Medical Science Students

Bryan-College Station
IBT

Contact

Marquita Adrian
Bryan/College Station
Program Coordinator
8447 Riverside Parkway
(MREB I Suite 1004)
Bryan, TX 77807
Phone: 979.436.0753
amadrian@tamu.edu

Cynthia Lewis
Houston Program Coordinator
Alkek Building, 214K
2121 W. Holcombe Boulevard
Houston, TX 77030
713-677-7612
lewisca53@tamu.edu

Dr. Carol Vargas
Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies
8447 Riverside Parkway
(MREB I Suite 1008)
Bryan, TX 77807
Phone: 979.436.0310
carolvargasb@tamu.edu

Class of 2019

Email Address: hcreed@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: University of Washington
Undergraduate Degree: Molecular Biology
Lab: n/a
Research Interests: n/a
Abstracts and Presentations: n/a

Email Address: jkeeney2012@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Undergraduate Degree: Bimolecular Science
Lab: n/a
Research Interests: n/a
Abstracts and Presentations: n/a

Email Address: jgmrex@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Dixie State University
Undergraduate Degree: BS in Biology
Lab: n/a
Research Interests: n/a
Abstracts and Presentations: n/a

Email Address: sefiani@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: University of Southern California
Undergraduate Degree: MS, Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
Lab: n/a
Research Interests: Neurodegeneration, Regenerative Medicine, Neurodegenerative Diseases
Abstracts and Presentations:

Email Address:
Undergraduate: University of California Davis
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Neurobiology
Lab: n/a
Research Interests: n/a
Abstracts and Presentations: n/a

Email Address: xxy97@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Texas A&M University
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biomedical Sciences
Lab: N/A
Research Interests: My research interests mainly focus on cellular and circuit neurobiology of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as alcohol use disorders.
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Class of 2018

Email Address: y.elhakim@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: University of Illinois
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Chemical Engineering
Lab: Dr. Farida Sohrabji
Research Interests: My lab is interested in developing therapies for stroke, specifically, for post menopausal women who have an increased risk and injury post stroke than other populations.
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address: lauren.farris@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Texas A&M University
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Bioenvironmental Sciences
Lab: Dr. Jenny Hyde
Research Interests: My research interests include the pathogenesis of infectious diseases and the influence on the host immune response. Specifically, how genetic differences on both sides of the host-pathogen interaction can alter the outcome of disease. I joined Dr. Jenny Hyde’s lab in January 2019 to study Borrelia burgdorferi, the etiological agent of Lyme disease. I am excited to explore the mammalian inflammatory response to distinct B. burgdorferi strains.
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address:
Undergraduate: Chengdu
Undergraduate Degree: BM in Medicine
Lab: n/a
Research Interests:
Abstracts and Presentations:

Email Address: adpowell@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Texas A&M University
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biology
Lab: Dr. Jon Skare
Research Interests: My research interests focus on the pathogenesis of Lyme disease and Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever spirochetes from the Borrelia genus. Specifically, I am interested in the interaction of these bacteria with the host innate immune system defenses, and hope to bring to light some mechanisms these spirochetes use to evade immune clearance and establish chronic infection.
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address: hms227@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Cornell University
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Animal Science
Lab: Dr. Kristin Patrick
Research Interests: My research interests largely revolve around post-transcriptional regulation of the innate immune response to bacterial infection.
Abstracts and Presentations: n/a

Email Address: ankithsharma@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Vellore Institute of Technology
Undergraduate Degree: MSC in Biotechnology
Lab: Dr. Siegfried Musser
Research Interests: Protein transport in cells, Membrane biophysics
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address: torres.odio@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: University of Havana
Undergraduate Degree: Biochemistry
Lab: Dr. Phillip West
Research Interests: I am interested in mitochondrial dysfunction and innate immunity. I am characterizing novel mouse models of human mitochondrial disease and I am broadly examining how innate immune responses contribute to disease pathology in these models.
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address: allisonwagner@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: California Polytechnic State Universtiy SLO
Undergraduate Degree: Biological Sciences
Lab: Dr. Kristin Patrick
Research Interests: Splicing regulation of innate immune genes during bacterial infections.
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Class of 2017

Email Address: abdu1985@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: University of Baghdad
Undergraduate Degree: BA, Vet medicine
Lab: Dr. Jeff Cirillo
Research Interests: Role of Eph receptors in Macrophages on pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address: arantzita@tamu.edu
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab: Vytas Bankaitis
Research Interests: Study of phosphoinositide transfer proteins in Apicomplexa organisms.
Abstracts and Presentations: Acute depletion of diacylglycerol from the cis-Golgi affects localized nuclear envelope morphology during mitosis

