EPIC: At the forefront of biomedical research on eukaryotic pathogens
EPIC: At the forefront of biomedical research on eukaryotic pathogens
Eukaryotic pathogens cause some of the most devastating and intractable diseases in humans, including malaria, amoebic dysentery, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and fungal meningitis. Globalization has increased such infections in the U.S. Many eukaryotic pathogens are classified as bioterrorism agents and/or neglected tropical diseases.
Clemson University’s Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center — EPIC — is an interdisciplinary research cooperative founded in 2013 that is at the forefront of biomedical research on these devastating pathogens.
EPIC scientists have a lengthy track record of major contributions in this globally important area of research.
EPIC News Bites
Arohi Singhal Wins Clemson’s iGRADS Competition
Arohi Singhal, PhD student in Kerry Smith’s lab, won Clemson’s iGRADS competition! In addition, she also received the People’s Choice Award. Congratulations Arohi!
The aim of the iGRADS competition is to help graduate students effectively communicate their research to a lay audience. Students create a 3-4 minute video that presents their research in an engaging way through the use of videos and creative elements. This is part of the Clemson University Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium (GRADS), which showcases the innovative and outstanding research being done by graduate students across all of Clemson’s colleges.
EPIC Researcher Accepted into Fulbright Specialist Program
Dr. Bruce Rafert has received notification that his application to join the Fulbright Specialist Roster has been approved. While serving as Director of EPIC Initiatives (EPIC: Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center) he has maintained his research in hyperspectral imaging and is now planning to use various remote sensing technologies to look at eukaryotic pathogens through microscopes, rather than at space objects through large telescopes or the surface of the earth from satellites whose instruments he helped design.
Undergraduate Student Emma Chin Receives Two Student Awards
Emma Chin, an undergraduate student in the Stamatikos lab, received the 2023-2024 CAFLS Blue Key Academic & Leadership award, as well as the Human Nutrition Outstanding Senior Award in 2024. Congratulations, Emma!
Melanie Key Successfully Defends Dissertation
On Friday April 5, 2024, Melanie Key, a graduate student in the Dou lab, successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled “Exploring A Novel Nutrient Acquisition Mechanism Used to Obtain Host-Derived Glycolytic Metabolites for Energy Metabolism in Toxoplasma gondii.” Congratulations, Dr. Key!
Alexis Stamatikos Receives Award from Clemson University Division of Research
Dr. Alexis Stamatikos has been awarded an $84,426 Research Faculty and Postdoctoral Research Support Grant (Clemson Research Fellows) R-Initiatives Award from the Clemson University Division of Research. “CU FELLOWS: Controlling ABC-transporter overexpression: the final frontier in atherosclerosis research” is expected to run from June 1, 2024 to May 31, 2026. Congratulations, Dr. Stamatikos!
Graduate Student Hannah Akohoho Selected for Oral Presentation at the Fungal Genetics International Conference
Congratulations to Hannah Akahoho (PhD student in the Kozubowski laboratory), who was selected for an oral presentation during the 32nd Fungal Genetics international conference, which was organized by the Genetics Society of America and was held in Asilomar, CA in March 2024. Hannah also presented a poster at this conference along with two other EPIC students, Tejas Patel (Kozubowski Lab) and Arohi Singhal (Smith Lab).
Graduate Student Stephani Martinez-Barrera Selected for Oral Presentation at The Allied Genetics Conference
Congratulations to Stephani Martinez-Barrera (PhD candidate in the Kozubowski laboratory), who was selected for an oral presentation during The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC), which was organized by the Genetics Society of America and was held in Washington DC in March 2024. The Genetics Society of America also presented Stephani with the Minoritized Scientists-NSF Rising Scientist Award. The award supported Stephani’s participation in this conference. Another member of Kozubowski Lab, Jessica Keeran, presented a poster at TAGC.
James Lewis Receives NSF Career Award
Dr. James Lewis has been awarded a Career grant in the amount of $1,327,489 by the National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology. “Functional genomic architecture and population differentiation of a polygenic and sexually dimorphic butterfly mimicry phenotype” will use integrative functional and quantitative genomics approaches to explore butterfly wing color and patterning. Congratulations, Dr. Lewis!
Rodrigo Martinez-Duarte Invited to Give Talk at TMS 2024 Annual Meeting & Exhibition
Dr. Rodrigo Martinez-Duarte was invited to give his talk, “Towards architecting bacterial cellulose from the bottom-up using electric fields” at the TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition, Biological Materials Science Symposium in Orlando, Florida in March 2024.
Cheryl Ingram-Smith Awarded NIH R03 Grant
Congratulations to Dr. Cheryl Ingram-Smith, who was awarded an NIH R03 grant to study excystation in the human protozoan parasite, Entamoeba histolytica. The overall goal of the project is to develop a reproducible method for high efficiency in vitro excystation of E. histolytica cysts. The work will contribute to our understanding of stage conversion in this devastating human pathogen.
Alexis Stamatikos Manuscript Published in Pathophysiology
“Inhibition of miR-33a-5p in Macrophage-like Cells In Vitro Promotes apoAI-Mediated Cholesterol Efflux” was published in the February 2024 Pathophysiology.
Oladosu O, Chin E, Barksdale C, Powell RR, Bruce T, Stamatikos A. Inhibition of miR-33a-5p in Macrophage-like Cells In Vitro Promotes apoAI-Mediated Cholesterol Efflux. Pathophysiology. 2024;31:117-126. (PMID: 38535619)
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