Trainee News

Highlights from current TPG trainees and alumni in 2022-2023:

Kira Marshall (Genetics, Bluma Lesch’s lab) was awarded an NIH F31 fellowship entitled, “Determining cis- and trans-regulatory mechanisms of epigenetic bivalency,” and attended the Frontiers in Reproduction training at MBL in summer 2022

Marina Carlson (Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Ellen Hoffman’s Lab) was awarded an F31 Diversity-NRSA Fellowship entitled, “Functional analysis of pathogenic human PTEN variants in early neurodevelopment,” and was a co-author on a paper about using zebrafish as a model system to functionally characterize autism risk genes: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36933215/

Evrett Thompson (Cell Biology, Diane Krause’s lab) was awarded an F31 NRSA Fellowship from NHLBI entitled, “Establishing the role and mechanisms of LSD1 during megakaryocytic and erythroid commitment”

Andrew Verdesca (Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology; Josien van Wolfswinkel’s lab) was awarded an F31 NRSA Fellowship from NIA entitled, “Reversal of age-associated damage in the planarian germline”
 

Highlights from current TPG trainees and alumni in 2021:

Nancy Sanchez (Genetics, Valerie Reinke’s lab) was awarded an NIH F31-Diversity predoctoral fellowship for her work deciphering how piRNA expression is regulated in the C. elegans germline!  

Ben Patterson (Genetics ‘21, In-Hyun Park’s lab) defended his thesis, “Unraveling Heterogeneity in X Chromosome Regulation and Transcription in Naïve Human Pluripotent Stem Cells” on April 5! He has now started working as a Scientist at Vizgen in Cambridge, MA. 

Lauren Gonzalez (Genetics ‘21, Haifan Lin’s lab) defended her thesis on July 21! Her first-author paper about how maternal small noncoding RNAs shape progeny’s fertility is out now (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34142134/) and she started a Research Development postdoctoral position in the Greco and Reinke labs in Yale Genetics. 

Holly Merta (MCDB ‘21, Shirin Bahmanyar’s lab) won the MCDB Spangler Award for Outstanding PhD thesis, “Analyzing the role of ER biogenesis in mitotic fidelity”! She has started a post-doctoral position in the Henne lab at UT Southwestern. 

Guste Urbonaite (MCDB ‘20, Murat Acar’s lab) published her first-author paper describing the development of single cell RNA-seq methods for yeast: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34193958/

Ann Feke (MCDB ‘19, Josh Gendron’s lab) published her first-author paper elucidating the molecular mechanisms of regulated protein degradation in circadian rhythms: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33730063/

Daniel Stadtmauer (EEB, Günter Wagner’s lab) published his first-author paper using single cell RNA-seq to elucidate the evolution of placental pregnancy: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34591094/

Marina Carlson (Genetics, Ellen Hoffman lab) published her first paper, a review of the emerging relationship between autism spectrum disorder and congenital hydrocephalus: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34625286/