2012 Graduates

Dr. Kristen Yankura
Mechanisms of Ectodermal Patterning in a Dipleurula-like Sea Star Larva and the Evolutionary Origins of Centralized Nervous Systems
Advisor: Dr. Veronica Hinman

Dr. Jing Wen
Experience-dependent Plasticity of Layer 2/3 Circuits in Developing Somatosensory Neocortex
Advisor: Dr. Alison Barth

Dr. Elmer Ker
Monitoring and Engineering of the Stem Cell Microenvironment: Inkjet Printing of Growth Factors onto Novel Scaffolds for Controlling Musculoskeletal Stem Cell Differentiation and Alignment and Development of a Computer Vision-based System to Characterize Stem Cell Growth
Advisor: Dr. Phil Campbell
Postgraduate Plans: Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Yunzhi Peter Yang's Laboratory at Stanford University

2011 Graduates

Dr. Jeanne Morin-Leisk
Mechanistic Insights into ER Network Branching by the Large GTPase Atlastin
Advisor: Dr. Tina Lee
Postgraduate Plans: Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Linstedt's Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University

Dr. Nina Senutovitch
Isolation and Characterization of Fluoromodules
Advisor: Dr. Peter Berget

Dr. John Holleran
Fluorescence Platform Development for Detection of Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator Trafficking
Advisor: Dr. Jonathan Jarvik
Postgraduate Plans: Working with Simon Watkins at the Center for Biologic Imaging at the University of Pittsburgh and Pay Frizzell at Children's Hospital, Pittsburgh

Dr. Shantanu Ganguly
Analysis of Cell-cell Signaling in C. albicans Biofilms
Advisor: Dr. Aaron P. Mitchell
Postgraduate Plans: Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Mitchell's Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University

Dr. Melissa Witzberger Krajcovic
Investigating the Role of Myosin II During the Cell Shape Changes of Ventral Furrow Formation
Advisor: Jon Minden
Postgraduate Plans: Adjunct Faculty at Grove City College Teaching Genetics

Dr. Shu Ying Kwan
The Flip Side of Osteoimmunity: Crosstalk Between Stem Cells, BMP-2 and Innate Immune Cells, and the Control of Osteoblastogenesis
Advisor: Phil Campbell

Dr. Michael Chen
Regulation of Non-Exonic Recursive Splicing in Drosophila melanogaster
Advisor: Javier Lopez

Dr. Maureen E. Stolzer
Phylogenetic Inference for Multidomain Proteins
Advisor: Dannie Durand

Dr. Smita Yadav
Mechanistic and Functional Aspects in Positioning of the Golgi Apparatus in Mammalian Cells
Advisor: Adam Linstedt

Dr. Parker H. Mills
Computational Methods for Enhancing Sensitivity to MRI Cell-tracking Agents
Advisor: Eric Ahrens

Dr. Corey Flynn
Molecular Correlates of Visual System Development
Advisor: Justin Crowley

Dr. Tara Sharma
Analysis of a Developmental Gene Regulatory Network in the Sea Urchin Embryo During Normal and Regulative Development
Advisor: Charles Ettensohn

Dr. Ken Hovis
Analysis of Functional Circuitry and the Effect of Activity Across Development in the Mouse Accessory Olfactory System
Advisor: Nathan Urban

Dr. Bistra Iordanova
Ferritin-based Reporter Genes for Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Brain
Advisor: Eric Ahrens
Postgraduate Plans: Postdoctoral Fellow in Eric Ahrens Laboratory

Dr. Deepak Kadayakkara
Advances in ¹⁹F Cellular MRI to Study Inflammation and Cancer
Advisor: Eric Ahrens
Postgraduate Plans: Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine, Department of Oncology and Immunology, Postdoctoral Fellow, Levitsky Lab

2010 Graduates

Dr. Brett Benedetti
Experience-dependent Plasticity and Development of Neocortical Columnar Circuits
Advisor: Alison Barth
Postgraduate Plans: New York University, Postdoctoral Fellowship, Fishell Lab

Dr. Mengning Zhou
On the Function of the Tumor Suppressor APC Gene Product using Drosophila melanogaster as a Model System
Advisor: Brooke McCartney

Dr. Connor Murphy
Optimization of Guanine Quadruplex-targeted Peptide Nucleic Acids
Advisor: Bruce Armitage

Dr. Panagiotis Papasaikas
Computational and Functional Analyses of Splicing Regulation
Advisors: A. Javier Lopez and Russell Schwartz
Postgraduate Plans: Centre de Regulacio Genomica, Department de Regulacion Genica, Postdoctoral Fellow, Valcarcel Lab (4/2011)

Dr. Aarti Sahasranaman
Understanding Principles of Ribosome Biogenesis by Focusing on One Step in Assembly of 60S Ribosomal Subunits in Yeast
Advisor: John Woolford
Postgraduate Plans: Carnegie Mellon, Postdoctoral Fellowship, Woolford Laboratory

