Timofey “Tima” Karginov Receives AAI Young Investigator Award

Posted on by Sheryl Rosen

Congratulations to Timofey “Tima” Karginov for receiving the AAI Young Investigator Award at the 2021 New England Immunology Conference. Tima is enrolled in the M.D./Ph.D. Program in Biomedical Sciences (Immunology Concentration) working under the mentorship of Dr. Anthony Vella. Tima’s project, which has been a team effort with lab instructor Dr. Antoine Ménoret, is entitled “Optimal T cell immune responses require costimulation-induced RNA-binding proteins that reprogram the transcript isoform landscape.”

Timofey Karginov standing with two faculty in front of his poster presentation

Center on Aging Awarded Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center Grant

Posted on by Sheryl Rosen

Dr. Laura Haynes standing with Drs. Zhichao Fan and Jenna BartleyThe UConn Center on Aging has been awarded a Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) grant. “Pepper Centers” were established by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to develop and enhance research and education at institutions with strong programs in aging research. Drs. George Kuchel and Richard Fortinsky are the principal investigators who led this effort.

The UConn Pepper Center will focus on “precision gerontology” which seeks to enhance independence in older adults through approaches designed to better understand the uniqueness of each older individual in a manner that can lead to the design, testing and implementation of clinical interventions that are more targeted and precise. It will be focused in approaches that will enhance independence relative to mobility, memory and behavior, host defense and infection, and voiding.

The Cores associated with the Pepper Center will provide investigators with assistance in recruiting human subjects, data analysis, biomarker discovery and preclinical model development. There will also be opportunities for UConn investigators to apply for funds for pilot projects in aging research and for new investigators to become Pepper Scholars.

Dr. Laura Haynes from the Center on Aging and the Department of Immunology will lead the Biomarker and Preclinical models core and Drs. Jenna Bartley and Zhichao Fan will be involved in a developmental project related to this core.

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Blake Torrance Named 2021 Recipient of Kalman/AFAR Scholarship for Research in the Biology of Aging

Posted on by Sheryl Rosen

Congratulations to Blake Torrance who has been named a 2021 recipient of the Kalman/AFAR Scholarship for Research in the Biology of Aging from the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR). Blake is enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Biomedical Sciences (Immunology Concentration) working under the mentorship of the Dr. Laura Haynes. Blake’s project is entitled “Investigating the Role of the Senescent Environment in Shaping T cell Immunity following Influenza Vaccination.”

Laura Haynes, Ph.D., standing outside with Blake Torrance

Andrew Harrison Receives the 2021 Lepow Award

Posted on by Sheryl Rosen

Andrew Harrison received the 2021 Lepow Award 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. Andrew studies under the mentorship of Dr. Penghua Wang.

Andrew Harrison holding an award certificate standing on the right next to Penghua Wang

Evan Jellison Receives 2021 Osborn Award for Excellence in Biomedical Science Graduate Teaching

Posted on by Sheryl Rosen

Dr. Evan Jellison, associate professor in the Department of Immunology, was selected as the 2021 recipient of the Osborn Award for Excellence in Biomedical Science Graduate Teaching. The intention of this award is to recognize a UConn Health Graduate School faculty member for his or her commitment to providing the best education in the classroom and training in the laboratory.

Evan Jellison, Ph.D.

Ashley Russo Receives 2021 Henderson Award for Ph.D. Thesis

Posted on by Sheryl Rosen

Ashley Russo received the 2021 Henderson Award 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. Ashley studied under the mentorship of Dr. Vijay Rathinam.

Ashley Russo standing next to Dr. Vijay Rathinam

Jianbin Ruan Paper Accepted for Publication in Nature

Posted on by Sheryl Rosen

In this paper, Gasdermin D pore structure reveals preferential release of mature interleukin-1, Ruan and collaborators reported the cryo-EM structure of human Gasdermin D (GSDMD) pore, an inflammatory cell death executioner molecule, at 3.9 Å resolution. GSDMD pore exhibits large differences in symmetry and dimensions from the previously reported GSDMA3, a mouse homolog. Beyond the structure of the human GSDMD pore, the paper also demonstrated that GSDMD forms an acidic shield that directly regulates IL-1 secretion via a charge-based mechanism. This discovery will facilitate future investigation into the GSDMD secretome and, to our knowledge, first proposes how large transmembrane pores may achieve substrate selectivity. This study is a collaborative effort between Dr. Ruan’s lab and the laboratories of Wu and Lieberman at Harvard Medical School, the laboratory of Greka at Broad Institute of MIT, and the laboratory of Jacobson at the University of California San Francisco.

Jianbin Ruan, Ph.D.