Postdoc News

Photo of Dr. Sam Barlow holding a diamond shaped award and standing next to another man holding a microphone

Sam Barlow, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Tom Blanpied's lab, received first prize in the postdoctoral fellow category of Regeneron's 11th annual Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation. This award came with a $50,000 prize. Dr. Barlow is interested in how neurons in the brain communicate with one another at specialized connections called “synapses.” His work is providing a new understanding of how synaptic communication works normally and will help reveal which aspects of this process might be dysfunctional in patients with schizophrenia.

Stephanie Pollitt, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Physiology, received a three-year, $202,746 F32 Individual NRSA Fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) entitled, “Mechanisms of cell adhesion molecule LRRTM2 in basal and potentiated synaptic signaling.”

Aijah K. B. Goodwin, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) received the 2022 American Psychological Association Division 16 – School Psychology – Outstanding Dissertation Award. Her dissertation, entitled The Role of School Sociocultural Factors on the Academic Competence and Mental Health of Elementary-Aged Children, examines the direct and protective impact of culturally responsive practices in schools in relation to discrimination, ethnic match, and school well-being for elementary students from caregivers' perspectives.

Daiana C.O. Vieira, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physiology, won a poster award at the 75^th Meeting of the Society of General Physiologists. The meeting was from 7-11 September 2022, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Louis Taylor, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Microbiology won the Fraser Award in Microbiology and was first author on the paper entitled "Redondovirus Diversity and Evolution on Global, Individual, and Molecular Scales" in Virology.

Congratulations to our 3 Spring 2022 Postdoc Travel Award Winners:

Jennifer McDaniels, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Surgery
Miguel Lujan, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
Ganna Galistska, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Microbiology

Brittany Drazich, PhD, MSN, RN, Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Nursing received a $50,000 Robert Wood Johnson Future of Nursing Scholars Post-Doctoral Research Grant.

AAAS Announces Ryan Richardson

as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow

Washington DC — Ryan Richardson of has been awarded a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship (STPF) with a placement at the BRAIN Initiative in the Office of the Director at NIH.

Ryan Richardson, Ph.D. is among 284 highly trained scientists and engineers who will spend a year serving professionally in federal agencies and congressional offices as a Science & Technology Policy Fellow. The U.S. government benefits from the contributions of highly trained scientists and engineers while they learn first-hand about federal policymaking and implementation.

For nearly half a century, the fellowship program has been in place as part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) mission to advance science and serve society. The program aims to support evidence-based policymaking by leveraging the knowledge and analytical mindset of science and engineering experts, and foster leaders for a strong U.S. science and technology enterprise. Fellows represent a full spectrum disciplines, backgrounds and career stages.

The 2020-21 class is comprised of 284 fellows sponsored by AAAS and partner societies. Of these, 30 will serve in Congress, one will serve at the Federal Judicial Center, and 253 in the executive branch among 17 federal agencies or departments.

“Particularly in this age of COVID-19, we are proud and grateful to usher in the 48^th class of Science & Technology Policy Fellows in September,” said STPF Director Jennifer Pearl. “The present state of the world demands a strong link between science and policy.”

Since the program’s inception in 1973, more than 3,400 fellows have supported the executive, judicial and legislative branches of the U.S. government. After the fellowship, many fellows remain in the policy arena working at the federal, state, regional or international level. Others pursue careers in academia, industry or the nonprofit sector, leveraging their fellowship experiences to enhance their contributions and broaden their reach.

Visit www.aaas.org/stpf to learn more about the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships.

Megan Fox, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Mary Kay Lobo, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, was the recipient of a two-year K99 $351,584 award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH/NIDA) for “Circuit-Specific Molecular Mechanisms in Fentanyl Use and Relapse.”

Sara Codding, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, in the Lab of Matthew Trudeau, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, was honored in February with the 2020 Paul F. Cranefield Post-doctoral Fellow Award by the Society of General Physiology for her manuscript, “The hERG Potassium Channel Intrinsic Ligand Regulates N- and C-Terminal Interactions and Channel Closure,” in the Journal of General Physiology. This study uncovered a novel structural and functional role of the intrinsic ligand in the potassium channel hERG using whole cell electrophysiology and spectral FRET techniques. Dr. Codding has been featured by SGP on their website and twitter @SGPweb.

Stuart Weston, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and his mentor, Matthew Frieman, PhD, have been have been cited in many news outlets about their expertise in corona virus research. Dr. Weston has also started his own YouTube channel entitled "Diaries of a Coronavirologist" where he talks about his knowledge and experience.

Congratulations to our 3 Spring 2020 Postdoc Travel Award Winners (from left to right):

Megan Fox, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
Cali Calarco, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
DeAnna Friedman-Klabanoff, MD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Pediatrics

Sara Keefer, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, has recently published a first author paper entitled "Effects of limited and extended Pavlovian training on devaluation sensitivity of sigh- and goal-tracking rats" in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.

Cali Calarco, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, was recently appointed to both the inaugural cohort for the NIH's Outstanding Scholars in Neuroscience Award Program and the Society for Neuroscience Trainee Advisory Committee.

DeAnna Friedman-Klabanoff, MD was awarded the Pichichero Family Foundation Research Development, Vaccines for Children Initiative Award in Pediatric Infectious Diseases by the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society in October 2019.

Brian Johnson, OTR/L, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, attended the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Capitol Hill Day in Washington, D.C. on September 23. He led a delegation of occupational therapy students and clinicians to advocate for healthcare policy with senators and representatives from Wisconsin, Florida, New York, and New Jersey.

Humberto Joca, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Biomedical Engineering and Technology, was a co-author on the paper entitled “ATP-Dependent and Voltage-Regulated Blood Flow in Heart: Electro-Metabolic Signaling,” which was published in the March 2020 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Emily Deichsel, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Pediatrics, received an early career development award from the Thrasher Research Fund to study the effect of azithromycin

James Borrelli, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, was a co-author of “Protective Arm Movements Are Modulated with Fall Height,” which was published in the Journal of Biomechanics on January 23, 2020.

As one of several people from the Department of Psychiatry, Samantha Reaves, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, led a state kick-off meeting in Arizona as part of their National Quality Initiative on School Health Services in October 2019. They partnered with state leaders from the Departments of Education and Behavioral Health to guide five school districts in strategic planning to advance school mental health.

Myeongjin Choi, DVM, PhD, in the Department of Medicine and the Center for Vaccine Development, has been designated as a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology.

Yasmine Cisse, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology, has been awarded an F32 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development entitled Programmatic role of "Maternal preconception stress on offspring metabolic health".