For many of our medical and graduate students, the answer to the question “What did you do on your summer vacation?” is especially impressive and inspiring. Here’s a sampling of how our students spent their summers: connecting with younger generations, giving back to the local community and assuring the future of key College of Medicine programs. Read more.
The Graduate School is excited to announce this year’s recipients of the Dean’s Fellowship for Excellence in Collaborative or Themed Research. This fellowship is designed to support PhD-Track students with innovative research projects to further develop their research experience. These students will receive financial support for twelve months in the form of a scholarship in addition to funds for supplies or conference attendance. Please join us in congratulating the following student on this achievement: Taylor Flynn, MD/PhD candidate, Neuroscience program, mentored by Dr. Gao.
"When Dr. Dillon Malloy (Class of 2017) played defense for the lacrosse team at Cuthbertson High School in Waxhaw, he performed so well in games that he attracted the attention of college recruiters. He was also a good student, so he never lost sight of what he ultimately wanted from a higher education. [...] This would culminate in his earning a PhD in neuroscience from Drexel University College of Medicine in 2022. He’s now a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Drexel, where his work examines the same subject that his doctoral thesis did, namely the use of noninvasive spinal cord stimulation for neural recovery following injury."
Congratulations to Arron Hall, recipient of the Dean’s Travel Award for the spring 2024 award cycle. Hall is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience program. The Dean’s Travel Award is meant to partially defray the cost of attending a scientific meeting at which a graduate student is making a presentation, that is related to the student’s graduate study. In this cycle, each award was offered at the maximum of $750.00 per awardee.
Neuroscience PhD candidates Jason Wheeler and Nichole Yakas have been awarded two years of stipend and other support funding through the T32 Training Grant on Innovative Approaches to Spinal Cord Injury.
Nichole Yakas, MS, Neuroscience PhD candidate, in Marie-Pascale Côté's lab, presented “Transcutaneous Spinal Cord Stimulation Improves Spasticity in the Chronic Phase of Spinal Cord Injury Without Diminishing Motor Output” at the Central Nervous System Injury and Repair Gordon Research Conference in Barga, Italy in July of 2023.
Christina Curran-Alfaro, MS, Neuroscience PhD candidate in the Barker lab, presented a poster on “Sex differences in the effects of chronic low-dose ethanol exposure on behavioral response to changes in reward value” at the Gordon Research Conference (Alcohol & Nervous System) 2024 in Galveston, Texas.
Xiaohuan “Beanie” Sun, MS, Neuroscience PhD candidate in the Qiang lab, presented a poster on “Probing mechanisms for axonal degeneration in primary tauopathy using patient derived cerebral organoids” at the Biophysics of Organoids 2023 in Princeton Center for Theoretical Science.
Julie A. Schaub, PhD candidate in the Baas Lab, presented a poster on "Expression of oMAP4 in Neurons," at Cell Bio (an ASCB/EMBO Meeting) in Boston, Mass., December 2023.
Bridie D. Eckel, PhD candidate in the Baas Lab, presented both a poster and a 5-minute talk entitled "Axonal Microtubule Polarity Flaws in SPG4 Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia" at the Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine Department of Neural Sciences Research Day in Philadelphia, Pa., November 8, 2023. She also presented a poster on "Axonal Microtubule Polarity Flaws in SPG4 Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia" at the American Society for Cell Biology conference in Boston, Mass., December 5, 2023.
Brody Carpenter, MS, doctoral candidate in Dr. Barson’s lab in the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, presented a poster entitled "Sex difference in the relationship between binge eating and pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide in the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus" at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in Washington, DC, on November 13, 2023.
Tyler Gray, Neuroscience PhD candidate, in Marie-Pascale Côté's lab, presented “Are restorative effects of transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation retained?” at the 2023 Society for Neuroscience Conference in Washington, DC.
Nichole Yakas, MS, Neuroscience PhD candidate, in Marie-Pascale Côté's lab, presented “Repeated transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation improves spasticity when initiated in the chronic phase of spinal cord injury” at the 2023 Society for Neuroscience Conference in Washington, DC.
Jeremy Weinberger, MS, Neuroscience PhD candidate, in Marie-Pascale Côté's lab, presented “Tailoring epidural stimulation for the treatment of spasticity following spinal cord injury in rodents at the 2023 Society for Neuroscience Conference in Washington, DC.
Victor C. Ogbolu, Neuroscience MS student in the laboratory of Liang Oscar Qiang MD/PhD, assistant professor, Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, presented a poster entitled “Vascularized Brain Assembloids with Enhanced Cellular Complexity Provide Insights into The Cellular Deficits of Tauopathy” at the New York Stem Cell Foundation conference 2023 (NYSCF2023) at The Rockefeller University, N.Y. on October 23, 2023.
