Category: Student News

Anna Berenson Receives 2024 Belamarich Award

Dr. Anna Berenson of the Fuxman Bass Lab was selected as the winner of the Biology Department’s 2024 Belamarich Award for her doctoral dissertation in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry titled “Paired Yeast One-Hybrid Assays to Detect DNA-Binding Cooperativity and Antagonism Across Transcription Factors.” The selection committee was impressed by the quality of Anna’s work, its combination […]

Jillian Ness Receives 2024 Marion R. Kramer Scholarship

Jillian Ness of the Wunderlich Lab is one of the recipients of the Biology Department’s 2024 Marion R. Kramer Scholarship. Jillian and her team studied how enhancers work in development, focusing on redundant enhancers, or “shadow enhancers,” linked to developmental genes. These enhancers are remarkably abundant in animals and can compensate under conditions of stress to drive […]

Mandy Pinheiro Receives 2024 Belamarich Dissertation Writing Award

Mandy Pinheiro of the Naya Lab received the Biology Department’s 2024 Belamarich Dissertation Writing Award. This award complements the Belamarich Award, and is given to support an outstanding PhD student through the dissertation writing stage. Mandy’s research focuses on understanding how noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) may be central to the coordination of metabolism and differentiation in […]

Green Lab Publishes Patent for Detecting Nucleic Acids

Milad Babaei, MCBB PhD student of the Green Lab, and Dr. Zhaoqing Yan (GRS ’23), along with their mentor, Dr. Alexander Green, are co-authors on a recently published patent. This patent, titled “Isothermal Nucleic Acid Detection Assays and Uses Thereof” by Green et al. (US Patent 2023/0313283, October 2, 2023), describes rapid methods for detecting […]

Anna Berenson Receives First Place in the PhD on Tap 3MT Competition

            Anna Berenson, an MCBB PhD candidate of the Fuxman Bass Lab, received joint first place in the 2023 PhD on Tap 3MT Competition. The competition took place as part of PhD on Tap, which is a full day research showcase sponsored by the Office of the Associate Provost for […]

Summer Internship Roundup

Several MCBB students received internships this past summer; read below to learn more about their experiences! Maryam Dashtiahangar is a third-year PhD student in the Siggers Lab. Her PhD project involves characterizing the mechanisms of non-coding SNPs in autoimmune diseases using CASCADE, a protein binding microarray (PBM)-based technology developed by the Siggers Lab. After completing […]

So Young Bae Wins Poster Prize from the American Crystallographic Association

So Young Bae, PhD student in the Tolan Lab, won the Journal of Chemical Crystallography poster prize at the recent international meeting of the American Crystallographic Association in Baltimore Maryland this past July 2023. The American Crystallographic Association is the preeminent society supporting structural science at all levels and disciplines. The Journal of Chemical Crystallography […]

Rhushikesh Phadke Receives Biology Department Brenton R. Lutz Award

Rhushikesh Phadke of the Cruz-Martín Lab is the recipient of this year’s Brenton R. Lutz Award given out by the Department of Biology. Rhushikesh’s research explores the impact of the immune complement (C) pathway on synaptic plasticity in neurological disorders like schizophrenia (SCZ) and Alzheimer’s disease. By increasing levels of complement component 4 (C4), a […]

Michael Zulch Receives Corteva Showcase Award

  Michael Zulch, a 4th-year MCBB PhD candidate in the Larkin Lab, has received a travel award from Corteva Agriscience. Specializing in the quantitative relationship between plants and bacteria, Michael explores the impact of light and genetic engineering on quantitative relationship between plants and bacteria. This award from Corteva Agriscience, one of the world’s largest […]

Cameron Dixon Receives I. Alden Macchi Award

Cameron Dixon, PhD candidate of the McCall Lab, was selected as the winner of the Biology Department 2022 I. Alden Macchi Award for excellence in the field of regulatory biology. Read more about Cameron’s research below! Hormones orchestrate vital physiological pathways, such as metabolism, development, and reproduction. Beyond their influence on organismal homeostasis, hormones maintain […]