Category Archives: Presentations

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!

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.

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!

Morgan Successfully Defends her Dissertation Outline

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, Morgan successfully demonstrated how she plans to tackle an ongoing problem in Listeria biology for explaining how our cells sometimes cannot protect themselves from a Listeria infection, and how the bacteria uses its virulence factors to successfully do this.

 

Congrats Morgan!

Trista presents that the Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium at Rice University!

As part of Trista’s Goldwater Scholarship, Trista had the opportunity to present the work she has been doing in the lab over the past 14 months in an oral presentation. Additionally, she was awarded full financial support to travel to, attend, and network at the conference with other Goldwater fellows and scientists from the greater southeast Texas area. 
Feedback from those at her presentation were “extremely positive, and your average ranking was “excellent”… for your overall impression (good logical flow with all the expected sections of the talk being present) and your introduction.” Her use of Ryan Gugliotti’s introduction slides also impressed many of the reviewers.

 

Bittersweet End to the Summer!

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!

PLU Symposium – WINNER!

 

Today, Morgan and Elias presented the research they have been working on for the last year at the annual graduate research symposium! Morgan won the award for Rookie of The Year for the department!

Megan and Trista present at NCUR

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.

URSS Oral and Poster Presentations

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.

Heisler Lab at CERM 2024!

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. 

URP Symposium

The summer research season has come to a bittersweet ending. As the last activity of the summer, the undergraduates presented all of their hard work at the Regional Undergraduate Research Symposium here at Duquesne University.