Email Address: eric369@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Texas A&M University
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Psychology
Lab: Dr. Rahul Srinivasan
Research Interests: Involvement of glia, particularly astrocytes, in the development of Parkinson's Disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. I look at how proteins excreted by astrocytes can modulate neuronal function and if this type of modulation is beneficial and/or detrimental to the health of the circuit.
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address: megand@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Schreiner University
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biology
Lab: Dr. Laura Smith
Research Interests: Fragile X Syndrome, specifically Fmr1 and it’s effects on striatal function.
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address: andrew.haskell@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Old Dominion University
Undergraduate Degree: B.S. in Health Sciences
Lab: Dr. Carl Gregory
Research Interests: Bone regeneration, stem cell biology, cancer
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address: aspjulee@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Yonsei University
Undergraduate Degree: MS, Biochemistry
Lab: Dr. Vytas Bankaitis
Research Interests: My research interests are to characterize the molecular and structural functions of phosphatidylinositol/phosphatidylcholine transfer proteins (PITPs) family in yeast. I have been working on 1. crystallization of the proteins and 2. functional analysis in genetics.
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address: sara_zarate@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Texas A&M University
Undergraduate Degree: MS, Biology
Lab: Dr. Rahul Srinivasan
Research Interests: Astrocyte biology and the contribution of brain vasculature in neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis and progression
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Class of 2016

Email Address: bchirra@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: University of Texas San Antonio
Undergraduate Degree: BA, Psychology
Lab: Dr. Carolyn Cannon
Research Interests: Development of novel antimicrobials for the treatment of the multi-drug resistant (MDR) Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial pathogens. Design of electrospun bandages (membranes that mimic extracellular matrix and promote wound healing process) incorporating antimicrobial compound to better treat chronic wounds.

Email Address: daehyukchung@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: University of California, Irvine
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biology
Lab: Dr. Rajesh Miranda
Research Interests: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder; extracellular vesicles
Abstracts and Presentations: Ethanol Exposure Increases miR-140 in Extracellular Vesicles: Implications for Fetal Neural Stem Cell Proliferation and Maturation. doi: 10.1111/acer.14066

Email Address: abishai.dominic@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Anna University
Undergraduate Degree: Biotechnology
Lab: Dr. Roland Kaunas

Email Address: dunlaptori@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Texas A&M University
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Psychology
Lab: Dr. Doodipala Reddy
Research interests: Post-Traumatic Epilepsy (PTE), which can be induced by a traumatic brain injury. Using multiple animal models, I track major changes that happen in the brain during the formation of epilepsy and screen novel therapeutics to prevent seizures from occurring and improve quality of life.
Abstracts and presentations:

Golub VM, Brewer J, Wu X, Kuruba R, Short J, Manchi M, Swonke M, Younus I, Reddy DS. “Neurostereology Protocol for Unbiased Quantification of Neuronal Injury and Neurodegeneration.” Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 7:196 (2015). doi:10.3389/fnagi.2015.00196
Reddy DS and Golub VM. “Pharmacological basis of cannabinoids for epilepsy.” Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. 357(1):45-55. (2016). doi:10.1124/jpet.115.230151.
Reddy DS, Wu X, Golub VM, Dashwood WM, and Dashwood RH. “Measuring histone deacetylase inhibition in the brain.” Current Protocols in Pharmacology 81. (2018).
Reddy DS, Perumal D, Golub VM, Habib A, Kuruba R, and Wu X. “Phenobarbital as alternate anticonvulsant for organophosphate-induced benzodiazepine refractory status epilepticus and neuronal injury.” Epilepsia Open. (2019). In press.
Golub VM and Reddy DS. “Treating Neurological Diseases through Epigenetic Inhibition”. Chapter 18 in Epigenetics and Epigenetic Interventions. (2019). Accepted.
Reddy DS and Golub VM. “Cannabis, Cannabidiol and Epilepsy”. Chapter 9 in Cannabinoids and Neuropsychiatric Disorders. Ed. Jaime M. Monti, Eric Murillo-Rodriguez, S.R. Pandi-Perumal. (2019). Accepted.

Email Address: abbylei@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Shandong University
Undergraduate Degree: MS, Cell Biology
Lab: Dr. Phillip West
Research Interests: Mitochondrial regulation of type I interferon responses in healthy and cancerous cells

Email Address: jordyn.michalik@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Texas A&M University
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biomedical Sciences
Lab: Dr. James Samuel

Email Address: kmwells@exchange.tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Baylor University
Undergraduate Degree: BS Enviornmental Health
Lab: Dr. Paul de Figueiredo
Research Interests: The intracellular pathogenesis of microbes such as Brucella.

