Mechanisms of Genome Maintenance

Lab and Research Highlights:

• The Adeyemi Lab was awarded an R35 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for his project entitled “Mechanistic Characterization of The Replication Stress Response.”

• Rose Bosire receives Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.

• Polycomb repressor proteins get trapped in a web of HSATII DNA upon DUX4 activation, leading to DNA damage. Collaboration with the Tapscott Lab sheds light on genetic “dark matter.”

• Novel protein FLIP protects cells against DNA damage and ensures cell viability after replication stress. The Adeyemi Lab makes new discoveries into the mechanisms of genome maintenance.

• Adam Cheng, Research Fellow, joined the Adeyemi lab.

• Xuhui Jin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, joined the Adeyemi Lab.

Chromatin Structure

Lab and Research Highlights:

• The Arimura Lab opens its doors studying the structure and function of chromatin.

• Priya Digumarti and Jacob Martin, postbaccalaureate fellows, join the Arimura Lab.

Neurotransmission and Neuromodulation

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Cera Hassinan in the Bai Lab awarded an F99 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for her project entitled “Neural basis of movement in health and disease.”

• Cera Hassinan receives the NIH Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award.

• It’s fun to stay (or move) at the Y. M. C. A. The Bai Lab makes new discoveries into how locomotion-enabling neuronal circuits are established during development.

Cell Division and Chromosome Segregation

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Frank Anderson, Postdoctoral fellow, receives prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award. Anderson will study the ways that a key regulatory protein called ubiquitin provides quality control when cells divide.

• Sue Biggins and Angelica Andrade Latino, Postbaccalaureate Research Technician, received an NIGMS Diversity Supplement.

• For the first time! Kinetochore architecture of a thermophilic yeast. Using various structural biology techniques, the Biggins Lab identifies the architecture of native kinetochores from thermophilic yeast.

• Mechanical coupling helps microtubules coordinate chromosomal separation. In collaboration with UW’s Asbury Lab, the Biggins Lab makes key discoveries into microtubule growth and chromosomal separation.

• Sue Biggins was awarded an R35 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for the project “Mechanisms underlying chromosome segregation.”

• Darren Mallett, graduate student, shares first prize at this year’s Basic Sciences retreat poster session.

• Daniel Barrero, HHMI Gilliam fellow, graduates with their PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology after successfully defending their dissertation “Architecture and flexibility of native kinetochores revealed by structural studies utilizing a thermophilic yeast.”

• The Biggins Lab takes second place in the most humorous category in this year’s pumpkin carving contest.

Viral Evolution

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Getting a paw up in the cat-and-mouse game with the COVID-19 virus. Research led by staff scientist Bernadeta Dadonaite invents method to quickly and safely test thousands of mutations to predict which ones could help the virus escape our defenses.

• Andrew Butler, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, receives Life Sciences Research Foundation Award.

• Catherine Jacob-Dolan and Wenlin Ren, postdoctoral research fellows, join the Bloom Lab.

• Will Hannon graduates with their PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology after successfully defending their dissertation "Uncovering the dynamics of viral evolution and pathogenesis from high-throughput datasets: a computational perspective."
  

• Frances Welsh graduates with their PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology after successfully defending their dissertation "High-throughput analysis of the antigenic effects of mutations to influenza hemagglutinin."
  

• MCB graduate student Lucas Kampman joined the lab.

• Sequencing-based neutralization assays for influenza.

• Deep mutational scanning of H5 hemagglutinin to inform influenza virus surveillance.

Biophysics and RNA Biology

Lab and Research Highlights: 

• Mutant’s partner in crime could be target for future cancer therapy. In collaboration with MSK oncologist Omar Abdel-Wahab, the Bradley Lab discovers a new player — and possible drug target — in a critical biological process that’s skewed in tumors with certain mutations.

• From humans, to mice, to plants: sometimes a little poison is a good thing.

• Gene specific alternative polyadenylation can reduce tumor growth.

Sensory Systems and Stress

Lab and Research Highlights:

• New findings unravel the network of neurons responsible for the sense of smell: The Buck Lab makes insights into olfaction and its role in stress and appetite.

• The Buck Lab celebrated Dr. Linda Buck's 20th anniversary of her receiving the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for her groundbreaking discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system.

