Trainee Milestones and Updates

Congratulations to Kari-Nejak Bowen, a former graduate student with Paul Monga at the University of Pittsburgh for successfully defending her thesis, “Beta-catenin in liver: A matter of life and death” in October 2010. Apart from her many past publications, Kari has recently authored a review entitled “Beta-catenin signaling, liver regeneration and hepatocellular cancer: Sorting the good from the bad" in Seminars in Cancer Biology (2010). She was also the recipient of the A.D. Sobel ASIP Education Fund Scholar Trainee Travel Award from ASIP to attend the XXX National Congress of the Società Italiana di Patologia (Italian Pathology Society). Kari has accepted a postdoctoral position in George Michalopoulos’ lab at the University of Pittsburgh.

Congratulations to Gina Griffith a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma for winning the FASEB MARC Leadership Development & Grant Writing Seminar Travel Award (2010). Gina a member of Alpha Epsilon Lambda Delta and is an active member of the student senate and the vice president of the OUHSC Native American Student Association at the University of Oklahoma. In addition, she was a recipient of the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Training grant (NIH - Molecular Basis of Immunity 2009-Present).

We would like to congratulate Abigale Lade, a graduate student with Paul Monga at the University of Pittsburgh for recently publishing a review article and book chapter. The review entitled “Beta-catenin signaling in hepatic development and progenitors: Which way does the WNT blow?” will appear in the December 2010 issue of Developmental Dynamics. In addition, Abigale published the book chapter, “Signaling Pathways in the Liver” in Molecular Pathology of Liver Disease (pp. 291-304). Abigale has also presented her work at the FASEB meeting on Liver Growth, Injury and Metabolism (Snowmass, CO 2010) and has received a McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine Trainee Career Advancement Travel Award (April 2010).

Congratulations to Zhong-Dong Shi, a former graduate student with Dr. John Tarbell at City College of City University in New York, for successfully defending his thesis entitled “Mechanotransduction of Interstitial Flow Modulates Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell and Fibroblast Motility and Phenotype in 2-D and 3-D” in Jun 2010. Zhong-Dong has authored numerous publications during his graduate career. His most recent article, “Heparan sulfate proteoglycans mediate interstitial flow mechanotransduction regulating MMP-13 expression and cell motility via FAK-ERK in 3D collagen” appeared in PLoS ONE in 2011. Other publications have appeared in PLoS ONE (2010), Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol (2010) and Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol (2009). Zhong-Dong Shi is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Developmental Biology at Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York.

We would like to congratulate Maria Tomasi, a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Shelly Lu at the University of Southern California. Maria recently published a paper, “S-adenosylmethionine regulates dual-specificity mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase expression in mouse and human hepatocytes.” in Hepatology (2010) and was awarded an F32 postdoctoral grant by the NIH. She is also the recipient of the ASIP Experimental Pathologist Training MERIT Award (2011).