The 2022 C. elegans “Topics” Meeting “Metabolism, Aging, Pathogenesis, and Stress” (MAPS 2022), on campus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Memorial Union will host researchers studying fundamental questions regarding increasing healthspan and reducing aging-associated decline.

With cautious optimism the meeting will be held in person and we look very much forward to welcoming as many people as possible to attend. An exceptional program of speakers studying diverse aspects of C. elegans biology has been lined up.

Because uncertainty around the world continues, and because we cannot, by law, mandate vaccines or masks, we request all participants to please be mindful of the fragility of the current ‘new normal’. We recommend all participants mask at all times when indoors, vaccinations, and getting tested if you feel at all unwell. If needed, we will reevaluate the meeting by the end of March and migrate to an online format if circumstances demand.

Keynote Speakers:

Dr. Coleen Murphy, Princeton University

Dr. Keith Blackwell, Joslin Diabetes Center Harvard Medical School Department of Genetics

Conference Organizers:

Veena Prahlad, University of Iowa
Alex Soukas, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Supriya Srinivasan, The Scripps Research Institute

2022 Awardees:

Best Lightning Round Talk (Friday)

Adwait Godbole (UMass Chan), “Sadenosylmethionine synthases specify distinct H3K4me3 populations and gene expression patterns during heat stress.”

Best Lightning Round Talk (Saturday)

Hala Tamim El Jarkass, “An Intestinally Secreted Host Factor Promotes Microsporidia Invasion of C. elegans.”

Best Short Talk (selected by peer review from abstracts):

Manish Grover (Imperial College UK), “Identification of neuronal and epidermal determinants of immune signaling underlying oomycete recognition in C. elegans” 

Best Posters:

First place (tied)

Caitlin M. Lange (Caroline Kumsta’s lab, Sanford Burnham Prebys), “Differential roles of Atg8 proteins in mediating hormesis in C. elegans”

Roy Li  (Chaogu Zheng’s lab, University of Hong Kong), “Monomethyl branched-chain fatty acids-rich diet promotes lipid droplet enlargement through SCAV-4/CD36 in C. elegans”         

Second place

Nicholas Peterson (Reed Pukkila-Worley’s lab, UMass Chan), “Bacterial pattern recognition in C. elegans by a nuclear hormone receptor”        

Will Mair, Harvard School of Public Health
Dana Miller, University of Washington, Seattle
Amy Pasquinelli, University of California San Diego
Mark Pellegrino, University of Texas Arlington
Michael Petraschek, Scripps Research Institute
Carolyn Phillips, University of Southern California
Marc Pilon, University of Gothenberg
Read Pukkila-Worley, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
David Raizen, University of Pennsylvania
Michael Ristow, ETH Zurich
Gary Ruvkun, Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital
Buck Samuel, Baylor College of Medicine
Frank Schroeder, Cornell University
Michael Shapira, University of California Berkeley
Stefan Taubert, University of British Columbia
Rebecca Taylor, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Emily Troemel, University of California San Diego
David Vilchez, University of Cologne, Germany
Marian Walhout, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
Amy Walker, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School
Meng Wang, Baylor College of Medicine
Jennifer Watts, Washington State University       

Thanks to Our 2022 Sponsors