Cell Communication and Signal Transduction

Lab and Research Highlights:

• De Novo Design of Integrin α5β1 Modulating Proteins for Regenerative Medicine. In collaboration with UW’s Baker Lab, the Campbell Lab engineers novel proteins, called NeoNectins, which help progress regenerative medicine.

• Thamiya Vasanthakumar, postdoctoral fellow, receives Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.

• Adam Nguyen, graduate student, was awarded an NIH F31 Award for his project “Structural Mechanism of Activation and Modulation of Tie2”. He seeks to identify the structural activation and dimerization mechanism of Tie2, a receptor key for angiogenesis and vascular stability, using Cryo-EM, full-length proteins and nanodiscs.

• Matthew Chan, postdoctoral fellow in the Subramaniam and Campbell Labs, wins the Gottschling-Berg Fast Pitch Competition at the inaugural Pathfinders Postdoc Symposium.

• Jeremy Hollis, graduate student in Campbell and Malik Labs, shares first prize at this year’s Basic Sciences retreat poster session.

• Matthew Chan, postdoctoral fellow in the Subramaniam and Campbell Labs, shares second prize at this year’s Basic Sciences retreat poster session.

• Rachel Werther celebrated her 10-year anniversary at the Hutch.

• The Campbell Lab wins Most Artistic in this year’s Pumpkin Carving Contest.

Cell Signaling and Migration

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Exchangeable leaders of collectively migrating glioma abuse N-cadherin trafficking. The Journal of Cell Biology spotlights project led by Dayoung Kim showing how N-cadherin dynamically regulates pediatric glioma cell migration.

Transcriptional Control of Proliferation and Neoplasia

Lab and Research Highlights:

• When it comes to MYC, it doesn’t take much. Recent research from the Eisenman Lab explores the oncogenic mechanisms behind a specific MYC mutation with an innovative mouse model.

• Family support networks are important for cancer cells, too. Collaboration between the Eisenman and MacPherson Labs shows that MAX inactivation deregulates the MYC network and induces neuroendocrine neoplasia in multiple tissues.

• Robert Eisenman presented the Distinguished Lecture in Cancer Biology at Cornell University.

• Robert Eisenman co-organized the international meeting on MYC in Stockholm and the National Cancer Institute Think Tank on Oncogenes and Oncogene Addiction in Cancer.

Virology of HIV

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Indels: not merely a nuisance in protein evolution. In a collaborative study led by Jeanette Tenthorey, the Malik and Emerman Lab’s show how indel mutations can improve the function of antiviral proteins.

Transcriptional Regulation

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Transcriptional noise, gene activation, and roles of SAGA and Mediator Tail measured using nucleotide recoding single-cell RNA-seq. New discoveries from the Hahn Lab, led by first author Jeremy Schofield, explore the roles of SAGA and Mediator Tail on transcription.

• Saket Mishra joined the Hahn lab as a postdoctoral research fellow.

Micronuclei and Nuclear Envelope Repair

Lab and Research Highlights:

• The Hatch Lab makes discoveries into the organization and dynamics of the nuclear envelope to understand how changes in this structure cause human genetic diseases and drive cancer development.

Epigenetics

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Histone mark profiling identifies KLF7 as critical for CAR-T cell proliferation.

• Ye Zheng, postdoctoral research fellow, was awarded a K99/R00 award from NHGRI for their project "Bridging the gap: joint modeling of single cell 1D and 3D genomics."

• Sarah Leichter, postdoctoral research fellow, was awarded a National Institutes of Health F32 Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship for their project entitled "Investigating the chromatin landscape of complex tissues through cell-type-specific patterns."

• Matt Wooten, postdoctoral research fellow, was awarded a National Institutes of Health K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award for their project “Visualizing transcription factor binding and chromatin assembly on newly synthesized DNA”.

• Kami Ahmad, staff scientist, receives a new subaward issued by Epicypher, Inc, Versatile genomics platform for unbiased analysis of chromatin-associated RNAs and nascent transcripts. The work will expand the capabilities of the RT&Tag RNA profiling technology developed by postdoc Nadiya Khyzha in the lab.

