September 16, 2024. Dr. Kshitiz, associate professor at CCAM, receives the $2.5 million NIH grant to understand how previous scars from cesarean surgery can pave the way for aggressive invasion of the placenta into the mother’s uterus, and sometimes beyond. Kshitiz will be working alongside Dr. Molly Brewer from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Kshitiz supervises the Evolutionary Medicine Laboratory at UConn Health, investigating the unique evolutionary history of maternal fetal interface, harnessing the knowledge to develop therapies for human diseases, including cancer.

September 4, 2024. Jinhong Dong was awarded the 2024 Ann Cowan* Outstanding Student Award in
Systems Biology, which recognizes a student with exceptional academic and scholarly achievements in the previous academic year. Jinhong presented at the 2023 International Conference of Systems Biology and the 2024 Cold Spring Harbor Systems Biology meeting. Jinhong’s thesis work addresses a fundamental question in the gene regulation field: what are the molecular mechanisms by which transcription factor proteins can paradoxically repress and activate genes? The work is currently making it through the peer review process and a preprint is available on bioRχiv: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.13.594008. In addition, Jinhong’s expertise in ChIP-seq and ATAC-seq experiments and analysis prompted an invitation to participate as a teaching assistant for the 2024 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Chromatin, Epigenetics & Gene Expression course. Jinhong is regarded as an ideal lab citizen who is always willing to help her peers and colleagues. Congratulations to Jinhong!  

*Dr. Ann Cowan, Professor Emerita, has been a champion for graduate students at UConn Health generally, and particularly in the Systems Biology area of concentration. This annual prize is named in honor of her vast contributions to our graduate program.