February 2024: Ella, Odette & Farah’s paper was published in Metallomics: Single nucleotide polymorphisms and Zn transport by ZIP11 shape functional phenotypes of HeLa cells
July 2023: Congratulations Antonio Rivera ’26 has been awarded one of the prestigious 2023 Marion B. Sewer Distinguished Scholarship for Undergraduates from ASBMB!
July 2023: Monse’s and Veronica’s (Kexin) ’23 paper has been published at the Journal of Molecular Sciences “Differential Contributions of mSWI/SNF Chromatin Remodeler Sub-Families to Myoblast Differentiation“. A reflection of our strong collaboration with the Imbalzano Lab from UMMS!
July 2023: Congrats lab BA/MA alumni Ella Kim ’23 and Nick Carulli ’23 for securing excellent positions at the Mancias Lab @ Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women’s Hospital Harvard Medical School and the Tisch Multiple Sclerosis Research Center of New York City, respectively!
May 2023: Andrea’s and Jaime’s paper has been published in the Special Edition for Latin America from BBR “Functional effect of indole-3 carbinol in the viability and invasive properties of cultured cancer cells“. Our international collaborations continue to grow!
March 2023: Michael Quinteros ’24 won the Proteins: Function, Structure and Biophysics category for the poster competition @ the 2023 ASBMB conference in Seattle! CONGRATS MICHAEL!
March 2023: Jocelyn Velasquez Baez ’23 won the prestigious Watson Fellowship to develop her project “Ethical Understandings of Traditional Medicine“. She will visit New Zealand, The Philippines, Nepal, Ghana, Ecuador, Canada to achieve her goals
March 2023: Congrats Fa’alataitaua Fitisemanu ’24 for being selected for the 2023 Intramural Summer program @ the NIH!
March 2023: Welcome to the lab to our new undergrads Lily Rudofsky ’25, Antonio Rivera ’26, Denzel Bonilla-Pinto ’26 & Patrick Schechtman-Taylor ’26.
January 2023: Welcome to the lab to our new postdoc, Dr. Odette Monserrat Verdejo-Torres and to Farah Hasanain ’26.
December 2022: Congrats Fa’alataitaua Fitisemanu ’24 for being awarded the prestigious American Chemical Society Partner Student Award to attend to the 2023 ACS meeting! Well done!
November 2022: Congrats Alyssa ’22, Jaime (PhD student) and Aaron ’23 for you recent review published!!! The Oncopig as an emerging model to investigate copper regulation in cancer. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 23 (22), 14012
November 2022: Our collaborative paper with the Lutsenko Lab @ John Hopkins has been accepted for publication! Heterogenous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A2/B1 regulates the abundance of the copper-transporter ATP7A in an isoform dependent manner.
October 2022: Our collaborative paper with the Vidal Lab @ Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. University of Mississippi Medical Center has been accepted for publication! Congrats Fa’alataitaua Fitisemanu ’24, for a fantastic job! Oxidative reactions catalyzed by hydrogen peroxide produced by Streptococcus pneumoniae and other streptococci cause the release and degradation of heme from hemoglobin.
October 2022: Congrats Fa’alataitaua Fitisemanu ’24 for being recognized for your Research and Presentation Skills in the Chemistry category at the 2022 SACNAS National Conference!!!
October 2022: Our paper “The mitochondrial Cu+ transporter PiC2 (SLC25A3) is a target of MTF1 and contributes to the development of skeletal muscle in vitro“ has been accepted for publication! Congrats Michael Quinteros ’24, for a fantastic job
October 2022: Our collaborative paper with the Vidal Lab @ Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. University of Mississippi Medical Center has been accepted for publication! Congrats Fa’alataitaua Fitisemanu ’24, for a fantastic job
September 2022: Congratulations Lauren Greenberg ’22 for being accepted at the University of Rochester Nursing Program!!!
