The Mesce Lab

Time is flying by this summer-- we can hardly believe that the International Congress of Neuroethology in Brisbane, Australia is less than a week away! We are looking forward to catching up with our friends and colleagues who will be at the meeting, and learning about the latest and greatest discoveries in neuroethology!

PI Karen Mesce and Ph.D. Candidate Morgan Newhoff will both be in attendance and showcasing their research with poster presentations. If you will be at the meeting, please stop by our posters... we are excited to show you what we've been up to this past year! The full poster citations are below:

Newhoff M, Ebbini E, Mesce KA. 2018. The effects of ultrasound neuromodulation on behaviorally relevant neuronal firing patterns.

Mesce KA, Puhl JG, Bigelow AW, Newhoff M. 2018. Locomotor recovery after injury in the medicinal leech: novel proprioceptive pathways correlate with the return of locomotion.

We hope to see you down under, mate!

Former Lab Technician Tony Bigelow and former Postdoctoral Researcher Joshua Puhl are co-first authors on an exciting new paper that was just published in eNeuro earlier this month! The paper, written with PI Karen Mesce and former Lab Technician Mara CP Rue, is the culmination of several years of work on the recovery of locomotor abilities and associated reorganization of the nervous system following traumatic injury in the medicinal leech. Be sure to check it out!

The full paper citation is below:

Puhl JG*, Bigelow AW*, Rue MCP, Mesce KA. 2018. Functional recovery of a locomotor network after injury: plasticity beyond the central nervous system. eNeuro 2018: 10.1523/ENEURO.0195-18.2018. eNeuro Link

*co-first authors; please cite as Puhl, Bigelow, et al. 2018.

Congratulations to Postdoctoral Researcher Joshua Puhl, who has accepted a new position as Assistant Professor at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA! As a member of the college's Science Division, Joshua will specialize in teaching courses on human anatomy and physiology. Over the last few years, Joshua has discovered and embraced his passion for teaching, and most recently served as an adjunct instructor of biology at Metropolitan State University. We are very happy that he will be able to continue pursuing those passions in his new role, and we wish him all the best on his way to California!

Summer is here, and that means it's time to welcome a new summer undergraduate researcher into the lab! Christine Ellis is joining us from Virginia Tech this summer, where she is enrolled in the undergraduate biochemistry major. As a Minnesota native, she is happy to be back in MN, and we are happy to have her in the lab! She will primarily be assisting Ph.D. Candidate Anthony Auletta in his research into the evolution of biogenic amine signaling in the arachnids, which is an excellent match for her biochemistry background and budding interest in neuroscience. Welcome, Christine!

Congratulations to Ph.D. Candidate Morgan Newhoff, for recently receiving two competitive professional development awards!

First up, Morgan was named one of this year's recipients of the Stark Award for Advanced Scholarship from the Graduate Program in Neuroscience! The intent of the Stark Award is to support GPN students in the pursuit of advanced training, either in the U.S. or abroad, in specific lab techniques or via specialized courses. Morgan will be using her award to help fund her trip to Okinawa, Japan, where she will attend the 2018 Okinawa Institute of Science & Technology Computational Neuroscience Course later this summer!

Morgan also received the Heiligenberg Stuent Travel Award from the International Society for Neuroethology! This award will help fund her trip to the International Congress of Neuroethology in Brisbane, Australia this July, where she will present the latest and greatest findings from her doctoral research.

Way to go, Morgan!