Courtney Broedlow and Ian Mills were appointed to the Systems-Level Research in Microbial Pathogenesis T-32.
Ian Mills attended the 9th JCA-AACR Special Joint Conference Novel Therapies and Diagnostics in Upper Digestive and Head and Neck Cancers in Kyoto, Japan. There, he is presented his poster entitled "Comprehensive Metabolomic Profiling of HNSCC Cell Lines Reveal Model Specific Pathways Underlying Cell Function."
Deborah Delgado Herrera published two papers this summer:
Delgado Herrera DC, Roman AA, Campbell RN, Lasse-Opsahl E, McCracken C, Sadzewicz L, Tallon L, Fertig EJ, Ferrer CM. GSTT1 promotes stemness and FGFR inhibitor sensitivity in pancreatic cancer through regulation of CD133 (PROM1). Cancer Lett. 2026 Jul 25;658:218733. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2026.218733. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 42498075.
Delgado Herrera DC, Ferrer CM. KRAS on Empty: Lipid Oxidation Blockade Reveals a Metabolic Achilles' Heel in Pancreatic Cancer. Cancer Res. 2026 Jul 15;86(14):3374-3376. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-25-1877. PMID: 42452976.
Eliza Douglass was recently awarded an F31 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the Trainee Professional Development Award from Society for Neuroscience to present her research at the annual conference this November.
Emma Gudmundsson and Lily Eisenklam were appointed to the Training Program in Cellular and Molecular Membrane Biology T-32 as first-year students.
Congratulations to our Sumer 2026 Molecular Medicine PhD graduates:
Dr. Bosung Shim, Dr. Christopher Shults, Dr. Robert Lease, & Dr. Shriya Madan
Courtney Broedlow will be giving an oral talk and poster presentation at American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Microbe in DC this June. The talk of her title is "Gene-Level Signatures Distinguish Metronidazole Responders and Non-Responders in the Vaginal Microbiome."
Courtney Broedlow was awarded support from the MPower Early Scholars Investment Fund.
Payel Das will participate in the Neuroscience Scholars Program in Summer 2026 as mentor. This is a 5-week summer research experience designed to prepare rising and current undergraduates from Baltimore for graduate school and STEM careers.
Congratulations to our students who have passed their qualifying exams in Spring/Fall 2026:
Aura Celniker, Catie Corolla, Courtney Broedlow, Deborah Delgado Herrera, Gyubyung Park, Jessica Oswald, Katherine Koestler, Kevin Wilkinson, Martin Sikhondze, Scott Gallagher, Sofia Perry, Sungeun Jo, Tessa Maidens, Ying Wang, & Yumna Ahmed
Deborah Delgado Herrera gave a talk on her latest research titled "GSTT1 Enrichment in Slow-Cycling Drug-Tolerant Persister Cells as the New 'Achilles' Heel' of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma" at the 4th Annual The Cells in Focus Symposium at the John Hopkins University Bloomberg Center on April 10, 2026.
Garis Grant and Rebecca Marker both presented posters at the 4th Annual The Cells in Focus Symposium at the John Hopkins University Bloomberg Center on April 10, 2026.
Garis' Poster was titled "Characterizing the Impacts of Macrophage Polarization States and CD47 status in Primary versus Metastatic PDAC."
Rebecca's Poster was titled "Hypoxia-mediated suppression and memory of IFI44L and its interaction with STING in breast cancer metastasis and immune evasion."
Rebecca Marker presented her poster titled "Hypoxia-mediated suppression and memory of IFI44L and its interaction with STING in breast cancer metastasis and immune evasion" at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2026 in San Diego.