Email Address: tianhaozhou@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Shanghai University of Engineering Science
Undergraduate Degree: BS in Pharmaceutical Engineering
Lab: Dr. Shannon Glaser
Research Interests: Regulation of cholangiocyte damage and fibrosis in liver diseases. Also, interactions between cholangiocytes and other liver cells (such as hepatocytes and hepatic stellate cells) in cholangiopathies.
Abstracts and Presentations:

Chen L, Zhou T, Wu N, O'Brien A, Venter J, Ceci L, Kyritsi K, Onori P, Gaudio E, Sybenga A, Xie L, Wu C, Fabris L, Invernizzi P, Zawieja D, Liangpunsakul S, Meng F, Francis H, Alpini G, Huang Q, Glaser S. Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Basis Dis. 2019 Jun 1;1865(6):1525-1539.
McDaniel K, Wu N, Zhou T, Huang L, Sato K, Venter J, Ceci L, Chen D, Ramos-Lorenzo S, Invernizzi P, Bernuzzi F, Wu C, Francis H, Glaser S, Alpini G, Meng F. Hepatology. 2019 Jun;69(6):2562-2578.
Zhou T, Wu N, Meng F, Venter J, Giang TK, Francis H, Kyritsi K, Wu C, Franchitto A, Alvaro D, Marzioni M, Onori P, Mancinelli R, Gaudio E, Glaser S, Alpini G. Lab Invest. 2018 Nov;98(11):1449-1464.

Class of 2015

Email Address: eshghjoo@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: IAU Tehran Science and Research Branch
Undergraduate Degree: MS, Biochemistry
Lab: Dr. Robert Alaniz
Research Interests: Metabolism, Immunology, Microbiota, Biochemistry, and atherosclerosis
Abstracts and Presentations:Papers after September 2015

Email Address: cowen@medicine.tamhsc.edu
Undergraduate: Texas A&M University
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Microbiology
Lab: Dr. Robert Watson
Research Interests: Bacterial pathogenesis specifically intracellular pathogens such as Salmonella, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Listeria monocytogenes. The innate immune system and the interface between pathogens and human immune system

Email Address: mkamradt@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: University of Iowa
Undergraduate Degree: BA Psychology & English
Lab: Dr. Raquel Sitcheran
Research Interests: Cancer Biology, Cell Signaling, Metabolism, Mitochondria
Abstracts and Presentations: Jung, J. U., Ravi, S., Lee, D. W., McFadden, K., Kamradt, M. L., Toussaint, L. G., & Sitcheran, R. (2016). NIK/MAP3K14 Regulates Mitochondrial Dynamics and Trafficking to Promote Cell Invasion. Current biology : CB, 26(24), 3288–3302. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.009

Email Address: adalujiayi@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Chongqing Medical University
Undergraduate Degree: Master of Medicine, Internal Medicine
Lab: Dr. Jun Wang
Research Interests: Alcohol use disorder. Using slice electrophysiology and optogenetics, I have mainly focused on excessive ethanol consumption-evoked afferent input-specific (basolateral amygdala vs. prefrontal cortex) and cell type-specific (D1-neurons vs. D2-neurons) alterations in the dorsomedial striatum
Abstracts and Presentations:

Lu JY, Cheng YF, Wang XH, Woodson K, Kemper C, Disney E, and Wang J. (2019). Alcohol intake enhances glutamatergic transmission from D2 receptor-expressing afferents onto D1 receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons in the dorsomedial striatum. Neuropsychopharmacology, 44:1123-1131. PMID: 30733568.
Roltsch HE, Binette A, Zhuang XW, Lu JY, Ma TF, Jones B, Williams E, Jayavelu S, Wang J. (2019). Optogenetic control of alcohol-seeking behavior via the dorsomedial striatal circuit. Neuropharmacology, 155:89-97. PMID: 31121177.
Ma T, Cheng Y, Roltsch Hellard E, Wang X, Lu JY, Gao X, Huang CCY, Wei XY, Ji JY, Wang J. (2018). Bidirectional and long-lasting control of alcohol-seeking behavior by corticostriatal LTP and LTD. Nature Neuroscience, 21:373-383. PMCID: PMC5857235.
Cheng YF, Huang CY, Ma TF, Wei XY, Wang XH, Lu JY, and Wang J. (2017). Distinct synaptic strengthening of the striatal direct and indirect pathways drives alcohol consumption. Biological Psychiatry, 81:918-929. PMCID: PMC5124556.
Wei XY, Ma TF, Cheng YF, Huang CY, Wang XH, Lu JY, and Wang J. (2017). Dopamine D1 or D2 receptor-expressing neurons in the central nervous system. Addiction Biology, 23:569-584. PMID: 28436559.
Huang CCY, Ma TF, Roltsch HE, Wang XH, Selvamani A, Lu JY, Sohrabji F, Wang J. (2017). Stroke triggers nigrostriatal plasticity and increases alcohol consumption in rats. Sci Rep, 7: 2501. PMID: 28566754.

