Dr. Shawn Carbonell, University of Virginia MSTP alumnus, was recently featured in UVAToday. Check out the article here.

Shadi Khalil, who worked in the laboratory of Dr. Adam Goldfarb, is the recipient of a national award as a Rising Star in Iron and Heme research. Further, Shadi has been invited to present at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) sponsored Center for Iron and Heme Disorders (CIHD) Rising Stars Symposium in November.

Congratulations to the MSTP students who graduated this past weekend! View Match Results.

Pictured above:

• Back row: James Cronk, Monique Anderson, Janelle Weaver, Sachin Gadani
• Front row: Tzu-Ying Chuang, Sowmya Narayanan, Eve Champaloux

Jessica Neville Little

Based in large part on the ongoing work of MSTP student Jessica Neville Little (G3), the NIH recently funded an R21 award to Jessica’s mentor, Dr. Noelle Dwyer. The Title of the Grant is “Linking abscission defects to p53-dependent apoptosis in neural stem cells” and Jessica summarized the goals of the award as follows: In a genetic model of microcephaly, loss of the kinesin Kif20b results in abnormal cytokinetic abscission in neural stem cells, apoptosis and reduced brain size. By crossing the Kif20b mutant to the p53 mutant mouse, we found that apoptosis and embryonic brain size is completely rescued. This grant seeks to investigate the cellular and molecular pathways that lead from Kif20b loss to p53 activation.

Dr. Noelle Dwyer

Congratulations to both Jessica and her mentor, Dr. Noelle Dwyer!

OncoSynergy, co-founded by former UVA MSTP student, Shawn Carbonell, MD ‘06/PhD ‘05, is launching Phase I Clinical Trials for treating glioblastoma. Shawn completed his PhD with Drs. James Mandell and Rick Horwitz. To read more about this exciting development, please visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/05/prweb15464398.htm
Further, OncoSynergy offers travel awards to students and trainees in the neuro-oncology space to present their abstracts at national and international conferences.
Please contact Dr. Carbonell directly with questions at shawn@oncosynergy.com

Fourth year MSTP student, Nadine Michel (laboratory of Dr. Mike McConnell) won the Outstanding Research Poster Award at the UVA Medical Alumni Association’s 2018 Winter Retreat at the Lansdowne Resort on Saturday, February 17, 2018.

The latest edition of News from the UVA School of Medicine featured the research of MSTP student, Shadi Khalil and his colleagues working in the laboratory of Dr. Adam Goldfarb. Dr. Goldfarb is also the MSTP Associate Director of Admissions.

Read more about their new discovery here.

MSTP mentor, Adam Goldfarb and his team have recently been recognized for their research in the area of blood platelet creation and the “Master Switch” that could assist in the production of platelets specifically in neonates. Nearly 30% of preemies are affected by neonatal thrombocytopenia and many will require platelet transfusions.

Read more about their exciting discovery HERE.

Please join us in congratulating Scott Seki (Grad 3) for receiving an F31 for his work in the Gaultier Lab, Department of Neuroscience.

Great job, Scott!

His project narrative is below:

Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) is a common debilitating disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) for which there are limited therapies and no cure. RRMS arises when the immune system, a cellular network that normally protects an individual from pathogens, instead sparks flares of severe inflammation in the brain and spinal cord. The goal of this study is to establish and exploit the changes in cell metabolism that support immune cells as they engage in these intense bouts of CNS destruction, in hopes that this will reveal novel targets for therapeutic intervention.