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 2022 Award Winners

Dana Shaw, PhD

Postdoctoral research scholar in the lab of Mayssa Mokalled

“An intricate immune balance necessary for natural spinal cord regeneration”

Alexandra Litvinchuk, PhD

Postdoctoral research scholar in the lab of David Holtzman

“The relationship between ApoE and lipid dysregulation in glia of the PS19 mouse model of tauopathy”

Previous Hope Center Award winners

2021

Maud Gratuze, PhD, Postdoctoral research associate 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, grad student in the lab of Jin-Moo Lee
“Local perturbations in cortical excitability propagate differentially through large-scale functional networks”

2018

Scott Karney-Grobe, grad student in the lab of Aaron DiAntonio
“HSP90 is a chaperone for DLK and is required for axon injury signaling”

Alex Cammack, grad 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, grad 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, grad student in the lab of Aaron DiAntonio
“MAPK signaling functions upstream of SARM1 to promote axonal degeneration”

Cheryl Leyns, grad 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, grad 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, grad 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, grad students in the lab of Marc Diamond
“Distinct tau prion strains propagate in cells and mice and define different tauopathies”

2013

Sarah DeVos, grad student in the lab of Timothy Miller
“Tau Knockdown in the Adult Mouse Significantly Reduces Severity of Excitotoxic Seizures”

Sarah DeVos, grad 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, grad 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, grad student in the lab of Dave Holtzman
“Neuronal activity regulates the regional vulnerability to amyloid-β deposition”

Shannon Macauley-Rambach, grad 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, grad 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, grad 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, grad student in the lab of Heather True-Krob
“PrP Repeat Expansions Confers Enhanced Structural Variability”

Elizabeth Tank, grad 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, grad 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”