Variant Effects Seminar Series (VESS)

In this series, early-career scientists from around the globe share and discuss their research related to interpreting human genetic variation. Seminars are held on the 1st Tuesday each month from 9-10am Pacific (4-5pm UTC).

NEXT SEMINAR: March 3rd, 2026

9-10am Pacific timezone converter

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Previous Seminars

Upcoming Speakers

Decoding the TP53 mutational landscape: CRISPR perspectives on functional diversity and therapeutic interventions

Julianne Funk (she/her)

Marburg University (Marburg, Germany)

Presentation Date: 3 March 2026 1st speaker

EVENT FLYER for VESS_March_2026

Decoding the TP53 mutational landscape: CRISPR perspectives on functional diversity and therapeutic interventions Julianne Funk is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Molecular Oncology at Marburg University. Her research focuses on functional genomics of the tumor suppressor gene TP53, with a particular emphasis on CRISPR-based saturation genome editing to systematically characterize the effects of cancer-associated variants. Her work aims to improve clinical variant interpretation by linking large-scale functional data with tumor genomics.

Comprehensive mutational characterization of variants within the calcium-binding STIM1 cEF-hand

Nisha Kamath (she/her)

Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, USA)

Presentation Date: 3 March 2026 2nd speaker

EVENT FLYER for VESS_March_2026

Nisha Kamath obtained her Ph.D. in Pathology/Immunology from Case Western Reserve University under the mentorship of Dr. Kenneth Matreyek. Her thesis project involved using deep mutational scanning and targeted phenotypic assays to understand how variants within the calcium-binding STIM1 cEF-hand domain affect its structure and function. She is currently pursuing a short-term postdoc within the same lab, applying phenotypic assays she developed during her doctoral training to understand the effect of protein variants on genes related to epilepsy.

Seminar series FAQ's

When is it?

1st Tuesday of each month (9am Pacific)
Start time is 9am Pacific (timezone converter)
We have members and presenters from around the globe (multiple time zones)
Our inaugural seminar was Tuesday, September 7th, 2021

Who presents?

Early career scientists: Students, postdocs, and new faculty (<1 year in position)

If you are interested in presenting or would like to recommend someone, please fill out this online SPEAKER NOMINATION FORM

What is the format?

One hour long virtual meetings (zoom)
Each month, two presenters discuss their work in 20-minute talks, followed by lively Q&A sessions.
Questions from the audience can be asked using chat or Q&A during the webinar
AVE members can also follow / continue conversations on our VESS AVE Slack Channel (#variant-effects-seminar-series)

Who can attend?

Our meetings are over Zoom and anyone is welcome to attend.
We use the webinar format, but participants can ask the speaker questions using the chat or Q&A

Do you need to be a member of AVE to attend?

Anyone can attend. However, if you are interested in becoming a member of the Alliance, please sign up > HERE

Who are the organizers?

The Variant Effect Seminar Series Committee members are listed here https://www.varianteffect.org/vess-committee/

Are the talks recorded?

If speakers consent, the recordings will be publicly available on our YouTube channel
Speakers can also now link their VESS talks to bioRxiv preprints!
You can also find a list of previous speakers and talks > HERE

Where can I find the zoom link and calendar invite link?

Here! > VESS ZOOM LINK
and here! > Add these events to your calendar.

Future Seminars

We are looking for speakers, including students, postdocs, and new faculty (<1 year in position)!!

If you are interested in presenting or would like to recommend someone, please fill out this online >> SPEAKER NOMINATION FORM

or contact one of the VESS Organizers on our AVE slack channel!

(sign up to become a member and join conversations on slack https://www.varianteffect.org/membership/)