CPA - Postdoc Launch Seminar 2026 - VII

Dear Postdocs, 

We have another Caltech Postdocs Launch seminar this Friday! 

We've got two exciting talks from Dr. Sophie Bini (PMA) and Dr. Lena Bögeholz (BBE), whose titles and abstracts can be found below.

And as always - FREE Lunch and beverages will be there before the talk starts. To make sure we can order enough food, please RSVP here beforehand: https://forms.gle/YhK5LGktRgMDji1s5.

What – Caltech Postdocs Launch

When – Friday, 18th of September, 2026, food from 11:45 am, talks start at 12pm.

Where – Chen 130

Hope to see you there!

Best wishes,

Postdoc Launch Team

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What are we learning about black holes after a decade of gravitational-wave astronomy?

Dr. Sophie Bini

Black holes are fascinating astrophysical objects in our Universe! They are so dense that their gravity prevents anything, even light, from escaping and for this reason their observation is really challenging! Over the past eleven years, the gravitational-wave detectors LIGO and Virgo have detected more than 300 gravitational-wave events originating from the coalescence of black holes, unveiling their nature and providing invaluable tests of General Relativity.

In this talk, I will share some of the results that I find most exciting from a decade of observations and discuss what we hope to discover next.

Protein quality control in the ER shapes ciliogenesis

Dr. Lena Bögeholz

In human cells, membrane proteins perform essential roles in signal transduction, structural integrity or enzymatic processes. Most membrane proteins are synthesized at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) where they undergo constant quality and quantity control to prevent cytotoxic effects and disease. One of the surveillance proteins is the ubiquitin ligase MARCHF6 that targets surplus membrane proteins for degradation. We found that MARCHF6 binds to TXNDC15 which regulates its activity. Depending on the substrate destined for degradation, TXNDC15 either enhances or prevents membrane protein degradation via MARCHF6. By modulating the binding affinity of the substrate to MARCHF6, TXNDC15 helps maintaining the correct protein levels in healthy cells. In patients with defective TXNDC15, however, excessive degradation of a ciliary protein via MARCHF6 prevents formation of primary cilia. Lack of these cellular signaling antennae causes a severe, lethal form of ciliopathies.