• Steve Henikoff received a Technology Dissemination award from the Sloan Precision Oncology Institute to streamline and automate FFPE-CUTAC, a novel method for sensitively determining the activities of gene regulatory elements directly on standard clinical specimens. We aim to develop a walk-up drop-off service provided by the Fred Hutch Genomics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource for all members of the Fred Hutch/University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium. Establishment of such a service has the potential of revolutionizing personalized medicine.

• Paul Talbert, Research Specialist, retired in August after more than 30 years at Fred Hutch - all with the Henikoff Lab.

• Ye Zheng, postdoctoral research fellow, joined the MD Anderson Cancer Center as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.

• Derek Janssens, postdoctoral research fellow, joined the Van Andel Institute as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epigenetics.

• Soyeon Showman successfully defended her thesis "Expansion of human centromeric arrays in cells undergoing break-induced replication" on July 16, 2024.

Immunology and Microbiota

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Meghan Koch and Madelyn Caban, Graduate Research Assistant, received an NIAID Diversity Supplement.

• Meghan Koch was awarded one of two Pathogen-Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center (PAM IRC) Pilot awards for an 18-month project entitled, “A mechanistic understanding of how breastfeeding regulates long-term gut health and cancer susceptibility.  The PAM IRC offers funding for new research projects studying the biological mechanisms of pathogenesis, host immune responses, vaccines or therapies against pathogen-associated cancers.

• Hamadoun Toure, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, was awarded a 2024 Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for his project titled " A novel mode of infant protection via breastmilk-acquired maternal T cells.”

• Alina Lorant, postdoctoral research fellow, joined the lab and was awarded a 2025 Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for her project titled " Microbiota educate early-life myeloid cells to promote tolerance in the intestine".

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Chris Lapointe received the Cancer Consortium New Investigator Award to research how cancer-linked mutations in eIF1A disrupt translation initiation.

• Niseema Pachikara (staff scientist), Sydney McGuire (Post Baccalaureate Research Technician), and Dr. Rachel Cueny (postdoc) joined the Lapointe Lab.

• The lab released their first bioRxiv preprint that defines how two eukaryotic initiation factors (eIF1 & eIF5) dynamically compete to determine which translation start sites are used during human protein synthesis.

• The Lapointe Lab takes second place in the most artistic category in this year’s pumpkin carving contest.

Protein Degradation

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Curiosity, connection and C. elegans. The Lehrbach Lab’s research gives hope to families affected by an extremely rare genetic disorder.

• Katie Yanagi, postdoctoral research fellow, receives an appointment to the Biological Mechanisms of Healthy Aging Training Program.

• Sarah Tomlin, graduate student, was appointed to the Biological Mechanisms of Healthy Aging Training Program.

• Sarah Tomlin’s NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program application received an honorable mention.

• Omar Kunjo, research technician, left the lab to begin his MD training.

• Elyse Christensen, graduate student, shares second prize at this year’s Basic Sciences retreat poster session.

Genetic Conflict

Lab and Research Highlights:    

• What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger: Bacteria that withstand fungal ‘bully’ gain resistance to last-resort antibiotic. Research from the Malik Lab, led by Phoebe Hsieh, shows that microbial competition over magnesium may improve bacterium’s antibiotic resistance and stymie treatment.

• Making the leap from postdoc to principal investigator. Phoebe Hsieh, postdoctoral fellow, receives Postdoc-to-Faculty Transition Award from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

• Indels: not merely a nuisance in protein evolution. In a collaborative study led by Jeanette Tenthorey, the Malik and Emerman Lab’s show how indel mutations can improve the function of antiviral proteins.

• Janet Young Receives Hutchison Mentorship Award. The award, presented by the Student-postdoc Advisory Committee and named for Dr. Nancy Hutchison, recognizes phenomenal mentorship.

• Risa Takenaka graduates with their PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology after successfully defending their dissertation “Unraveling the molecular basis of a maternal-effect gene in Drosophila melanogaster.”

• Jeremy Hollis, graduate student in Campbell and Malik Labs, shares first prize at this year’s Basic Sciences retreat poster session.

• Grant King, postdoctoral fellow, shares first prize at this year’s Basic Sciences retreat poster session.

• Ching-Ho Chang, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, shares second prize at this year’s Basic Sciences retreat poster session.

• The Malik Lab takes first place in the most humorous category in this year’s pumpkin carving contest.

