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Graduate School

2014 – 2015 Student achievements, presentations, and publications

Congratulations to our PhD graduates -Centdrika Dates, Joseph Graham, Gwendolyn Carter, Justin Graham!

2009 – 2011 Students

Jaclyn Daniels (Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences)

  • Daniels J, Kadlubar S. Pharmacogenetics of SULT1A1. Pharmacogenomics. 2014 Nov; 15 (14): 1823-38.

2010 – 2012 Students

Joseph Graham (Microbiology and Immunology)

  • Graham, J.G ., Winchell, C.G., Sharma, U.M., Voth, D.E. (2015) Identification of ElpA, a Coxiella burnetti Pathotype-Specific Dot/Icm Type IV Secretion System Substrate. Infect Immun, 83(3), 1190-8.
  • Winchell, C.G., Graham, J.G., Kurten, R.C., Voth, D.E. (2014). Coxiella burnetii type IV secretion-dependent recruitment of macrophage autophages. Infect Immun. 82(6), 2229.
  • Charles McCleskey Award for best oral presentation, Sept 2014, American Society for Microbiology
  • NIH INRO Fellowship recipient-February 2015
  • Graham, J.G., Winchell, C.G., Kurten, R.C., and D.E. Voth. The Living Human Lung: A Model for Coxiella burnetii Pathogenesis. ASM Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting. 2015.

Centdrika Dates (Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences)

  • Human UDP-Glucuronosyltransferases: Effects of altered expression in breast and pancreatic cancer cell lines Cancer Biology & Therapy 16:5, 1–10; April 1, 2015
  • MERIT IRACDA fellowship-University of Alabama at Birmingham

2011 – 2013 Students

Cemeka Agugbuem Smith (Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences)

  • Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences Graduate Student Ambassador
  • Career Day Presenter J.A. Fair High School, March 2012, Little Rock, AR
  • Presenter for Fun Friday: “Live My Life”, Geyer Springs Elementary, April 2013 Little Rock, AR
  • Received ACHRI Student and Clinical Staff Intramural Grant; May 2013
  • Awarded 1st Place in Junior Division “Neutrophils are not a primary contributor to the early chemokine and cytokine cascade during Chlamydial infection” (Oral presentation at the Annual Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences Graduate Student Research Symposium, February 14, 2014, UAMS Walton Auditorium, Cancer Institute, Little Rock, AR, USA)
  • Poster Presentation: “Neutrophils are not a primary contributor to the early chemokine and cytokine cascade during Chlamydial infection (MPF7P.748)” at the American Association of Immunologist, May, 2014, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
  • Awarded Graduate School Travel Award to attend Academy for Future Science Faculty Meeting, Brown University July, 2014, Rhode Island, PI, USA
  • Participated in judging science fair experiments at Gibbs Magnet Elementary , January , 2014 Little Rock, AR
  • Oral Presention “To be or not to be? TLR2 involvement in the early cytokine response following intracervical inoculation with C. muridarum” at the Annual Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences Graduate Student Research Symposium, February 12, 2015, UAMS Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Little Rock, AR, USA)
  • Oral Presentation “Production of proinflammatory chemokines and cytokines in the first 36 hours of chlamydial genital infection are dependent upon non-TLR2-mediated mechanisms at the Chlamydia Basic Research Society Meeting, April 2, 2015, Astor Crowne Plaza, New Orleans, LA, USA

Danielle Fortune (Microbiology and Immunology)

  • Fortune, D.E., Lin, Y.P., Deka, R.K., Groshong, AM., Moore, B.P., Hagman, K.J., Leong, J.M., Norgard, M.V., Tomchick, D.R., Blevins, J.S. Identification of Lysine Residues in the Borrelia burgdorferi DbpA Adhesin for Murine Infection. Infect Immun. 2014 Aug;82(8);3186-98. Epub 2014 May 19.
  • Groshong, A.M., Fortune, D.E ., Moore, B.P., Spencer, H.J., Bellamy, W., Blevins, J.S. BB0238, a presumed tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR)-containing protein, is required during Borrelia burgdorferi mammalian infection. Infect Immun. 2014 Oct; 82(10), 4292-306. Epub 2014 Jul 28.
  • Fortune, D. E. “BB0345 of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, is essential for murine infection.” – American Society for Microbiology Branch Meeting, Fayetteville, AR.
  • American Society for Microbiology – Science Teaching Fellowship
  • Invited Lecturer, Hendrix College, Conway, AR, Innate Immunity: The Acute Inflammatory Response
  • Mentoring: Supervisor, Summer Undergraduate Research Program Student, Kristan Abernathy – Undergraduate trainee in NHLBI SURP
  • IRACDA Postdoctoral Fellowship – University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Tonisha Kearney-Ramos (Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences)

