Dr. Michael Lynes Selected as Fulbright Scholar

February 12, 2020

Dr. Michael Lynes was recently selected to be a Fulbright Scholar and will work at the Center for Diabetes Research, University of Bergen (Norway) for the fall 2020 semester. He was also made a Senior Fellow of the Cell Stress Society International. Dr. Lynes has recently been awarded two new research grants: an NIH phase II STTR grant entitled “Measuring toxicant effects on cellular function in a microarray format” and a sponsored research award from Biohaven Pharmaceuticals to support the ongoing development of a therapeutic monoclonal antibody for chronic inflammation applications entitled “Characterization of UC1MT therapeutic antibody and its derivatives”.

Fake Centromeres Make-and Break-a Chromosome

February 11, 2020

The Mellone Lab was featured in UConn Today - UConn cell biologist Barbara Mellone, her student Jason Palladino, and colleagues report in the cover article of the 10 February issue of Developmental Cell that they were able to make fake centromeres that fooled cells into rearranging their chromosomes.  

 

cover-bugs_Mellone_UConnToday

Fluorescence images of mitotic cells with de novo centromeres from Drosophila melanogaster larval brains. The chromosomes are stained with DAPI (DNA, magenta) and CENP-C antibodies (kinetochore protein, green) and are shown within the outlines of fruit flies. (Courtesy of Barbara Mellone)
Read article in UConn Today
See cover story at Developmental Cell

Five Students Participating in URAP Receive Recognition

January 16, 2020

Five students participating in the Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (URAP) submitted abstracts as first authors and one as second author to the Eastern Society for Pediatric Research. This is the largest regional pediatric research meeting in the country.  In addition, three of our students submitted abstracts, two were first authors and one second author, to the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting which is the largest international pediatric research meeting in the world.  These students, who are taking 3100H and 3189H courses, are Monitha Patel, Samantha Seibel, Seda Sahin, Jimmy Terray, Saba Ali, and Leelakrishna Channa.  We look forward to learning about acceptances in the near future.

View the MCB 2018-2019 Annual Magazine

December 10, 2019

Professor Barbara Mellone Awarded NIH award

September 5, 2019

MCB Associate Professor Barbara Mellone received a $2.6million R35-MIRA grant from the National Institute of Health to fund her research on an elusive yet vital chromosomal structure that all plant and animal share: the centromere. This five year grant will support research efforts to determine the contribution of DNA repeats and centromere chromatin to the formation and proper function of these structures and to engineer centromeres using Drosophila as a model.

2019 MCB Retreat a Success

August 27, 2019

On Wednesday, August 21, the MCB Department held it’s annual Retreat and Grad Orientation at UConn’s Avery Point Campus. It was a great day including scavenger hunts, trivia games, lunch, poster session, networking with faculty and of course, the awarding of the MCB 2019 Graduate and Undergraduate Student Summer Fellowships. Congratulations to the recipients! These fellowships are made possible by some very generous donors and are offered on a competitive basis to the most highly qualified students. Claire M. Berg Graduate Fellowship in Genetics: Gabrielle Hartley and Katelyn DeNegre, Arthur Chovnick Graduate Fellowship in Genetics: Kate Castellano, Richard C. Crain, Jr. Memorial Fellowship: Aaron Feinstein and Melissa Skoryk, Cross-Disciplinary Fellowship in MCB and Pharmaceutical Sciences: Sarah Goldstein, Jean Lucas-Lenard Special Summer Fellowship in Biochemistry: Anthony Patelunas and Matthew Kearney, Philip I. Marcus Graduate Student Fellowship in Virology: Corynne Dedeo, Pfizer Summer Fellowship in Molecular and Cell Biology: Elizabeth Herder and Virginia King, Antonio H. & Marjorie J. Romano Graduate Education Fellowship: Joshua Gil and Kevin Lee, Todd M. Schuster Award in Molecular and Cell Biology: Liting Liu, Edward A. and Limia H. Khairallah Fellowship: Liming Chen, Sarah McAnulty, and Rambon Shamilov Biohaven, Pharmaceuticals Fellowship: Ala Shaqra View photo gallery here