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Updates
Defended my PhD and started a postdoc at UCSF!
ONE OF MY AMAZING MENTEES AND COLLEAGUES GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE!!!! Congratulations Antonia!
So lucky to work with Catherine Li--an incredible journalism student at UMass who brings so much intention and thoughtfulness into her work. You can read it & support her work here: "Seen and supported: neuroscience and behavior PhD candidate Mélise Edwards reflects on creating community as a Black scholar"
Sanford Burnham Prebys "Rising Stars Symposium" in San Diego, CA! Amazing group and time with the SBP team.
Interviews across a few campuses and labs; very happy to chat with students and trainees who are interested in discussing career options and would like insights from industry, startups, academia, nonprofit and/or medical institutes!
Allen Institute for Brain Science "Describe your neuron like the Allen" workshop -- a paid workshop (up to $1500) to learn about the institute's tools, resources, meet with scientists, and learn from incredible peers around the world. I also went on a whale watching tour and we saw five (5!!) gray whales!
Biotechnology Training Program industry retreat; we toured companies in the Boston area like Vertex, MDPI, Gingko bioworks, and more! We also competed in the BTP Biotech Battle where we were given a problem and told to “solve” it by designing our own drug target program, then presented this to industry professionals and peers four hours later. Very difficult and challenging!
Prospectus defended!
Please see the Palestinian Feminist Collective, Palestinian Youth Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace, Radical Black Feminist Reading List, and other organizations with action toolkits, resources for continued education, petitions, etc. (& free reading lists). You can also watch the films "Israelism" and "Tantura", read "The Hundred's Year War on Palestine," join your local SJP or dissenters groups on campus, write letters and call your representatives, and/or support Palestinian businesses like Hirbawi. There are also ongoing genocides in Sudan, Congo, the Tigrayan people of Ethiopia, and others who deserve the same level of care and justice whose struggles and histories are often de-centered and not prioritized. I hope we can see that these struggles are deeply connected and that "no one is free until we are all free."
Not a personal update, but an important paper that should be read! "Fundamental errors of data collection and validation undermine claims of ideological intensification in STEM" So grateful for people doing this incredibly important work.
Festival of Genomics and Biodata in Boston, MA. Amazing experience and presenters.
One of the best papers I've read recently:
"Multivariate Models of Animal Sex: Breaking Binaries Leads to a Better Understanding of Ecology and Evolution." Love the direct mention of how science has/is still weaponized against marginalized people, in particular transgender people, and that transgender, intersex, and/or gender expansive people are valid regardless of the many, many examples of sexual diversity in nature.
Last year of the PhD! Working on analyzing large scRNAseq, ATACseq and bulk RNAseq datasets and getting ready to TA bionformatics!
MUSE announces scholarship recipients! We awarded over $20,000 dollars in scholarships to Black and/or Native scholars in STEM fields.
Due to the crowdfunding efforts of Black graduate students, we've also awarded over $10,000 in mental health funds for Black graduate students.
IBANGS in Galway, Ireland!
Taking time off because burnout is real! Going to visit friends, hike with my dog & bake a lot of treats.
IBANGS travel award & abstract accepted! (Galway, Ireland)
Generation of human hematopoietic cells, microglia & neural progenitor cells from iPSCs; RNA extraction, immunofluorescence & dose response study in progress
Co-author on a manuscript led by Dr. Carmen Freire-Cabo https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019745802200255X?dgcid=author
Invitation to Deep Water soloing competition as athlete, had to pass sorry!
MUSE launches scholarship for undergraduate students!
Manuscript accepted & published!
Final manuscript revisions submitted!
Brain selective prodrug studies begin in common marmosets
Industry internship completed with Denali Therapeutics, which will result in first author manuscript!