Email Address: mattmarkert@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Texas A&M University
Undergraduate Degree: Microbiology
Lab: Dr. Alistair McGregor
Research Interests: Mammalian Cell Culture

Email Address: aprilobrien@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: University of Mary Washington
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biology
Lab: Dr. Shannon Glaser
Research Interests: Cholangiocyte biology, mesenchymal stem cells, lymphatics
Abstracts and Presentations:

Email Address: simonpan@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Macau University of Science and Technology
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biomedicine
Lab: Dr. Carl Gregory
Research Interests: Malignant bone disease (MBD) and related bone regeneration. Specifically, therapeutics of the disease through the DKK1 regulated tumor survival pathway.
Abstracts and Presentations: McNeill EP, Reese RW, Tondon A, Clough BH, Pan S, Froese J, Palmer D, Krause U, Loeb DM, Kaunas R, Gregory CA. "Three-dimensional in vitro modeling of malignant bone disease recapitulates experimentally accessible mechanisms of osteoinhibition." Cell death & disease 9.12 (2018): 1161.

Email Address: krees6@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Georgia Institute of Technology
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biology
Lab: Dr. Ursula Winzer-Serhan
Research Interests: 15q13.3 microdeletion syndrome, a genetic disorder associated with a range of different conditions including autism spectrum disorders, intellectual and developmental disabilities, schizophrenia, and seizure disorders. Specifically, I study astrocyte activity and potential neuroimmune interactions that could contribute to the pathophysiology of the disorder.

Email Address: jianwang009@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Nankai University
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biological Sciences
Lab: Dr. Xu Peng
Research Interests: Underlying signaling pathways in lymphangiogenesis and development of novel therapeutic strategies for lymphedema.
Abstracts and Presentations:

Liu, Y., Wang, J., Li, J., Wang, R., Tharakan, B., Zhang, S. L., ... & Peng, X. (2017). Deletion of Cdc42 in embryonic cardiomyocytes results in right ventricle hypoplasia. Clinical and translational medicine, 6(1), 40.
Li, J., Liu, Y., Jin, Y., Wang, R., Wang, J., Lu, S., ... & Peng, X. (2017). Essential role of Cdc42 in cardiomyocyte proliferation and cell-cell adhesion during heart development. Developmental biology, 421(2), 271-283.

Email Address: zly.rebecca@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Beijing University of Chinese Medicine
Undergraduate Degree: Master of Medicine
Lab: Dr. Geoffrey Kapler
Research Interests: Bioinformatic analysis of unconventional DNA replication programs in Tetrahymena.

Email Address: zhangxueyang@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Nankai University
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biological Sciences
Lab: Dr. David Zawieja
Research Interests: Effect of spaceflight on lymphatic vessel pumping. Cross-talk between lymphatic and immune system

Email Address: yuan-ning.zheng@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: China University of Geoscience
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biological Sciences
Lab: Dr. Robin Fuchs-Young
Research Interests: Stem cell biology

Class of 2014

Email Address: shj617188003@tamu.edu
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab: Dr. Shenyuan Zhang

Email Address: hellingford@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Yonsei University
Undergraduate Degree: Materials Science and Engineering
Lab: Dr. Robert Alaniz
Research Interests: Point of Care Devices, Micro Molecular Analytic Devices
Abstracts and Presentations: Ramraj Velmurugan, Sreevidhya Ramakrishnan, Mingin Kim, Raimund J. Ober, E. Sally Ward. Phagocytosis of antibody‐opsonized tumor cells leads to the formation of a discrete vacuolar compartment in macrophages. Traffic 19:4. https://doi.org/10.1111/tra.12552

Email Address: emcneill@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: National University of Ireland Galway
Undergraduate Degree: MSc Regenerative Medicine
Lab: Dr. Carl Gregory
Research Interests: Development of a novel osteoinductive scaffold to promote bone healing from induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesenchymal stem cells and their secreted extracellular matrix. Development of a 3D in vitro platform to study bone-tumor interactions.
Abstracts and Presentations:

