Recognizing trainees’ exceptional research and presentations at the Annual Hope Center Retreat
Overview
The Hope Center Awards are designed to acknowledge scientific accomplishments and presentation by trainees who give a talk or present a poster at the Annual Hope Center Retreat. All Washington University pre-doctoral students and postdoctoral trainees who are selected to present their work at the Hope Center Retreat are eligible to participate in the awards competition if the work was conducted at Washington University. Winners receive a $1000 award.
Congratulations to the 2025 Award Winners
Short Talks
Hao Chen, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
in the lab of Albert Kim
“Mechanistic basis of Hao-Fountain syndrome”
Poster Presentations
Anuradha Yadav, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate in the lab of Anil Cashikar and Steven Paul
“Role of Microglial CH25H in Driving Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration in Tauopathy Model”
This year’s Hope Center Award Winners will present their research at the Hope Center/Neurology Monday Noon Seminar on June 2.
Congratulations to all of the finalists!
Talk Finalists
- Lili Barbar (DiAntonio lab, WashU Developmental Biology)
“Maintenance of mitochondrial rather than cytosolic NAD+ is essential for axon survival” - Emma Danhash (Karch lab, WashU Psychiatry)
“Ms4a4a deficiency ameliorates plaque pathology in a model of amyloid accumulation” - Hao Hu (Holtzman lab, WashU Neurology)
“CD8+ T cells are primed by cDC1 and exacerbate tau-mediated neurodegeneration” - Miwei Hu (Miller lab, WashU Neurology)
“Antisense Oligonucleotide Development for 4R Tau Mutations: Evaluating Phenotypic and Sleep Changes in Tauopathy Models” - Huma Naz (Zhao lab, WashU Genetics and WashU Neurology)
“Core Activation Program and Selective Regional Responsiveness of Microglia in Aging and Parabiosis” - Danielle Reid (Belloy lab, WashU Neurology)
“Sex-Specific Alzheimer’s Disease Risk Genes: Cross-Ancestry Prioritization Using Genetics and Proteogenomics” - Ashish Sharma (Musiek lab, WashU Neurology)
“A dual orexin receptor antagonist reduces amyloid plaque deposition and increases microglial phagocytosis in APPswe/PSEN1dE9 mice” - Macy Sprunger (Jackrel lab, WashU Chemistry)
“Matrin-3 forms spherical and wormlike assemblies that are modulated by RNA binding and ALS/FTD-associated mutations” - Travis Tabor (Holtzman lab, WashU Neurology)
“Elucidating roles of DGAT-dependent microglial lipid droplets in neurodegeneration” - Chandrani Thakur (Saligrama lab, WashU Neurology)
“The Immune Landscape of Down Syndrome: T-Cell Dynamics and Their Contribution to Alzheimer’s Risk”
Poster Finalists
- Aisan Farhadi Gharehgheshlaghi, PhD, postdoc in the lab of Gilbert Gallardo
“Targeted Extracellular Protein Degradation by Lysosome Using Modified Mannose 6 Phosphate Receptors” - Aishwarya Nambiar, grad student in the lab of Timothy Miller
“Antisense oligonucleotide masking of a common mRNA cis-regulatory element amplifies protein expression” - Jennifer Portillo, grad student in the lab of Albert (Gus) Davis
“The Role of Palmitoyl-protein thioesterase 1 Haploinsuffiency in Synucleinopathy” - Ibrahim Saliu, PhD, postdoc in the lab of Guoyan Zhao
“Transcriptional regulation of astrocyte heterogeneity and disease pathogenesis across six different neurodegenerative diseases and seven brain regions”
Thanks to faculty members who served as judges
for the short talks and the posters!
2024
Vishnu Muraleedharan Saraswathy, PhD, postdoc in the lab of Mayssa Mokalled
“Single-cell analysis of innate spinal cord regeneration identifies intersecting modes of neuronal repair”
Julie Choi, graduate student in the labs of Jeffrey Milbrandt and Peter Jin
“Single-Cell Sciatic Nerve Atlas Unveils Il-1β+ Macrophages and T Cells as Drivers of Neurodegeneration in a SARMopathy Mouse Model”
Yuxiao Xu, graduate student in the lab of Mayssa Mokalled
“Mapping regenerative stem cells during innate spinal cord repair”
2023
Megan Bosch, PhD, postdoc in the lab of David Holtzman
“Sodium oligomannate alters gut microbiota, reduces cerebral amyloidosis and reactive microglia in a dose- and sex-specific manner”
Collin Nadarajah, graduate student in the lab of Erik Musiek
“An astrocyte BMAL1-BAG3 axis regulates glial activation and protein aggregation
in mouse models of alpha-synuclein and tau pathology”
2022
Dana Shaw, PhD, postdoc in the lab of Mayssa Mokalled
“An intricate immune balance necessary for natural spinal cord regeneration”
Alexandra Litvinchuk, PhD, postdoc in the lab of David Holtzman
“The relationship between ApoE and lipid dysregulation in glia of the PS19 mouse model of tauopathy”
2021
Maud Gratuze, PhD, postdoc in the lab of David Holtzman
“Activated microglia mitigate Aβ-associated tau seeding and spreading”
2019
Andrew Findlay, MD, clinical fellow in the lab of Chris Weihl
“Lithium chloride corrects weakness and myopathology in a preclinical model of LGMD1D”
Zachary Rosenthal, graduate student in the lab of Jin-Moo Lee
“Local perturbations in cortical excitability propagate differentially through large-scale functional networks”
2018
Scott Karney-Grobe, graduate student in the lab of Aaron DiAntonio
