Day in the life of UConn Health Graduate Student, Megan Callender

June 20, 2026

 

Meet Megan Callender! Megan is a predoctoral affiliate in the Varn Lab at JAX, earning a Ph.D. in Biomedical Science through UConn Health. Megan’s research explores genomics approaches to investigate the impact of aging on brain cancer progression.

Megan is a predoctoral student in the Genetics and Developmental Biology Area of Concentration.  The Genetics and Developmental Biology Area of Concentration within the Biomedical Science Ph.D. program provides students with fundamental interdisciplinary training in modern molecular genetics and developmental biology, emphasizing cellular and molecular aspects as well as tissue interactions.  The concentration prepares students to compete for job opportunities in traditional medical and dental school departments as well as a productive research career in either academia or industry.

The Jackson Laboratory’s Cooperative Ph.D. Program provides training in mammalian genetics, neuroscience and genomic medicine through partnerships with degree-granting academic institutions, including Tufts University School of Medicine, UConn Health and The University of Maine.

For more information, visit Ph.D. Training at JAX

Dr. Charles Lee Joining UConn School of Medicine as Associate Dean

May 27, 2026

Charles Lee, Ph.D., DSc, FACMG, FRSC, has been recruited to the UConn School of Medicine from The Jackson Laboratory, where he served as the inaugural director of The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine and helped build one of the nation’s leading programs in translational genomics and human disease research. Lee’s appointment is effective June 26, 2026.

Lee brings to UConn and his new role as Associate Dean of Translational Genomics and Professor of Genetics and Genome Science in the School of Medicine, his rare combination of discovery science, clinical genomics expertise, institutional leadership, and public-health impact as a pioneering human geneticist, clinical cytogeneticist, and academic leader.

More details can be found at UConn Today

Newly Endowed Chairs and Professors Celebrated at UConn School of Medicine

January 28, 2026

Transformative research of UConn medical school faculty Danielle Luciano, Pedro Mendes, Sarah Feldstein Ewing, Guangfu Li, Patrick Murphy, and Xiaoyan Guo, being generously supported by philanthropic donations to UConn’s medical school through the UConn Foundation.

Xiaoyan Guo, Ph.D. joined the School of Medicine in 2022 in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences. Guo’s Lab is actively investigating how mitochondria cross talk with the rest of the cell in health and diseases using CRISPR-based functional genomics. Her lab aims to identify potential therapeutic targets for these diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

More details at UConn Today

New Vice President of the Gerontological Society of America is from UConn

January 13, 2026

Blanka Rogina, M.S., Ph.D., of the UConn School of Medicine has been newly elected vice president of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). Rogina will serve a 1-year term in this national leadership position, beginning January 2026.

Rogina serves UConn School of Medicine as professor of Genetics and Genome Sciences and is an affiliated investigator of the UConn Center on Aging. Her research focus is to identify and characterize molecular mechanisms of aging and to find key players that contribute to extended healthspan and longevity—placing her squarely as an expert in gerontology. 

More details at UConn Today

LIVE LONGER ON A HEALTHY DIET AT ANY AGE

October 9, 2025

Fruit flies are sharing life lessons. Researchers report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that switching a fruit fly’s diet to a low-calorie one is a reliable way to extend lifespan, even for old flies in ill health. In fact, old, obese flies get healthier and live longer if put on a diet. If the effect holds true for humans, it would mean it’s never too late for obese people to improve their health with diet. For the fruit fly study, researchers mimicked the modern highly processed food diet of humans with a high-calorie, high-sugar, high-protein diet. Switching these obese flies to a low-calorie diet, even very late in life. dramatically changed their metabolisms and extended their lives. The research was led by geneticist Blanka Rogina in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences and the Institute for Systems Genomics.

“The remarkable finding of this study is that even after living a significant portion of their lives on a high-calorie diet, flies can gain the benefits of life span extension by simply switching to a low-calorie diet.” Commented by Brenton Gravelcy, Ph.D., Co-rescarcher, Professor, and Chair, Genetics and Genome Sciences

More details can be found here.png

Nagham Farah receives prestigious 2025 Henderson Award

August 22, 2025

The Graduate Programs Committee has selected Nagham Farah from the Genetics and Developmental Biology Graduate program as the recipient of the 2025 Henderson Award. This award is given annually to the student with the best dissertation in the Biomedical Science PhD program. The title of her dissertation was “Cerebellar Hemisphere Formation: Purkinje Cell Diversity and the FOXP Code”.  The award was established in honor of Dr. Edward G. Henderson, a member of the Pharmacology Department and one of the first faculty members of the University of Connecticut Health Center.  Nagham did her Thesis work in Dr. James’s Li lab and, upon graduation, accepted a postdoctoral position at Yale University.

Genomics Researcher Brent Graveley Is a ‘Conduit’ to Jax

Stem-cell Research Funding Key to Bioscience Collaboration