Congratulations to the winners from the Molecular Medicine Poster Session as a part of Accepted Students Day on March 16, 2026:
Best Cancer Biology Poster - Nicole Flegel - "Regulated Expression of ZAP-70 to modify T cell functions"
Best Genome Biology Poster - Madeleine Ndahayo - "The functional role of UBASH3B in HPV-Negative Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma and its implications on racial disparities"
Best Physiology Poster - Eliza Douglass - "The effects of chronic alcohol on prefrontal cortical control over the dorsolateral striatum"
Congratulations to our Spring 2026 Molecular Medicine PhD graduates:
Dr. Daniela Fuller, Dr. Darin Gilchrist, & Dr. Sagarina Thapa
Katie Ko published a co-first authored paper in Nature Communications.
Ko, K., Tebben, K., Andrianinarivomanana, T. et al. A common DNA deletion altering the 3’UTR of mdr1 is associated with reduced mefloquine susceptibility in P. vivax parasites from Cambodian patients. Nat Commun 17, 1748 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68456-7
Aditi Biswas gave a talk entitled 'Neurodevelopmental, physiological, and genomic defects in models of Nprl2-associated focal cortical dysplasia and the potential for rapamycin pharmacotherapy' for the Nanosymposium at Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2025.
Kevin Wilkinson was recently appointed to the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Muscle Biology T-32.
Kelly Griffiths and Rebecca Marker were appointed to the Cancer Biology Training Program T-32.
Martin Sikhondze was awarded the prestigious Genentech-Meyerhoff Fellowship and will spend Summer 2026 as a research intern at Genentech headquarters in San Francisco, California.
Amir Mehrabani published the following paper as a co-first author:
Mehrabani-Tabari AA, Hegdekar N, Bustos S, Morel Y, Ji Y, Kachi SA, Pettyjohn-Robin O, Thapa S, Bhattiprolu M, Lipinski MM, Jones JW, Sarkar C. Peroxisomal ether-glycerophospholipid synthesis is dysregulated after TBI. J Lipid Res. 2025 Jun;66(6):100821. doi: 10.1016/j.jlr.2025.100821. Epub 2025 May 7. PMID: 40345661; PMCID: PMC12255425.
Congratulations to our Fall 2025 Molecular Medicine PhD graduates:
Dr. Amir Mehrabani Tabari, Dr. Blair Ptak, Dr. Diane Terry, Dr. Dipanwita Dutta Chowdhury, & Dr. Mashhood Wani
Adarsha Malla received an award from the NIH Outstanding Scholars in Neuroscience Award Program (OSNAP) and has been invited to participate in the OSNAP Award Symposium in Fall 2025.
Amir Mehrabani was selected to present his research entitled "Lysosomal Myelin Accumulation in Mononuclear Phagocytes contributes to Inflammation and Autophagy Impairment after Traumatic Brain Injury" at the Johns Hopkins Baltimore Brain Series Award.
Nicole Flegel presented her poster entitled "Absolute Levels of ZAP70 Kinase Influence Maturation and Functional Responses of Peripheral T Cells" at the American Association of Immunologists Annual Conference in Hawaii.
Mashhood Wani published a first author paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC)
Wani MM, Cooper JM, Migliorini M, Strickland DK. The LDL receptor related protein 1 (LRP1) facilitates ACE2-mediated endocytosis of SARS-CoV2 spike protein-containing pseudovirions. J Biol Chem. 2025 May 9:110227. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2025.110227. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40349772.
Congratulations to our Summer 2025 Molecular Medicine PhD graduates:
Dr. Julia Ju, Dr. Matthew Eason, & Dr. Pranjali Kanvinde
Congratulations to our students who have passed their qualifying exams in Spring/Fall 2025:
Belen Avelar, Cinthia Flores, Dhanashree Deore, Ethan McCaslin, Madeleine Ndahayo, Temiloluwa Okusolubo, Jessica Cornell, Katie Ko, & Nicole Flegel
Deborah Delgado (2nd from the left below) won first place for her oral presentation at the 15th Annual Cancer Biology Research Retreat entitled "The glutathione S-transferase Gstt1 mediates metastatic stemness and sensitivity to FGFR inhibitors in pancreatic cancer through regulation of the cancer stem cell factor PROM1."
