“Biking and eating is fun!” MCB PhD Student Geno Villafano’s Adventures

February 14, 2023

Road Eats: When this Ph.D. student isn’t working in a genomics lab, he’s biking — and finding some truly wild things on the side of the road. (And, often, eating them!)
See story in UConn Today

Villafano on bike
Ph.D. student and pro cyclist Geno Villafano finds the craziest things on the 30-mile commute between his Rockville home and a Storrs genomics lab. He posts most. He eats many.

MCB Major, Tamborra-Walton Invited to the 2nd Annual BIG EAST Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium

February 9, 2023

Teresa Tamborra-Walton, an MCB major and senior undergraduate research student in the Lynes laboratory, has been selected to represent the University of Connecticut at the second annual BIG EAST Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium.  Her work was chosen to represent the best of student research being done across all disciplines including natural sciences, physical sciences, social sciences, humanities, nursing, business, engineering, and fine arts at UConn.  Her presentation will be entitled “Characterization of anti-MT monoclonal antibody as a potential therapeutic in autoimmune or chronic inflammatory diseases”.  This symposium will take place in the morning of March 11 at Madison Square Garden. Five posters from each BIG EAST institution will participate and each presenter will be invited to the BIG EAST  Championship game to be played the night of the symposium.

Maltz-Matyschysk, Graf, Lynes Receive NIH Award

February 6, 2023

Michele Maltz-Matyschsyk, Joerg Graf, and Michael Lynes recently received an NIH award to support their work to define biomarker signatures of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C, an adverse effect of SARS-CoV2 infection). They will be working together with a consortium of other universities and research institutes in Connecticut and New York.  Their work will measure multiple protein biomarkers using a grating-coupled fluorescent plasmon microarray, and will combine those measurements with analysis of the oral microbiome, and a large number of clinical phenotypes, and will use machine learning/AI approaches to define diagnostic patterns that may help identify at-risk children, and may also suggest potential new therapeutic interventions.

Alder Awarded Reinhard-Frank Foundation Grant

February 2, 2023

Nathan Alder, along with collaborator Doron Rapaport from the University of Tübingen (Germany), has received an award from the Reinhard-Frank Foundation for research on mitochondria-targeted bioactive compounds. Support from this foundation is designed to advance novel research that builds upon existing research strengths and promotes sustained partnership between participating institutions. The supported research will explore how some small molecules with strong therapeutic potential for treating mitochondrial disorders may function at the outer membrane of the mitochondrion, combining Alder’s expertise in the analysis of mitochondria-targeted compounds with Rapaport’s expertise in the biogenesis of mitochondrial proteins. This funding will support joint research activities in the Alder and Rapaport labs as well as reciprocal institutional visits and training opportunities for lab personnel.

May and Alder Receive Collaborative NIH Grant with Johns Hopkins University

Nathan Alder and Eric May have been awarded an R01 grant from the NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) as co-investigators on a project led by Steve Claypool at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The project, entitled “An intimate and multifaceted partnership: cardiolipin and the mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier” (R01HL165729), is a four-year award, with a total award amount exceeding $2 million.

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Lee, Nyholm and Zweifach Receive SFF Awards

January 31, 2023

      

The Office of the Vice President for Research provides financial support up to $2,000 to faculty across all disciplines, on a competitive basis, to promote, support, and enhance the research, scholarship and creative endeavors of faculty at UConn. The Scholarship Facilitation Fund (SFF) is designed to assist faculty in the initiation, completion, or advancement of research projects, scholarly activities, creative works, or interdisciplinary initiatives that are critical to advancing the faculty member’s scholarship and/or creative works.

Juliet Lee (The use of zebrafish transgenics to study how stretch-activated calcium channels regulate the molecular dynamics of adhesions in moving cells) and Spencer Nyholm (Developing new molecular and genetic tools for microbiome research in the Hawaiian bobtail squid) received Fall 2022 awards

Adam Zweifach received a Spring 2023 Award (Modeling compound activity to improve drug screening)

According to the Office of the Vice President for Research, these projects represent innovative work within their respective disciplines, as determined by a rigorous review process. They often include exciting interdisciplinary collaborations. And they all make valuable contributions to our shared mission of generating and disseminating knowledge, whether it is through groundbreaking scholarly publications; building important, externally-funded research programs; or great achievements in public engagement or creative endeavors.

We are grateful for the intellectual contributions these faculty members and teams have made through these projects and through the subsequent achievements that are unlocked these internal funding investments.

MCB Fall ’22 Graduate Travel Award Announced

January 17, 2023

MCB Department Head, Carol Teschke, recently announced that Patrick Grady has been awarded the Fall '22 MCB Graduate Travel Award in recognition of his outstanding graduate seminar.

This bi-annual award provides support to students for conference attendance to enrich their graduate program study and is offered on a competitive basis to the most highly qualified student.

Congratulations, Patrick on your accomplishments!