Student Experience
Resources for Prospective Students Heading link
Departmental Activities to Enhance PhD Training Heading link
In light of the broad array of programs that are department participates in, it is critical for our students to participate in shared activities regardless of whatever PhD program they belong to, so that they can build a cohesive departmental identity and also receive the same quality of training excellence.
What to expect
All students give work in progress updates, typically once a year, and receive feedback from their peers, from postdoctoral fellows as well as faculty. By attending the seminar series, students learn about each other’s research and broaden their own knowledge in several areas of molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry and molecular genetics. By presenting annually and receiving constructive feedback, all PhD students acquire presentation skills are prepared to give presentations at national or international conferences.
What to expect
These seminars are given by invited faculty members from other academic institutions, other departments in our institution or the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Typically, the invited speakers discuss cutting-edge research in the molecular, cellular and computational life sciences. Importantly, faculty mentors can also nominate their PhD students to meet thee invited speakers for lunch and receive feedback about their research projects or advice for career development.
What to expect
PhD students organize a Friday afternoon social sponsored by department so that they can meet for pizza, tacos, samosas or other food and chat about work and life. Our student representatives get to choose what food they want to order and this informal community-building activity is also open to students who have not yet joined our department but are interested in meeting our students or postdocs.
What to expect
Once a semester, we organize and sponsor student outings so that students can experience the rich Chicago cultural scene. Becoming a scientist is ultimately about unlocking our creative potential. Learning more about Chicago’s history, art, music and culture scene is a great way to tap into the creativity more broadly. Recent examples were a visit to the Chicago Symphony and the Chicago Art Institute.
What to expect
Each year, our department organizes a retreat where all students and faculty present their work, have fun during informal activities or hikes as well as a formal dinner with keynote speakers.
Student Publications Heading link
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Selected Student Publications
Selected Student Publications
(Names of students and PIs are bolded. / More publications will be coming soon.)
- CD36 maintains lipid homeostasis via selective uptake of monounsaturated fatty acids during matrix detachment and tumor progression.
Terry AR, Nogueira V, Rho H, Ramakrishnan G, Li J, Kang S, Pathmasiri KC, Bhat SA, Jiang L, Kuchay S, Cologna SM, Hay N. Cell Metab. 2023;35(11):2060-2076.e9. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2023.09.012. - Combined inactivation of RB and Hippo converts differentiating Drosophila photoreceptors into eye progenitor cells through derepression of homothorax.
Rader AE, Bayarmagnai B, Frolov MV. Dev Cell. 2023;58(21):2261-2274.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2023.09.003.. - Hexokinase 2-mediated gene expression via histone lactylation is required for hepatic stellate cell activation and liver fibrosis.
Rho H, Terry AR, Chronis C, Hay N. Cell Metab. 2023;35(8):1406-1423.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2023.06.013. - Appearance of tuft cells during prostate cancer progression.
Vlajic K, Pennington Kluger H, Bie W, Merrill BJ, Nonn L, Kajdacsy-Balla A, Tyner AL. Oncogene. 2023;42(31):2374-2385. doi: 10.1038/s41388-023-02743-1. - Temporal transcriptomic analysis using TrendCatcher identifies early and persistent neutrophil activation in severe COVID-19.
Wang X, Sanborn MA, Dai Y, Rehman J. JCI Insight. 2022;7(7):e157255. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.157255 - A non-catalytic scaffolding activity of hexokinase 2 contributes to EMT and metastasis.
Blaha CS, Ramakrishnan G, Jeon SM, Nogueira V, Rho H, Kang S, Bhaskar P, Terry AR, Aissa AF, Frolov MV, Patra KC, Brooks Robey R, Hay N . Nat Commun. 2022;13(1):899. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-28440-3 - Mitophagy mediates metabolic reprogramming of induced pluripotent stem cells undergoing endothelial differentiation.
Krantz S, Kim YM, Srivastava S, Leasure JW, Toth PT, Marsboom G, Rehman J. J Biol Chem. 2021;297(6):101410. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2021.101410 - A Bayesian inference transcription factor activity model for the analysis of single-cell transcriptomes.
Gao S, Dai Y, Rehman J. Genome Res. 2021;31(7):1296-1311. doi: 10.1101/gr.265595.120 - Sequential Activation of Guide RNAs to Enable Successive CRISPR-Cas9 Activities.
Clarke R, Terry AR, Pennington H, Hasty C, MacDougall MS, Regan M, Merrill BJ. Mol Cell. 2021;81(2):226-238.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2020.12.003 - Endothelial heterogeneity across distinct vascular beds during homeostasis and inflammation.
Jambusaria A, Hong Z, Zhang L, Srivastava S, Jana A, Toth PT, Dai Y, Malik AB, Rehman J. Elife. 2020;9:e51413. doi: 10.7554/eLife.51413 - Tpz1TPP1 prevents telomerase activation and protects telomeres by modulating the Stn1-Ten1 complex in fission yeast.
Mennie AK, Moser BA, Hoyle A, Low RS, Tanaka K and Nakamura TM Commun. Biol. 2019;2:297. (doi:10.1038/s42003-019-0546-8) - Single cell RNA-sequencing identifies a metabolic aspect of apoptosis in Rbf mutant.
Ariss MM, Islam ABMMK, Critcher M, Zappia MP, Frolov MV Nat Commun 2018;9(1):5024.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07540-z. - LARP7-like protein Pof8 regulates telomerase assembly and poly(A)+TERRA expression in fission yeast.
Mennie AK, Moser BA, Nakamura TM Nat Commun. 2018;9(1): 586. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-02874-0 - Regulation of Golgi Cisternal Progression by Ypt/Rab GTPases.
Kim JJ, Lipatova Z, Majumdar U, Segev N. Dev Cell. 2016;36(4):440-52. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2016.01.016.
- CD36 maintains lipid homeostasis via selective uptake of monounsaturated fatty acids during matrix detachment and tumor progression.