{"id":105189,"date":"2019-04-09T15:03:17","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T19:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/cell-biology\/?p=105189"},"modified":"2026-05-21T12:29:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T16:29:37","slug":"jessica-neville-little-successfully-defends-phd-dissertation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/cell-biology\/2019\/04\/09\/jessica-neville-little-successfully-defends-phd-dissertation\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Neville Little successfully defends PhD dissertation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jessica Little, a student in the combined MD-PhD (MSTP) program, has successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled &#8220;Mutations of key cytokinetic abscission mediators cause microcephaly&#8221;. Her exciting research, conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Noelle Dwyer in the Cell Biology Department, showed that inhibition of the p53 protein could correct microcephaly in a mouse model.\u00a0 Her research was supported by both the CMB training grant and an NRSA award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human development. Upon reflection, Jessica feels that working with and mentoring undergraduate students in Dr. Dwyer\u2019s lab was an important part of her PhD training experience. On March 18<sup>th<\/sup>, she gave her public seminar in Mr. Jefferson\u2019s Rotunda.\u00a0 She will receive her PhD at the May graduation and then move forward to finish the rest of the MD degree requirements; she has a keen interest in treating patients with and conducting research to improve therapies for neurological disorders.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jessica Little, a student in the combined MD-PhD (MSTP) program, has successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled &#8220;Mutations of key cytokinetic abscission mediators cause microcephaly&#8221;. Her exciting research, conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Noelle Dwyer in the Cell Biology Department, showed that inhibition of the p53 protein could correct microcephaly in a mouse model.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":104632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-105189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-highlights","tag-delete"],"acf":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jessica Neville Little successfully defends PhD dissertation - Department of Cell Biology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/cell-biology\/2019\/04\/09\/jessica-neville-little-successfully-defends-phd-dissertation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jessica Neville Little successfully defends PhD dissertation - Department of Cell Biology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jessica Little, a student in the combined MD-PhD (MSTP) program, has successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled &#8220;Mutations of key cytokinetic abscission mediators cause microcephaly&#8221;. 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