Congratulations to Veronica Henderson who was recently awarded an Individual NRSA Minority Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. This three-year fellowship supports research towards the PhD degree. Veronica's project is entitled "The Role of Rap1 Signaling in Prostate Cancer Progression." Veronica is studying with Dr. Carlos Moreno.
Student Spotlight for Spring 2007
Congratulations to Veronica Henderson, whose abstract, "Reduced Rap1 Signaling Contributes to Prostate Cancer Progression", was submitted to the Experimental Biology 2007 meeting and has been chosen for presentation in a special session - Highlights: Graduate Student Research in Pathology. This special session showcases the pathology-oriented research of graduate students and will be held the afternoon of Saturday, April 28th in the Washington Convention Center.
Congratulations to Mary Lucas who was recently awaeeded an Individual NRSA/MARC Predoctorial Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. This three-year fellowship supports research towards the PhD degree for previous scholars of the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) Program. The titile of Mary's project is "The Role of GA-binding protein in the regulation of TMS1". Mary is a rising fourth year GMB student in Dr. Vertino's laboratory.
Student Spotlight for Fall 2006
Congratulations to Tiffany Oliver who was recently awarded an Individual NSRA/MARC Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institures of Health. This three-year fellowship supports research towards the PhD degree for previous scholars of the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) Program. The title of Tiffany's project is "Identifying Mechanisms for Chromosome 21 Nondisjunction". Tiffany is a rising fourth year GMB student in Dr. Sherman's laboratory.
Congratulations to Chris Scharer who was recently awarded a Prostate Cancer Research Program Predoctoral Fellowship from the Department of Defense. This three-year fellowship supports research towards the PhD degree for outstanding students working in prostate cancer research. The title of Chris' project is "The Role of SOX4 in Prostate Cancer Progression". Chris is a third year GMB student in Dr. Moreno's laboratory.
Student Spotlights for Spring 2006
Jacob Kagey recently recieved a PRISM fellowship (Problems & Research to Integrate Science & Mathematics). PRISM fellowships allow students to develop innovative methods to influence the next generation of scientists by providing them with opportunities to practice teaching, communication, and research dissertation skills, and by fostering scientific literacy in public school students.
Student Spotlights for Winter 2005
Fatima Khwaja, a student in Dr. Erwin van Meir's group, won a $500 prize for
her poster presented at the Georgia Life Sciences Summit on Oct. 28th. Her
poster was entitled Identification of Protein Biomarkers in the
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of Astrocytoma Patients. Congratulations!
Rachel Miller, was awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association, Southeast Affiliate, 7/1/04--6/30/06, entitled, "C. elegans UNC-98 is a dynamic component of muscle focal adhesions and may shuttle into the nucleus". Congratulations!
Faculty Spotlight for Winter 2005
Dr. Stephen Warren, Chair of the Department of Human Genetics, was elected to the Institute of Medicine and as President of the American Society of Human Genetics.
Our research is directed toward understanding the mechanisms of inherited human diseases. A large component of the research program involves fragile X syndrome, a common cause of mental retardation and autism that is due to a trinucleotide repeat expansion in the FMR1 gene. The research is multifaceted and broad in approach. Biochemical approaches and model systems (mouse, fly and cell culture) are being used to study the mechanism of repeat expansion, associate gene methylation, their consequence on gene transcription and the function of the encoded protein. A variety of biochemical methods are used to understand the function of this FMR1 protein (FMRP), a selective RNA-binding protein that associates with the ribosome following nucleocytoplasmic shuttling. Recently we have linked fragile X syndrome to the microRNA pathway and begun a substantial new effort in the lab to understand this relationship as well as the role, generally, of microRNAs in human disease. A neuroscience component of the laboratory examines the consequences of the absence of FMRP to the brain as well as to cultured neurons. Mouse behavioral studies in Fmr1 knockout mice are also being conducted in addition to the development of conditional Fmr1 knockout mice. A clinical component examines cells and tissues from fragile X patients and families from around the world in order to make phenotype-genotype correlations as well as develop new diagnostic approaches, such as newborn screening. Other research efforts focus on the molecular mechanism of a recently identified tremor and ataxia syndrome among male carriers of fragile X syndrome and the identification of other X-linked genes responsible for cognitive deficit and/or behavioral abnormalities in humans.
Student Spotlight for Winter 2004
Nicole Doudican-Jones, who recently defended her PhD dissertation entitled "Determinants of mitochondrial genomic stability in Saccharomyces cerevisiae," was the recent recipient of the Environmental Mutagen Society's EMS Student Achievement Award for 2004. She will take home a certificate and a $500 prize. In addition, Nicole will present her work in a special session at the annual EMS meeting this Fall. Congratulations!
