Katerina Morgaenko, a PhD student in the Biomedical Engineering program, was awarded a 2022 Trainee Fellowship from the UVA Cancer Center. In her proposal, “Ex vivo Model of Lymph Node Metastasis in Breast Cancer,” She'll be making the first-ever model of tumor cell infiltration into the lymph node parenchyma, using lymph node slices. The award will support Katerina's training and research in this area. Big congratulations, Katerina!
Posts filed under Lab Updates
Putt-Putt Outing!
Lab members had a wonderful outing last week! We had a good time during a hot summer evening!
Prof. Pompano Chairs the inaugural Immunoengineering GRC
Prof. Pompano was honored to Co-Chair the meeting with co-chair Bali Pulendran and vice chairs Susan N. Thomas and Madhav Dhodapkar. Tochi and Katerina both presented their research in posters. This was great time and opportunity to connect with this growing community!
Congratulations to Peyton Hamlett and Tochukwu Ozulumba for the GIDI-UP Fellowship!
GIDI-UP is a Summer Research award for undergraduate/postdoctorate fellow pairs. The pair has been granted the award in their research this summer for developing a 3D hydrogel based model of the human lymph node to study vaccination. We are very proud of them!
Jonathan Zatorski and Isabellą Lee Awarded the UVA DoubleHoo Award!
Congratulations to Jon and Izzy who were awarded the UVA DoubleHoo (https://undergraduateresearch.virginia.edu/our-opportunities/grants/double-hoo-award) for their shared project to quantify the extent of photocrosslinking in gels by proton NMR!
Ovi is off to Intel!
Yesterday we bid a fond farewell to postdoctoral scholar Amirus (Ovi) Saleheen, PhD. He has been a big contributor to our lymph-node chip project since arriving in fall 2020. He’s a whiz at microfabrication and the driving force behind some cool new technology that will be published soon. Now, he will be taking those skills to an exciting new position at Intel!
Congrats Ovi, we will miss you!
Prof. Pompano co-organizes New Faces in Chemistry Workshop
In July and August, 2021, the UVA Department of Chemistry faculty mobilized to put together a brand new, virtual workshop for future faculty in the chemical sciences, titled New Faces in Chemistry: A Future Faculty Workshop. Co-organized by Prof. Rebecca Pompano and Prof. Marcos Pires, the 5-day workshop sought to level the playing field for future faculty applicants from diverse backgrounds. Recognizing that the application process is opaque to many trainees, and that this can reduce the diversity of the application pool for highly competitive faculty positions, we established this workshop to share critical information on making a competitive faculty job application. The workshop was open to all, and was targeted it especially to those from underrepresented backgrounds (women, URM, first-gen, LGBTQ, and self-identified diversity). Approximately 50 participants attended the workshop each day from across the USA and around the world.
Faculty from across the entire Chemistry department pitched in to share their advice, expertise, and tips, on topics including: how to choose what positions to apply to; preparation of a strong cover letter, CV, research statement, diversity statement, and teaching statement; planning to fund your lab via grant writing; and preparation for strong interview and negotiation of startup.
We were fortunate to draw on the depth of resources previously created by the UVA PhD Plus program, provided by Sonali Mujamdar, PhD.
Next, in Phase II of the workshop that commenced in August, Chemistry faculty are volunteering their time to provide 1-on-1 feedback for participants on elements of their faculty job application. Approximately half of the workshop participants signed up for Phase II of the workshop. Feedback from this program has been very positive.
New Faces in Chemistry : A Future Faculty Workshop
July 12 – 16, 2021
Virtually at the Univ of Virginia
We hope to see many of our participants go on to exciting faculty careers across the country, and perhaps even here at UVA one day!
Parris Anbaei wins 3rd place in Chemistry Rising 5th year Poster session
Big congratulations to Parris for her wonderful presentation! Good job also to Sophie Cook and Jon Zatorski for their excellent presentations in the 4th year session!
Sophie Cook named a Presidential Fellowship for Collaborative Neuroscience
This award will enable exciting work to study brain immunity in collaboration with Prof. Tajie Harris in the School of Medicine, as well as unique career development opportunities!
Prof. Pompano speaks at PhD+ STEM Future Faculty
On July 26, Prof. Pompano had the honor of speaking with UVA students and postdocs who are exploring potential careers as faculty members in the PhD+ STEM Future Faculty series, organized by Dr. Sonali Majumdar. She shared her experiences and advice regarding lab startup packages and managing the finances of a successful laboratory. Running a lab is like running a small business, after all!
