News

Good NEWS!

March 12, 2023

CONGRATS to lab member and M.S. student Michaela Cunningham on her acceptance into Brown University’s Ph.D. Program in Neuroscience! Michaela is finishing her M.S. thesis this semester and will the first graduate of our newly launched M.S. in Biology program at Bridgewater State University before joining Brown’s Neuroscience Program in September 2023.

February 4, 2023

A few updates in need of CONGRATULATIONS:

CONGRATS to lab member and M.S. student Brook Ogorek on her acceptance and start as an intern at Moderna, the company that brought us the world-changing COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, this past January! Brook is working as an intern at Moderna full-time throughout this semester before returning to our lab to pursue her M.S. thesis research.

WELCOME to Molly Byrne as the newest member of the lab! Molly will be working with senior lab member Jannah Elshaar to examine the effects of apoE isoforms and recently discovered apoE mutants on oligomerization of amyloid-beta.

November 15, 2022

CONGRATULATIONS to Michaela Cunningham, Morgan Monroe, Richard Durant, and Jannah Elshaar (best research team a mentor could hope for) on their presentation at the 2022 Society for Neuroscience Annual Conference in San Diego, CA on November 14, 2022! The title of their presentation was Freestyle 293-F cells as a system to generate recombinant apolipoprotein E to evaluate effects on neuritogenesis using PC12 cells as a model system.

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The past year has been more busy than usual and I regret having fallen behind on sharing many pieces of Good News for our lab members! Please join us in congratulating the following current and former lab members on their achievements during the past year:

  • Our lab welcomed two new members for the Fall 2022 semester: Brook Ogorek, who joined as an M.S. student in BSU’s newly launched M.S. in Biology Program, and Lauren Johnson, who is an BSU undergraduate Biology major. Welcome Brook and Lauren!
  • Richard Durant and Jannah Elshaar were awarded grants from the Summer 2022 Adrian Tinsley Program (ATP) for Undergraduate Research and Creative Work! Richard and Jannah recently presented their projects the Summer 2022 ATP Symposium.
  • Current lab members Michaela Cunningham, Richard Durant, Jannah Elshaar, and Morgan Monroe had an abstract accepted for a poster presentation at the Society for Neuroscience 2022 Annual Conference, which will run November 12-16 in San Diego, CA! The title of their presentation is Freestyle 293-f cells as a system to generate recombinant apolipoprotein E to evaluate effects on neuritogenesis using PC12 cells as a model system.
  • Current lab member Michaela Cunningham finished her undergraduate studies, graduating with Honors and a B.S. in Biology. Michaela also won the Dr. William J. Wall Memorial Award, which is awarded to one graduating senior selected by the department faculty as the most outstanding senior student graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology. Before graduating, Michaela successfully defended her undergraduate thesis project titled Establishing the Freestyle 293 Expression System as a tool to generate recombinant apolipoprotein E in mammalian cells. Michaela is now completing her M.S. in Biology degree in BSU’s newly launched M.S. in Biology Program.
  • Former lab member Adam Perez was accepted into the University of Missouri School of Medicine and started the M.D. program this past September 2022. A picture is coming soon of Adam at his White Coat Ceremony!
  • For the second year in a row, former lab member Dr. Ryan Lamm was awarded the 2022 Resident Research Award at Thomas Jefferson University for the second year in a row! The award was given to Dr. Lamm for research he has been conducting as part of his residency in General Surgery at Thomas Jefferson, which he recently presented at the 2022 Thomas Jefferson Resident Research Day. The title of his project is Mimicking a Negative Elongation Factor-E (NELF-E) Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) in Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC).

Congratulations to former lab member Adam Perez on his new position as a Research Associate at Tavros Therapeutics! Adam is conducting genetic screens at Tavros to identify genes that render cancer cells more susceptible to treatment, with the goal to discover drugs that can be used to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapeutics. See a recent article about Adam published in Bridgewater Today!

Congratulations to former lab member Dr. Ryan Lamm on being awarded the 2021 Resident Research Award at Thomas Jefferson University! The award was given to Dr. Lamm for research he has been conducting as part of his residency in General Surgery at Thomas Jefferson, which he recently presented at the 2021 Thomas Jefferson Resident Research Day. The title of his project is Clinical Significance of a Negative Elongation Factor-E Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Congratulations to former lab member Dr. Rebecca Fleming on receiving her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology at Brandeis University! Dr. Fleming conducted her graduate research in the lab of Dr. Amy Lee. The title of Dr. Fleming’s thesis is: Investigating the targets and mechanism of specialized translation regulation. A second CONGRATULATIONS is due for Dr. Fleming’s hire as Scientist at the biotechnology company Translate Bio!

Congratulations to Morgan Monroe on being awarded a BSU Summer ATP Research Grant! Morgan will be developing a cell culture model system to investigate how pathological forms of the protein tau spread across synapses of neurons during Alzheimer’s disease.