Neurodevelopment

Lab ad Research Highlights:

• Dr. Cecilia Moens named Raisbeck Endowed Chair for Basic Science. Funding will support her continued work studying embryonic development in zebrafish.

• Cecilia Moens elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences.

• Cecilia Moens elected as President of the International Zebrafish Society, the preeminent society promoting zebrafish research and supporting the zebrafish scientific community. She will serve a 3-year term as president-elect (2024-2025), president (2025-2026) and past-president (2026-2027).

• Austin Seroka, postdoctoral fellow, receives F32 award from the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development for their project titled "Developmental mechanisms specifying vagal innervation of organ targets."

• Takuya Kaneko, postdoctoral fellow, starts his own research group at Nagoya University.

Wound Healing and Nuclear Architecture

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Septins: two complexes close the gap during wound repair. New research from the Parkhurst Lab, led by Viktor Stjepić, identified two distinct complexes containing Septin family proteins that are critical for wound repair.

• The ins and outs of calcium during wound healing. Led by Parkhurst Lab postdoctoral fellow Mitsutoshi Nakamura, new research describes the roles of individual Anxs proteins and how they respond to calcium influx during wound repair.

• Susan Parkhurst named American Society for Cell Biology Fellow. Parkhurst was honored for her contributions to science, particularly in our understanding of cell wound repair, as well as her dedicated mentorship of young researchers.

• Susan Parkhurst elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences.

• Mitsutoshi Nakamura, postdoctoral fellow, shares first prize at this year’s Basic Sciences retreat poster session.

• Cassandra Aarrestad, postbaccalaureate scholar, shares second prize at this year’s Basic Sciences retreat poster session.

• Bongiwe Ncube and Caitlyn Fain, postbaccalaureate scholars, joined the Parkhurst Lab.

Developmental Systems

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Jim Priess received four-year R01 award from the National Institute on Aging to research tissue mechanisms of aging in the genetic model, C. elegans.

Neurobiology of Obesity

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Another look at leptin. The Rajan Lab discovers the molecular switch for an appetite-regulating hormone, reviving dashed hopes for an obesity drug.

• Kevin Kelly, postdoctoral fellow, shares first prize at this year’s Basic Sciences retreat poster session.

Metabolic Flexibility and Suspended Animation

Lab and Research Highlights:

• The Roth Lab has been working with our collaborators at the University of Rochester on further testing orally administered iodide as a safe, cheap therapy to improve outcome from influenza infection. We have positive preclinical data and hope to begin a human trial in the next couple of years.

Cell Proliferation and Fate

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Mellon, a single-cell analysis tool, identifies transitory cells and differentiation mechanisms. New work from the Setty Lab, led by postdoctoral fellow Dominik Otto, develops new way of analyzing single-cell data to uncover the mechanisms of cellular differentiation.

• Claire Mills, graduate student, won best poster at the TDS IRC Retreat.

• The Setty Lab was award a TDS IRC Collaboration Pilot Award.

• Cailin Jordan, graduate student, shares first prize at this year’s Basic Sciences retreat poster session.

Glia-Neuron Interactions

Lab and Research Highlights: 

• Sneha Ray, graduate student, receives the Sydney Brenner Award, a TAGC 2024 Early Career Award, from the Genetics Society of America.

• Violet Sorrentino, graduate student, is selected for the Society of Developmental Biology's competitive Science Communication Program.

• Liza Severs, postdoctoral Fellow, and German Rojas, graduate student, both receive T32 fellowships.

• Pralaksha Gurung, graduate student, receives a SPAC travel fellowship.

• Sasha Kravchuk, undergraduate student, receives her BS degree from UW with an honors thesis on glial cell polarity.

• Sean Manning receives an NIH Diversity Supplement Award, and a travel award for TAGC 2024.

• Clarissa Sofian, previous undergraduate in the lab, is named a Husky Top 100.

• Aakanksha Singhvi is promoted to Associate Professor.

• Maria Purice, postdoctoral fellow, heads out to start her own laboratory at Oregon State University.

• James Bent, Research Technician, receives a poster prize at the International C. elegans Neurobiology meeting.

• Sniffing out new discoveries. Epithelial cells in the head of a tiny worm play a critical role in protecting the structure and function of key nervous system cells. Also see Epithelial cells prevent neurons from “meandering.”

