Graduate Student Accomplishments

Jie Chao was awarded a Pre-doctoral Fellowship by the American Heart Association, Midwest Affiliate entitled “Mechanisms of microvascular inflammation induced by alveolar hypoxia” from July 2008 to June 2010. He made an oral presentation at KUMC Student Research Forum 2009 in which he won the best oral presentation in the Cardiovascular Session. In April, Jie attended the Experimental Biology Meeting 2009 in New Orleans where he was first author on two posters, entitled “The systemic inflammation of alveolar hypoxia is initiated by a circulating mediator(s) released from alveolar macrophages” and “Renin from activated mast cells mediates the systemic inflammation of alveolar hypoxia”. Jie successfully passed his comprehensive exams in May 2009. Jie was first author of a research paper entitled “The systemic inflammation of alveolar hypoxia is initiated by an alveolar macrophage-borne mediator” published in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology and of a review paper entitled “Alveolar hypoxia, alveolar macrophages, and systemic inflammation” published in Respiratory Research.

Argenia Doss was awarded an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award in September 2008. In the fall 2008, Argenia presented a poster entitled "Decreased PGP 9.5-immunoreactive Axon Density in the Epidermis of Cycling Diabetic Rats" at the National Society for Neuroscience in Washington, DC. Argenia also presented three oral presentations: (1) for the Department of Physiology entitled "Langerhans Cells: A Possible player in Diabetes-induced Peripheral Neuropathy", (2) for the University of Kansas Medical Center Student Research Forum entitled "Cutaneous Innervation and Langerhans Cells are Reduced by Diabetes in Streptozotocin-treated Diabetic Rats", (3) a paper for the Translational Discovery Forum/ Neuroscience Journal Club entitled "Prolonged Gabapentin Analgesia in an Experiment Mouse Model of Fibromyalgia".  During this past year, Argenia was elected President of the Physiology Society.

Tamara Jimenez was the first author on an abstract for The 5th Annual Gilbert S. Greenwald Symposium titled “The Na,K-ATPase a4 Isoform Maintains Membrane Potential, Intracellular Ca2+ and pH to Sustain Sperm Motility” for which she received the Best Poster Presentation Award. At the 31st Annual Student Research Forum Tamara received 1st Place in the Reproductive Biology Session for her presentation entitled “The Na,K-ATPase a4 Isoform Maintains Membrane Potential, Intracellular Ca2+ and pH to Sustain Sperm Motility”

Lacey Luense was co-first author on a paper entitled "Dicer1 is essential for female fertility and normal development of the female reproductive system" published in the journal Endocrinology.  She was also a trainee awards finalist for her presentation of an abstract entitled "Characterization of conditional Dicer knock-down in the mouse ovary" at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction.

Emily McDonald was first author on a paper with Michael Wolfe published in Endocrinology entitled “Adiponectin Attenuation of Endocrine Function within Human Term Trophoblast Cells.” She presented a talk at the International Federation of Placental Associations meeting in Leibnitz, Austria entitled “Evidence for a Role of Adiponectin in Trophoblast Function” as well as talks at the Student Research Forum and the Frontiers in Reproduction Symposium in Woods Hole, MA by the same title. She is first author on an abstract for the Society for the Study of Reproduction meeting in Pittsburgh, PA entitled “The Metabolic Role of Adiponectin extends to the placenta, and occurs through multiple signaling pathways.” She was awarded an NIH New Investigator Travel Award, a Graduate Studies Travel Award and a Hagen Student Leader Award to give a talk at the IFPA meeting, as well as the DC Johnson Student Scholar Award and Larry Ewing Memorial Travel Grant to present a poster at the SSR meeting.

Lynda McGinnis was first author of an article published in Developmental Biology titled, “Functions of Fyn kinase in the completion of meiosis in mouse oocytes.”  She was co-author of 3 additional articles titled (1) “Multiple mechanisms of germ cell loss in the perinatal mouse ovary”, (2) “Fyn kinase is required for normal organization and functional polarity of the mouse oocyte cortex” and (3) “Further optimization of mouse spermatozoa evaporative drying techniques”.  Lynda presented research posters at the 2009 Gordon Conference on Fertilization and Egg Activation in Holderness, NH and the 2009 annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction in Pittsburgh, PA.  She also served as co-chair of registration at the SSR meeting.  In February 2009, Lynda defended her dissertation titled, “SRC-family tyrosine kinases participate in the regulation of mammalian oocyte maturation and zygotic development” and graduated with honors.  She is now a post-doctoral research fellow in the laboratory of Dr William H. Kinsey, Dept. of Anatomy at KUMC.

Will Messamore was awarded a T32 Training Grant in the Kansas Training Program in Neurological and Rehabilitation Sciences, an Institutional Training Program funded by the National Institutes of Health.  Will attended the Society for Neuroscience national meeting in Washington DC last November.  Will is currently the president of both the MD/PhD Student Council and the Physiology Society.