{"id":3456,"date":"2021-11-18T06:50:13","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T11:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/genetics\/?page_id=3456"},"modified":"2025-08-28T11:52:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T15:52:33","slug":"t32-appointees-2020-2025","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/genetics\/t32-appointees-2020-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"T32 Appointees 2020-2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div>

\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Appointments<\/strong><\/td>\nStudent<\/strong><\/td>\nPhoto<\/strong><\/td>\nProject Description<\/strong><\/td>\nMentor<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
September 2024 \u2013 December 2025<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/td>\n		Nicholas Legere<\/span><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nUsing custom mouse models to investigate the molecular mechanisms of heart failure and leveraging these findings to improve heart function in response to cardiovascular stress.\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nJ. Travis Hinson<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
September 2024 \u2013 December 2025<\/span><\/td>\nAnna\u00a0Struba<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nStudying mRNA regulation during the maternal-to-zygotic transition, and how 3\u2019UTR content can influence mRNA translation and stability during this transition.<\/span><\/td>\nJean-Denis Beaudoin<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
September 2024 \u2013 December 2025<\/span><\/td>\nIsha\u00a0Walawalkar<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nDeciphering how poison exons regulate alternative splicing in pluripotency and early embryonic development.<\/span><\/td>\nOlga Anczuk\u00f3w<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
November 2023 \u2013 October 2025<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/td>\n		Bethlehem (Betty) Abebe<\/span><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n Biochemical, genomic, and structural analysis on protein complexes involved in cytokinesis in both Fission Yeast and mice to better understand the implications on health and disease.<\/span><\/td>\nSteven Z. Chou<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
September 2023 \u2013 August 2025<\/span><\/td>\nCullen Clairmont<\/span><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nModeling intracranial germ cell tumors with primordial germ cells derived from genetically engineered human stem cells<\/span><\/td>\nChing Lau<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
September 2023 \u2013 August 2025<\/span><\/td>\nRachael Massey<\/span><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nStudying how females inactivate one of their X chromosomes (XCI), how some genes escape XCI, and how these genes contribute to sex differences and sex chromosomal disorders.<\/td>\nStefan Pinter<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
September 2022 \u2013 August 2024<\/td>\nMian Horvath<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nFactors that affect elderly health and gain new research tools that will aid me in conducting research to reduce disease burden among the elderly.<\/td>\nJulia Oh<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
September 2022 \u2013 May 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

Left the Program<\/span><\/td>\n

Billy Joe Huggins<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nInvestigating the molecular mechanisms that govern aging.<\/td>\nBlanka Rogina<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
September 2022 \u2013 August 2024<\/td>\nChristopher Pathoulas<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nStudying the genetic basis of diseases in an effort to develop therapeutic strategies that can exploit genotypic differences.<\/td>\nPatrick Murphy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
November 2021 - October 2023<\/td>\nElizabeth Szabo<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nUsing CRISPR gene editing to model patient-derived MSH6 germline variants in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).<\/td>\nChristopher Heinen<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
September 2021 - August 2023<\/td>\nEden Francoeur<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nThe extent and impact of intra-species structural variation in complex repeat loci.<\/td>\nChristine Beck<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
September 2021 - August 2023<\/td>\nMonica Dave<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nThe role of senescent genetic signatures in early placental development.<\/td>\nPaul Robson<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
August 2020 - July 2022<\/p>\n

Ph.D. requirements completed March 2023<\/td>\n

Rachel Cohn<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nTranscriptomic signatures of senescent cells<\/td>\nLaura Haynes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
August 2020 - July 2022<\/p>\n

Graduated with Ph.D. December 2023<\/p>\n

Current position: Assistant Computational Scientist at JAX, Farmington, CT<\/td>\n

Ardian Ferraj<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nDetection and effects of structural variation and polymorphic transposable element insertions in diverse mouse genomes.<\/td>\nChristine Beck<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
August 2020 - July 2022<\/p>\n

Graduated with Ph.D. June 2023<\/p>\n

Dr. Gilmore has accepted a position as a Post-doctoral researcher at Heidelberg University Germany<\/td>\n

Rachel Gilmore<\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\nInvestigating the multifaceted role of chromosome 15q11-q13 in Prader-Willi syndrome<\/td>\nJustin Cotney<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u200b Appointments Student Photo Project Description Mentor September 2024 \u2013 December 2025 Nicholas Legere Using custom mouse models to investigate the molecular mechanisms of heart failure and leveraging these findings to improve heart function in response to cardiovascular stress.\u00a0 J. Travis Hinson September 2024 \u2013 December 2025 Anna\u00a0Struba Studying mRNA regulation during the maternal-to-zygotic transition, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 04:11:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/genetics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/genetics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/genetics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/genetics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/genetics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3456"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/genetics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5370,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/genetics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3456\/revisions\/5370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/genetics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}