The Vermont Genetics Network (VGN) held its first annual Retreat on August 14, at UVM’s Marsh Hall. The purpose of the Retreat was to bring together students and faculty from UVM as well as other VGN associated colleges; Johnson State College, Middlebury College, Norwich University and Saint Michael’s College.

VGN Co-Directors Christopher Allen, PhD and Judith Van Houten, PhD welcomed the guests, summarized selected achievements of the first year including the establishment of the microarray facility and officially kicked off the Retreat! One of the highlights of the day was the presentation of talks and posters by the VGN-funded undergraduate students, who summarized the summer research.

First prize was awarded to Andrea Klayman and Kate Saltstein of Middlebury did research on“Hormonal Stress Response in Adult Mice to Determine the Effects of Maternal Separation”. David Parfitt, PhD served as Andrea and Kate’s mentor this summer. Second prize went to Julie Nicole-Fylling of Johnson State College, who gave a presentation on her research topic “Linking Alzheimer’s Disease to Notch Signaling”. Julie worked at the University of Vermont over the summer with Rae Nishi, PhD who served as her mentor. Congratulations go to all of the students on the outstanding job they did with their summer research! .

Next on the agenda was a three part session. Four groups of students were taken on a tour of some of the following UVM science facilities: the Microarray facility, the DNA Analysis facility, the Flow Cytometry facility, the Life Science Computer Center, the Molecular Modeling facility, the Cell Imaging facility and the Center for X-ray Crystallography. Many thanks go to the following lab directors, who conducted the tours: Ahmad Chaudhry, PhD, Mark Rould, PhD, Doug Taajes, PhD, Ramiro Barrantes-Reynolds, Timothy Hunter and Scott Tighe. The tours were intended to introduce the students to what types of services are available at UVM.

The Faculty attended a Bioinformatics workshop given by Jeffrey Bond, PhD, and Director of the VGN Bioinformatics Core. Dr. Bond gave an overview of the Bioinformatics Core and its services to VGN faculty and students. In addition, VGN faculty gave their input on what types of educational workshops they would like to receive from the Bioinformatics Core.

Following the workshop was a networking session directed by Dr. Allen inviting VGN faculty to share their comments, suggestions and ideas on how the Vermont Genetics Network can facilitate research partnerships between faculty at higher educational institutions across the state. We invite faculty from all colleges to continue to share their comments. Contact us at Vermont.GeneticsNetwork@uvm.edu

At 12:30, everyone met back in Marsh Dining Hall and a buffet lunch was served.

The featured guest speaker of the day was William Bress, PhD, DABFT, Chief of Environmental Health and Toxicology/State Toxicologist with the Vermont Department of Health, who gave an “eye-opening” presentation on “Bioterrorism Issues Since 9/11”, a topic on which this country must become more educated. Dr Bress answered the many questions from the enthusiastic crowd.

The Retreat wrapped up at 2:00 pm with a sincere thank you from VGN Co-Directors Christopher Allen and Judith Van Houten.

For more information about the Vermont Genetics Network, please contact the VGN office at:

Vermont.GeneticsNetwork