What an amazing 6 months

I have no idea what Science Gods Olivia Coulter has been talking to but she has had quite the start to her year. She has been awarded two Travel Awards, 1st place Graduate Student Poster at ASN, received a NASA Fellowship, her LOI was accepted for full submission to the Pharma Foundation, and her 1st author paper accepted by Molecular Psychiatry. The data she is generating is also very exciting. She is definitely ready for her Post Doc but she will be sorely missed when she leaves in 2027.

It's fall 2023 and we have been busy! (older post that I forgot to make active)

Ok quick update! Christian Harris and Christopher Walker have flown and grown. Now that they have graduated they are off on their next adventures. Dr. Harris is a tenure track Assistant Professor at St. Augustine’s University in NC. and Dr. Walker is pursuing a postdoc at MUSC.

Tristian Muck joined the lab as a research technician. She began as a research volunteer and quickly demonstrated her value in a million ways. As soon as she graduated from Marshall with her undergradute degree in biology I hired her full-time. She will be applying for graduate school very soon.

Olivia Coulter is a second year graduate student. She has brought a lot of energy and humor to the lab. This along with her incredible passion for neuroscience adds to the amazing group.

We currently have two undergraduate volunteers (Isabell and Hannah T), they put up with all the lab antics while working hard to learn new techniques.

Olivia, Tristan, and Isabell will be giving their first conference presentations at the upcoming Marshall Research Day and I know they will do an amazing job!

Spatial Transcriptomics (NSF) 2026

I am way behind on all the events that have occurred in the lab. Due to the minimal number of graduate students that enter our program we rely heavily on undergraduates. We are lucky to have some amazing undergrads that are curious and motivated. Due to their heavy class loads, I have started placing them on teams of two - three and it appears to be working really well. For the Spatial Transcriptomics + STED imaging project, we had Mika Jones, Aaliyah Walls, and Nisha Kumar working together and they are impressive. Mika and Aaliyah just graduated and are heading to Med School. Nisha is now our most senior and is training our newer undergrad Grace Angelona to transition onto the project. I am constantly reminded about the importance of knowledge transfer!! The undergrads aren’t around for long but I love having them in the lab and watching them grow.

We are hiring

A lot has happened since the pandemic. I will update soon but right now I want to let you know that we are hiring at least 2 technicians. Animal handling experience in some capacity would be beneficial or at least a comfort handling rodents. We also conduct a lot of surgeries! Feel free to contact me if you are interested in a temporary or permanent position.

Pandemic Mayhem

It has been quite the year for all of us! The pandemic shut us down completely for a while and all interactions were via Zoom. I missed the face-to-face with my lab dearly during those months. Working from home and home-schooling was a juggling act but we got through it. I hope it doesn’t come to that again.

We had a phenomenal Medical Student in the lab for the summer. Jentre Hyde is intelligent, incredibly hard working, and a pleasure to be around. We loved having her join us. She made a hug dent in the backlog of work that grew over the lockdown.

The great news is that Christopher Walker and I got a book chapter out the door and we are working on some really exciting data that should come out at the end of the year. Moreover, the lab secured a Veterans Affairs Merit Award that started in July 2021. This provides us the security to continue with our amazing work. I am very grateful for the Veterans Affairs continued support!

Summer Is Here...

And that means that the Summer Interns have arrived. They have been in the lab for less than two weeks and are working hard. Brittani Greene has joined us from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Her major is Biochemistry and she is a pretty impressive long-distance runner. She comes in with a great attitude and has already demonstrated that she’s a hard worker and meticulous in her work. Here’s a little more information on the program: https://jcesom.marshall.edu/news/musom-news/students-find-hands-on-summer-research-experiences-at-marshall-university/?fbclid=IwAR395C8QR-zv-aN-T71agNEIvsJ6n7gDsjpbhg2Jgn1xiaw9x0-uvEPGH4E

Brittani Greene (upper row, far left).

Brittani Greene (upper row, far left).

Media Relations

Two of our publications from 2015 published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research attracted a great deal of media attention. Over 100 news outlets reported on our findings from this year, these include:

https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/news-events/news-noteworthy/adolescent-alcohol-activates-hippocampal-astrocytes-adulthood

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-04/dumc-yab042215.php

http://www.scienceupdate.com/2015/04/alcohol-the-adolescent-brain/

https://ssri.duke.edu/news/your-adolescent-brain-alcohol-changes-last-adulthood

https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/science-news/binge-drinking-brain-damage

https://www.wsj.com/articles/adolescents-drinking-takes-lasting-toll-on-memory-1430173521

https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-adolescent-alcohol-brain-adulthood-20150427-story.html