Elias and Morgan win top Poster Presentations at PLU!
Today, at the 12th annual Phi Lambda Upsilon Research Symposium here at Duquesne, Elias and Morgan were both recognized for their beautiful presentation and posters as one of the Top 3 posters!
Weclome Daniel!
Today, we welcome Daniel, a rising Senior at Holy Ghost Prep. Daniel will be spending the next 4 weeks working with Morgan on understanding more about Listeria biology!
Morgan Presents her work at ASM Microbe in Washington DC
Today, Morgan had the opportunity to present her work at the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Microbe symposium. Microbe is an international conference that is widely recognized as one of the largest microbiology gatherings in the world, routinely drawing thousands of scientists, clinicians, and researchers from across the globe.
Welcome Ella and Oliver!
This summer, we are excited to welcome two new undergraduates! With Ella J. home and Mia off at Penn State for their PROMISE program, Ella A. and Oliver will be taking over their projects and hopefully making major steps forwards!
Ella A. is a undergraduate in the FSL program here at Duquesne and is excited to be working on our Listeria project!
Oliver is an NIH NURE fellow will be focused on two projects: 1) a continuation of Mia’s work with epigenetic genes and their regulations and 2) the development of new strains of Listeria to compliment the work that Morgan’s team is doing!
Celebrating the Seniors!
It is a bittersweet time for the Heisler Lab. With the end of the semester, this marks the first time that members of the lab are graduating. Thanks to Dr. Heisler’s early willingness to take on students, over half of the undergraduates graduated today! While it is very sad to see them go, the entire laboratory is extremely proud of them and all that they have done to push the laboratory forward and towards success!
(Left to Right):
Trista Newman is headed to The Ohio State University Medical School to pursue her PhD as part of the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program! As a OSU alum, Dr. Heisler is very excited to see Trista do even bigger and better things!
Brianne Smith is on her way to applying for Dental School this summer and has agreed to continue working on a project in her free time that will help establish new areas of interest for future students in the Heisler Lab.
Dr. Heisler is on his way back to office to write two grants and get student projects ready for the URP.
Ryan Gugliotti will be starting his medical school program this summer at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM). The Heisler lab has no doubt that Ryan will make a phenomenal doctor in the future.
Cate Chalovich has accepted a scientist role within the Allegheny Health Network that will keep her here in Pittsburgh for the foreseeable future!
Megan Lyons will be taking her talents to State College to obtain a Masters degree in Biotechnology. While it pains the Heisler lab to call Megan a Nittany Lion, Dr. Heisler has agree to not bash them, except for games or matches when they play his Buckeyes.
Undergraduates clean up at the departmental Excellence Award Ceremony
Tonight, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry held our 21st annual ceremony to recognize the excellent students we have in the students. Heisler lab students brought home multiple different recognitions, including:
Trista Newman – Academic Award for Seniors, Departmental Service Award, Recognition as a STEM Scholar, Recognition as a Goldwater Scholar, and Recognition as a Crable Scholar.
Mia Seyfarth – Academic Award for Sophomores, Departmental Service Award, and Recognition as a STEM Scholar.
Nathan Philps – Academic Award for Sophomores and Recognition as a STEM Scholar.
Trista wins “Award for Undergraduate Research in Global Health”
Today, Trista was recognized with another prestigious award from the Center for African Studies for her work on the azole’s project looking for new antibiotic scaffolds!
Trista wins a SoSE URSS Poster Award
Congratulations are in order for Trista as her poster presentation at last weeks Duquesne URSS as selected as one the top 10 in the School of Science Engineering! That is two years in a row (Ryan in ’25) that a Heisler lab member has been selected!
Trista Successfully Defended her Senior Honors Thesis!
Today, after much work, a lot of successes and many failed experiments, Trista successfully defended her Senior Honors Thesis in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry! In her time in lab, she has been awarded numerous scholarships, awards, and is a co-author on one manuscript that was recently published. The thesis defense is a testament to the hard work and dedication that Trista has shown over the last 2.5 years and the lab could not be happier for her and all her successes!
Successful Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium for Trista and Mia!
Today, Trista and Mia had the opportunity to present their research at Duquesne’s Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium (URSS) that is open all undergraduates conducting any form of research! Both of them spent most of the time talking with faculty, students, and guests to explain their work on DNA methylation genes and antibiotic development. Very proud of both of them!
