Author: Marlene Zajaczkowski

IGP Award Winners at 41st Annual Graduate Student Research Day

The annual Biomedical Science Graduate Student Research Day is an annual celebration of the research accomplishments of the students in the Biomedical Science PhD program at UConn Health. The Department of Immunology celebrates the accomplishments of all students and congratulates these 6 award winners from different laboratories.

  • Andreia Cadar: Graduate Student Mentorship Award (Mentor: Dr. Jenna Bartley Ziming Cao: 1st Place Poster Presentation Award (Mentor: Dr. Zhichao Fan)
  • Ziming Cao: 1st Place Poster Presentation Award  (Mentor: Dr. Zhichao Fan)
  • Timofey Karginov – Edward G. Henderson Memorial Prize for Outstanding Thesis in Biomedical Science (Mentor: Dr. Anthony Vella)
  • William Theune - Lepow Award for Outstanding Biomedical Science PhD Student Entering the 4th Year of Study (Mentor: Dr. Kepeng Wang)
  • Vincent Graziano: 1st Place Oral Presentation Award (Mentor: Dr. Vijay Rathinam)
  • Kristina Delgado: 3rd Place Poster Presentation Award (Mentors: Dr. Radolf, Dr. Hawley, Dr. Caimano)

Dr. Bernard Cook

William Theune Receives the 2024 Lepow Award

William Theune received the 2024 Lepow Award for Outstanding Biomedical PhD Student entering the 4th year of study at the Graduate Student Research Day.  This award, established in 1986 in honor of Dr. Irwin H. Lepow, a well-known faculty member, researcher and founding father of UConn Health, is given to the outstanding fourth-year student in the Biomedical Science Ph.D. program. William studies under the mentorship of Dr. Kepeng Wang.

Dr. Wang and William Thuene

Andreia Cadar wins Graduate Student Mentorship Award

Congratulations to Andreia Cadar for receiving the Graduate Student Mentorship Award at the 2024 Graduate Student Research Day.  This award is presented to a student for their outstanding and sustained contributions in mentoring activities that improve graduate student life and further the overall educational mission of the university. Andreia has committed substantial efforts toward outreach and mentorship both at UConn Health and throughout the community to help provide opportunity to younger students and train future scientists. Andreia’s thesis project focuses on the impact of senescence cells on age-related declines in immune responses. More specifically, her research aims to evaluate the ability of senolytic therapies to improve vaccine responses in aged mice. Dr. Jenna Bartley is her mentor.

Dr. Bartley and Andreia Cadar

Timofey Karginov receives the Edward G Henderson Award

Timofey Karginov received the 2024 Henderson Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis in Biomedical Science at the annual Graduate Student Research Day.   This prize was established in memory of Edward G. Henderson, Ph.D., a faculty member in the Department of Pharmacology from 1968 to 1997. Dr. Henderson is remembered for his commitment to graduate education and his dedication to the supervision of graduate students.  Timofey studied under the mentorship of Dr. Anthony Vella.

Dr. Vella and Timofey Karginov

Kristina Delgado wins award at 2024 Graduate Student Research Day

Congratulations to Kristina Delgado for receiving the third-place poster presentation award at the 2024 Graduate Student Research Day.   Kristina’s project centers around the development of a vaccine against Treponema pallidum (Tp), the causative agent of syphilis.  Under the mentorship of Drs. Justin Radolf, Kelly Hawley, and Melissa Caimano, Kristina’s research focuses on identifying surface-exposed loops of Tp ß-barrel-forming outer membrane proteins (OMPs) to inform vaccine candidate selection.  Her use of long-term in vitro  cultivation of Tp allowed for the development of a GFP+ Tp strain, which enables precise tracking of bacterial infections with the immune system, significantly advancing the field’s ability to study spirochete-host dynamics and identify effective vaccinogens.

Kristina Delgado

Dr. Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja and Ms. Skylar Wright’s Paper Published in Cell Reports

Congratulations Dr. Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja and Ms. Skylar Wright for having their paper, “A bacterial toxin co-opts caspase-3 to disable active gasdermin D and limit macrophage pyroptosis”  published in the journal Cell Reports. The paper, first-authored by Ms. Skylar Wright, a graduate student, identified a novel molecular mechanism by which a clinically significant human pathogen, Enterohemorrhagic E. coli, utilizes its virulence factor, Shiga toxin, to effectively suppress host protective noncanonical inflammasome responses.

Dr. Kailasan Vanaja and Skylar Wright