September 2022: Congratulations Michael Quinteros ’24 for publishing your first manuscript! Surface tension of model tissues during malignant transformation and epithelial–mesenchymal transition
August 2022: Congratulations Jaime Carrazo-Carrillo for being selected to attend to the 2022 SACNAS pre-conference 1st annual C.O.L.O.R. retreat in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
August 2022: Congratulations former lab student Dr. Odette Verdejo-Torres for her Nature Communications publication: PRMT5 activates AKT via methylation to promote tumor metastasis.
July 2022: Congrats Yaje Nshanji ’22 for accepting a fantastic job as Clinical Research Coordinator at Mount Sinai, in New York City!
July 2022: Our paper ZIP11 Regulates Nuclear Zinc Homeostasis in HeLa Cells and Is Required for Proliferation and Establishment of the Carcinogenic Phenotype has been published in Frontiers Cell and Developmental Biology!
May 2022: Congratulations to the 2022 Wesleyan graduates!!! particularly to our lab members Yaje Nshanji and Lauren Greenberg. We wish you all the best in your career!
May 2022: Congratulations Michael Quinteros for been awarded the prestigious 2022 ASBMB Undergraduate Research Award
April 2022: Congratulations Yaje Nshanji ’22 for being awarded the 2022 Wesleyan Scott Biomedical Prize!!!! https://www.wesleyan.edu/mbb/news/prizes.html
April 2021: Congratulations Fa’alataitaua (Taua) Fitisemanu ’24, Michael Quinteros ’24, Emma Johnston ’24 and Meili Stanten ’24 for been selected to participate in the 2022 Summer Research Program at Wesleyan.
April 2021: Congratulations to Andrea Sarahi Baez-Gonzalez from Dr. Octavio Reyes-Hernandez lab at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, FES Zaragoza, for being awarded a grant from UNAM to visit our lab this fall!
April 2021: Congratulations to Celia Blaskowski for being awarded a Wesleyan scholarship to visit this summer the lab of Dr. Mauricio Comas at the Facultad de Ciencias, Centro de Investigación en Ciencias de la Salud y Biomedicina of the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, in Mexico. https://mauriciocomas.wixsite.com/viralassembly
March 2022: Congratulations Ella Kim and Nick Carulli for being accepted on the BA/MA program at Wes! Looking forward to the great thing you will do here!
February 2022: Our collaborative paper withe the Imbalzano group at UMMS has been accepted for publication in BBA – Gene Regulatory Mechanisms journal. Differential requirements for different subfamilies of the mammalian SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling enzymes in myoblast cell cycle progression and expression of the Pax7 regulator. Congrats Yaje Nshanji ’22 and Monserrat Olea-Flores!!
February 2022: Welcome to the lab Ari Hart ’24, Fa’alataitaua (Taua) Fitisemanu ’24, Ahmad Almohamed ’24, Celia Blazkowski ’24 and Princess Asante ’25.
January 2022: Congrats Nick Carulli ’23 for being awarded a 2022 travel award for the ASBMB annual meeting in Philadelphia!
January 2022: Welcome to your lab rotation Jaime Carrazco-Carrillo and WesMass student Melat Amde Gebremeskel ’25
December 2021: Welcome to the lab Dr. Cat McCann!
November 2021: Our efforts towards inclusion and diversity are acknowledged in the latest edition of the Wesleyan Argus. Thanks to Michael Quinteros ’23, Jocelyn Velasques Baez ’23, Joshua Grajales ’22, Desiree Cervantes ’23 and Nataly Huyhua ’23 and Lily Barnes ’23 for your contributions to our growing chapter!
October 2021: Our collaborative paper with the Boissan group has been published at BMC Biology! The mitochondrially-localized nucleoside diphosphate kinase D (NME4) is a novel metastasis suppressor. Congrats Alyssa Carlson ’21!
October 2021: Congrats Nick Carulli ’22 for being awarded one of the prestigious SACNAS student scholarships to present his work at the 2021 National conference!
October 2021: Our review paper Impact of professional and scientific societies’ student chapters on the development of underrepresented undergraduate students has been accepted for publication in the Frontiers Research Topic: Professional and Scientific Societies Impacting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in STEMM. Congrats to our Wesleyan SACNistas: Lily Barnes, Joshua Grajales, Jocelyn Velasquez Baez and Daniel Hidalgo, PhD student from UMass Chan Medical School.