• Glial cells are more than our brain’s ‘glue.’ The Singhvi Lab uncovers how underappreciated glia may play central role in sensory response. Also see Neuron-glia love triangles at single-cell resolution

• Epithelial cells prevent neurons from “meandering.” New findings from the Singhvi lab show how epithelial UNC-23 limits mechanical stress to maintain glia-neuron architecture in C. elegans.

• We published three invited book chapters/reviews (in CSHL, Springer, and Glia) this year!

• The Singhvi Lab takes second place in the most horrific category in this year’s pumpkin carving contest.

Gene Regulation and Genomic Integrity

Lab and Research Highlights:

• With extensive enzymatic analyses, we supported our intramolecular signal transduction model for control of the complex helicase-nuclease RecBCD by Chi recombination hotspots in E. coli bacteria.  This analysis complements our previous genetic results indicating that when RecBCD encounters Chi (a unique 8-bp sequence) during DNA unwinding, RecC signals RecD helicase to stop unwinding; RecD then signals RecB to cut the DNA at Chi and to begin loading RecA DNA strand-exchange protein onto the newly formed DNA end.  This allows DNA repair and recombination to be completed, saving the life of the cell or generating new genetic allele combinations upon which evolution can act.

• We published the results of 7 high school student interns looking for 3 years for bacteriophages destroyed by RecBCD helicase-nuclease, as many scientists have claimed for decades without ever naming a phage so destroyed.  They tested about 150 phages from natural sources, such as pond water and animal feces, and other phage collections, but none of these phages were destroyed by RecBCD.  Instead, they found a phage that is aided by RecBCD; it is closely related to the historic phage lambda, which lacks Chi, but this new phage has 23 Chi sites, lacks its own recombination-promoting enzymes, and relies on the E. coli host RecBCD-promoted recombination for optimal growth.  These studies led to the recognition of a new class of lambda-related phages.

• We found in the fission yeast S. pombe that meiotic gene conversion (non-reciprocal recombination) manifests interference, just as meiotic crossing over (reciprocal recombination) does.  We had previously shown that DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), the precursor to both types of recombination, show interference.  We also had shown that DSB hotspots on chromosomes form three-dimensional clusters, and we proposed that formation of a limited number of DSBs, maybe only one, in a cluster could account for all three types of interference.  We are gathering evidence that clusters occur preferentially between hotspots on sister chromatids, not on the two homologs.  This feature can account for the observed incomplete interference of recombination events in S. pombe and further supports our hotspot clustering model of interference, a hundred-year-old problem in biology.

Publications:

• Amundsen SK, Smith GR.  Chi hotspot control of RecBCD helicase-nuclease: Enzymatic tests support the intramolecular signal-transduction model. J Mol Biol 2024; 436: 168482. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168482. PMID: 38331210

• Bradbury JD, Hodgkinson T, Thomas AM, Tanwar O, La Monica G, Rogga VV, Mackay LJ, Taylor EK, Gilbert K, Zhu Y, Sefton AY, Edwards AM, Gray-Hammerton CJ, Smith GR, Roberts PM, Walsh TR, Lanyon-Hogg T. Development of an inhibitor of the mutagenic SOS response that suppresses the evolution of quinolone antibiotic resistance. Chem Sci. 2024 15: 9620-9629. doi: 10.1039/d4sc00995a. PMID: 38939155

• Smith GR. RecBCD Enzyme and Pathway, Reference Module in Life Sciences, Elsevier, 2024, ISBN 9780128096338, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-822563-9.00169-4

• Smith GR. Chi sequences. Brenner's Online Encyclopedia of Genetics (Third Edition; Maloy S, Hughes K, editors). London: Elsevier Press; in press.

• Zheng C, Furukawa C, Liu J, Sankaran S, Lin H, Munugeti N, Wang M, Smith GR.  Debunking the dogma that RecBCD nuclease destroys phage. Genetics, Online ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyae199.. PMID: 39605281

• Zheng C, Casjens SR, Davidson AR, Amundsen SK, Smith GR. A new class of lambdoid phages with abundant Chi recombination hotspots. submitted for publication.

