The Mesce Lab

Ph.D. Candidate Anthony Auletta recently received the Department of Entomology Community Service Award, in recognition of his dedication to departmental service & community-building. The award was presented at the 20th Annual Hodson Alumni Event & Student Awards Ceremony this past Friday.

Since joining the department in 2013, Anthony has been a strong voice on several departmental committees, in addition to holding leadership positions within Frenatae (the Entomology Graduate Student Association) and being actively involved in teaching multiple entomology courses. He has also recently taken lead in organizing a number of departmental events in an effort to foster greater camaraderie and professional connections among Entomology students, staff, and faculty. Congratulations, Anthony, on being recognized for all of your efforts!

Congratulations to Ph.D. Candidate Anthony Auletta, who recently received a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF) from the University of Minnesota Graduate School! The DDF is  a competitive award designed to fund doctoral candidates in the final year of their degree programs. Anthony’s DDF will fund him for the 2018-19 academic year, putting him right on track to defend his thesis in Spring 2019. Congratulations, Anthony!

We’re very happy to announce that our latest paper has been published as the cover story in the new issue of Journal of Experimental Biology! Congratulations to PI Dr. Karen Mesce (lead author), as well as co-authors Magda Alania (former postdoctoral researcher), Quentin Gaudry, and Joshua Puhl (current postdoctoral researcher)!

The full citation for the paper is below: 

Mesce KA, Alania M, Gaudry Q, Puhl JG. 2018. The stomatogastric nervous system of the medicinal leech: its anatomy, physiology and associated aminergic neurons. Journal of Experimental Biology 221:jeb175687. PubMed Link

The cover photo was taken by PhD Candidate Morgan Newhoff, with assistance from Joshua Puhl, PhD Candidate Anthony Auletta, and Karen Mesce.

 

Behind the scenes of our leech photo shoot.

Congratulations to Ph.D. Candidate Morgan Newhoff, who will be heading off to Japan later this summer to attend the 2018 Okinawa Institute of Science & Technology Computational Neuroscience Course! Morgan is one of a handful of scholars from around the world selected to participate in this prestigious course. As part of the experience, Morgan will conduct a small independent project that will augment her PhD dissertation on the cellular mechanisms underlying ultrasonic neuromodulation. おめでとう, Morgan! 

To all of our friends and colleagues attending this year’s Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America in Denver from November 5-8th, please be sure to stop by the Exhibit Hall on Monday, November 6th and check out Ph.D. candidate Anthony Auletta’s poster presentation! Anthony will be standing at the poster at 6:00pm, and is excited to tell you all about our recent forays into scorpion electrophysiology and behavior. The full poster citation is below:

Auletta A, Bigelow AW, Newhoff M, Mesce KA. 2017. Dopamine and norepinephrine as neuromodulators of arachnid behavior: Anatomical and physiological insights from the scorpion Centruroides sculpturatus (Scorpiones: Buthidae). Poster D3026.

We hope to see you there!