October 2021: Our editorial for the topic: Editorial: Repurposed Drugs Targeting Cancer Signaling Pathways: Dissecting New Mechanism of Action Through In Vitro and In Vivo Analyses has been accepted for publication in the journal Frontiers in Oncology – Molecular and Cellular Oncology. This editorial was written in collaboration with Dr. Eduardo López-Urrutia (Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala, UNAM, Mexico) and Dr. Carlos Pérez-Plasencia (INCAN, Mexico) and Dr. Alma Campos-Parra (INCAN, Mexico),
September 2021: Welcome to the lab Annie Yu ’22, Meili Stanten ’24, Emma Johnston ’24 and Ella Kim ’22! And a virtual welcome to Irving Uriel López Serrano, undergraduate student at Universidad Veracruzana
August 2021: Welcome to the lab PhD rotation student Varsha Mondal!
August 2021: Tere received a five years NIH R01 grant to study the mechanism by which copper mediates transcription during skeletal muscle differentiation!!!
July 2021: Our review on copper dysregulation and human pathologies has been accepted at the FASEB Journal!
June 2021: Our editorial for the topic: “Repurposed Drugs Targeting Cancer Signaling Pathways: Clinical Insights to Improve Oncologic Therapies” has been accepted for publication in the journal Frontiers in Oncology – Molecular and Cellular Oncology. This topic was edited in collaboration with Dr. Alma Campos-Parra (INCAN, Mexico), Dr. Eduardo López-Urrutia (Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala, UNAM, Mexico) and Dr. Carlos Pérez-Plasencia (INCAN, Mexico)
June 2021: Congratulations Alyssa Carlson ’21 for your new job at the Research assistant at Tisch Multiple Sclerosis Research Center of New York City. You will be missed! We are looking forward to seeing your career!!!
May 2021: Welcome to the lab PhD rotation student Sabrina Sharmin!
May 2021: Congratulations to the 2021 Wesleyan graduates!!! particular shout out to lab members Alyssa Carlson and Bryan Guarin. We wish you all the best in your career!
May 2021: Congratulations Lily Barnes for been awarded the prestigious 2021 ASBMB Undergraduate Research Award
May 2021: Congratulations Yaje Nshanji ’22 for being awarded the 2021 Wesleyan Clendeninn Prize!!!! https://www.wesleyan.edu/studentaffairs/resources/prizes/recip2021.html
May 2021: Congratulations Alyssa Carlson ’21 for being awarded the 2021 Wesleyan Butterfield AND the Hawk Prizes!!!! https://www.wesleyan.edu/studentaffairs/resources/prizes/recip2021.html
May 2021: Congratulations lab alumni Shellaina Gordon for being awarded a prestigious Fulbright Future Scholarship to perform graduate wok in Australia at Peter McCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne in 2022. Shellaina will be involved in a project that will have have a positive impact on health, prosperity and livelihoods of Australians and Americans!!!
April 2021: Congratulations Lauren Greenberg for been selected to participate in the 2021 Summer Research Program at the University of Connecticut Health center!
April 2021: Welcome to the lab Bavly Halaka, Class of 2024 and Michael Quinteros, Class of 2024!
April 2021: Congratulations Lily Barnes, Nick Carulli, and Michael Quinteros for been selected to participate in the 2021 Summer Research Program at Wesleyan!
April 2021: A new collaborative manuscript with Mathieu Boissan from the Sorbonne Université, Inserm, in Paris has been published at the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. “Loss of the Metastasis Suppressor NME1, But Not of Its Highly Related Isoform NME2, Induces a Hybrid Epithelial–Mesenchymal State in Cancer Cells“
March 2021: Welcome to the lab Lily Barnes, Class of 2024!
March 2021: Congratulations Julia Kan for been selected to participate in the 2021 Summer Undergraduate Research Program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
January 2021: Our 2019 paper with Napoleon Navarro-Tito “Leptin induces cell migration and invasion in a FAK-Src-dependent manner in breast cancer cells”, published in Endocrine Connections, is recognized as one of 2020’s most highly cited articles for the journal!