Protein Structure and Design

Lab and Research Highlights: 

• To Ψ or not to Ψ: how PUS1 knows where to pseudouridylate mRNAs. In collaboration with New England Biolabs and lead author Sebastian Grünberg, the Stoddard Lab discovers the structural basis of mRNA recognition and binding by yeast pseudouridine synthase PUS1.

• Structural insights of DNA slicing and dicing by PaqCI restriction enzyme
  Structures, activity and mechanism of the Type IIS restriction endonuclease PaqCI

• Bacterial self-defense: how BREX fights off viral invaders
  Structure, substrate binding and activity of a unique AAA+ protein: the BrxL phage restriction factor
  
  
• Stoddard Lab Awarded NIH MIRA R35 Grant to Support Research on Endonucleases and Protein Engineering.
  Findings will improve understanding of the evolution, recognition mechanisms and engineerability of endonucleases and improve the field of molecular design and engineering by optimizing strategies for the accurate design of stereospecific hydrogen bond networks that facilitate protein-protein and protein-ligand recognition and binding. 

Translational Biophysics and Vaccine Design

Lab and Research Highlights:

• The Strong Lab made breakthroughs into translational biophysics, structural molecular immunology and vaccinology.

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Optics-free reconstruction of 2D images via DNA barcode proximity graphs. The Srivatsan Lab developed SCOPE (Spatial reConstruction via Oligonucleotide Proximity Encoding), an optics-free, DNA microscopy inspired method. SCOPE will enable spatial genomics in constant experimental time, across fields of view and at resolutions that are determined by sequencing depth, bead size, and diffusion kinetics, rather than the limitations of optical instruments or microarray printers.

• The Srivatsan Lab received a Sontag Foundation Distinguished Scientist Award.

• The Srivatsan Lab received the Evergreen Pilot award to develop a new platform for using imaging and sequencing to interrogate protein biochemistry and protein biophysics.

• The Srivatsan Lab received the Cancer Consortium New Investigator Award to develop single cell assays for simultaneous measurements of the genotype and molecular phenotype of a cancerous field.

• Sanjay Srivatsan receives the Sloan Ignition Award for pioneering a new platform that enables the co-assay of single-cell genomes and transcriptomes. Using this new method, the Srivatsan Lab aims to reconstruct the clonal architecture of a patient’s leukemia and estimate the disease progression velocity from a single snapshot.

• The Srivatsan Lab received grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for work on "multiplexed methods for long, sequence perfect DNA assembly.”

• David Mai, postdoctoral fellow, was selected as a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow and was recently awarded the Mahan Fellowship.

• Ian Campbell, research technician joined the Srivatsan Lab.

• Nandini Pathak, lab aide, joined the Srivatsan Lab.

Regulation of mRNA Translation and Stability

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Patrick Nugent graduates with their PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology after successfully defending their dissertation “Decoding RNA metabolism by RNA-linked CRISPR screening in human cells.”

• Matthew Chan, postdoctoral fellow in the Subramaniam and Campbell Labs, wins the Gottschling-Berg Fast Pitch Competition at the inaugural Pathfinders Postdoc Symposium.

• Matthew Chan, postdoctoral fellow in the Subramaniam and Campbell Labs, shares second prize at this year’s Basic Sciences retreat poster session.

Neuroimmunology

Lab and Research Highlights:

• Allie Cheney, postdoctoral fellow, was awarded a 2025 Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for her project titled "Mechanisms by which neurons in the gut sense parasitic infection".

• Brandon Nguyen, Bioinformatics Postbaccalaureate scholar, joined the Talbot Lab.

• Jhulimar Doerl, postdoctoral fellow, joined the Talbot Lab and received the Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship Award.

• The Talbot Lab takes first place in the most horrific category in this year’s pumpkin carving contest.

Chromatin and Quiescence

Lab and Research Highlights: 

• Toshio Tsukiyama elected to American Academy of Microbiology. Longtime Basic scientist revealed dynamic nature of DNA packaging and how cells exploit it to enter and exit dormancy.

• Actively inactive: the regulation of RNA during quiescence in yeast cells. In study led by Allison Greenlaw, the Tsukiyama Lab finds that post-transcriptional regulation shapes the transcriptome of quiescent budding yeast.

• Acidic media favor entry of yeast into quiescence. New findings from the Tsukiyama Lab, led by Allison Greenlaw, explore how pH affects cellular quiescence.