Alex presents at OUHSC GREAT Symposium
Alex presented his first-ever research poster “Illuminating Microtubule Dynamics in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii”at the GREAT symposium. It’s been a privilege watching him grow as a scientist, and he’s become a genuine asset to the lab. We’ll be sad to see him head off to college this fall, but we can’t wait to see where his curosity takes him next!
Rose wins flash talk contest!
Rose received the People’s Choice top prize for flash talks at the OUHSC Graduate Research Education and Technology Symposium!
Felix wins a poster award!
Felix recently presented his work at the 2026 New England Science Symposium at Harvard and took home a second place prize!
Halloween ‘25 door art is live
Check out our Texas Chainsaw Massacre-inspired door art! We’re hoping for another 1st place award this year.
New funding!
We’re excited to announce new funding from the Presbyterian Health Foundation for an exciting new live-cell imaging project! Stay tuned for some really cool microscopy and fresh insights into ciliary signaling!
Summer High School Students
The three weeks of the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics Investigative Research Summer Program flew by! We were so pleased to host Eunice, Lani, & Alex. They all made substantial contributions to ongoing projects in the lab. Thanks for your service to our mission!
University of Oklahoma College of Medicine Press
I’m honored to be recognized by OU College of Medicine for my recent accomplishments of being an invited speaker at 2024 American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week Conference, serving on the American Society for Cell Biology Women in Cell Biology Committee, and being awarded the Genetic Society of America’s Presidential Membership Initiative Award. Check out the posts below for Q & As. Thank you OU College of Medicine for the support!
Proud to present Doctoral Candidate Felix Asare!
Felix passed his qualifying exam this week with flying colors! Watch out for the heat he’s bringing to the bench now!
New funding!
Two NIH grants submitted this cycle and new 2-year funding from from OK-INBRE NIGMS P20GM103447.
Halloween 2024
How do you like our Halloween door decoration contest submission? We won 1st place across the OUHSC College of Medicine Basic Science Departments & a pizza party!
Hot grant summer!
For the lab’s second birthday circa August 2024, we held hot grant summer before our annual birthday bash! What a journey it has been, and what better way to celebrate our second anniversary than a hot grant summer.
Chlamydomonas piñata!
Here’s part of our 1 year lab birthday celebration. Building this piñata was a really fun team-building exercise. We didn't have the heart to smash it just yet though, obviously as seen here relaxing at the bar at the CVDW Lab First Annual Birthday Bash!
Incoming assistant professor!
*BIG NEWS* It’s official! This summer, I’ll start as an Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Dept of Cell Biology! I’m super excited about this new adventure! My lab will focus on cellular mechanisms underlying ciliopathy disorders and how ciliopathy-related proteins function in both health & disease using human cells & Chlamydomonas. So grateful to the truly excellent mentors I’ve had along the way!
New paper available online!
After 4+ years, the second part of my dissertation is now accepted for publication at Journal of Cell Science. Check out my informative twitter thread here!
Notice of Award!
Finally transitioned from F32 funding to K99 and I just received this beautiful document!
I just received word that my K99 application will be funded through NICHD! I’ll investigate how pathogenic cilopathy-related variants cause abnormal protein composition of the primary cilium using a combination of functional proteomics, genome engineering, and live-cell microscopy.
We can now identify the genetic cause in >70% of our UW Joubert syndrome cohort!*
*This animation is a dramatization to replicate a fundraising thermometer-style graphic and does not reflect actual ciliary assembly mechanisms.
Check out this Nature Careers article featuring the K99 Peer Mentoring group I founded at the University of Washington!