Three-dimensional in vitro modeling of malignant bone disease recapitulates experimentally accessible mechanisms of osteoinhibition. McNeill EP, Reese RW, Tondon A, Clough BH, Pan S, Froese J, Palmer D, Krause U, Loeb DM, Kaunas R, Gregory CA. Cell Death Dis. 2018 Nov 26;9(12):1161. doi: 10.1038/s41419-018-1203-8. PMID: 30478297
Theobromine Upregulates Osteogenesis by Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells In Vitro and Accelerates Bone Development in Rats. Clough BH, Ylostalo J, Browder E, McNeill EP, Bartosh TJ, Rawls HR, Nakamoto T, Gregory CA. Calcif Tissue Int. 2017 Mar;100(3):298-310. doi: 10.1007/s00223-016-0215-6. Epub 2016 Dec 2. PMID: 27913821
An allograft generated from adult stem cells and their secreted products efficiently fuses vertebrae in immunocompromised athymic rats and inhibits local immune responses. Clough BH, McNeill EP, Palmer D, Krause U, Bartosh TJ, Chaput CD, Gregory CA. Spine J. 2017 Mar;17(3):418-430. doi: 10.1016/j.spinee.2016.10.009. Epub 2016 Oct 17. PMID: 27765715
MSCs derived from iPSCs with a modified protocol are tumor-tropic but have much less potential to promote tumors than bone marrow MSCs. Zhao Q, Gregory CA, Lee RH, Reger RL, Qin L, Hai B, Park MS, Yoon N, Clough B, McNeill E, Prockop DJ, Liu F. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Jan 13;112(2):530-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1423008112. Epub 2014 Dec 29. PMID: 25548183
Bone regeneration with osteogenically enhanced mesenchymal stem cells and their extracellular matrix proteins. Clough BH, McCarley MR, Krause U, Zeitouni S, Froese JJ, McNeill EP, Chaput CD, Sampson HW, Gregory CA. J Bone Miner Res. 2015 Jan;30(1):83-94. doi: 10.1002/jbmr.2320. PMID: 25130615

Lu JY, Cheng YF, Wang XH, Woodson K, Kemper C, Disney E, and Wang J. (2019). Alcohol intake enhances glutamatergic transmission from D2 receptor-expressing afferents onto D1 receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons in the dorsomedial striatum. Neuropsychopharmacology, 44:1123-1131. PMID: 30733568.
Roltsch HE, Binette A, Zhuang XW, Lu JY, Ma TF, Jones B, Williams E, Jayavelu S, Wang J. (2019). Optogenetic control of alcohol-seeking behavior via the dorsomedial striatal circuit. Neuropharmacology, 155:89-97. PMID: 31121177.
Ma T, Cheng Y, Roltsch Hellard E, Wang X, Lu JY, Gao X, Huang CCY, Wei XY, Ji JY, Wang J. (2018). Bidirectional and long-lasting control of alcohol-seeking behavior by corticostriatal LTP and LTD. Nature Neuroscience, 21:373-383. PMCID: PMC5857235.
Cheng YF, Huang CY, Ma TF, Wei XY, Wang XH, Lu JY, and Wang J. (2017). Distinct synaptic strengthening of the striatal direct and indirect pathways drives alcohol consumption. Biological Psychiatry, 81:918-929. PMCID: PMC5124556.
Wei XY, Ma TF, Cheng YF, Huang CY, Wang XH, Lu JY, and Wang J. (2017). Dopamine D1 or D2 receptor-expressing neurons in the central nervous system. Addiction Biology, 23:569-584. PMID: 28436559.
Huang CCY, Ma TF, Roltsch HE, Wang XH, Selvamani A, Lu JY, Sohrabji F, Wang J. (2017). Stroke triggers nigrostriatal plasticity and increases alcohol consumption in rats. Sci Rep, 7: 2501. PMID: 28566754.

Class of 2013

Email Address: dakshnapriya@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Anna University
Undergraduate Degree: Biotechnology
Lab: Dr. Brett Mitchell
Research Interests: Roles of renal lymphatic vessels in hypertension and how renal lymphatics can be manipulated to prevent and treat hypertension.
Abstracts and Presentations:

Arosh JA, Lee J, Balasubbramanian D, Stanley JA, Long CR, Meagher MW, Osteen KG, Bruner-Tran KL, Burghardt RC, Starzinski-Powitz A, Banu SK. Molecular and preclinical basis to inhibit PGE2 receptors EP2 and EP4 as a novel nonsteroidal therapy for endometriosis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Aug 4;112(31):9716-21. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1507931112. Epub 2015 Jul 21. PubMed PMID: 26199416; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4534219.
Balasubbramanian D, Gelston CAL, Mitchell BM, Chatterjee P. Toll-like receptor activation, vascular endothelial function, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Pharmacol Res. 2017 Jul;121:14-21. doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2017.04.018. Epub 2017 Apr 15. Review. PubMed PMID: 28419848.
Lopez Gelston CA, Balasubbramanian D, Abouelkheir GR, Lopez AH, Hudson KR, Johnson ER, Muthuchamy M, Mitchell BM, Rutkowski JM. Enhancing Renal Lymphatic Expansion Prevents Hypertension in Mice. Circ Res. 2018 Apr 13;122(8):1094-1101. doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.118.312765. Epub 2018 Feb 23. PubMed PMID: 29475981.
Balasubbramanian D, Lopez Gelston CA, Rutkowski JM, Mitchell BM. Immune cell trafficking, lymphatics and hypertension. Br J Pharmacol. 2019 Jun;176(12):1978-1988. doi: 10.1111/bph.14370. Epub 2018 Jun 25. Review. PubMed PMID: 29797446; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6534781.