Defended my comprehensive exam virtually while doing the internship (do not recommend but glad it's over)
Prospectus writing, and data collection resumes
Industry internship in San Francisco with Denali Therapeutics! https://www.denalitherapeutics.com/home
First 1st author manuscript of grad school reviewed *panic*
Center for Research on Families Conference registration award
Invited speaker for undergraduate course at Harvard University
Merrell Trailblazer Ambassador for trail running
BOTH OF MY MENTEES GOT INTO GRAD SCHOOL OR PRESTIGIOUS MD PROGRAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Submitted my first, 1st author manuscript from grad school: "Letrozole alters hippocampal gene expression in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)"
Manuscript accepted: "Potential trade-off between olfactory and visual discrimination learning in marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)"
Ford Foundation Fellows Conference - Poster presentation
AAIC Neuroscience Next Excellence in Mentoring Award
Manuscript published in JCM special issue, "Hindbrain Administration of Oxytocin Reduces Food Intake, Weight Gain and Activates Catecholamine Neurons in the Hindbrain Nucleus of the Solitary Tract in Rats"
HHMI Gilliam Fellows Conference - Poster presentation
First author manuscript accepted - Effects of Combined Oxytocin and Beta-3 Receptor Agonist (CL 316243) Treatment on Body Weight and Adiposity in Male Diet-Induced Obese Rats
Hulu "Your Attention Please" film is released. This was a really special moment to be featured for the i29 “Your Attention Please” series focusing on Black individuals who are as different and multitudinous as our beautiful diaspora. I highlight the authors who impacted me, especially Toni Morrison, and her characters who grew up in the deep south (like me) and thought whiteness was a way to be protected from harm. Pecola for example thinks that if she had blue eyes, she would be considered beautiful and nothing bad (racism, abuse, etc) would ever happen to her. The innocence of a child struggling to process daily horrific accounts of racism, gender oppression, and other forms of oppression resonated so much with me that I opened the film with it. I’m grateful to my community for showing up with me and helping to tell this story. I’m also very grateful to work with Black filmmakers for this project. Thank you very much for being so generous with your time.
HHMI Gilliam fellowship
Hulu i29 'Your Attention Please' film project (airing July 29th)
GWIS Fellowship
Panelist for Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology LISTEN session
Took time off to rest, facilitate community events and hang out with friends and it was lovely.
Wendy Helmer Award, UMass Amherst
OSSD Travel Award
OSSD Poster Presentation: Effects of aromatase inhibition on hippocampal gene expression in the common marmoset.
Ford Foundation Fellowship
First co-author manuscript accepted during my time in the lab.
Panelist for an event serving Black undergraduate students in CNS
I brushed my teeth every single day please clap.
Letrozole RNAseq study complete!
MUSE officially a 501c3 nonprofit!
First, first author paper published on hindbrain oxytocin receptors mediating weight loss in diet induced obese rodents . https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33470901/
UMass Predissertation Award
Led international journal club / webinar at Neuroscience Next through the ISTAART Journal Club and Alzheimer's and Dementia joined by the author of the paper, Dr. Bi; Nov 9th
Nominated for HHMI Gilliam Award
Panel for Transfer Students within the College of Natural Sciences
Marmoset Conference Poster Presentation "Aromatase inhibition of aromatase and estrogen receptors in the marmoset hippocampus", Oct 21
Invited Speaker UCSD DASL Symposium October 29th
ISTAART Panelist for Alzheimer's and Dementia
Short piece in Cell Press on the importance of mentorship in STEM
Spaulding-Smith Panelist for 1st Year Graduate Students
NSB Panelist for Incoming Graduate Students
Selected as a Neuroscience Scholars Program (NSP) Associate through the Society for Neuroscience.
Early Career Award! Very honored to be nominated by my peers and my advisor.
CRF Travel Award Recipient
CRF Grant Writing Program Acceptance
NSF GRFP Honorable Mention
I got rejected from almost everything I applied for! :) Nice to share the failures too when so often we only see others successes
Data Blitz Speaker - NEURON
Launched M.U.S.E. Mentorship website
Co-presenter at CNS Symposium
Spaulding-Smith Fellowship recipient
On Ramp Program - UMass Amherst
June 2024
First author manuscript from my time at the VA Puget Sound in Dr. Ernie Blevins lab. Our work was submitted for review and also listed on biorxiv. Read more here:
Edwards, M.M., Nguyen, H.K., Dodson, A.D., Herbertson, A.J., Wolden-Hanson, T., Wietecha, T., Honeycutt, M.K., Slattery, J.D., O’Brien, K.D., Graham, J.L., Havel, P.J., Mundinger, T.O., Sikkema, C.L., Peskind, E.R., Ryu, V., Taborsky, G.J., Jr. and Blevins, J.E. Sympathetic innervation of interscapular brown adipose tissue is not a predominant mediator of OT-elicited reductions of body weight and adiposity in male diet-induced obese mice. BioRxiv 596425 [Preprint], June 2, 2024. Available from: doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.29.596425.