News and Updates
2026 July
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Congratulations to Dustin for being appointed as Assistant Professor of Neurology in Pediatric Neuromuscular Medicine! He will continue working with the Sumner Lab as a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine faculty member.
2026 June
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Alex attended the Gordon Research Seminars (GRS) and Gordon Research Conferences (GRC) 2026 Barriers of the CNS conference. She presented a poster and was invited to speak for the GRC!
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Congratulations to Chelsey and Dustin for graduating from their neuromuscular fellowship! They enjoyed a night of celebration with Charlotte and other neuromuscular faculty.
2026 May
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Alex presented her poster at INBT's 19th Nano-Bio Symposium: Engineering the Future of Life and Health - 20 Years of Discovery, Innovation, and Technology. Go Alex!
2026 March
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Congratulations to Dr. Stephen Brown, PhD for defending his thesis and graduating from the Pathobiology Graduate Program! He will continue his work characterizing SMA associated RNA splicing alterations with the Sumner Lab as a post-doctoral fellow.
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Congratulations to undergraduate David Wang for being awarded a summer PURA grant from JHU HOUR. This grant will support his work with the Sumner Lab PhD student Maddi Aldridge in her project studying SMA and SARM1.
2025 December
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Congratulations to graduate student Maddi Aldridge for being awarded "Best Talk" at the JHU DGM Inaugural Advances in Genetic and Genomic Medicine Conference!
2025 September
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Stephen was awarded the Pathobiology program Golden Microscope award for 2025! Go Stephen! Stephen is the best!
2025 August
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Congratulations to Alexis Loder for beginning her Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at University of Maryland School of Medicine! We are so happy for you and excited for your future career as a physician-scientist! :)
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Stephen was awarded "Best Translational Research Poster" at the Pathology Young Investigators Day event!
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Alex was elected as the 2025-2025 CMM program Senate President! Alex is also the 2025-2026 Graduate Student Association (GSA) SOM Program Representative for the CMM program.
2025 July
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Congratulations to Dr. Anna Bagnell, PhD for defending her thesis and graduating from the Graduate Training Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine! She will be moving to Boston to work for biopharmaceutical company Sanofi, where she will continue to improve lives through innovative medicines.
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Welcome Dr. Dustin Gable and Dr. Chelsey Reed to the Sumner Lab! Dustin and Chelsey are physician-scientist neuromuscular fellows at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine joining the Sumner Lab.
2025 June
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Stephen also attended the RNA Society Conference to learn about new RNA analysis technologies and applications.
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Maddi presented at the Keystone Symposium on Neurodegeneration in Whistler, BC, Canada.
2025 March
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Stephen has been awarded a $150,000 grant from Cure SMA for long read nanopore sequencing of the spinal msucular atrophy (SMA) transcriptome. Cutting-edge science from Stephen!
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Stephen has also started his position as Senior Fellow at JHTV Commercialization Academy.
2024 August
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Graduate student Alex Falcon was elected as a 2024-2025 Senate Cohort Representative for the Cellular and Molecular Medicine graduate program. Congrats, Alex!
2024 June
2024 May
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Jeremy's Paper was published in Science Translational Medicine and the beautiful image of the TRPV4 reporter mouse made the cover! Congrats Jeremy and all co-authors!!
2024 April
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Our awesome undergrad Viola was admitted and accepted an offer to Boston University PhD Program! We are so excited for you (:
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Stephen won the 2024 Pathology Young Investigator's Day Poster Competition!!
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Anna won the Empower Your Pitch Competition for her 3-minute presentation on her thesis work!
2024 February
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Charlotte has been appointed/elected to two amazing positions! She is now on the CMTA scientific advisory board and is the President of the PNS. Congrats Charlotte!
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Congrats Elana on receiving the CureSMA grant!! She was awarded $100,000 for her project “Identifying developmental and degenerative mechanisms of SMA using single motor neuron nucleus RNA sequencing.” Read more about Elana and her awesome project here.
2023 September
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Welcome new research technicians Amy and Kamran and post baccalaureate students Janet and Matt, we are so excited for you to join!
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Thank you Ute Helmich, PhD for visiting from Germany and giving a wonderful seminar on TRPV4 and its IDR
2023 July
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Season of Sumner lab goodbyes---- Wishing Brett the best of luck in bringing the McCray lab to University of Michigan, and sending the best of luck to Josh as he starts his first year of medical school!
2023 June
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Big conference season for the Sumner lab--- Maddi, Elana, and Stephen gave poster presentations at the CureSMA conference and Maddi was selected to give a flash talk!
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Jeremy, Anna and Brett presented in June at the PNS Conference in Copenhagen. Jeremy was selected for an amazing platform talk and Anna gave a flash presentation!
2023 April
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Congrats LingLing and Cera and many others in the lab for all of your hard work in publishing a new paper in Acta Neurpathologica Communications
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Welcome new undergraduate researchers----- Anita, Alexis, Phoebe, and Viola!
2023 January
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Welcome to our new postdoctoral fellow Elana Molotsky, PhD! We are happy to have your in our lab!