Email Address: lluo@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Wuhan University
Undergraduate Degree: MD
Lab: Dr. Robin Fuchs-Young
Research Interests: Mechanisms of mammary stem/progenitor cells in mediating the pro-tumorigenic effect of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in mammary tumors.
Abstracts and Presentations:

R.T. Gunaratna, A. Santos, L.J. Luo, C. Nagi, C, Conti et al. (2019) “Dynamic role of p53 single nucleotide polymorphism at codon 72 on mammary tumorigenesis in a humanized mouse model.” Oncogene. 2019 Jan 16:1.
I.U. Lambertz, L.J. Luo et al. (2017) “Early Exposure to a High Fat/High Sugar Diet Increases the Mammary Stem Cell Compartment and Mammary Tumor Risk in Female Mice.” Cancer Prev Res. 10(10);1-10

Email Address: spal@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: West Bengal University of Animal and Fish Sciences
Undergraduate Degree: BVSc & AH
Lab: Dr. Anatoliy Gashev

Email Address: called2lab@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: University of Texas Medical Branch
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Clinical Laboratory Sciences
Lab: Dr. James Samuel

Class of 2019

Email Address: minsunjeon@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: University of Texas at Austin
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biochemistry
Lab: Dr. Kenneth Ramos
Research Interests: Translational Cancer Research
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address: ziyingliu@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Wenzhou Medical University
Undergraduate Degree: MS, Pharmaceutical Science
Lab: N/A
Research Interests: N/A
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address: jtruther@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: NCSU
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Microbiology
Lab: N/A
Research Interests: Infectious Diseases and Translational Medicine
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address:
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab:
Research Interests:
Abstracts and Presentations:

Class of 2018

Email Address: mickley413@gmail.com
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab: N/A
Research Interests: Optogenetics
Abstracts and Presentations: N/A

Email Address: nive@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Madurai Kamaraj University
Undergraduate Degree: MSc, Genomics
Lab: Dr. Roderick Dashwood
Research Interests: Epigenetic basis of colorectal cancer, particularly focusing on genes that are alternatively spliced in cancer cells upon treated with dietary compounds/ anticancer drug candidates.

Email Address: johndelrey@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Tarleton State University
Undergraduate Degree: Biomedical Sciences

Email Address: wyou@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Sun-Yatsen University
Undergraduate Degree: Master of Stomatology
Lab: Dr. David Reiner
Research Interests: Developmental Biology and Genetics

Email Address: juanxu@tamu.edu
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab:
Research Interests:
Abstracts and Presentations:

Email Address: yangyuhan@tamu.edu
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab: Dr. Yun Huang
Research Interests: Heart Development & Epigenetics

Class of 2017

Class of 2016

Email Address: fakieh@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Arabian Gulf University
Undergraduate Degree: M.Sc., Medical Biotechnology
Lab: Dr. David Reiner
Research Interests: MIG-15, a member of the STE20 family of MAP4 kinases, and its role in the VPC patterning signaling network.
Abstracts and Presentations: Hanna Shin, Rebecca E. W. Kaplan, Tam Duong, Razan A. Fakieh, David J. Reiner (2018) Ral Signals Through a MAP4 kinase-P38 MAP kinase cascade in C. elegans Cell Fate Patterning. Cell Reports 24, 2669-1681. PMID: 30184501.

Email Address: dangertrip@exchange.tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Sichuan University
Undergraduate Degree: BS
Lab: Dr. Deqiang Sun
Research Interests: Computational Epigenetics

Email Address: zhang1991@tamu.edu
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab: Dr. Rodrick Dashwood
Research Interests: Methylation sequencing data analysis.
Abstracts and Presentations:

ZRANB1 Is an EZH2 Deubiquitinase and a Potential Therapeutic Target in Breast Cancer.
Acetylation of CCAR2 Establishes a BET/BRD9 Acetyl Switch in Response to Combined Deacetylase and Bromodomain Inhibition.

Class of 2015

Email Address: canselme3004@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Saint Leo University
Undergraduate Degree: BS, Biology
Lab: Dr. Jenny Chang
Research Interests: Immunotherapy to improve treatment outcome in Trple Negative Breast Cancer patients

Email Address: aad0115@tamu.edu
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab: Dr. Julian Hurdle

Email Address: ke27@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Dr. Fen Wang
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab:

Email Address: yonghong.liu@tamu.edu
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab: Dr. Fen Wang

Email Address: xin.liu@tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Nanjing University of Science and Technology
Undergraduate Degree: BS
Lab: Dr. Yubin Zhou
Research Interests: Antibody development & Engineering, TCR/CAR-T immunotherapy, T cell signaling
Abstracts and Presentations:

