Dr. Doug DeSimone, Chair of Cell Biology, has announced that Dr. James Casanova and Dr. Bettina Winckler, both Professors in the Department of Cell Biology, have been appointed as Co-Directors of the Cell & Developmental Biology Graduate Program.  Both of these researchers have extensive experience in training PhD students in their laboratories, teaching graduate courses and administering graduate programs.  Dr. DeSimone expressed the department’s appreciation to Dr. Ann Sutherland, who has been the Director of Graduate Studies for cell Biology for the past four years.

The Department of Cell Biology congratulates Jessica Neville Little, an MSTP (MD-PhD) student working in Dr. Noelle Dwyer’s laboratory, who has been awarded an NIH F30 Pre-Doctoral National Research Service Award, a fellowship program for MD/PhD students. The title of her funded project is “Defective abscission and apoptosis of neural progenitor cells in a novel model of microcephaly”. The goal of the research is to understand how mutation of the kinesin Kif20b motor protein results in microcephaly through apoptotic pathways.

Congratulations to Katrina McNeely for being awarded a Wagner Graduate Fellowship.  Katrina is a graduate student in the Neurosciences Graduate Program and is conducting her dissertation research in the laboratory of Dr. Noelle Dwyer in Cell Biology. She is studying the Kinesin6 family member Kif20b which is involved in cytokinesis in the developing brain; it plays an important role in regulating adult brain size.

Cell Biology graduate student Pooja Rajendra Sonavane was awarded her PhD during UVa’s graduation ceremonies on Sunday, May 20^th.  Her dissertation is entitled: “Mechanistic role of forces in the regulation of morphogenetic movements during gastrulation”. She is shown here with her proud dissertation advisor, Doug DeSimone.

Cell Biology graduate student Crystal Monique Richardson participated in the UVa’s graduation ceremonies on Sunday, May 20^th.  She had officially been awarded her PhD in Cell Biology on December 21, 2017. Her dissertation is entitled: “Integration of PDGF and adhesive cell signaling in Xenopus mesendoderm migration. She is shown here with proud dissertation advisor, Doug DeSimone.

The Biotechnology Training Program housed in Cell Biology is proud to announce the 2018 entering class of: Ivan Basurto, Merci Best, Rachel Bour, Shayla Clark, Andrew Heindel and Xavier Horton from host labs in Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, Biology, Cell Biology and Chemistry.  The Program currently comprises 28 doctoral students (36% diverse) and 62 faculty, and boasts 58 graduates.’  For information on the Program, check out http://faculty.virginia.edu/biotech/Home.html

Congratulations to Jessica Neville Little, co-recipient of this year’s Whitfield Randolph Scholarship in Neuroscience.  Jessica is an MSTP (MD-PhD) student in her 3^rd year of graduate training in Dr. Noelle Dwyer’s laboratory in the Department of Cell Biology. The other co-recipient is Mark Rudolph, an MSTP student working in Dr. Jeffrey Corwin’s laboratory in the Department of Neuroscience.

The scholarship was established by Dr. Randolph Whitfield, a MacArthur Foundation Fellow who received both his medical and graduate degrees from the University of Virginia in 1965 under a similar dual degree program.

Jessica is studying the causes of small brain size in a genetic mouse model of human microcephaly. She has discovered that the major cause of microcephaly, in this case, is programmed cell death of neural stem cells that is dependent on the tumor suppressor gene p53. In a very exciting finding, she was able to rescue the microcephaly phenotype of this mutant (in the gene Kif20b) by crossing it to a knockout mouse lacking p53. Now she is working to determine whether the p53 activation in the mutant brains is caused by specific defects in a late step in cell division called abscission.

At an award ceremony on February 23^rd, faculty member Bob Bloodgood received one of the 2018 Mulholland Awards for Teaching Excellence in the Next Generation Medical Curriculum at UVa. He is the Thread Leader for Cell Biology and normal histology in the medical curriculum. This is a particularly meaningful medical teaching award because its recipients are chosen by the 2^nd year medical school class at the end of the Pre-Clerkship phase of their MD training.