Lab News and Current Events
Consider that Defended!
Carrie is officially a Ph.D. as of August 2022 following the successful defense of her thesis titled "Mutant ATXN1 disrupts cellular and molecular pathways in a human iPSC-derived motor neuron model of Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1". She'll be sticking around briefly to finish up her uncountable number of projects before moving on to a post-doc with Dr. Ashley Frakes of NIDDK starting in December of 2022.
9/7/2022
New Lab Member Alert!
Remember that rotation student from before?? Well Adem has officially decided to make the Cvetanovic Lab his forever home (or, more accurately, his launching pad for what's going to be a fantastic next few years and future career!). A huge welcome to Adem and we can't wait to see you shine!
3/29/2022
New Lab Member Alert!
So excited to announce our newest lab member, Fransisco "Emmanuel" Labrada Moncada. He's a postdoc extraordinaire and we're so excited to see where his expertise in calcium imaging, fiber photometry, and immunofluorescent imaging can take our research in the new year. Welcome Emmanuel!
Also happy to welcome our rotation student Adem Selimovic who has joined us for his 3rd rotation as a GPN first year student. He already has brightened up our lab space with his presence.
1/20/2022
Happy Holidays and Check Out SCASource!
It's that time of year when we think about all of the glia, molecules, and neural connections that we love. That time when we share our dreams for a new year (fingers crossed: lots of papers and more grant funding!) and celebrate our little science community with socially distanced potlucks and long discussions of the fun things we're going to get to do outside now that it's finally snowing again (cool people cross country ski... and snowshoe.. and slide down hills on whatever they can find). Whoever you are, wherever you are, we hope you're having a great December. Join us in celebrating another year together. Cheers!
PS: Congrats to Carrie for another snapshot published on SCASource! (https://scasource.net/2021/12/10/snapshot-what-is-nystagmus/). We highly recommend checking out that website if you're interested in digestible portions of the latest and greatest in SCA research!
12/13/2021
New Lab Members!
The Cvetanovic Lab is excited to present our two new lab technicians. Stephen Gilliat joined the lab this May as a recent transplant from BYU the scenic state of Utah. He's excited to learn about SCAs through the context of our work in SCA1! Kaelin Sbrocco will also soon be joining us, fresh from graduation at St. Olaf College. We can't wait to see where her passion for neurodegenerative disease mechanisms takes her! Here's to a promising 2021!
05/21/2021
Watch out world, there's new science afoot!!
A sincere congratulations to Ella Borgenheimer and Juao-Guillerme Rosa at the end of a rather successful graduate school interview season! We're excited to announce that these most excellent lab techs are set to start their graduate careers at Baylor School of Medicine and Boston University respectively. Best of luck to Juao and Ella. We'll miss you terribly, but can't wait to see the science you create at this next stage in your careers.
05/11/2021
What a couple of months for publications!!
Some slightly delayed, but still deeply excited recognition is in store for the sheer amount of writing the Cvetanovic Lab has been getting done during the last year. In December 2020 and January 2021 alone, we've put out four papers including a review, a methods paper with Katie Hamel as first author, a follow up to our continuing story on BDNF and the dual role of astrocytes in the SCA1 cerebellum co-first authored by Carrie Sheeler and Juao-Guillerme Rosa, and an exciting new paper about mood in SCA1. Check us out!
03/10/2021
Go4Brains!!
We're deeply excited to announce the creation of a new high school program by the Neuroscience Department of the University of Minnesota, co-directed by Marija Cvetanovic and Rocio Gomez-Pastor. Here's to training, mentoring, and collaborating with the next generation of scientists!
https://sites.google.com/umn.edu/go4brains/home?authuser=1
03/01/2021
New Lab Members!
The Cvetanovic Lab is excited to present several new and newly official lab members. Genevieve Benjamin joined the lab as a masters student at the beginning of 2020 and has been doing a fantastic job of learning the ropes and getting involved despite the strain of COVID-19. Fares Ghannoum has recently accepted a lab tech position in the lab in the fall of 2020 after graduating from the University of Minnesota. Finally, Alyssa Soles, has joined the lab as a newly minted graduate student with a co-mentorship between Harry Orr and Marija Cvetanovic. We can't wait to see how far she goes!
02/25/2021
Con-grad-ulations! Austin's Defense, Graduation, and next steps
A huge congratulations to Dr. Austin Ferro who successfully defended his thesis proposal "The Role of Microglia and Astrocytes in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1". He is now moving on to Cold Spring Harbor where he looks forward to studying microglia as a postdoctoral trainee alongside Dr. Lucas Cheadle.
11/20/2020
Recent Publications!
Microglial Self-Recognition STINGs in A-T Neurodegeneration.
Ferro A, Sheeler C, Cvetanovic M.
Trends Neurosci. 2019 Nov;42(11):753-755.
Cerebellar contribution to the cognitive alterations in SCA1: evidence from mouse models.
Asher M, Rosa JG, Rainwater O, Duvick L, Bennyworth M, Lai RY; CRC-SCA, Kuo SH, Cvetanovic M.
Hum Mol Genet. 2019 Nov 7. pii: ddz265. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddz265
01/25/2020
Seeking Post Doc! 6/30/2019
Interested in joining the Cvetanovic Lab as a post-doc? We're interested in you!
Email us at mcvetano@umn.edu. Please include a brief personal statement as well as an updated resume/CV.
New Lab Members! 6/15/2019
We are pleased to announce that as of June 2019, Katie Hamel will be joining the lab as a second year graduate student (Congrats on passing the written prelim, Katie!)
We are also very excited to welcome Ella Borgenheimer, a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota, as a laboratory technician. Looking forward to working together!