December 2020: Yaje Nshanji ’22 is recipient of one of the Wesleyan’s ASBMB student chapter travel awards to attend and present her work at the the 2021 annual ASBMB meeting!
November 2020: Tere is re-appointed as part of the National Research System SNI-1 from Conacyt Mexico!
October 2020: Welcome to the lab Alyssa Carlson, Class of 2022, Bryan Guarin, Calss of 2021 and Dr. Monserrat Olea-Flores visiting scholar from UMass Medical School!
September 2020: We support science communication! https://twitter.com/conversusdelipn/status/1310736045508493312?s=20
August 2020: Good news continue! May T. Maung was also awarded one of the registration scholarships for 2020 SACNAS – Virtual Conference!
August 2020: Welcome to a great group of MB&B undergraduate students: Hayley Lipson ’21, Yaje Nshanji ’22 and Nick Carulli, ’22. Looking forward to a great semester in the lab!
August 2020: Kexin (Veronica) Zhang has been awarded one of the registration scholarships for 2020 SACNAS – The National Diversity in STEM Virtual Conference. Hope to see you there!
August 2020: Julia Kan has been awarded one of the registration scholarships for 2020 SACNAS – The National Diversity in STEM Virtual Conference.
July 2020: Our review with the Imbalzano’s group from UMMS has been published! Regulation of the Mammalian SWI/SNF Family of Chromatin Remodeling Enzymes by Phosphorylation during Myogenesis.
June 2020: Shellaina Gordon continues to surprise us! https://news.northeastern.edu/2020/06/24/black-people-are-underrepresented-in-medical-research-she-wants-to-change-that/?fbclid=IwAR17GGj9-zWJIoevxMuC6G4aXWFHQyxYcv1CC9bvPMSNDyL6ZavtShtb4yc
May 2020: Welcome to the lab May T. Maung, Grad Student MB&B
March 2020: Welcome to the lab Julia Kan. Class of 2022
March 2020: Congratulations Shellaina Gordon, recipient of the 2020 Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation and the Department of Defense Education Programs
February 2020: Welcome to the lab Kexin (Veronica) Zhang. Class of 2023
January 2020: Our paper with Tony Imbalzano is out at the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. CK2-dependent phosphorylation of the Brg1 chromatin remodeling enzyme occurs during mitosis.
November 2019: Congratulations Miriam Zuniga-Eulogio from Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Mexico, for defending Master’s thesis!
November 2019: Congratulations Dr. Verdejo-Torres for successfully defending her PhD and obtaining a postdoctoral position at the University of Massachusetts Medical School!
November 2019: Another collaborative paper with Dr. Navarro-Tito from Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Mexico, was accepted for publication at Endocrine Connections!
September 2019: Our paper regarding the roles of copper and MTF1 in the regulation of myogenic gene expression was accepted for publication at the FASEB Journal!
The classic metal-sensing transcription factor MTF1 promotes myogenesis in response to copper
September 2019: Our collaborative paper with Dr. Navarro-Tito from Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Mexico, was was accepted at Cells; Special Issue on The Multifaceted Nature of Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT): From Embryonic Development to Cellular Plasticity in Normal Tissue and Tumors
August 2019: Congratulations Dr. Vilchis-Nestor for successfully defending her PhD!
July 2017: Congrats Shellaina Gordon for being a recipient of one of the SACNAS travel awards to present your research on ZIP transporters at the national conference in Hawaii!
June 2019: Our collaborative review paper with Dr. Navarro-Tito from Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Mexico, was was accepted at the International Journal of Molecular Sciences; Special Issue on MAPK-ERK Pathway!
Extracellular-signal Regulated Kinase: a Central Molecule Driving Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Cancer
May 2019: Congratulations Cristina Tavera-Montanez for being accepted at the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine!
May 2019: Our collaborative paper with Dr. Vest, form the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine”Manganese influx and expression of ZIP8 is essential in primary myoblasts and contributes to activation of SOD2.” was accepted for publication in Metallomics!
