Theses/Dissertations from 2026
Structural Insights into Host-Pathogen Interactions of Coronaviruses and Alphaviruses, Lucas Adams
Role of Mesencephalic Reticular Formation Perineuronal Nets in Nociception, Migraine and Alcohol Withdrawal-induced Hyperalgesia, Jhoan Aguilar
Inside 'n Out: ETV2 Specification of Hemangiogenic Lineages from FLK1+ Mesoderm, Dereck Antonio Shakeel Alleyne
Valuation in Time: Mesolimbic Dopamine tracks Decision Strategy, Commitment and Persistence, Apoorva Arora
Function, Regulation and Plasticity of Reactive Microglial States in Brain Development and Disease, Kia Marie Barclay
Genetic Mechanisms of Urinary Tract Infection Pathogenesis by Escherichia coli, Jesus Bazan Villicana
More than one way to keep an ILC in Line: Circadian and Epigenetic regulation of group 3 ILCs homeostasis, Bishan Bhattarai
Impacts of Anthropogenic Landscape Change on Plant-Associated Microbes, Mahal Bugay
Unraveling the Role of the C-Terminal Intrinsically Disordered Linker in the Bacterial Cell Division Protein FtsZ, Jessica Louise Bullock
Dissecting the Roles of Microglial Proteostasis and Innate Immune Signaling in Neurodegeneration, Zhangying Cai
Piloting a Scalable Workflow to Identify Drivers of Mammalian Aging Using C. Elegans, Ariella Lucia Coler-Reilly Colasanti
From Bench to Bedside: Unraveling the Role of SARM1 in Chronic Human Neurodegenerative Disease, Caitlin Dingwall
The Function and Regulation of LAIR1 and LAIR2 in Inflammation and Staphylococcus aureus Infection, Hannah Dorando
Development of Cell-Free DNA and Immune Cell Liquid Biopsies to Stratify Risk of Disease Progression and Treatment Toxicity, Noah Earland
Retinal Circuits for Pupil Control: Neural Mechanisms, Visual Functions, and Capacity for Plasticity, Michael John Fitzpatrick
Elucidating the Coordinated Role of Histone Modifications on the Establishment and Regulation of a Neuronal-specific Methylome, Nicole Hamagami
Investigating the Intra-host Relationships of the Microbiota at Multiple Sites, Ariel Jose Hernandez-Leyva
Investigating the Regulatory Functions of Long Noncoding RNAs in Retinal Development, Jade Hostetler
Ribosomal Stress in the Pathogenesis and Treatment of T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Kimberly Bridget Johansson
The Role of Autophagy in Intestinal Infection in Mice and C. elegans, Gowri Kalugotla
Mass Spectrometry Profiling and High-Throughput Sequencing of HDACi-Induced Histone Modification Changes, Rashmi Karki
A ‘Don’t Eat Too Much’ Signal in Phagocytes via the SIRP⍺-SHP2 Axis Tunes Efferocytosis of Apoptotic Cells, Shannon Kelley
Reprogramming of Myeloid Cells for Anti-Tumor Immunity, Darya Khantakova
Learning Sequence Constraints Governing Conformational Ensembles and Function in Intrinsically Disordered Proteins, Jeffrey Lotthammer
Development and Applications of Optical Imaging Approaches for the Tumor Microenvironment, Megan Suzanne Michie
Macroevolutionary Innovation and the Genomic Basis of Convergent Adaptation in Anolis Lizards, Aryeh Hershel Miller
Supporting the next generation: bHLH TF complexes regulating maize anther development, Lily Elizabeth O'Connor
Molecular Mechanism of WDFY4-Mediated Cross-Presentation by Type 1 Conventional Dendritic Cells, Ray Andrew Ohara
Molecular Circuits in Dendritic Cell Development, Feiya Ou
Contextual Coding in the Prefrontal Cortex, Jeong Jun Park
Spontaneous Blood Oxygen Level Dependent Signals in Glioblastoma-bearing and Aging Brains, Ki Yun Park
Convergent RNA Pathophysiology in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Hunter Lee Patterson
Synaptic enrichment and diagnostic potential of circular RNA in Alzheimer’s Disease, Bridget Mattie Phillips
Uncovering Hidden Features of Copyback Viral Genomes, Sarah Pye
Understanding p53 Regulation on Transposable Elements in Cancer, Xuan Qu
Astrocyte Circadian Regulation in Neurodegeneration: In Vivo BMAL1 Occupancy Mapping Using MACS-Calling Cards, India Reiss
Development of a Quantitative Top-Down Proteomics Platform for Arginylated Proteoform Analysis, Richard Myer Searfoss
Multiplex Functional Assessment of Variant Effect in the Retinal Transcription Factor CRX, James Lewis Shepherdson
MTHFD2 is a selective metabolic vulnerability in AML, Judith Obiageli Sokei
BPTF-Dependent Regulation of Vaccine-Induced B Cell Responses, Alexandria Sturtz
Beyond Attachment: Endolysosomal Determinants of New World Arenavirus Entry and Fusion, Cassandra E. Thompson
Bacterial Colonization of Medical Devices in the Urogenital Tract, Morgan Rose Wilt Timm
Genetic and Observational Insights into Metabolic Alterations in Alzheimer’s Disease, Ciyang Wang
Unraveling Metabolic Determinants of Isoniazid Susceptibility in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Erin Rilu Wang
Energetic Heterogeneity in Retinal Ganglion Cells: Role of Neuronal Activity and Implications for Resilience, Zelun Wang
Understanding the Biological Functions of Dual-Localized Mitochondrial Phosphatase PPTC7, Lianjie Wei
Characterization of Ebola Virus VP24-Host Protein Interactions, Junjie Zhao
