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Alumni News
Congratulations to MS in Biomedicine and Business alumna Hilary Schultz, for being featured in the Top 100 Innovators & Entrepreneurs magazine as their cover story.
ILADEF Neil Spector Award
The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society presented the Neil Spector Award to PhD candidate Ben Haslund-Gourley at the 2023 ILADS scientific conference. This award is given to the best scientific presentation of the conference. Ben presented two talks: Immunoglobulin N-Glycans Role in Diagnosing Lyme Disease and Immunoglobulins N-glycans Impair Host Response to Lyme Disease. Ben’s win is the second consecutive win for a Drexel Microbiology & Immunology program. Graduate student Kayla Socarras was awarded the honor in 2022. Prior to the past two years, awardees have been senior investigators with international reputations. Ben is mentored by Dr. Mary Ann Comunale in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology.
VOA Burmese Profile
Michiko Thwe, biomedical engineering PhD candidate, was interviewed about their research in Alzheimer's Disease by VOA Burmese. Watch video on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhmS3HYFoCE&t=14s (အယ်လ်ဇိုင်းမားရောဂါ သုသေသနပြုစုနေသူ).
CRISPR Cutout™ Game Wins Silver Medal
The CRISPR Cutout™ game was awarded a silver medal at the 2023 International Serious Play Award competition in Toronto, Canada. CRISPR Cutout™ is the fourth in a series of mobile educational games developed by the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease. CRISPR Cutout™ introduces the molecular mechanisms of a cutting-edge genome editing technology called clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, or CRISPR. Players create a gene-editing tool to use in a cell to cut out a sequence of HIV DNA. Learn more about CRISPR Cutout™.
Goldie Simon Preceptorship Award
Congratulations to PhD/MD student Benjamin Haslund-Gourley, who was awarded the Goldie Simon Preceptorship Award to complete a summer project examining the glycosylation of autoantibodies associated with Lupus entitled, "High-Throughput Method to Identify Lupus-Specific Autoantibody Glycosylation." Benjamin will present his findings this September.
P.E.O. Peace Scholarship
Congratulations to MS in Molecular Medicine student and Fulbright Foreign Program awardee Keziah Adjei on recently having her P.E.O. Peace Scholarship renewed.
2023 SFAF Genomics Conference
Angelina Wang gave a plenary session talk on CGS trans-pan-domain assay at the SFAF Genomics Conference in Santa Fe, NM, June 8, 2023. Angelina is a receipient of the CREATE "Community Research Education And Tutoring Experience" award. Reciepients work with faculty, staff and graduate students within the Center for Genomic Sciences, the Center for Advanced Microbial Processing and the Center for Surgical Infections and Biofilms to develop and execute a research program. Angelina was mentored by Michiko Thwe, Felicity Tso and Bhaswati Sen, PhD.
The annual Golden Apple Awards recognize outstanding service, teaching and mentoring by Drexel University College of Medicine faculty and professional staff, who are nominated by each class of medical students for the honor. Students vote to determine the award winners. Read more.
Kayla Socarras, PhD M&I ’22 Receives T32 Award
Kayla Socarras, PhD microbiology & immunology ’22 and postdoctoral associate at the Translational Genomics Group at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT received a T32 award from the Mass General Brigham Training Program in Precision and Genomic Medicine.
A team led by Mary Ann Comunale, EdD, MS, is a recipient of the Phase 1 LymeX Diagnostic Prize sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Steve & Alexandra Cohen Foundation. Read more.
Neil Spector Humanitarian Award
Kayla Socarras, PhD candidate in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, is the 2022 recipient of the Neil Spector Humanitarian Award presented at the International Lyme and Associated Disease Society (ILADS) conference held in Orlando Florida. Kayla has attended the conference since 2015. She presented posters in 2016-2018 and in 2021 and was a speaker in 2019, 2020 and 2022. This year her presentation was titled "Construction of a Dual Borrelia/Borreliella Genera Pangenome for Diagnostics and Therapeutics."
