Annual Retreat
Twenty-Third CDB Annual Retreat
Friday, May 22, 2026
Retreat: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Reception: 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Nelson Andrews Leadership Lodge at the Joe C. Davis YMCA Outdoor Center / Camp Widjiwagan
Registration
CLOSED
Program Booklet
Itinerary
Awards and Trophies
Steve Hann Outstanding Graduate Student
Monica Brown with Mentor Ken Lau
Outstanding Postdoc
Katherine Ankenbauer with Mentor Kathleen DelGiorno
2026 CDB Lab Olympics Champions Agar Avengers
Hunter Lischwe Mueller, Josh Giobbi, Selena Romero-Allen, Diego Torres-Martinez, Irina Kaverina, Rekha Nagarajan
CDB 2026 Annual Retreat Attendees
2026 Image and Movie Awards
Avishkar Sawant (Kaverina lab) Single Cells Winner
"Cytoskeletal Symphony of Mitosis"
The image is captured using N-SPARC microscopy to reveal the intricate architecture of a mitotic RPE1 cell. Vimentin intermediate filaments are visualized through temporal color-coding (Fire LUT) to illustrate their spatial distribution over time, contrasted against DNA (Blue) and the actin cytoskeleton (Phalloidin, Magenta).
Rekha Nagarajan (Tyska lab) Tissues and Organoids Winner
"Drifting Through the Villi Reef"
Villi of mouse intestine. Colors represent endogenously tagged myosin II encoded by z-axial depth.
James Costanzo (Gama lab) Movie Winner
"Spontaneous Calcium Firing in Neurons"
This video captures real-time calcium dynamics in Day 200+ iPSC-derived neurons carrying a DRP1 mutation. To visualize neuronal firing, the cultures were loaded with Calbryte 520AM, a high-affinity green fluorescent indicator that spikes in intensity as intracellular calcium levels rise during action potentials.
Photographs
Follow this link to see photographs of the 2026 CDB Annual Retreat