Lab News

2023

October: Lori was invited by UAB Nephrology Research and Training Center where she gave a talk on “Kidney Cell Regulatory Networks in Kidney Disease and Aging”.

October: Pierre’s stunning image was selected as the NDT October journal cover. Congratulation!

October: Sam’s manuscript on role of Netrin-1 in directing vascular patterning and maturity in the developing kidney has been accepted in Development.

October: Matt’s manuscript titled: “Altered binding affinity of SIX1-Q177R correlates with enhanced WNT5A and WNT pathway effector expression in Wilms tumor” has been accepted in Disease Models & Mechanism.

June: Sam defends his thesis and is off to start the next phase of his career! Congratulations Sam!

May: Gary’s manuscript which mapped the kidney podocyte foot process proteome has been accepted in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.

2022

December: Lori is awarded the Cell Biology and Physiology Departmental Faculty Mentoring Award in recognition of her outstanding mentoring of CBP students.

December: Lori is invited to present her work at  Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in the Developmental Biology Department.

November: Lori is invited as a keynote speaker at the Midwest Society for Developmental Biology Meeting.

November: O’Brien lab just submitted 2 preprints to bioRxiv. The first study spearheaded by graduate student Matt Stevenson and undergraduate student Urvi Patel dives deep into how Q177R mutation in SIX1 affects regulatory programs and supports Wilms tumor oncogenesis. The second study driven by postdoc Gary Gerlach and undergraduate students Zach Imseis and Anabela Santos emphasizes a novel mouse model they generated called Podocin-BioID. Using this mouse model, they were able to identify and characterize the localized proteome of the podocyte foot process in vivo.

November: The O’Brien lab was represented at the ASN Kidney Week 2022 in Orlando Florida where Pierre-Emmanuel was selected to give a talk on the developmental importance of renal nerves and Postdotaral fellow Gary presented a poster uncovering the podocyte foot process proteome. Lori also chaired a session with Dr. Cristina Ligero on Nephron Progenitor Fate Determination and Maintenance.

February: Sarah McLarnon, Ph.D. joins the lab for her postdoctoral studies. Sarah successfully completed her Ph.D. at Augusta University where she was co-mentored by Dr. Paul O’Connor and Dr. Jennifer Sullivan. Welcome to the lab Sarah, we are lucky to work with you.

January: Kayla and Sherry successfully finished their rotation in the O’Brien lab. We all wish them great things in their future endeavors.

2021

December: End of the Year lab Party. Image coming soon.

November: The O’Brien lab welcomes two new rotation students, Kayla Mason and Sherry Hsu. Welcome to the lab Sherry and Kayla! We are lucky to work with you.

November: Pierre successfully passes his preliminary oral exam. Congrats to O’Brien lab’s newest PhD candidate. Image coming soon.

September: Lori is invited to present at the virtual seminar series at the University of Washington St Louis.

August: The whole lab participated at the GUDMAP Jamboree 2021. Lori also presented at the same conference.

August: Gary awarded NIH LRP in Pediatric Nephrotic Syndrome

June: Following our State Of The Lab Address, the lab gathered to celebrate the end of Paige’s rotation. We all wished her great things in future endeavors.

    

June: The O’Brien lab welcomes MD/Ph.D. student Paige Takasugi for her summer rotation. Welcome to the lab Paige! We are lucky to work with you.

May: Happy hour on May 21 by the O’Brien lab to celebrate the amazing talks given by Sam and Gary during the Southeast SDB regional meeting.

May: Post-doc Gary Gerlach and graduate student Samuel Honeycutt will be presenting their research at the 2021 Southeast Regional Meeting of the Society for Developmental Biology. Congratulations!!!!


2020

December: Physically distanced holiday party and White elephant gift exchange. HAPPY HOLIDAY O’BRIEN LAB!!!

 

December: Congratulations to Sam who successfully published his work “Injection of Evans blue dye to fluorescently label and image intact vasculature” in BioTechniques journal.

December: Congratulations to Gary who just received his 3rd-year notice of award for his F32 from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease. His research focuses on uncovering the podocyte’s foot process proteome. Congratulations Gary we are so proud.

December: Great news for Matt from National Cancer Institute: his F31 proposal to elucidate the oncogenic mechanism underlying Wilms tumor using kidney organoids is now funded! Congratulations Matt we are so proud.

November: Physically distanced Lab Thanksgiving Celebration

October: Pierre, Matt, Sam, Gary, and Lori attended the virtual annual kidney week meeting organized by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), with Lori moderating a section and Gary presenting a poster.

October: Congratulations to Gary for his presentation at the Society of Developmental Biology (SDB) seminar. Click HERE to see the presentation.

September: Congratulations to Lori who was featured on Finding Genius Podcast. Click HERE to hear the podcast.

August: The O’Brien lab is welcoming a new research technician Yubin Xiong, who is coming from Dr. Ellen Weiss’s lab. Welcome to the lab Yubin, we are lucky to work with you.

July: Marvin Albert Meza Jarquin our research technician is leaving the O’Brien lab, he is starting medical school here at UNC-Chapel Hill. Congratulations Marvin! We wish you all the best and we will miss you.

June: We are slowly and safely ramping up lab activities after the COVID19 shutdown.

March: The O’Brien lab is slowly shutting down lab work to socially isolate and slow the spread of coronavirus per university policy. We donated our available PPE and hope to be back soon for more amazing science. All work will be done remotely with only essential personnel allowed in lab. See you soon lab!

March: Pierre-Emmanuel N’Guetta joins the O’Brien lab and the Cell Biology and Physiology Curriculum. Pierre is coming from Indiana University South Bend where he did his Bachelor in biology. Welcome to the lab Pierre! We are lucky to work with you.

February: Lori was invited to present her work at the seminar series of the NIH T32 training program in organogenesis  at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.

February: Great news for the Lab from NIDDK:  A new R01 for the lab is funding our research to investigate the Trophic interactions directing proper kidney development.


2019

November: Sam, Matt, and Lori attended ASN kidney week meeting in Washington, DC where Sam and Matt each presented a poster on their research and Lori doing a talk.

November: Lab outings – Axe Throwing

September: Gary Gerlach, Ph.D. joins the lab for his postdoctoral studies. Gary did his Ph.D. with Dr. Rebecca Wingert at the University of Notre Dame and a postdoc at Duke University in the Center for Human Disease Modelling (CHDM) and at Sloan Kettering Institute in the lab of Dr. Philipp Niethammer. Welcome to the lab Gary, we are lucky to work with you.

August: The O’Brien lab welcomes Ph.D. student Pierre-Emmanuel N’Guetta for his fall rotation. Welcome to the lab Pierre! We are lucky to work with you.


Bar Games Olympics

GWAR

It was Lori, Sam, Matt, and Deanna’s 100th concert (minimum), but Marvin’s first concert of any kind. Music was great.

There was noise and comedy and plenty of runs into the moshpit.