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!
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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.
Trista, as a Goldwater Fellow, we selected to attend the Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium (GCRUS) at Rice University this fall. On top of being selected, she was awarded a Travel Award that provides full financial support to attend. Huge CONGRATS to Trista!
All of undergraduates presented posters today at the Annual Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium highlighting the work our URP, REU, and NURE students conducted over the summer! It was a great time for reflecting on the summer and to celebrate all of the student’s hard work!
Megan got selected for a Food and Drug Administration funded summer research opportunity in the Food Science Department at Pennsylvania State University! Not only did she do a lot exciting research with Dr. Dudley’s group, she also have the opportunity to tour the FDA headquarters and see how they conduct their important research activities.
Megan and Trista spent the day presenting their research at the National Council on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) symposium here in Pittsburgh. NCUR is dedicated to promoting undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activity in all fields of study by sponsoring an annual conference for students. Unlike meetings of academic professional organizations, this gathering of student scholars welcomes presenters from all institutions of higher learning and from all disciplines. Overall, this conference offers a unique environment for the celebration and promotion of undergraduate student achievement; provides models of exemplary research, scholarship, and creative activity; and offers student career readiness development.
As the result of an ongoing partnership with UWorld and the Department of Defense National Defense Education Programs (NDEP), Dr. John Yopp, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, announced that the Trustees of the Goldwater Board will be able to award 441 Goldwater scholarships to college students from across the United States for the 2025-2026 academic year. When these new awards are combined with the second year of support to 64 sophomores who received Goldwater scholarships in 2024, the total number will again be among the largest number of scholars ever supported in a single year. With the 2025 awards, the Goldwater Foundation has awarded 11,162 scholarships since 1989, the first year the scholarship was bestowed.
“The Department of Defense’s continued partnership with the Goldwater Foundation ensures we are supporting the development of scientific talent essential to maintaining our Nation’s competitive advantage,” said Dr. Jagadeesh Pamulapati, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology Foundations, who oversees the NDEP program.
“We are proud to remain the Goldwater Foundation’s sole private sector partner for the second year and support undergraduates interested in pursuing medical research careers,” said Chandra S. Pemmasani, M.D., founder and CEO of UWorld. “It is inspiring to see how the foundation continues to motivate students to grow in their education and pursue their professional goals.
From an estimated pool of over 5,000 college sophomores and juniors, 1,350 science, engineering, and mathematics students were nominated by 445 academic institutions to compete for the 2025 Goldwater scholarships. Of the students who reported, 203 of the Scholars are men, 222 are women, and virtually all intend to obtain a Ph.D. as their highest degree objective. Fifty Scholars intend to pursue research careers in mathematics and computer science, 240 in the sciences, 88 in medicine, and 63 in engineering and materials research.
Goldwater Scholars have gone on to win an impressive array of prestigious awards, becoming National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellows, NSF Graduate Research Fellows, Hertz Fellows, DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellows, Astronaut Scholars, Churchill Scholars, Marshall Scholars, and Rhodes Scholars.
The Goldwater Foundation is a federally endowed agency established by Public Law 99-661 on November 14, 1986. The Scholarship Program honoring Senator Barry Goldwater was designed to identify, encourage, and financially support outstanding undergraduates interested in pursuing research careers in the sciences, engineering, and mathematics. The Goldwater Scholarship is the preeminent undergraduate award of its type in these fields.
“The Crable Award is one of the highest honors that the Department bestows upon a student in any given cohort. The award is designed to facilitate your growth as an independent and critical thinker in the chemical enterprise, specifically to make meaningful research contributions in your selected field of study. The prestigious Crable Award includes an academic scholarship for the 2024/2025 academic year, and fellowship support for the 2025 summer research experience with the required meal plan… The Crable Award carries significant responsibility as a student at Duquesne University. Such an exclusive award requires a full commitment to your academic studies and research efforts. You will be expected to act with the highest standards of ethics, professional behavior, and display extraordinary leadership in the Department.”
Congrats Trista!
The annual 2025 Undergraduate Research & Scholarship Symposium (URSS) will be held on April 2 in the Charles Dougherty Ballroom in the Power Center.
From the Heisler Lab:
Ryan will be giving both an ORAL and poster presentation describe his findings of imidazole and diamine compounds that possess novel antibacterial properties.
Trista will be giving a POSTER presentation describing her exploration of novel triazole compounds that have both broad and high specificities against common food-borne pathogens.
Brianne will be presenting her POSTER that highlights her efforts to uncover how a subset of Listeria proteins interact with host proteins during infection.
Megan will be using her POSTER to describe her efforts to understand how Listeria may regulate gene transcription to prevent a host response using a secreted protein.
Today Megan, Trista, and Elizabeth (Cascio Lab) represented the Heisler lab at the American Chemical Society Central Regional Meeting 2024 in Greentree, PA. Trista and Elizabeth were both recognized for their presentations with Top Poster Award!
Additionally, work from Zoe (Summer student; Bryn Mawr) was presented as part of Sophia Hershey’s poster (Mihailescu Lab). Caleb Frye (Mihailescu lab) also gave a talk about our collaborative findings on the SARS-CoV-2 viral genome 3′-untranslated region.
Busy day in the lab. All 7 students plus Dr. Heisler were trying to get new results this afternoon.
Today, the lab added 2 new prospective graduate students in Elias and Morgan.
Elias comes to us from Grove City College where he studied biochemistry and was a First Team All-PAC swimmer. He will explore the crossover between organic and inorganic chemistry and biochemistry to address the need for novel antibiotics.
Morgan is a graduate of Bucknell University, where she focused on cell biology and biochemistry. She will utilize this background to better understand how Listeria is able to continue to be a worldwide foodborne pathogen with recent outbreaks in the United States and Canada!
WELCOME to the team!