Editing the Brain @ University of Maryland School of Medicine
Our paper with Gene Blatt in Journal of Comparative Neurology on the evolution of neuroanatomical tracing methods came out today with Cheryl’s beautiful electroporated, cleared, and light sheet imaged hippocampus gracing the cover, alongside Dee Pandya’s India Ink traces. Happy New Year everyone!
Corinne Martin was awarded a 2023 national Goldwater Scholarship!!! We couldn’t be prouder of her! Corinne spent two years as an NSIP intern in the lab, critically working on Pegassist and researching the links between brain development and brain cancer. Corinne’s ideas spawned new paths of investigation on how common cellular pathways in development get aberrantly reactivated in tumor cells. With a Goldwater scholarship, we are all excited to see the new frontiers Corinne will take on at the forefront of biomedical research! Congratulations Corinne!!!
https://eng.umd.edu/news/story/two-umd-bioengineering-majors-named-2023-goldwater-scholars
Follow our science at the 4 PouLab posters at SfN 2022 in San Diego!
Cheryl Brandenburg on Monday morning (Y5):
“Light sheet mapping of parvalbumin subtypes of Purkinje cells using in vivo CRISPR strategies“
Colin Robertson on Monday afternoon (YY36):
“Neural somatic genome editing in the brain for personalized patient models“
Garrett Bunce and Ro Whitten on Wednesday morning (B31):
“The novel gene Ganon-1 produces a scaffolding RNA for growth signaling in developing axon projections“
Andrea Romanowski on Wednesday morning (C45):
“Mosaic Cas9 fusions to investigate cortical wiring by IgLON schizophrenia risk-genes in the rodent brain”
See you all at #SFN2022
Garrett hosts NOVA’s Halal on the Lawn, then gives a talk on the lncRNA he discovered; Andrea does supply runs, then gives a talk on multiplexing schizophrenia risk genes with CRISPR; Elise handles donation logistics, and attends both talks! And at the end of a good day’s work, the lab celebrates Alex’s birthday.
PouLab postdoc Cheryl Brandenburg was awarded a 2021 Autism Research Institute (ARI) grant for her work on “Cerebellar Circuits in 3D: Screening autism-associated genes in cleared brains with in utero CRISPR genome editing“. Congratulations Cheryl!!! Here is just a snippet of the mind-bending 3D cerebellar circuits from Cheryl’s in vivo edited Purkinje cells…!
Corinne Martin, a rising sophomore majoring in Bioengineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, joined the lab as part of the Nathan Schnaper Intern Program in Translational Cancer Research (NSIP).
Corinne is working on the genetic intersections between neoplasia and brain development, mining patient genome databases and using in vivo genome editing to probe effects on brain circuit development.
Colin Robertson comes to us from the Program in Neuroscience, with a particular interest in synapse pruning and circuit maturation. From day one, Colin (on the left) fit right in…! More soon on the exciting new science he’s after!
Cheryl Brandenburg comes to us from the Hussman Institute, and brings with her a PhD in Neuroscience, a knack for cerebellar circuits, and a passion for autism research! We’re excited to see where she takes her science next…!
Bek Altas and Alex Poulopoulos were Awarded by the Graduate School of Life Sciences with the 2020 Postdoctoral Fellow Excellence in Mentorship Award and Teacher of the Year Award, a lab dynamic duo in mentorship!!!
Congratulations to PIN postdoctoral fellow Dr. Bekir Altas for winning the Postdoctoral Fellow Excellence in Mentorship Award for an outstanding record of supportive mentorship to PIN and GPILS trainees! pic.twitter.com/RJNx37O9lJ
— Univ of Maryland School of Medicine Neuroscience (@UMMedNeuro) October 26, 2020
