News and Events
Events | News | Thesis Defense | Points of Pride
For additional events, see the Education at URMC Calendar, the University of Rochester Events Calendar and the URMC Scientific Events Calendar
Events
News
Commencement 2012 Pictures
Check out the photos from Commencement 2012 posted on our website!
Dr. Stephen Dewhurst blogs for the Democrat and Chronicle
Dr. Dewhurst, Chair of the Microbiology and Immunology Department, maintains a blog for the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. Check it out!
YoUR Postdoc Press - 3rd Issue!
Check out the 3rd issue of yoUR Postdoc Press here!
Website for Posting Postdoc Positions at the URMC
Please check out our centralized, online site for posting available
postdoctoral positions within the University of Rochester Medical Center!
Cardiovascular Science program wins HHMI award
November 17, 2009
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has awarded the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry $700,000 to support a new program to train graduate students for a biomedical research career in cardiovascular sciences with an emphasis on translating laboratory discoveries into treatments and diagnostics. Full article
Dr. Edith Lord: New Dean for SMD Graduate Studies
In July of 2008, Dr. Lord succeeded Paul L. LaCelle, MD as senior associate dean of the School of
Medicine and Dentistry’s PhD, postdoctoral and master’s degree
programs, which have about 800 students enrolled. Rochester Medicine article
Thesis Defense
Nir Maimon
Department of Pharmacology and Physiology
Wednesday | May 30, 2012 | 10:00am - 11:00am | K-207 (2-6408)
"The Mechanisms that Mediate Skeletal Muscle Arteriolar Dilatory Response to Adenosine: Novel Pre-Exposure Effect via PKA Activiation"
Advisor: Ingrid H. Sarelius, PhD
Yu-Hui Huang
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Monday | June 4, 2012 | 1:00pm - 2:00pm | K-307 (3-6408)
"Regulatory T cell control of CD4 T Cell Signaling"
Advisor: Deborah J. Fowell, PhD
Danielle Alcena
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Tuesday | June 5, 2012 | 10:00am - 11:00am | 1-7619
"Role of Autoreactivity in the Neutralization of HIV-1 Infection"
Advisor: Ignacio Sanz, MD
Youngsun Cho
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy
Monday | June 11, 2012 | 10:30am - 11:30am | K-307 (3-6408)
"Defining Limbic Subsystems: Examining a Functional Reward Network and Cortico-Amygdala-Striatal Anatomic Circuits"
Advisor: Julie L. Fudge, MD and Monique Ernst, MD, PhD
Wen Shen
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Wednesday | June 13, 2012 | 10:00am - 11:00am | Neuman Room (1-6823)
"Factors that Promote Strand Transfer Recombination during HIV-1 Reverse Transcription"
Advisor: Robert A. Bambara, PhD
Lin Gao
Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine
Thursday | June 14, 2012 | 10:00am - 11:00am | Adolph Auditorium (1-7619)
"The Role of TAK1 Mediated Signaling in Cartilage Development and Diseases" Advisor: Regis James O'Keefe, MD, PhD
Melissa A. Badding
Department of Toxicology
Friday | June 15, 2012 | 12:00pm - 1:00pm | K-307 (3-6408)
"Cytoplasmic Factors that Impact Intracellular Plasmid Trafficking During Gene Transfer"
Advisor: David A. Dean, PhD
Athena Kantartzis
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Monday | June 18, 2012 | 9:30am - 10:30am | Neuman Room (1-6823)
"Understanding the Molecular Mechanisms of Genome Maintenance"
Advisor: Robert A. Bambara, PhD
Ethan Winkler
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy
Monday | June 18, 2012 | 1:00pm - 2:00pm | Upper Aud (3-7619)
"Blood-Spinal Cord Barrier Dysfunction in Neurodegeneration"
Advisors: Berislav V. Zlokovic, MD, PhD and M. Kerry O'Banion, MD, PhD
Hristina Nedelkovska
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Monday | June 18, 2012 | 1:30pm - 2:30pm | K-207 (2-6408)
"Nonclassical MHC class Ib molecules: Critical players in tumor immune surveillance and potential immunotherapy targets"
Advisor: Jacques Robert, PhD
Lin Fan
Department of Community and Preventive Medicine
Tuesday | June 19, 2012 | 11:00am - 12:00pm | SRB 1-416
"Rural Urban Disparity in the Use of Preventive Care: What can we learn from Colorectal Cancer Screening?"
Advisor: Katia Noyes, PhD, MPH
DaeSung Hwangbo
Department of Biomedical Genetics
Wednesday | June 20, 2012 | 2:00pm - 3:00pm | K-207 (2-6408)
"Regulation of Apoptosis, Innate Immunity, and Lifespan by dWDR40 in Drosophila Melanogaster"
Advisor: Heinrich Jasper, PhD
Mercedes Szupnar
Department of Pathology
Friday | June 22, 2012 | 10:00am - 11:00am | Northeastern Conf. Room (1-9525)
"Evidence for Sympathetic Nervous System Regulation of Breast Cancer Progression"
Advisors: Edward B. Brown, PhD and Kelley S. Madden, PhD
Jie Shen
Department of Biomedical Genetics
Friday | July 27, 2012 | 1:00pm - 2:00pm | Adolph Auditorium (1-7619)
"Loss of TGF-β Signaling Leads to Up-Regulation of Mmp13 and Adamts5 and the Development of Osteoarthritis"
Advisors: Di Chen, PhD and Regis J. O'Keefe, MD, PhD
Points of Pride
2012 SMD Commencement Awards
Congratulations to this year's commencement awardees: Sarah Latchney, Cory Hussar, and Jennifer Gewandter! Sarah, a graduate of the Toxicology Program, received the Vincent du Vigneaud Award. Cory is a graduate of the Neuroscience Program and he received the Wallace Fenn award. Jennifer, a Biochemistry graduate, was awarded the Marvel-Dare F. Nutting Award.