  • Gess, J., Fausett, J., Kearney-Ramos, T ., Kilts, C., James, G.A. Task-dependent recruitment of resting state networks reflects normative variance in cognition. Brain Behav. 2014 Sep:4(5):650-64. Epub 2014 Jul 9.
  • Marshell, R., Kearney-Ramos, T ., Brents, L., Hyatt, W., Tai, S., Prather, P., Fantegrossi, W.E. In vivo effects of synthetic cannabinoids JWH-018 and JWH-073 and phytocannabinoid Δ9-THC in mice: Inhalation versus intraperitoneal injection. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2014 Sep; 142:40-7. Epub 2014 May 21.
  • Kearney-Ramos, T ., Fausett, J., Gess, J., Reno, A., Peraza, J., Kilts, C., James, G.A. Merging clinical neuropsychology and functional neuroimaging to evaluate the construct validity and neural network engagement of the n-back task. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 214 Aug;20(7): 736-50. Epub 2014 Jun 25.
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse Travel Award to present at NIDA 2014 Society for Neuroscience Conference
  • 2nd Place Award, Senior Division IBS Student Research Symposium 2015
  • Highlighted in Faces of UAMS Video Series (December 2014)
  • “A look inside the brain” (Oral co-presentation with G. Andrew James, PhD at the Leadership Greater Little Rock Health and Medical Sciences Session, February 19, 2015, UAMS Jack T. Stephens Spine Center, Little Rock, AR, USA)
  • “A network-analytic individual differences approach to identify risk biomarkers of addiction” (Oral presentation at Psychiatry Grand Rounds, February 17, 2015, Medical University of South Carolina Basic Science Building, Charleston, SC, USA)
  • “Development of a neural network-analytic individual differences approach to identify risk biomarkers of neuropsychiatric disease” (Oral presentation at the 2015 Annual Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences Student Research Symposium, February 12, 2015, UAMS Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Little Rock, AR, USA)
  • “A network-analytic individual differences approach to identify risk biomarkers of addiction” (Oral presentation at the 2015 Annual T32 Translational Training in Addiction Retreat, January 23, 2015, UAMS Jack T. Stephens Spine Center, Little Rock, AR, USA)
  • “Characterizing the neural network encoding of normative working memory variance: an individual differences approach to inform identification of risk biomarkers of addiction” (Poster presentation at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Frontiers in Addiction Research Mini-Convention at the Forty-fourth Annual Society for Neuroscience Meeting, Nov 14, 2014, National Institute of Health Natcher Auditorium, Bethesda, MD, USA)
  • “Exploring normative working memory variance to better understand disparities in risk for drug use disorders” (Poster presentation at the Seventy-sixth Annual Scientific Meeting for the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, June 17, 2014, Caribe Hilton, San Juan, PR, USA)
  • NIH-NIDA T32 Drug Abuse Training Postdoctoral Fellowship

2012-14 Students

Kimberly Cooney (Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences)

  • ASBMB 2015 Travel Award Presented her abstract entitled “Temporal Selectivity of Melanocortin-4 Receptor Agonist to Modulate Signaling by Increased Intracellular cAMP” at this year’s Experimental Biology (EB) meeting Brennon Luster (Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences)
  • D’onofrio, S ., Kezunovic, N., Hyde, J., Luster, B., Messias, E., Urbano, F., Garcia-Rill, E. Modulation of gamma oscillations in the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) by neuronal calcium sensor protein-1 (NCS-1): Relevance to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. J Neurophysiol. 2015 Feb 1;113(3):709-10. Epub 2014 Nov. 5.
  • Garcia-Rill, E., Kezunovic, N., D’onofrio, S., Luster, B. , Hyde, J., Bisagno, V., Urbano, F.J. Gamma band activity in the RAS-intracellular mechanisms. Exp Brain Res. 2014 May; 232(5):1509-22. Epub 2013 Dec 6.
  • Urbano FJ, D’onofrio S , Luster B, Beck P, Hyde J, Bisagno V, Garcia-Rill E. Pedunculopontine nucleus gamma band activity – preconscious awareness, waking, and REM sleep. Front Neurol. 2014 Oct 20;5:2010. eCollection 2014.

2013-15 Students

Lascelles Lyn-Cook (Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences)

  • Lyn-Cook, L., Word, B., George, N., Lyn-Cook, B., Hammons, G. Effect of cigarette smoke condensate on gene promoter methylation in human lung cells. Tob Induc Dis. 2014 Sep 5;12(1):15. eCollection 2014.
  • AACR Minority in Cancer Research Award
  • Travel Award to Population-Based Rodent Resources for Environmental Health Sciences Conference
  • Abstract selected to present poster at Population-Based Rodent Resources for Environmental Health Sciences Conference
  • Abstract selected for poster presentation at Society of Toxicology annual meeting San Diego, CA
  • Nominated for HHMI Gilliam Fellowship

2014-15 Students

Tiffany Miles (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)

  • SERYM 2015 Student Registration or Travel Award