Haslund-Gourley Wins Provost's Award for Best In-Person Oral Research Presentation
April 20, 2022: Benjamin Haslund-Gourley, MD/PhD student in the Microbiology & Immunology program, won the Provost's Award for Best In-Person Oral Research Presentation for "N-glycans on IgG Reflect Acute Lyme Disease and Treatment Response."
Hep-B Ware Wins 3rd Place
Drexel's Hep-B Ware has won 3rd place for Student Games Presented in the PechaKucha Style at the European Conference on Game-based Learning. Mary Ann Comunale presented the game at the conference that took place on September 23-24, 2021. The game was developed by Drexel co-op student Christopher Dobbins (Game Design and Production 20'). PechaKucha is a storytelling format where the game presents 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary each. Download Hep-B Ware on Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.drexel.ducom.hepb1&hl=en_US&gl=US)
Congratulations on Successful Thesis Defense
On April 23, 2021, Kaytie Innamorati successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Comparative genomics of the keystone mucosal pathogens Porphyromonas gingivalis and Gardnerella vaginalis reveal associations between virulence phenotypes and phylogenetic structures.”
On March 31, 2021, Haley Majer successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Natural Product Discovery of Thiopeptide Producers and Functional Characterization of Adenylation-Domains in Thiostrepton and Siomycin Biosynthesis.”
August 2020 Karabots Junior Fellows Outreach Initiative
Department of Microbiology and Immunology students and staff have completed another outreach initiative with The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Karabots Junior Fellows. The Junior Fellows are high school students and Philadelphia residents with an interest in health care or medicine, who will be the first in their immediate family to graduate with a higher education degree, and who qualify for free or reduced lunch. The graduate students designed and implemented a three-session program that discussed the need for a cohesive and well-planned national pandemic strategy. The discussions focused on: the role of health care providers and epidemiologists; biostatistics and the creation of databases; the role of biomedical researchers in targeted therapies and vaccine development; and the need for honest and scientifically correct communications between those working to mitigate a pandemic as well as dissemination of information to the public. Participants included Dr. Mary Ann Comunale, Jennifer Conners, Elijah Davis Rachael, Erlich Mohamed Hager, Dr. Ogan Kumova, Teresa LuPone and Kayla Socarras.
Discovery Day 2019
November 7, 2019: Students and professional staff from the Ehrlich, Beld, and Mell Labs, including Jocelyn Hammond, Hayley Majer, Danielle Piazza and Amanda Platt, presented posters at the 2019 Discovery Day at the Philadelphia Convention Center.
Discovery Day is an all-day annual event of intellectual pursuit and discovery, which is organized to celebrate the basic and clinical research accomplishments of the graduate, medical and undergraduate students, clinical research coordinators, postdoctoral fellows, and residents and fellows affiliated with the College of Medicine.
- Jocelyn Hammond, MS, a research associate at the Center for Advanced Microbial Processing (CAMP), presented her poster, “Supragenome-wide Association Study in NontypeableHaemophilus influenzae Reveals Role for Polyamine Metabolism and pH Homeostasis in Otitis Media.”
- Haley Majer, a PhD candidate in the lab of Joris Beld, PhD, presented her posted, “Whole Genome Sequencing of Actinomycetes Isolates Reveal Gene Clusters that Encode Potent Antibiotics.”
- Danielle Piazza, a PhD candidate in the lab of Joshua Chang Mell, PhD, presented her poster, “Detecting Genetic Events without Genetics: Direct Visualization of Genome-Wide Recombination in a Pathogenic Bacterium by Optical Mapping.”
- Amanda Platt, a fourth-year PhD candidate in the lab of Joris Beld, PhD, presented her poster, "Understanding protein-protein interactions in natural product biosynthesis using a small synthase."
Amanda Platt at Discovery Day
Hayley Majer at Discovery Day
Dr. Lapides Presents Research on Discrete Classification Mathematics
August 28, 2019: Garth Ehrlich, PhD, hosted Jeffrey Lapides, PhD, at that day’s IMMID research seminar. Dr. Lapides presented his research, “Identifying Predictive Patterns in Microbiome and Genomic Data Using Discrete Classification Mathematics” at that day’s IMMID research seminar. Dr. Lapides, founder and managing director of Lapides Consulting, uses machine learning techniques, predictive analytics and visualization methods to support health care and other organizations seeking to advance how they manage and market.