“HSP90 is a chaperone for DLK and is required for axon injury signaling”
Alex Cammack, graduate student in the lab of Tim Miller
“C9orf72 G4C2 repeat expansions in ALS patients are dynamic and result in large dipeptide repeat proteins”
2017
Yedda Li, graduate student in the lab of Mark Sands
“Combination therapy increase lifespan and improves clinicobehavioral performance in the murine model of globoid cell leukodystrophy”
Kathleen Schoch, PhD, postdoc in the lab of Tim Miller
“Antisense oligonucleotide-mediated reduction of TREM2 mRNA in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease and tauopathy”
2016
Lauren Walker, graduate student in the lab of Aaron DiAntonio
“MAPK signaling functions upstream of SARM1 to promote axonal degeneration”
Cheryl Leyns, graduate student in the lab of David Holtzman
“Direct delivery of full-length, therapeutic anti-tau antibodies to the brain by gene transfer”
2015
Sarah Petersen, PhD, postdoc in the lab of Kelly Monk
“GPR126 has distinct, domain-dependent functions in Schwann cell development mediated by interaction with laminin-211”
Matheus Victor, graduate student in the lab of Andrew Yoo
“Modeling Huntington’s Disease with striatal medium spiny neurons directly converted from patient fibroblasts”
2014
Shannon Macauley-Rambach, PhD, postdoc in the lab of David Holtzman
“Investigating the mechanistic link between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease: the effects of the hyperglycemia on neuronal activity and Amyloid beta levels within the brain’s interstitial fluid”
Matthew MacEwan, graduate student in the labs of Dan Moran and Wilson Ray
“Neuroregenerative electrodes enable functional electrical stimulation of peripheral motor axons and distal musculature”
Sarah Kaufman and David Sanders, graduate students in the lab of Marc Diamond
“Distinct tau prion strains propagate in cells and mice and define different tauopathies”
2013
Sarah DeVos, graduate student in the lab of Timothy Miller
“Tau Knockdown in the Adult Mouse Significantly Reduces Severity of Excitotoxic Seizures”
Najla Kfoury, PhD , postdoc in the lab of Marc Diamond
“Soluble tau aggregate seeds are present in brain, CSF and plasma of AD patients, and predict cognitive decline”
2012
Josiah Gerdts, graduate student in the lab of Jeff Milbrandt
“High-throughput screening identifies novel genes required for Wallerian Degeneration in primary mouse neurons”
Brandon Holmes, grad student in the lab of Marc Diamond
“Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans Constitute a Major Pathway for Pathogenic Tau Seed Internalization”
2011
Adam Bero, graduate student in the lab of Dave Holtzman
“Neuronal activity regulates the regional vulnerability to amyloid-β deposition”
Shannon Macauley-Rambach, graduate student in the lab of Mark Sands
“The role of astrocyte activation in both the pathogenesis and treatment of infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (INCL)”
2010
Rebecca Craig-Schapiro, graduate student in the lab of Dave Holtzman
“YKL-40: A Novel Diagnostic and Prognostic Fluid Biomarker for Early Alzheimer’s Disease”
Jungsu Kim, PhD, postdoc in the lab of Dave Holtzman
“Overexpression of Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor in the Brain Markedly Inhibits Amyloid Deposition and Increases Extracellular Aβ Clearance”
2009
Andrew Kraft, undergraduate in the lab of Jin-Moo Lee
“Activated astrocytes suppress amyloid plaque pathogenesis in APP/PS1 mice”
Shiyam Rao, MD, fellow in the lab of Josh Rubin
“Disruption of GBM-Endothelial Cell Interactions Through Antagonism of CXCR4 Signaling Inhibits Tumor Cell Growth”
2008
Craig Press, graduate student in the lab of Jeff Milbrandt
“Nmnat delays axonal degeneration caused by mitochondrial and oxidative stress”
Qiang Liu, PhD, postdoc in the lab of Guojun Bu
“Amyloid Precursor Protein Regulates Brain Apolipoprotein E and Cholesterol Metabolism through Lipoprotein Receptor LRP1″
2007
Biyu He, undergraduate in the lab of Maurizio Corbetta
“Breakdown of intrinsic brain synchrony in spatial neglect: a novel mechanism to explain brain-behavior relationships after stroke”
Fernanda Laezza, PhD, postdoc in the labs of David Ornitz and Jeanne Nerbonne
“A single mutation in FGF14 interferes with function of voltage-gated sodium channels in mammalian neurons”
2006
Elizabeth Tank, graduate student in the lab of Heather True-Krob
“PrP Repeat Expansions Confers Enhanced Structural Variability”
Elizabeth Tank, graduate student in the lab of Heather True-Krob
“PrP Repeat Expansions Confers Enhanced Structural Variability”
Conrad (Chris) Weihl, MD, PhD, postdoc in the labs of Phyllis Hanson and Alan Pestronk
“Using both cellular and animal models of hereditary inclusion body myositis (IBM) to explore the underlying pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease”
2005
Michelle Schlief, graduate student in the lab of Jonathan Gitlin
“Novel insights into the mechanism of neurodegeneration in Menkes disease: copper-dependent excitotoxic neuroprotection”
David Brody, MD, PhD, postdoc in the lab of David Holtzman
“Anti-Aβ antibody attenuates cognitive impairment in a model of experimental traumatic brain injury”