2022 December
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Congrats Michelle on defending your thesis!! Best of luck with your next ventures!
2022 August
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Congrats to Maddi for joining the Sumner lab as a PhD student!
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Congrats Jonathan for passing your qualifying exam! Officially a PhD Candidate now :)
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Check out the Charlotte's new review papers in Nature Review Disease Primers and Nature Medicine
2022 June
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Jeremy and Anna had a nice time presenting at the CNS Barriers GRC in New Hampshire
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Maddi, Stephen and Charlotte enjoyed the CureSMA conference in LA and learned a lot!
2022 May
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Congrats to Stephen for being awarded the position of Chief Graduate Student of the Pathobiology program!
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Congrats Charlotte for giving the Anita Harding Lecture at the 2022 PNS Society Meeting in Miami! Check out her full talk here
2022 April
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Congrats Will on his first author paper in JBC and for defending his PhD! You rock!!
2022 February
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Wow! We're so excited for both Jack and Miguel who work with Brett McCray for getting into med school this cycle! Congrats to you both!!!! You're going to make great doctors!
2021 December
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We're so sad to see Lingling Kong leave, but we're so happy for her and wish her the best of luck on her new ventures!!
2021 November
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Welcome to Neuroscience graduate rotation student, Allie Taylor! We're happy to have you!
2021 October
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Congrats to now PhD candidate Stephen for passing his qualification exam!!! Phew!
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Congrats to undergraduate student Amy Mistri for winning a Provost's Undergraduate Research Award for her project "Evaluating the role of neuregulin-1 Type III in motor axon development in SMA mice"!
2021 August
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Check out the latest editorial from Dr. Sumner and Dr. Crawford in JCI on the long-term safety of gene therapies, here.
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Congrats to our Fulbright Scholar, Erika Diehl, on graduating with her PhD! We're so happy for you!!
2021 July
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Sumner Lab welcomes four new members this month! We can't wait to work with you all!
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Stephen Brown is joining as a graduate student in Pathobiology
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Meha Kumar is joining as an undergraduate from Johns Hopkins
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Thomas De Leon is joining as a research technician coming from the University of Miami
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Shantika Bhat is joining as a SARE Summer Scholar
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Congrats to SARE Summer Scholar Shantika for winning the Collegebound Student of the Year Award!! We're so proud of you!
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You can watch the video, here.
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Congrats to Brett McCray for winning the ANA Wolfe Neuropathy Research Prize this year!!
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You can read the announcement, here.
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2021 June
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The Rare Disease Clinical Research Network published a great article about former INC fellow, our very own Brett McCray, and his latest Nature Communications paper!
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Welcome to the lab, Jonathan! Jonathan is joining the lab as a Neuroscience Graduate Student- we're so happy you decided to join us!
2021 May
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Our first Sumner Lab gathering in too long was full of Ekiben baos, laughs, and drinks, but sadly full of goodbyes. We will miss Will and Jeff so much, but are so excited for their next steps (and the fact that they're not so far away)!
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Will is heading off for a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania!
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Jeff is heading off to medical school at University of Pittsburgh!
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Past, Current, and Future lab members in front of the Pagoda at Patterson Park
Will showing off his Star Wars baking pan
Charlie showing us all what a good boy he is
Jeff modeling his new shirt
2021 April
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Welcome to the lab, Sophia! Sophia is joining us as an undergraduate from Johns Hopkins.
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Trisha gave an awesome presentation at the Hopkins DREAMS undergraduate research day! You can see the presentation, here. Great job, Trisha!!
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Congratulations to Sumner Lab MD/PhD student, Nicholas Zaccor on graduating!! Nick will be moving on to his residency in EnT. Smiles all around!!
2021 March
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Check out the latest paper from the TRVP4 side of the lab on TRVP4-RhoA interactions! Congrats to Brett, Erika, Jeremy, Will, Nick, Alex, and all involved.
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You can read it, here.
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We were all sad to say goodbye to one of our of techs, JP, this month but are super excited for his move to San Francisco to join the team at Nura Bio! Good luck, JP!! Thank you for everything you've done for the lab and we will miss having you around!
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The Sumner Lab is looking for a Research Tech!! Check out the posting, here.
2021 February
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A bittersweet month of goodbyes and hellos in the Sumner Lab.
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We are so sad to see Bhavya Ravi leave us for a job as a Medical Writer with a contract research organization based in Bethesda, but are super excited to see all that she does!
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Welcome to the lab, Joshua Ross! Joshua is joining us as the newest Sumner Lab technician after finishing his Master's at Morgan State.
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Jonathan Alevy is joining us for a rotation in the Neuroscience PhD program. Welcome, Jonathan!
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Congrats to Jeff for presenting a poster on Neuregulin1-III at the ASENT2021 virtual conference!
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The Sumner Lab is looking for a Postdoc!! Check out the posting, here.
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You can now check out the Sumner Lab on Twitter! @sumnerlab
2021 January
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New year means new papers AND new members!!
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Also, check out some new work from Dan Ramos: "The GENDULF algorithm: mining transcriptomics to uncover modifier genes for monogenic diseases."
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You can read it, here.
