Hannah Ennerfelt was selected to give a talk at the WashU BIG Symposium alongside other impressive scientists in our field. Her talk was titled “SYK coordinates neuroprotective microglial responses in neurodegenerative disease”.

Josh Samuels, Lexi Johnson, and Addie Walsh join the Lukens Lab ranks to pursue their PhD research studies. We look forward to working with these amazing young scientists!

Third year undergraduate Coco Holiday was awarded a prestigious Harrison Fellowship to continue her research exploring the role of CLEC7A in microglia in Alzheimer’s Disease in collaboration with graduate student Hannah Ennerfelt.

First year undergraduate Ava Hollis was awarded a Double Hoo Award to support her work with graduate student Kristine Zengeler exploring inflammasome function in seizures.

We are looking forward to having Coco and Ava around this summer!

Lukens Lab holiday party at Bowlero! Featuring a stunning array of sweaters.

Thank you to our generous donors who helped us raise over $3,000 for the Alzheimer’s Association which will help provide care for those with the disease and advance research.

The Lukens crew joins other BIG center labs on a brisk fall day for an annual hike.

Kristine, Hannah, Jess, Aman, and Elizabeth join other members of the Department of Neuroscience and BIG center to participate in Bike MS: Colonial Crossroads! Participants biked either 62 or 33 miles to raise awareness and support for Multiple Sclerosis. This year the team raised over $5,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society!

A well-deserved recognition for Ashley’s outstanding scientific accomplishments as well as her wonderful contributions to the intellectual and scientific environment of the Department of Microbiology, Immunnolgy, and Cancer. Congratulations!

Congratulations to Coco Holliday and Hannah Ennerfelt for receiving a Double Hoo research grant! This program promotes collaborations between undergraduate and graduate students and Coco and Hannah will be working together to investigate microglia responses in Alzheimer’s disease.

We are excited to work with new PhD students Ana Royo Marco, Jessica Thanos, Aman Mangalmurti, and Nicholas Natale!

Congratulations to Daniel Shapiro for receiving a Harrison Undergraduate Research Award! This program funds outstanding undergraduate research projects and is made possible by David A. Harrison III and family.

Hannah, Ashley, Kristine, and friends successfully completed the Richmond half marathon! The stars aligned for a beautiful race day and everyone crushed the course.

Out of over 300 abstracts submitted to the AAIC Neuroscience Next Conference, Ashley was one of 48 selected to participate in a Lightning Presentation Round. Ashley’s presentation entitled “Meningeal lymphatic dysfunction exacerbates traumatic brain injury pathogenesis” was awarded the honor of being one of the top three talks.

Thank you to our generous donors who helped us raise $4,000 for the Alzheimer’s Association!

Ashley’s work links meningeal lymphatic dysfunction to traumatic brain injury pathology. This important work provides insights into the consequences of brain injury and suggests that boosting lymphatic function may constitute a potential therapeutic strategy to limit injury-induced damage.

You can find Ashley’s work here.

Click to view the special message to Cat from soccer great Mia Hamm at her public thesis defense.

Cat gave an incredibly impressive dissertation seminar entitled “Dysregulated Innate Immune Signaling as a Driver of Impaired Neurodevelopment”. We will miss Cat and wish her all the best as she pursues postdoctoral research in the lab of Peter Penzes at Northwestern University!

Ashley’s project is entitled “Meningeal lymphatic dysfunction in traumatic brain injury: roles in disease pathogenesis and long-term outcomes”. Huge congratulations to Ashley!

The NIH-sponsored Cell and Molecular Biology (CMB) training program provides funding and training for predoctoral candidates.