Events
CEMINAR
The most important community-oriented activity we sponsor is CEMINAR, formerly MicroMorning, a monthly seminar series where students and postdocs in the CEMI program present their work. Usually 2 individuals present 20-25 min talks (+ 5 min questions) to fill the hour, but on rare occasions we invite an outside speaker. CEMINAR is primarily designed to provide CEMI students and postdocs with an opportunity to practice giving a formal talk to a friendly Caltech audience. Numerous collaborations have been sparked between labs at Caltech thanks to creative connections made during these seminars. View past CEMINARS
CEMINAR
CEMINAR is on the second Wednesday of every month.
UPCOMING
Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 4:00 pm
4:00-5:00pm Chen 130
5:00-5:30pm Socializing (snacks and drinks will be provided)
"Hunting for ancient proteins in the twilight zone of evolution"
Calvin RusleyFischer Lab
The study of the ancient microbial biosphere is hindered by the inability of sequence-based alignment techniques to identify distant homologs of modern protein families. We have developed PEAPOD (Protein Embedding Aligner Plus Output Display), which treats per-residue Protein Language Model (PLM) embeddings as alignable characters, enabling accurate and efficient protein alignment well into the "Twilight Zone". The tool is capable of using embeddings from a wide variety of PLMs and employs a variety of modular alignment algorithms. We apply this capability to the comparison of chlorophyll-based phototrophy genes from diverse Bacteria, which are predicted to have arisen in the Archean.
"Investigating the heavy metal tolerance and sorption capabilities of manganese biooxides generated by a unique Chemolithoautotrophic co-culture"
Hannah WayLeadbetter Lab
Manganese oxides are commonly utilized in water treatment and remediation processes due to their high adsorption capacities. These compounds are naturally occurring, though specific forms and microstructures may be achieved through the application of heat or chemical oxidants in a laboratory environment to potentially increase said capacity. A unique chemolithoautotrophic co-culture generates manganese oxides with distinctive structures at circumneutral pH and at room temperature. We have interrogated the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of a wide range of environmentally relevant heavy metals against this co-culture and additionally explored the sorption capacities of this material under different growth conditions and methods.
Social Events
In addition to CEMINAR, CEMI sponsors social events during the academic year:
Fall Poster Sessions: All CEMI labs present one or more posters on their lab’s research. This helps incoming/current students and postdocs remain up-to-date on that latest research projects going on across the campus. One attractive feature of Caltech is that students admitted in any graduate program are welcome to rotate in any lab (as long as the lab is taking students), so this poster session can open up new interests and areas for exploration. It also can spawn new collaborations between labs.
Spring Lectures and Evening Gala: To celebrate the start of the calendar year, we invite a keynote speaker from outside Caltech to give a seminar, plus a few shorter talks by assistant professors or postdocs at Caltech and other local universities. These “Spring Lectures” are open to anyone interested. As a companion event, we hold a formal gathering for a limited number of CEMI sponsors, faculty, and students and postdocs currently being supported by CEMI grants. The evening’s entertainment is organized by a different CEMI lab each year, and the evening culminates with a presentation of the “CEMI Oscars” (we are close to Hollywood, after all…), roasting CEMI members for notable achievements in the past year, all in good fun. View past lectures
Spring Happy Hour: In recognition of the fact that sometimes the most inspired ideas come when we least expect them, we promote casual conversation between all members of the CEMI community supplemented with drinks and food at the start of the spring term (no posters required!).
CEMI Spring Celebration of Science: This hour-long science program featured short lightning talks from CEMI graduate students and postdocs followed by time to talk with the speakers and socialize with our CEMI colleagues. The inaugural event was held on May 12, 2021.
Workshops
CEMI occasionally supports training courses at Caltech that provide members of the CEMI community with an opportunity for intensive training in a particular area. Any member of the CEMI community is welcome to suggest a topic for a workshop. Please contact the CEMI administrator if you have an idea. View past workshops