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Lastly, check out this latest review from Bhavya and Michelle: "Gene-Targeting Therapeutics for Neurological Disease: Lessons Learned from Spinal Muscular Atrophy."
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You can read it, here.
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Welcome to the lab, Annie Cao and Amy Mistri! Annie and Amy are joining us as undergraduate researchers from Johns Hopkins.
2020 November
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Congrats to Trisha Parayil on receiving the PURA Award!
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The Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award was created to support and encourage Hopkins undergraduate students to engage in independent research, scholarly and creative projects.
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Check out the announcement, here.
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2020 October
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Biggest Congratulations to Will and his wife Laura on their newest addition to their family!! We all cannot wait to meet baby Nathan!!
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Julia Johansson, a CMM PhD student, has joined us for a rotation! Welcome, Julia!
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Phew! Congrats to Anna and Michelle for passing their qualifying exams!!
2020 September
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We have a new hire- We're thrilled to welcome Patrice Carr to the lab who has about 40 years of experience in the neurosciences between JHSOM and KKI. Welcome, Patrice!
2020 August
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We have two new students in the lab- Welcome to both!
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Stephen Brown is joining us as a rotation student for the summer and fall as a PhD student from the Pathobiology program.
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Trisha Parayil is joining us as an undergraduate researcher from Johns Hopkins.
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2020 July
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The lab had a social-distanced gathering in Patterson Park to say goodbye to Dan, Pam, and Alex. We ate some delicious Ekiben and had a friendly badminton compeition. We wish you all the best, and hope to see you in the near future!
2020 June
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Even though the 24th annual CureSMA conference was held virtually this year, we still had an amazing time learning about all the new research being done in SMA.
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Congratulations to Jeffrey Petigrow, who gave a short talk titled, "Impact of neuregulin 1 type III overexpression on motor axon development in SMA model mice."
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In case you missed it, check out this article from the spring 2020 issue of Hopkins Children's magazine feature Charlotte and Tom Crawford.
2020 May
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It's graduation season here at Hopkins! A huge congratulations to:
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Dan Ramos for finishing his PhD in Neuroscience and is off to do his post-doc at NIH with Michael Ward as part of the iNDI (iPSC Neurodegeneration Initiative) team.
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Jae Hong Park for finishing his Masters in Biotechnology
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Scotty McGaugh for finishing his BS in Biophysics and receiving the Bronk Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Biophysics
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Pamela, Alex, & Scotty are ALL going to med school!! Congrats to them all, and while we're sad they're leaving we cannot be more excited for their journey ahead.
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Pamela Saavedra will be attending University of Miami in Florida.
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Alex Lau will be attending at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut
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Scotty McGaugh will be attending University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville on the Dean's Preeminence Scholarship
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Welcome to the lab, Anna Bagnell!
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Anna has decided to join the lab as a CMM PhD student where she will study TRPV4 and BBB interactions. We're very excited to have you!
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2020 February
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Congrats to Jeremy for his new paper out in the Journal of Clinical Investigations this month! You can read "Dominant mutations of the Notch ligand Jagged1 cause peripheral neuropathy," here.
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Dan gave an awesome public PhD defense for the Neuroscience Department and we all got to meet his wonderful family over Ekiben and champagne. Congrats, Dan!
2020 January
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Some of the lab and their families had a great time at Alma Cocina in Canton celebrating the New Year!
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Thank you, Charlotte for a delicious dinner and thank you, Jeff for organizing!
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Ling Ling and Scotty
2019 December
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Woohoo! Congratulations to Daniel Ramos for successfully defending his PhD thesis and officially becoming Dr. Dan!
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We all are looking forward to the public defense this spring!
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Scotty McGaugh, one of our undergraduate research assistants, gave a Message of Appreciation at the Annual Luncheon for Hodson Trust Scholars. It was moving and well-spoken! We're so proud of you, Scotty!
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Some of the lab had a great time at the annual holiday gift exchange with the other labs in Rangos! Some gifts were more sought after than others, but we all had a great time eating and laughing with our lab neighbors. Happy holidays!!
Will showing off his decorative dishes
2019 November
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Congratulations to Daniel Ramos and the rest of lab for publishing "Age-dependent SMN expression in disease-relevant tissue and implications for SMA treatment" in the Journal of Clinical Investigations!
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You can read the paper, here.
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2019 October
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Welcome to the family! Dan and his wife Divya welcome a new pup, Charlie, to their home. His favorite activities include chewing on things and eating peanut butter.
2019 September
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Nothing says Baltimore summer like blue crabs! The lab got to celebrate the end of summer cracking some delicious crabs and consumed enough salt for the next week.
2019 August
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Although we are super sad that Cera is leaving us, we are so excited to see what incredible research she accomplishes during her PhD at the University of Washington! We loved having you in lab and learned so much from you, Cera!
2019 June
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The SMA side of the lab had a great time in Anaheim, CA at the 23rd annual CureSMA conference! It's always exciting to learn about the most recent advancements in SMA research from both the basic science and pharmaceutical side. The nice weather doesn't hurt as well.
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Dan, LingLing, and Charlotte all gave great presentations!
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