Robert D. Bell, PhD
Graduate, Department of Pathology
Congrats to Robert who has published a Letter in Nature: Bell, RD, Winkler, EA, Singh, I, Sagare, AP, Deane, R, Wu, Z, Holtzman, DM, Betsholtz, C, Armulik, A, Berk, BC, Zlokovic, BV. 2012. Apolipoprotein E controls cerebrovascular intebrity via cyclophilin A. Nature. ePub ahead of print.
Lata Balakrishnan
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Lata was awarded a NIH Pathway to Independence K99/R00 Award. The project title is "Regulating Pathways and Fidelity of DNA Replication and Repair by Acetylation". The award is for a period of five years consisting of two phases, with two years being funded for mentored research and three years of funding as an independent scientist (contingent on securing a tenure track faculty position).
GSS Poster Session Winners
Thank you to all participants and congratulations to the winners! Be sure to congratulate everyone!
Name |
Award |
Department |
| Steven Baker | First Place Award for Excellence |
Microbiology & Immunology |
| M. Mahidur Rahman | First Place Award for Excellence |
Genetics |
| Hsing-Yu Chen | HHMI Award | Pathology |
| Meghan Bushway | Award for Innovative Impact in the Field | Microbiolgoy & Immunology |
| Whitney Christian | Award for Outstanding Scientific Methodology | Toxicology |
| Garry Coles | Award for Most Dynamic and Enthusiastic Presentation | Genetics |
| Christopher Folts | Award for Excellence in Poster Design and Message Delivery | Genetics |
| Nathan Smith | People's Choice | Neuroscience |
Ellie M. Carrell
Graduate Student, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology
Congratulations to Ellie on her 2012 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award! Ellie is a graduate student in Dr. Robert T. Dirksen’s laboratory.
Angela Aggrey
Graduate Student, Department of Pathology
Angela is a PhD student in Dr. Craig Morrell's lab. She has been awarded a National Institutes of Health NRSA F31 individual predoctoral fellowship. For the next two years, this fellowship will support her thesis project focused on Platelet Mediated Immune Responses in Experimental Cerebral Malaria.
Nicole Scott
Graduate Student, Department of Biomedical Genetics
Congratulations to Nicole for her NIH F31 grant award! This award will provide three years of support towards stipend, tution, health fees and lab supplies.
Project Title: Effect of early psychosine accumulation in Krabbe disease on CNS progeniter cells
Nathan Smith
Graduate Student, Department of Neuroscience
Nathan is a first author of a new article coming out which features exciting new discoveries related to astrocytes. Check out the article in the URMC newsroom discussing the importance of this research.
Benjamin Frisch
Graduate Student, Department of Pathology
URMC Finds Leukemia Cells are "Bad to the Bone"
Benjamin J. Frisch, a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Laura Calvi, led research discovering new links between leukemia cells and cells involved in bone formation, offering a fresh perspective on how the blood cancer progresses. Results were published in the journal Blood.
Functional inhibition of osteoblastic cells in an in vivo mouse model of myeloid leukemia.
Frisch BJ, Ashton JM, Xing L, Becker MW, Jordan CT, Calvi LM
Dawn Lee
Graduate Student, Department of Pathology
Dawn is a graduate student in Dr. Mayer-Pröschel’s laboratory and she has a paper accepted in the Journal of Neuroscience.
"Iron deficiency disrupts axon maturation of the developing auditory nerve" by Dawn Lee, Frederick Strathmann, Robert Gelein, Joseph Walton, and Margot Mayer-Pröschel. In press.
Sarah McConnell
Graduate Student, Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy
Sarah has a paper coming out in Hormones and Behavior, 2012. Congrats!
"The role of testicular hormones and luteinizing hormone in spatial memory in adult male rats"
Sarah E.A. McConnell, Juliet Alla, Elizabeth Wheat, Russell D. Romeo, Bruce McEwen, Janice E. Thornton
Adam Derr
Graduate Student, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Congratulations to Adam for his publication coming out in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
"Mutation of NADH oxidase (nox) reveals an overlap of the oxygen- and acid-meditated stress responses in Streptococcus mutans"
Adam M. Derr, Roberta C. Faustoferri, Matthew J. Betzenhauser, Kaisha Gonzalez, Robert E. Marquis and Robert G. Quivey Jr.
Applied and Environmental Microbiology Volume 78 Issue 4 Pg 1215-1227
Brendaliz Santiago
Graduate Student, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Brendaliz has a publication coming out in the Journal of Bacteriology 2012. Congratulations!
"The branched-chain amino acid aminotransferase encoded by ilvE is involved in acid tolerance in Streptococcus mutans".
Brendaliz Santiago2, Matthew MacGilvray1, Roberta C. Faustoferri1, and Robert G. Quivey, Jr.1,2*
Center for Oral Biology1 and Department of Microbiology and Immunology2, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY 14642
Judith F. Baumhauer, MD, MPH
MPH Graduate
Judith was named the winner of the 26th annual Athena Award. The award was founded in 1982 to recognize and honor the achievements of outstanding and professional business women. Please see the Women's Council website for more details. Congratulations to Judith!
