Category: News

Congratulations to Kayla Mason, Cell Biology and Physiology graduate student, in The Conlon Lab, for recently receiving the 2025 Marzluff RNA Fellowship Award from the UNC RNA Discovery Center. Kayla is the recipient of this fellowship award, a 1-year grant, which provides stipend support for her studies of the role...

Congratulations to William Polacheck, Ph.D., an MHI member and Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Member, Cell Biology and Physiology Curriculum, UNC Medicine; Member, Comparative Medicine Institute, NCSU, for recently receiving tenure and promotion, starting June 4, 2025, to Associate Professor in UNC’s Biomedical Engineering-Joint Department.

Congratulations to Gabrielle M. Gentile, B.Sc., a Genetics and Molecular Biology (GMB) graduate student in The Giudice Lab, for successfully defending Ph.D. thesis and for publishing article, titled “Alternative splicing of the Snap23 microexon is regulated by MBNL, QKI, and RBFOX2 in a tissue-specific manner and is altered in striated...

Congratulations to James Isaiah (Ike) Emerson, a graduate student and research assistant in the Conlon Lab, and Wei Shi, Ph.D., alumnus postdoctoral fellow, formerly in the Conlon Lab, for publishing article, titled “Sex-specific response to A1BG loss results in female dilated cardiomyopathy”, in the journal Biology of Sex Differences. This...

Congratulations to Brian C. Jensen, M.D., an MHI member and Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, in collaboration with Corinne Keet, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pediatrics; Vice Chair of Clinical and Translational Research; Associate Scientific Director of Children’s Research Institute; Co-Director of Carolina Child Health Scholars, and Timothy P. Moran, M.D.,...

Congratulations to Whitney Edwards, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Cell Biology and Physiology, for the receipt of P&F award from the UNC NORC and SPLENDOR-NC Program. Her proposal, titled, “Investigating the role of the Mevalonate Pathway in Gestational Diabetes-Associated Congenital Heart Defects”, is a 1-year grant. SPLENDOR-NC draws upon well-established collaborations through...

Congratulations to Jonathan Schisler, MS, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, for being appointed PRISM Faculty Director.

Congratulations to Whitney Edwards, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Cell Biology and Physiology, for the receipt of 2025 Expansion Fund from Additional Venture. The Expansion Award enables teams to add new single ventricle–focused approaches and directions to their current work by providing a one-time grant of $50,000. This small but mighty grant...

Congratulations to James Isaiah (Ike) Emerson, a graduate student and research assistant in the Conlon Lab, and Frank L. Conlon, Ph.D., Professor of Biology and Genetics, for being featured on the February 2025, Episode 69, AHA Apple Podcast, Discover CircRes. On the podcast, they discussed their latest work, “X-Chromosome-Linked miRNAs Regulate...

Congratulations to Dr. Wen Yih Aw, a research assistant professor in the Polacheck Lab, for having her paper, entitled, “Dysfunctional mechanotransduction regulates the progression of PIK3CA-driven vascular malformations”, selected as an “Editor’s Choice” in APL Bioengineering.     Dr. Aw’s paper investigates the role of hemodynamics in progression of vascular...