Breanne Pirino, MS, doctoral candidate in Dr. Barson’s lab in the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, presented a poster entitled "The kappa-opioid receptor in the nucleus accumbens shell: Subregional, sex-related, and intake-dependent effects on ethanol drinking" at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in Washington, DC on November 14, 2023.
Jonathan Richards, PhD candidate in the Detloff lab, presented a platform presentation at Drexel’s Discovery Day 2023 entitled, “Driving Macrophage Infiltration via Intraganglionic CCL2 Injections Alters SCI-Induced Pain and Depressive-like Behavior in LysM-eGFP Mice.”
Anthony Moreno-Sanchez, Anthony Moreno-Sanchez, PhD candidate in the Ausborn and von Reyn labs, presented a poster entitled “Organization of dendritic inputs to shape visuomotor integration in the Drosophila looming circuit” at the CSHL Neurobiology of Drosophila meeting in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., in October 2023.
Anthony Moreno-Sanchez, PhD candidate in the Ausborn and von Reyn labs, gave a talk on “Organization of dendritic inputs to shape visuomotor integration in the Drosophila looming circuit.” at the Small Circuits and Behavior 2023 meeting in Philadelphia, Pa., August 2023.
Shayna Singh, Neuroscience PhD candidate in the Dougherty Lab, gave a talk on “Postnatal development of ‘rhythmogenic’ currents in spinal Shox2 interneurons,” at the Motor Control: Spinal Circuits and Beyond Meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland, June, 2023.
Shayna Singh, Neuroscience PhD candidate in the Dougherty Lab, gave a talk on “Postnatal development of ‘rhythmogenic’ currents in spinal Shox2 interneurons,” at the NINDS T32 Workshop at The University of Pennsylvania, June 6, 2023.
Breanne E. Pirino, PhD candidate in the Barson Lab, presented a poster on "The kappa-opioid receptor in the nucleus accumbens shell: Factors in the effects on ethanol drinking," at the Research Society on Alcohol in Bellevue, Washington, June, 2023.
Breanne E. Pirino, PhD candidate in the Barson Lab, gave a talk as an Enoch Gordis Research Recognition Award finalist on "The kappa-opioid receptor in the nucleus accumbens shell: Factors in the effects on ethanol drinking", at the Research Society on Alcohol meeting in Bellevue, Washington, June 2023.
Breanne E. Pirino, PhD candidate in the Barson Lab, presented a poster on "Effects of the kappa-opioid receptor in the nucleus accumbens shell on ethanol drinking: Influence of sex, subregion targeted, and prior ethanol intake," at the Therapeutic Potential for Kappa Opioids in Pain and Addiction meeting in Bethesda, Maryland, March 30, 2023.
Jason Wheeler, Neuroscience MS student in the Detloff Lab, presented a poster on “Intrathecal Injection of Polarized Macrophage Exosomes Reduces Mechanical and Thermal Pain Sensation in Spinal Cord Injured Rats,” at the World Congress for the International Association for the Study of Pain in Toronto, Ontario, September, 2022.
Shrobona Guha, MS, Neuroscience PhD candidate in the Baas Lab, presented a poster on “Investigating the Role of Microtubule-Associated Motor Protein KIFC1 at the Synapse,” at the Gordon Research Conference on Cell Biology of the Neuron in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, June, 2022.
John Walker, MS, PhD candidate in the Detloff Lab gave a platform presentation on “Nociception Impedes Grasping Recovery in the Spinal Cord Injured Rat” at the Neural Control of Movement Meeting in Dublin, Ireland, July, 2022.
Taylor McCorkle MS, PhD candidate in the Raghupathi Lab gave a presentation on “The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor modulator AVL-3288 attenuates hippocampal-based cognitive deficits following repeated mild traumatic brain injury in adolescent rats”, at the IBNS annual meeting in Glasgow UK in June 2022.
Jeremy Weinberger, MS, PhD candidate in the Côté Lab gave a platform presentation on “Multisite Electrode Array to Optimize Epidural Stimulation for Spasticity Following Spinal Cord Injury” at the International Motoneuron Society meeting in Banff, Canada in June 2022.
Xiaohuan “Beanie” Sun, MS, Neuroscience PhD candidate, Victor C Ogbolu, Neuroscience master student, Peter W. Baas, PhD, professor in the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, and Liang Qiang, MD/PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, published a perspective paper, “Reevaluating tau reduction as a therapeutic approach for tauopathies: Insights and perspectives,” in Cytoskeleton (Hoboken) in October 2023.