Dietary Manipulations of the Undernourished Infant Microbiome, Cyrus Zhou
Theses/Dissertations from 2025
Montane β-diversity: Biodiversity through Space and Time in Earth’s Most Biodiverse Regions, Ethan Ray Abercrombie
Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter Regulates ITAM-Dependent Platelet Activation, Jehiel Abigail Ajanel Gomez
Exploring DDR2’s role in CAF extracellular matrix production and tumor progression, Favour Ayomide Akinjiyan
Defining B cell responses to emerging viral pathogens, Wafaa Al Soussi
Defining B cell responses to emerging viral pathogens, Wafaa Al Soussi
A Subset of Senescent Myofibroblasts Orchestrates Immunosuppression in Pancreatic Cancer., Jad Belle
Exploring the Structure, Dynamics, and Pharmacology of Opioid Receptors, Sarah Maria Bernhard
Single-Cell Analysis of Clonal and Transcriptional Dynamics During Direct Reprogramming, Brent Biddy
Structure and function of type 1 pilus assembly machinery in uropathogenic Escherichia coli, Ryan Bitter
Biomarker and age at onset endophenotypes offer new insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer’s Disease, Joseph Bradley
Targeting Cyst(e)ine Dependence and Redox Metabolism in Genetically Distinct Sarcomas, Caitlyn Brook Brashears
Parapinopsin: a Photoswitchable Inhibitory GPCR for Two-photon Optogenetics, Bobbie J. Brown
Circuit-specific vulnerability in a mouse model of Alzheimer's Disease, Samuel Brunwasser
Effects of ANGPTL3 Deficiency on the Regulation of Hepatic Lipoprotein Production and Lipid Metabolism, Kendall Helene Burks
Targeting Nonsense-Mediated RNA Decay in Splicing Factor Mutant Myeloid Malignancies, Claudia Cabrera
Dissecting Macrophage Metabolism in Metabolic Liver Disease, Mandy Mei-Ying Chan
Disrupting NRF2-Driven Cancer Biology through One-Carbon Metabolism Inhibition, Julius Chembo
A Role for the Actin Cytoskeleton and Plastin-3 in Osteoblast Mineralization and Mechanosensation, Samantha Meagan Chin
A Role for the Actin Cytoskeleton and Plastin-3 in Osteoblast Mineralization and Mechanosensation, Samantha Meagan Chin
Diverse Cell Types Establish a Pathogenic Immune Environment in Peripheral Neuropathy, Julie Choi
Understanding the role of E1OGDH1 in Root System Architecture and Nitrogen Response in Maize, Michelle Sungkyung Cho
BCLAF1 is a Novel Regulator of Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Stephanie Crowley
Induced CD8a Identifies Enhanced Human NK cell IL-15-induced Proliferation and Metabolism and Modulates NK cell Activation, Celia Cubitt
Functional and Structural Connectivity as Predictors of Long-term Motor Development in Very Preterm Children with and without Brain Injury, Peppar Elizabeth Pei-pei Cyr
Tank to Bedside: How insights from zebrafish inform our understanding of human melanoma drug resistance, Sophia Noah DeGeorgia
Mutant-Specific Analysis of Tumor Cell Heterogeneity in Glioblastoma, Patrick DeSouza
Understanding Strain-level Dynamics in Gut Commensal-Pathogen-Host Interactions, Anna Louise DeVeaux
APOBEC3A Promotes the Metastatic Progression of High-grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma by Altering Epithelial-mesenchymal Trajectories, Jessica Merritt Devenport
Emergence and Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance in the Built Environment, Luke Diorio-Toth
Sex, Stress and Hormones : The Role of Modifiable Risk Factors in the Kinetics of Alzheimer’s Disease, Hannah Marie Edwards
The Role of the cGAS-STING Sensing Pathway in HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 Infections, Jenna Eve Eschbach
Understanding host-pathogen interactions using the Caenorhabditis elegans – Orsay virus experimental model, Chika Fujii
Characterizing PIEZO1 Mechanotransduction in Articular Chondrocytes, Jaquelin Marlen Garcia Castorena
Roles of CpsA and SLAMF1 in the innate immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Steven Grigsby
Biophysical insights into emerging virus-host interactions, Paige Danielle Hall
Parsing Heterogeneity in Depression, Kayla Hannon
JARID2-mediated Reprogramming of Human Hematopoietic Progenitors for Stem Cell Transplantation, Wentao Han
DNA-damaging chemotherapy reshapes the immune landscape of the heart, Ruijun He
Barriers and Breakthroughs in the Evolution of Aggregative Multicellularity, Israt Jahan
Barriers and Breakthroughs in the Evolution of Aggregative Multicellularity, Israt Jahan
Novel Therapeutics for Alzheimer's Disease, Nimansha Jain
Lysosomes as Gatekeepers: How LIC1-Mediated Trafficking Regulates Angiogenesis and Vascular Morphogenesis, Dymonn Johnson
Multiclass Liquid Biopsy Assessment of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 Associated Nerve Sheath Tumors, Paul Andrew Jones
Defining the Roles of cDCs in Antigen Presentation: from Tumor to mRNA Vaccines, Suin Jo
Functional Diversification of Rice AGO1 Proteins, Rachel Elie Jouni
Mechanisms of Protective Humoral Immunity and Pathogenesis in Alphavirus Infection, Natasha Monir Kafai
Examing the Role of Complement Signaling in Viral Neuroinflammatory Responses, Marlene Kanmogne