The Keck Seminar Series, begun in 1990, focuses on contemporary interdisciplinary science involving quantitative or computational, biomedical informatics and data science, bioinformatics, chemical, and/or physical approaches to biological and biomedical problems. The speakers, selected by a committee of GCC-supported trainees, are drawn from GCC institutions, and institutions nationwide. Everyone is welcome to attend. You can find recordings from certain past seminars on our YouTube page.
The Keck Seminar Series is also a 1-credit graduate course at Rice University, BIOS 592 Topics in Quantitative Biology & Biomedical Informatics. Seminars are also offered online via Zoom; however, trainees affiliated with GCC training programs are required to attend the seminars in person, except those at UT Medical Branch at Galveston.
Fall 2026 Keck Seminars will begin on September 11, and the final seminar will be on December 4. Seminars take place from 4:00-5:15 pm (Central) Fridays in Rice University’s BioScience Research Collaborative (BRC) room 280. Rice map.
Those not on the Keck Seminar listserv are to please contact Elizabeth Lawrence for the Zoom login information for a particular seminar; it is not the same every week.
If you would like to receive the Keck Seminar listserv weekly reminders, please email Elizabeth Lawrence.
For questions, speaker suggestions, or to join our trainee Keck Seminar planning committee, email Elizabeth Lawrence or Jim Briggs.
Keck Seminar Series - Fall 2026
September 11, 2026 James Chappell, PhD
Associate Professor, BioSciences
Rice University
Seminar Title: Genetically Engineering Microbial Consortia and Non-Model Microbes Using Programmable RNA Tools
Host: Ryan Doughty
September 18, 2026 Katherine King, MD, PhD
Professor, Pediatrics-Infectious Disease
Baylor College of Medicine
Seminar Title: Viewing Hematopoietic Stem Cells as the Foundation of the Immune Response
Host: Ryan Doughty
September 25, 2026 Barbara Gastel, MD – ZOOM ONLY
Professor, Humanities in Medicine
Texas A&M University
Seminar Title: Crisis Communication: A Scientist’s Toolkit
Host: Melissa Glueck
October 2, 2026 Jagat Narula, MD, PhD
Exec. Vice President and Chief Academic Officer, McGovern Medical School, UTHealth Houston;
President, World Heart Federation
Seminar Title: Mummies and Medicine: Can We Imagine a World Where Heart Disease Is Rare?
Host: Christina van Hal
October 9, 2026 Haiqing Zhao, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
UT Medical Branch at Galveston
Seminar Title: Proteins in Context: Using AI to Connect Molecular Interactions to Disease
Host: Lindsay Altidor
October 16, 2026 Meaghan Jones, PhD – ZOOM ONLY
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics
University of Manitoba, Canada
Seminar Title: Long-Lasting Epigenetic Changes as a Link Between Early Life Environmental Exposures and Long-Term Health
Host: Katie Wozniak
October 23, 2026 Ali Azhdarinia, PhD
Associate Professor, Institute of Molecular Medicine
UTHealth Houston
Seminar Title: From Molecule to Margin: The Development of Fluorescence-Guided Surgical Imaging Agents
Host: Teresa Sullivan
October 30, 2026 – No Keck Seminar
November 6, 2026 – 36th Keck Annual Research Conference
Spatial Biology: Emerging Technologies, Computational Approaches, and Translational Applications
November 13, 2026 Pavan Reddy, MD – ZOOM ONLY
Professor and Director, Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Seminar Title: TBD
Host: Katie Wozniak
November 20, 2026 – Nicolas Altemose, PhD – ZOOM ONLY
Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics
Stanford University
Seminar Title: TBD
Host: Saleh Ramezani
November 27, 2026 – No Keck Seminar
December 4, 2026 Katherine A. Hutcheson, PhD
Professor, Head and Neck Surgery, Radiation Oncology
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Seminar Title: TBD
Host: Saleh Ramezani
GCC Member Institutions