Mobile game Malaria Invasion™ provides a close look at how the malaria parasite Plasmodium infects red blood cells, available now on iTunes App Store
Drexel University College of Medicine releases its second mobile game for infectious disease education
August 26, 2019: Malaria Invasion, the latest educational mobile game produced by the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease at Drexel University College of Medicine is available for free download from iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPad users, and in the Google Play Store for Android devices. The mobile game is intended to be a supplementary tool to teach university students, in particular graduate students and research trainees in infectious disease, about the molecular mechanisms of disease in malaria.
Malaria is a life-threatening disease transmitted to humans by the bite of infected mosquitos. In Malaria Invasion, players zoom in to learn what happens after the mosquito bite and the Plasmodium parasite is released in to the bloodstream. Interactive game play and immersive exploration, reinforces learning of the science behind the complex sequence of molecular events that result in the invasion of red blood cells by Plasmodium. Plasmo the Invader, welcomes players and guides them through this crucial mission of the parasite's survival to achieve infection of the human body.
Malaria Invasion was designed and developed by an interdisciplinary team consisting of Dr. Mary Ann Comunale and Dr. Sandra Urdaneta-Hartmann, both faculty of the College of Medicine's Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Institute, and John Harvey, a Drexel Co-op Student from the Game Art and Production program. The team consulted with Drs. Lawrence Bergman, Akhil Vaidya, and James Burns, malaria experts at Drexel. The project was funded by professional development funds granted by the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and a Research Co-Op grant from Drexel's Office of the Provost and the Steinbright Career Development Center. The game will be implemented in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology's graduate curriculum in the spring. “These games will enhance biomedical graduate education and stress the importance of research to prevent and treat diseases caused by these devastating human pathogens,” said Dr. Brian Wigdahl Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Director of the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease.
Malaria Invasion was awarded a Gold Medal in the 2019 International Serious Play Awards. It also received the Best Game Award at the International Society for Neglected Tropical Disease Festival hosted by Wellcome Trust London in 2019. Malaria Invasion follows the successful release of the Institute's first mobile game, CD4 Hunter™, which was awarded a Bronze medal in the 2018 International Serious Play Awards. Download Malaria Invasion for free from the iTunes and Google Play app stores. Follow updates about digital game-based learning and other research and educational initiatives on the Institute's Twitter and Instagram accounts, @Drexel_IMMID, #IMMID, #MalariaInvasion and #CD4Hunter.
August 2019: Lying inside a freezer in Drexel’s College of Medicine are 500 dead, mourned by no one. The deer ticks, dog ticks, lone star ticks and other tiny parasites in the diminutive morgue traveled from nearly every state in the country to reach this resting place. They arrived in baggies or cookie tins or what-have-you, scooped from meadows and forests by helpful volunteers responding to a “call for specimens” on Drexel’s website that was posted by Kayla Socarrás, a doctoral student studying microbiology and immunology. Each tick contains multitudes of smaller organisms — a grab-bag of the pathogenic bacteria that make tick bites so hazardous. Read more.
Malaria Invasion Receives Gold Medal
June 14, 2019: Congratulations to the Department of Microbiology & Immunology and the Institute for Molecular Medicine & Infectious Disease, whose game Malaria Invasion was awarded a gold medal by the 2019 International Serious Play Award program! Dr. Mary Ann Comunale, creative director, and Dr. Sandra Urdaneta-Hartmann, project director, will be traveling to the Serious Play Conference, where they will present game-based learning research and accept the award. John Harvey, a co-op student hired by the Institute and funded in part by the Steinbright Career Development Center, shares in the award as part of the game design team and game developer. John is currently a senior in the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design program.
Kayla Socarras Presents at PA Lyme Resource Network
January 28, 2019: PhD candidate Kayla Socarras presented her research regarding Lyme disease at the PA Lyme Resource Network of Montgomery County. Kayla met with participants following the meeting to answer additional questions and talk more about her findings.
Kayla Socarras (right) discussing her research with attendees at the PA Lyme Resource Network meeting.
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