Dr. Debrup Sengupta
Mechanism of GRASP65 Mediated Organelle Tethering and its Regulation
Advisor: Adam Linstedt
Postgraduate Plans: Yale University, Department of Immunobiology, Postdoctoral Fellow (4/2011)

Dr. Sonal Shruti
Activity-Induced Gain-of-Function in BK Channels and Beta4-Dependent Regulation of Channel Trafficking
Advisor: Alison Barth
Postgraduate Plans: Brandeis University, Postdoctoral Fellowship, Marder Laboratory (4/2011)

2009 Graduates

Dr. Kaustubh Sinha
Biochemical and Biophysical Studies of Human Glutathione Transferases
Advisor: Gordon Rule
Postgraduate Plans: University of Pittsburgh, Postdoctoral Fellowship, Jen-Jacobson Laboratory

Dr. Sandra Zimmerman
Regulation of Cell Shape by the Canonical Wnt Pathway
Advisor: Brooke McCartney
Postgraduate Plans: University of Washington, Department of Genome Sciences, Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Rebecca Webb
Cytoskeletal Organization in the Drosophila Syncytical Embryo
Advisor: Brooke McCartney
Postgraduate Plans: University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Visiting Assistant Professor

2008 Graduates

Dr. Tamara Berdyyeva
Neuronal Representation of Ordinal Position in Monkey Frontal Cortex
Advisor: Carl Olson
Postgraduate Plans: Salk Institute, Postdoctoral Fellowship

Dr. Timothy Feinstein
A New Model For Feedback Between Ribbon Structure of the Golgi Apparatus and Mitotic Cell Cycle Progression
Advisor: Adam Linstedt
Postgraduate Plans: University of Pittsburgh, Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, Postdoctoral Fellowship, Vilardaga Lab (4/2011)

Dr. Anupam Goyal
Regulation of the Actin Cytoskeleton in Drosophila Ventral Furrow Formation
Advisor: Jonathan Minden
Postgraduate Plans: Carnegie Mellon, Tepper School of Business, MBA Program

Dr. Yusong Guo
Role of Vesicle Coat Machinery in Golgi Homeostasis and Organization
Advisor: Adam Linstedt
Postgraduate Plans: Carnegie Mellon University, Postdoctoral Fellowship

Dr. Vikrant Kapoor
Timing and Reliability of Activity in the Main Olfactory Bulb
Advisor: Nathan Urban
Postgraduate Plans: Harvard University, Postdoctoral Fellowship

Dr. Krishnan Padmanabhan
The Role of Spontaneous Retinal Activity in the Anatomical Development of Early Visual Circuits
Advisor: Justin Crowley
Postgraduate Plans: Carnegie Mellon University, Postdoctoral Fellowship

Dr. Lan Tang
Protein-protein Interactions and their Functions in Ribosome Biogenesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Advisor: John Woolford
Postgraduate Plans: Yale University, Postdoctoral Fellowship

Dr. Jingyu Zhang
Physical and Functional Interactions Among Factors Required for One Step in Assembly of 60S Ribosomal Subunits in Yeast
Advisor: John Woolford
Postgraduate Plans: GE Global Research Center, Cell Biologist

2007 Graduates

Dr. Roger Clem
Sensory-driven Plasticity in Neocortical Circuits
Advisor: Alison Barth
Postgraduation Plans: Johns Hopkins University, Postdoctoral Fellowship

Dr. Yanhua Hu
Automated Analysis of Protein Subcellular Locations in Time Series Images
Advisor: Robert F. Murphy

Dr. Juchang Hua
Image Databases for Automated Determination of Protein Subcellular Locations
Advisor: Robert F. Murphy

Dr. Arun Krishnaswamy
An Ensemble Machine Learning Approach to Chemical Shift Prediction from Protein Structure
Advisors: Chistopher Langmead, Gordon Rule

Dr. Allison Marciszyn
Cytoskeletal and Motility Effects of a Photoactivatable GTPase Signaling Inhibitor in Cultured Mammalian Cells
Advisor: Frederick Lanni
Postgraduation Plans: University of Pittsburgh, Postdoctoral Associate

Dr. Parul Nisha
Analysis of the Chromatin Structure and Modifiers of Heterochromatic Gene Silencing in trans
Advisor: Amy Csink

Dr. Narayanan Raghupathy
Duplication in the Evolution of Insulin Signaling and Novel Methods for Gene Cluster Statistics
Advisor: Dannie Durand
Postgraduation Plans: Princeton University, Postdoctoral Research Associate

Dr. Mangala Srinivas
Development and Application of a ¹⁹F Platform for in vivo MRI: Tracking and Quantification of T-cells in Murine Disease Models and the Effect of Immunotherapy on T-cell Tracking
Advisor: Eric Ahrens
Postgraduate Plans: Nijegen Center for Molecular Life Sciences, Postdoctoral Fellowship

Dr. Tiequan Zhang
Investigation of Capsid Self-Assembly Using Discrete-Event Simulation
Advisor: Russell Schwartz