Join the Children's Research Institute and Sarah Powell, PhD, an assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, for a seminar on engineering intrinsic Adeno-associated virus (AAV) proteins for safer gene therapies. AAV is the vector of choice for gene therapy treatments, partially as a result of decades of research on its biology at UNC-Chapel Hill. Now that the therapeutic potential of gene therapy and AAV gene therapy has been realized, a greater understanding of the virus is required to generate safer, more efficacious treatments. Powell studies intrinsic AAV proteins and their potential roles in AAV biology that can be applied to AAV gene therapies in the Central Nervous System (CNS).
Participate in the seminar at 3116 Mary Ellen Jones Building (with lunch provided). A zoom option is available by request.
This is a joint presentation between UNC’s Office of Research Development, KickStart Venture Services, and the Institute for Convergent Science.
This webinar will provide more information aboutt the NSF's new Translation to Practice (TTP) program, which aims to "support use-inspired research, translational activities and partnerships that turn scientific discoveries into real-world solutions." This webinar will outline the latest NSF updates, and the Institute for Convergent Science will provide a detailed look at the TTP program's three tracks: TTP-Explore, TTP-Translate and TTP-Partner (with the Translate and Partner Tracks not requiring prior NSF support). In addition, KickStart Venture Services will provide an overview of UNC-Chapel Hill’s I-Corps Program, an NSF-sponsored opportunity that empowers researchers to better understand the market potential of their use-inspired research.
For more information about the NSF Translation to Practice program, visit nsf.gov.
This 2-part (9/9/2025 and 9/11/2025) 5-hour course will be offered via Zoom, over two mornings. Attendance is required as the course will not be recorded.
In this course, participants will learn how to keep track of the code they use in their research using the version control system Git and the collaboration platform GitHub. Git allows you to keep track of changes to your code, easily revert to previous versions, and “tag” versions of code used in publications so that the exact code used can be retrieved at a later date. GitHub allows Git users to collaborate with each other on projects by managing simultaneous changes to the same files and allowing users to review and discuss each others’ code. Git and Github are applicable to any text-based programming or analysis language, including R, Python, Stata, Julia, and others.
PLEASE NOTE: Participants should create a github account at github.com and install git prior to the class. Windows users can download git at https://git-scm.com/download/win; there are multiple installation options, the first link is fine. Mac users can install git by opening the terminal application (in Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) and typing “git version” (no quotes) and pressing enter. If git is not installed, you will be prompted to install it.
Qualtrics is a powerful browser-based web-survey tool. It is available to UNC Chapel Hill faculty, staff, and students, for UNC-related projects. Qualtrics allows users to build complex surveys, distribute them, and analyze the responses all from one place.
In this course, we will cover basic Qualtrics functions beginning with an overview of survey options and settings, followed by hands-on practice programming and distributing a survey and downloading results. We will program some of the most common question and response types, customize requirements and validation, and add display logic, skip logic, and basic branch logic in the “survey flow”. We will then create and upload a contact list and discuss advantages and disadvantages of distributing the survey with an anonymous link vs. the survey mailer. Finally, we will cover a basic overview of the Data & Analysis tab for viewing, editing, and exporting raw data into various formats including .csv, .tsv, .excel, and .spss. Other topics include project sharing/ collaboration, Groups and Libraries, and preventing fraudulent responses and bot activity.
This is an introductory course and will not cover use of the online analysis tools within Qualtrics. Please note, this is a hands-on course. All participants are required to create a Qualtrics account before the course.