SHMT1 Paper Published!
Today, our paper was accepted at ACS Omega that highlights the collaborative work between our lab (Morgan and Zoe) and the Mihailescu Lab (Rosa, Manju, and Sophia) that highlights the importance of a structure in the 5′-untranslated region of the SHMT1 gene in controlling the proteins expression level. Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.5c13146
Our cover submission was also selected as a Supplementary Journal Cover!
Elias and Morgan present tomorrow at Duquesne’s GRS!
Earlier this month, the abstracts submitted by Elias and Morgan were selected for ORAL and poster presentations at Duquesne’s Graduate Research Symposium (GRS).
Elias will highlight his recent results highlighting compounds we found, in collaboration with Paul Lummis (Duquesne) that selectively kill Gram-positive bacteria, including the causative agent of MRSA infections.
Morgan will provide an overview of her work linking a Listeria protein to its role in subverting a cell’s immune response to infection.
Morgan’s Abstract Accepted for ASM Microbe in June!
We got word today that Morgan will be presenting a poster at the American Society of Microbiology’s annual Microbe Conference in Washington DC! The poster will in June and will highlight her initial work on understanding the role of Listeria internalin proteins during an infections!
Welcome CJ, Ella, and Nathan!
New year, new semester, new students. Today, the lab grew by adding three new students for the coming semester. Today we added CJ Booterbaugh (Jr, PSYC), Ella Jacoby (Fr, Biochem) and Nathan Philips (Soph, Biochem). We are excited to see what they can accomplish on existing and new projects in the lab!
FIRST HEISLER LAB PUBLICATION!
Today, our efforts, in collaboration with Dr. Thomas Montgomery (Duquesne) was published in ACS Organic & Inorganic Au (DOI: 10.1021/acsorginorgau.5c00098). The Montgomery group was interested in a novel synthetic pathway for producing 1,2,4-Triazolidines with multiple different substitutions.
Given the involvement of triazolidines in diverse bioactivities, we found that many of these compound possess antibacterial properties. Led undergraduate Trista Newman, this project has spurred new questions and avenues of research lead by PhD student Elias Griffin.
First Preprint goes live!
Today, the first preprint that the Heisler lab has had the honor contribute their expertise towards has gone live. A collaboration with Rita Mihailescu’s lab here at Duquesne shows the importance of DNA secondary structures in the regulation of the 5′ untranslated region (5’UTR) of a gene implicated in multiple sclerosis. Morgan (PhD student) and Zoe (NSF-REU and NIH-NURE student) contributed all of the molecular and cell biology in the paper!
Undergraduates Awarded Multiple Awards for ABASM!
Today, undergraduates Megan Lyons, Elizabeth Stahovich (Cascio Lab), Trista Newman, and Cate Chalovich all presented at the Allegheny Branch of the American Society for Microbiology Regional Conference in California, PA.
Elizabeth presented a poster on her summer research experience at at the University of Bern in Switzerland with a project that focused on neurolisteriosis, an infection of the central nervous system caused by the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes.
Megan presented a poster on her summer research experience at Penn State in Dr. Dudley’s on project that focused on Sequencing of the O-Antigen Region in E. coli using CRISPR Cleavage assays.
Cate presented, and was awarded with a Top Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award (and cash), a poster on her continued efforts to make knock out strains of Listeria to advance projects uncovering the interactions with host proteins.
Trista, whose abstract was selected for an oral presentation, was awarded with the Top Undergraduate Oral Presentation Award (and cash), for her efforts in identifying novel antibiotic scaffolds that target common foodborne-pathogens!
Congrats to everyone!
Trista, Cate, and Megan will Present at ABASM regional Conference!
Undergraduates Trista Newman, Cate Chalovich, and Megan Lyons all had their abstracts accepted to present at the Allegheny Branch of the American Society for Microbiology Region Symposium next month! Best of luck to each one!
Dissertation Outline DEFENDED by Elias
As a part of the development of graduate students into scientist, each student is required to put together an initial draft of what they imagine their thesis might look like 3-4 years from now. Today, Elias successfully defended his plans for identifying potential scaffold to control the ever growing number of antibiotic-resistance pathogens as well as identifying the target and mechanism of an effector protein that Dr. Heisler has been interested in since 2017.