsen (Senior Research Scientist, RNA Institute)
2025 RNA Institute Excellence in Research & Entrepreneurship
Scott Tenenbaum (Professor, Department of Nanoscale Science and Engineering)
2025 RNA Institute Excellence in Research & Service
Morgan Sammons (Associate Dean for Natural Sciences and Mathematics; Associate Professor, Biological Sciences)