Xiaohuan “Beanie” Sun, MS, Neuroscience PhD candidate, Simeon Kofman, MS, Victor C Ogbolu, Neuroscience master student, Larisa Ibric, Liang Qiang, MD/PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy published a paper “Vascularized Brain Assembloids with Enhanced Cellular Complexity Provide Insights into The Cellular Deficits of Tauopathy” in Stem Cells in November 2023.
Jonathan Richards, Neuroscience PhD candidate, Daniel Freeman, MS, and Megan Detloff PhD, assistant professor, published “Myeloid Cell Association with Spinal Cord Injury-Induced Neuropathic Pain and Depressive-like Behaviors in LysM-eGFP Mice,” in the Journal of Pain in November 2023. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2023.11.016
Emily M. Black, PhD neuroscience ’19, Shanna Samels, neuroscience PhD candidate, Xu W, Jessica Barson, PhD, associate professor, Caroline Bass, PhD, associate professor University at Buffalo, Sandhya Kortagere, PhD, professor and Rodrigo España, PhD, professor, published “Hypocretin / Orexin Receptor 1 Knockdown in GABA or Dopamine Neurons in the Ventral Tegmental Area Differentially Impact Mesolimbic Dopamine and Motivation for Cocaine,” in Addiction Neuroscience, in press.
Breanne Pirino, MS, neuroscience PhD candidate, Abigail Kelley, PhD student, Anushree Karkhanis, PhD, assistant professor at Binghamton University and Jessica Barson, PhD, associate professor published "A critical review of effects on ethanol intake of the dynorphin/kappa opioid receptor system in the extended amygdala: From inhibition to stimulation" in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research on June 1, 2023.
Mariah Wulf, MS, neuroscience PhD candidate, published “Consequences of spinal cord injury on the sympathetic nervous system” in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience on February 28, 2023.
Katherine Locke, MS ’19, fourth-year MD student, Margo Randelman, PhD neuroscience ’21, Lyandysha Zholudeva, PhD neuroscience ’18 and Michael Lane, PhD, associate professor published “Respiratory Plasticity Following Spinal Cord Injury: Perspectives From Mouse to Man” in the October 2022 issue of Neural Regeneration.
Shayna Singh and Jenna McGrath, neuroscience PhD candidates; Ngoc Ha, PhD neuroscience ’20; and Kimberly Dougherty, PhD, associate professor published “Identification of Adult Spinal Shox2 Neuronal Subpopulations Based on Unbiased Computational Clustering of Electrophysiological Properties” in the August 2022, issue of Frontiers in Neural Circuits.
Andrew Gargiulo, PhD neuroscience ’19, Preeti Badve, MS interdisciplinary health sciences ’15, Genevieve Curtis, PhD neuroscience ’22, Breanne Pirino, neuroscience PhD candidate and Jessica Barson, PhD, associate professor published “Inactivation of the Thalamic Paraventricular Nucleus Promotes Place Preference and Sucrose Seeking in Male Rats,” in the August 2022 issue of Psychopharmacology.
Breanne Pirino, MS, neuroscience PhD candidate, Cydney Martin, BS, neuroscience PhD candidate, Brody Carpenter, MS, neuroscience PhD candidate, Genevieve Curtis, PhD, neuroscience '22, Christina Curran-Alfaro, MS, neuroscience PhD candidate, Shanna Samels, BS, neuroscience PhD candidate, Jacqueline Barker, PhD, associate professor, Anushree Karkhanis, assistant professor at Binghamton University and Jessica Barson, PhD, associate professor published "Sex-related differences in pattern of ethanol drinking under the intermittent-access model and its impact on exploratory behavior in Long-Evans rats" in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research on July, 2022.
Shrobona Guha, MS, neuroscience and PhD candidate, published an illustration titled “Neuronal Blossoms” on the front cover of the July 2022 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry, “Molecular and Clinical Markers of Neurodegeneration.”
Hema Muralidharan, PhD neuroscience ‘20, Shrobona Guha, MS, neuroscience and PhD candidate, Peter Baas, PhD, professor, Kazuhito Toyooka, PhD, assistant professor, Ankita Patil, PhD neuroscience ’21, Sarah Bennison, PhD neuroscience ’22 and Xiaohuan Sun, MS, neuroscience and PhD candidate published “KIFC1 Regulates the Trajectory of Migratory Neurons” in the Journal of Neuroscience on March, 2022.