Liu T, Tang Q, Liu K, Xie W, Liu X, Wang H, Wang RF, Cui J. TRIM11 Suppresses AIM2 Inflammasome by Degrading AIM2 via p62-Dependent Selective Autophagy. Cell Report 2016, Aug 16;16(7):1988-2002.
Ma, G., Liu, J., Ke, Y., Liu, X., Li, M., Wang, F., Han, G., Huang, Y., Wang,Y., Zhou, Y. (2018). Optogenetic Control of Voltage-Gated Calcium Channels.Angewandte Chemie, 57(24), 7019-7022.
Chuntang Fu, Qingtian Li, Jia Zou, Changsheng Xing, Mei Luo, Bingnan Yin, Junjun Chu, Jiaming Yu, Xin Liu, Helen Y. Wang, Rong-Fu Wang. JMJD3 regulates CD4 T cell trafficking by targeting actin cytoskeleton regulatory gene Pdlim4. The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2019, Aug 8; 130.

Email Address: nhungtuan0909@tamu.edu
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab: Dr. Yubin Zhou
Research Interests: Optogenetics, synthetic biology, immunotherapy
Abstracts and Presentations:

Nguyen, N. T., Ma, G., Lin, E., D'Souza, B., Jing, J., He, L., Huang, Y., and Zhou, Y. (2018) CRAC channel-based optogenetics, Cell Calcium 75, 79-88.
Nguyen, N. T., Han, W., Cao, W. M., Wang, Y., Wen, S., Huang, Y., Li, M., Du, L., and Zhou, Y. (2018) Store-Operated Calcium Entry Mediated by ORAI and STIM, Compr Physiol 8, 981-1002.
Nguyen, N. T., He, L., Martinez-Moczygemba, M., Huang, Y., and Zhou, Y. (2018) Rewiring Calcium Signaling for Precise Transcriptional Reprogramming, ACS Synth Biol 7, 814-821.
Song, J., Zheng, S., Nguyen, N., Wang, Y., Zhou, Y., and Lin, K. (2017) Integrated pipeline for inferring the evolutionary history of a gene family embedded in the species tree: a case study on the STIMATE gene family, BMC Bioinformatics 18, 439.
He, L., Jing, J., Zhu, L., Tan, P., Ma, G., Zhang, Q., Nguyen, N. T., Wang, J., Zhou, Y., and Huang, Y. (2017) Optical control of membrane tethering and interorganellar communication at nanoscales, Chem Sci 8, 5275-5281.
Ma, G., Zhang, Q., He, L., Nguyen, N. T., Liu, S., Gong, Z., Huang, Y., and Zhou, Y. (2018) Genetically encoded tags for real time dissection of protein assembly in living cells, Chem Sci 9, 5551-5555.
Rajendran, P., Johnson, G. S., Li, L., Chen, Y. S., Dashwood, W. M., Nguyen, N., Ulusan, A. M., Ertem, F. U., Zhang, M., Li, J., Sun, D., Huang, Y., Wang, S., Leung, H. E., Lieberman, D., Beaver, L. M., Ho, E., Bedford, M. T., Chang, K., Vilar, E., and Dashwood, R. H. (2019) Acetylation of CCAR2 establishes a BET/BRD9 acetyl switch in response to combined deacetylase and bromodomain inhibition, Cancer Res.
Zheng, S., Ma, G., He, L., Zhang, T., Li, J., Yuan, X., Nguyen, N. T., Huang, Y., Zhang, X., Gao, P., Nwokonko, R., Gill, D. L., Dong, H., Zhou, Y., and Wang, Y. (2018) Identification of molecular determinants that govern distinct STIM2 activation dynamics, PLoS Biol 16, e2006898.
Zheng, S., Zhou, L., Ma, G., Zhang, T., Liu, J., Li, J., Nguyen, N. T., Zhang, X., Li, W., Nwokonko, R., Zhou, Y., Zhao, F., Liu, J., Huang, Y., Gill, D. L., and Wang, Y. (2018) Calcium store refilling and STIM activation in STIM- and Orai-deficient cell lines, Pflugers Arch.

Class of 2014

Email Address: sfang@medicine.tamhsc.edu
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab: Dr. Yun Huang
Research Interests: Roles of Ten-eleven translocation enzymes in heart development and diseases.
Abstracts and Presentations:

Zhang J, Tan P, Guo L, Gong J, Ma J, Li J, Lee M, Fang S, Jing J, Johnson G, Sun D, Cao WM, Dashwood R, Han L, Zhou Y, Dong WG, Huang Y.p53-dependent autophagic degradation of TET2 modulates cancer therapeutic resistance. Oncogene, 2019.
He L, Zhang Y, Ma G, Tan P, Li Z, Zang S, Wu X, Jing J, Fang S, Zhou L, Wang Y, Huang Y, Hogan PG, Han G, Zhou Y.Near-infrared photoactivatable control of Ca(2+) signaling and optogenetic immunomodulation. Elife, 2015.