Congratulations to Michaela Cunningham and Ashlyn Grace Kelly on being awarded a Bartlett scholarships to support their summer research internships in the lab of Dr. Brad Hyman at Massachusetts General Hospital! Dr. Hyman’s lab conducts leading edge research investigating the cellular and molecular pathology underlying Alzheimer’s disease.

Congratulations to Ashlyn Grace Kelly on being awarded a 2021 Goldwater Scholarship! Goldwater Scholarship is the most prestigious and competitive undergraduate STEM scholarship in the United States and is awarded by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship & Excellence in Education Foundation. Ashlyn is the second BSU student ever to win this award. See this article to learn more about Ashlyn’s award!

Congratulations to lab alumna Kimberly Abt (BSU, class of 2019) on her award of an F31 grant from the National Institutes of Health! Kimberly is a former lab member and current PhD candidate at Brown University in the lab of Dr. Richard Freiman.

Congratulations to lab alumna Rebecca (Becca) Fleming on her recent publication in the journal Science! The study characterized a novel mechanism through which the translation factor eIF3d mediates a gene expression program that maintains homeostasis during periods of metabolic stress. The title of the article is: A phosphorylation-regulated eIF3d translation switch mediates cellular adaptation to metabolic stress [Lamper, A.M.*, R.H. Fleming*, K.M. Ladd*, and A.S.Y. Lee. Science. 370: 853-856].

Congratulations to Sarina Spolidoro on her hire as a Laboratory Technician at LabCorp Integrated Genetics! Sarina began the position in August 2020 and is already contributing to our fight against the current pandemic through the processing of COVID tests.

Congratulations to Rob Couto on his acceptance to Boston University’s Ph.D. program in Neurobiology! Rob will begin at Boston U. in September 2020 following graduation from BSU this May.

Congratulations to lab alumnus Sergey Kletsov (BSU class of 2018) on his acceptance to East Tennessee State University’s (ETSU) M.D. program in allopathic medicine! Sergey will begin at ETSU in September 2020.

Congratulations to lab alumnus Brad Carley (BSU class of 2016) on his acceptance to New York Institute of Technology’s (NYIT) D.O. program in osteopathic medicine! Brad will begin at NYIT in September 2020.

Congratulations to Adele Correia on her acceptance to University of Michigan’s Ph.D. Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology! Adele will begin at U. Michigan in September 2020 following graduation from BSU this May.

Congratulations to Gordo King on his acceptance to Brown University’s Ph.D. Program in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry! Gordo will begin at Brown U. in September 2020 following graduation from BSU this May.

Congratulations to Gordo King, Sarina Spolidoro, Adele Correia, Michaela Cunningham, Adam Perez, and Rob Couto on having abstracts accepted for presentations on our ongoing research at the 2020 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in San Diego, CA! The presentation titles are:

  1. Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation by the Egr Transcriptional Coregulator NAB2
  2. Using CRISPR/Cas9 to Investigate the Role of Egr1 and NAB2 in Neuronal Differentiation of PC12 Cells
  3. ERK-mediated Phosphorylation of the Egr Transcriptional Coregulator NAB2 at Multiple Sites

Congratulations to Adele Correia, Rob Couto, Gordo King, Sarina Spolidoro, and Michaela Cunningham on presenting their summer 2019 research projects at the BSU Biology Department’s weekly seminar!

Congratulations to Sarina Spolidoro on being selected for a research internship in the lab of Dr. Brad Hyman at Mass General Hospital for the fall 2019 semester!

Congratulations to Jenna Maxfield (BSU ’19) on her new job as Assistant Biologist at Smithers Viscient!

Congratulations to Kelsey Harnden (BSU ’19) on her new job as a chemistry lab technician at Battelle!

Congratulations to Jax LaVallee, Kelsey Harnden, and Jenna Maxfield on their graduation from BSU on Saturday, May 18, 2019!

Congratulations to Jax LaVallee! Jax was accepted into the PhD program in Biochemistry & Biophysics at Brandeis University and will begin this fall.

Congratulations to Adele Correia, Rob Couto, and Gordo King on being selected for summer research internships.

  • Adele will be working in the lab of Dr. Tara Spires-Jones at the University of Edinburgh.
  • Rob will be working in the lab of Dr. Brad Hyman at Mass General Hospital
  • Gordo will be working with Dr. Stefanie Morgan in the lab of Dr. Daniel Haber of Massachusetts General Hospital.

Congratulations to Sarina Spolidoro on being awarded an ATP summer grant through the Bridgewater State University Office of Undergraduate Research to conduct research in our lab. Sarina will be using CRISPR technology to examine the role of transcription factors Egr1 and Nab2 in neuronal differentiation.

Congratulation to Dr. Jess Elman for successfully defending her doctoral thesis on February 14, 2019 within the Department of Developmental, Molecular & Chemical
Biology at Tufts University School of Medicine.