April 2019: Two collaborative manuscripts with: Dr. Contreras (Ouabain Accelerates Collective Cell Migration Through a cSrc and ERK1/2 Sensitive Metalloproteinase Activity), and Dr. Shoshani ((Regulation of the interactions between β1 subunits of sodium pump in epithelial cells by ouabain)) from CINVESTAV, Mexico were accepted for publication!
January 2019: Our paper with collaborators Dr. Navea from Skidmore College, and Dr. Navarro-Tito from Universidad Autonoma de Guerrero in Mexico has been accepted! “Atomic absorbance spectroscopy as a tool to measure intracellular Zn pools in mammalian cells”. Journal of Visualized Experiments
November 2018: Congratulations Shellaina Gordon for winning one of the poster presentation awards in the Biochemistry category, at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) held in Indianapolis, IN!
November 2018: Congratulations Dr. Navarro-Tito and his team! Our collaborative review paper “Signaling pathways induced by leptin during Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in breast cancer” was accepted at the International Journal of Molecular Sciences; Special Issue Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT)
October 2018: The UMMS-SACNAS Student Chapter receives the 2018 Outstanding Chapter Development Award at the SACNAS National Conference in San Antonio. http://sacnas.org/2018/10/03/2018-chapter-of-the-year-ucsc/
September 2018: Congratulations Shellaina Gordon for winning a partial travel award to present your research at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, IN!
April 2018: Congratulations Cristina Tavera-Montanez for completing your MQP and successfully presenting your poster at Worcester Polytechnic Institute!!!
April 2018: Our paper regarding Zinc and myogenesis was accepted for publication in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology!!! “Differential expression of zinc transporters accompanies the differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts”. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0946672X17309951
February 2018: Mentor of the month
http://sacnas.org/2018/02/07/outstanding-mentor-dr-tere-padilla-benavides/
January 2018: Our paper regarding Cu requirements for myogenesis was accepted for publication on Metallomics!!!! “Dynamic changes in copper homeostasis and post-transcriptional regulation of Atp7a during myogenic differentiation”. http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2018/MT/C7MT00324B#!divAbstract
October 2017: Tere receives the 2017 SACNAS Outstanding Research and Professional Mentor Award.
https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2017/10/teresita-padilla-benavides-recognized-for-mentorship-with-sacnas-award/
September 2017: Our paper was accepted for publication on JBC!!!! “Casein kinase 2–mediated phosphorylation of Brahma-related gene 1 controls myoblast proliferation and contributes to SWI/SNF complex composition”. http://m.jbc.org/content/early/2017/09/22/jbc.M117.799676.full.pdf
August 2017: Congratulations Odette Verdejo-Torres for winning the travel scholarships from CINVESTAV and from the organizing committee of the 15th International Conference on “Na,K-ATPase and Related Transport ATPases” in Otsu Japan!
August 2017: Tere received a Judge Travel Award for the 2017 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS).
July 2017: The SACNAS-UMMS Student Chapter has been awarded on of the UMMS Public Service Awards from UMMS!
July 2017: The lab received the NeuroNexus Institute Collaborative Seed Funding!
July 2017: Tere will be attending to the 12th Annual Junior Faculty/Postdoctoral Fellows Career Development Workshop. American Society for Cell Biology-Minorities Affairs Committee and the National Institutes of Health. Seattle, WA. U.S.A.
June 2017: The lab has been awarded the UMMS-Neuronexus Institute Seed Grant!
June 2017: Tere will be attending to the ASBMB’s Interactive Mentoring Activities for Grantsmanship Enhancement grant writing workshop. Washington, D.C.
May 2017: Congratulations Cristina Tavera for winning a travel scholarship to present your research at the SACNAS National Conference!
April 2017: Congratulations Odette Verdejo-Torres for receiving the “CONACYT: Beca Mixta de Movilidad en el Extranjero” fellowship from the Mexican Research Council.
April 2016: Congratulations Claudia-Vilchis-Nestor for receiving the “CONACYT: Beca Mixta de Movilidad en el Extranjero” fellowship from the Mexican Research Council.