Email Address: minjung.lee@exchange.tamu.edu
Undergraduate: Konkuk University
Undergraduate Degree: MS, Biology
Lab: Dr. Yun Huang
Research Interests: Epigenetic changes and cancer immunotherapy. Specifically, novel roles of TET2 - one of the major DNA modifying enzymes in mammalian system.
Abstracts and Presentations:

Gu T, Lin X, Cullen SM, Luo M, Jeong M, Estecio M, Shen J, Hardikar S, Sun D, Su J, Rux D, Guzman A, Lee M, Qi LS, Chen JJ, Kyba M, Huang Y, Chen T, Li W, Goodell MA.
DNMT3A and TET1 cooperate to regulate promoter epigenetic landscapes in mouse embryonicstem cells. Genome Biol. 2018 Jul 12;19(1):88. doi: 10.1186/s13059-018-1464-7.
Zhang J, Tan P, Guo L, Gong J, Ma J, Li J, Lee M, Fang S, Jing J, Johnson G, Sun D, Cao WM, Dashwood R, Han L, Zhou Y, Dong WG, Huang Y. p53-dependent autophagic degradation of TET2 modulates cancer therapeutic resistance. Oncogene. 2018 Nov 2. doi: 10.1038/s41388-018-0524-5.
Lee JY, Matthias N, Pothiawala A, Ang BK, Lee M, Li J, Sun D, Pigeot S, Martin I, Huard J, Huang Y, Nakayama N. Pre-transplantational Control of the Post-transplantational Fate of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cartilage. Stem Cell Reports (2018) Aug 14;11(2):440-453. doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2018.06.021. Epub 2018 Jul 26.
Zhang P, Xiao Z, Wang S, Zhang M, Wei Y, Hang Q, Kim J, Yao F, Rodriguez-Aguayo C, Ton BN, Lee M, Wang Y, Zhou Z, Zeng L, Hu X, Lawhon SE, Siverly AN, Su X, Li J, Xie X, Cheng X, Liu L, Chang H, Chiang S, Lopez-Berestein G, Sood AK, Chen J, You MJ, Sun S, Liang H, Huang Y, Yang X, Sun D, Sun Y, Hung M, Ma L. ZRANB1 Is an EZH2 Deubiquitinase and a Potential Therapeutic Target in Breast Cancer. Cell Rep. (2018) in press.
LiJ,WuX,ZhouY,LeeM,GuoL,HanW,MoW,CaoWM,SunD,XieR,HuangY.
Decoding the dynamic DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation landscapes in endodermal lineage intermediates during pancreatic differentiation of hESC. Nucleic Acids Res. (2018) Jan 31. doi: 10.1093/nar/gky063. [Epub ahead of print]
Lee M, Zhou Y, Huang Y.An Engineered Split-TET2 Enzyme for Chemical-inducible DNA Hydroxymethylation and Epigenetic Remodeling. J. Vis. Exp. (2017) Dec 18;(130). doi: 10.3791/56858.
Zang S, Li J, Yang H, Zeng H, Han W, Zhang J, Lee M, Moczygemba M, Isgandarova S, Yang Y, Zhou Y, Rao A, You MJ, Sun D, Huang Y. Mutations in 5-methylcytosine oxidase TET2 and RhoA cooperatively disrupt T cell homeostasis. J. Clin. Invest. (2017) Aug 1;127(8):2998-3012. doi: 10.1172/JCI92026. Epub 2017 Jul 10.
Huang A, Wu H, Iriyama T, Zhang Y, Sun K, Song A, Liu H, Peng Z, Tang L, Lee M, Huang Y, Ni X, Kellems RE, Xia Y. Elevated Adenosine Induces Placental DNA Hypomethylation Independent of A2B Receptor Signaling in Preeclampsia. Hypertension. (2017) Jul;70(1):209-218. doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.117.09536. Epub 2017 May 15.
Lee M*, Li J*, Liang Y*, Ma G*, Zhang J, He L, Liu Y, Li Q, Li M, Sun D, Zhou Y and Huang Y. Engineered Split-TET2 Enzyme for Inducible Epigenetic Remodeling. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (*Authors contributed equally.) (2017) Mar 23. doi: 10.1021/jacs.7b01459.

Email Address: genedharma@tamu.edu
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab: Dr. Axel Hook

Class of 2013

Email Address: jessie.lican74@tamu.edu
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab: Dr. Peter Davies
Research Interests: Identification and Characterization of Drug combinations exhibiting synergistic lethality in pediatric high-grade gliomas
Abstracts and Presentations: Discovery of Small-Molecule Inhibitors of the HSP90-Calcineurin-NFAT Pathway against Glioblastoma.

Email Address: sthomas6@tamu.edu
Undergraduate:
Undergraduate Degree:
Lab: Dr. Axel Hook

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