Outstanding Thesis Research Award Winners
In recognition of a graduate whose research findings, in the judgement of the faculty and the Dean, has significant impact in their field.
2026
Mariana Noto Guillen
High Throughput Genetic Screens in Escherichia coli – From Metabolic Interactions to Antibacterial Mechanism of Action
Mentor: Amir Mitchell, PhD
Samantha Tse-Kang
Bacterial Patterns of Pathogenesis in Intestinal Immunity
Mentor: Read Pukkila-Worley, MD
2025
Qiuyu Judy Huang
Exploring Influenza Virus Structure and Dynamics through Cryo-Electron Tomography and Convolutional Neural Networks
Mentor: Celia Schiffer, PhD
Janneke Icso
Investigating the function and regulation of SARM1 during axon degeneration
Mentor: Paul Thompson, PhD
2024
Alysia Bryll
Transcriptional Homeostasis and Chromatin Dynamics
Mentor: Craig Peterson, PhD
Henry Pratt
The Role of Non-Coding Regulatory Elements in Complex Traits and Immune-Mediated Disease
Mentor: Zhiping Weng, PhD
2023
Kathleen Morrill
The Genomics of Canine Behavior and its Comparative Relevance to Human Neuropsychiatric Conditions
Mentor: Elinor Karlsson, PhD
James Shen
Vps13D Is a Regulator of Pink1-Mediated Mitophagy and Membrane Contacts
Mentor: Eric Baehrecke, PhD
2022
Krishna Ghanta
An Exploration of the Properties of Repair Template DNA that Promote Precision Genome Editing
Mentor: Craig Mello, PhD
Jordan Smith
Reversing Cancer Cell Fate: Driving Therapeutic Differentiation of Hepatoblastoma to Functional Hepatocyte-Like Cells
Mentor: Wen Xue, PhD
2021
Zachary Milstone
Histone Deacetylase 1 and 2 are Essential for Early Cardiac Development
Mentor: Chinmay Trivedi, MD, PhD
Erica Mondo
Investigating Microglia -Vascular Interactions in the Developing and Adult Central Nervous System
Mentor: Dorothy Schafer, PhD
2020
Mona Motwani
Cytosolic DNA Sensing in Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Diseases
Mentor: Kate Fitzgerald, PhD
Pranitha Vangala
Role of CIS-Regulatory Elements in Transcriptional Regulation: From Evolution to 4D Interactions
Mentor: Manuel Garber, PhD
2019
Maximiliaan Huisman
Vision Beyond Optics: Standardization, Evaluation and Innovation for Fluorescencemicroscopy in Life Sciences
Mentor: David Grunwald, PhD
Harish Palleti Janardhan
Histone Deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) Regulates Lymphatic Vascular Development
Mentor: Chinmay Trivedi, MD, PhD
2018
Mehmet Fatih Bolukbasi
Development of Chimeric CAS9 Nucleases for Accurate and Flexible Genome Editing
Mentor: Scot Wolfe, PhD
Reka Haraszti
Engineered Exosomes for Delivery of Therapeutic siRNAs to Neurons
Mentor: Anastasia Khvorova, PhD
2017
Hatem Elif Kamber Kaya
Regulation of the Drosophila Initiator Caspase DRONC through Ubiquitylation
Mentor: Andreas Bergmann, PhD
Yihang Li
Mechanisms of Synaptic Development and Premature Aging in Drosophila
Mentor: Vivian Budnik, PhD
2016
Bryan Lajoie
Computational approaches for analysis of chromosome conformation capture data and their application to study long-range gene regulation
Mentor: Job Dekker, PhD
Margaret Heider
Investigating the architecture and vesicle tethering function of the exocyst complex
Mentor: Mary Munson, PhD
2015
Laura Danai
Role of protein kinase Map4k4 in energy metabolism
Mentor: Michael Czech, PhD
Po-shen Chen
Regulation of embryonic stem cell pluripotency by the Tip60-p400 chromatic remodeling complex
Mentor: Thomas Fazzio, PhD