2023:

Congratulations to Sabrina Huang for being accepted by Medical School of UW-Madison! Sabrina joined our lab in September 2019 as a freshman and will graduate in May 2023 with BS in Neurobiology. She is currently a Hilldale Undergraduate Research Fellow and Aprison Undergraduate Research Fellow. She is also our Undergraduate Captain. Sabrina’s research mentor is Kristy Guo.

2022:

Our lab, together with collaborating labs, have been awarded an Innovation grant from the International Rett Syndrome Foundation (IRSF) to study molecular mechanism underlying Rett syndrome pathogenesis using multimodal analysis! This is a project co-led by multiple PIs, all Waisman Center investigators: Qiang Chang (Genetics and Neurology), Andre Sousa (Neuroscience), Daifeng Wang (Biomedical Informatics), and Xinyu Zhao (Neuroscience).

Our lab is awarded a SFARI pilot grant studying functions of autism genes in primate brain development! This is a project co-led by multiple PIs, all Waisman Center investigators: Xinyu Zhao (Neuroscience), Qiang Chang (Genetics and Neurology), Andre Sousa (Neuroscience), and Daifeng Wang (Biomedical Informatics), as well as co-Investigator Dr. Jon Levine (Neuroscience, WNPRC). (news release)

Congratulations to Soraya Sandoval (NTP second year student) for passing her preliminary exam (thesis proposal) on Aug 23, 2022!

Dr. Xinyu Zhao is awarded an Investigator Initiated Research Award (IIRA) grant from the Department of Defense (DOD) to study fragile X syndrome using human patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and differentiated neurons and organoids. Collaborators for this project include Craig Erickson (University of Cincinnati) and the following UW faculty members: Anita Bhattacharyya (co-PI, CRB), Qiang Chang (Genetics and Neurology), Ari Rosenberg (Neuroscience), Andre Sousa (Neuroscience), and Daifeng Wang (Biomedical Informatics).

Dr. Xinyu Zhao was one of the innovators presented in World Fragile X Day co-organized by WuXi and the FRAXA Research Foundation, “Fragile X Syndrome: Innovative Approaches to Finding a Cure,”

Congratulations to Sabrina Huang UW-Madison rising senior) for being awarded the very first Morris Aprison Undergraduate Research Scholarship.

Congratulations to Dr. Carissa Sirois (postdoctoral fellow) who is awarded a competitive postdoctoral fellowship from the Autism Science Foundation to support her studies of human fragile X neurons from patients with divergent cortical excitabilities. See their news release!.

Congratulations to Sabrina Huang and Ezra Jarembowski (UW-Madison juniors) for being awarded prestigious Hilldale Undergraduate Research Fellowships.

Congratulations to Keegan Scholler (UW-Madison Biology graduate, research intern in our lab) for being accepted by PhD program at University of Illinois- Urbana-Champaign !.

 

Congratulations to Minjie Shen for being selected by SMPH of UW-Madison as the nominee to apply for the 4th Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholars Program in the area of basic or clinical neurosciences. These awards are given as a transitional post-doctoral award for recipients to enable their advance to a full-time faculty member at the Assistant Professor level or higher and/or to assist in the development of a laboratory program that would lead to independent funding.

2021:

Congratulations to Soraya Sandoval (NTP student) for receiving a competitive award from NIH supplemented to our grant to support the initial phase of her graduate training.

Congratulations to Dr. Carissa Sirois (postdoctoral fellow) who receives two highly competitive postdoctoral grants from UW-Madison stem cell center (SCRMC) and Fragile X Research Foundation (FRAXA) to support her studies of human fragile X neurons from patients with divergent cortical excitabilities.

Congratulations to Tomer Korabelnikov (UW-Madison Biology graduate, research intern in our lab), now a medical student in the medical school of University of Massachusetts for being awarded a competitive VA scholarship!

2020:

Aug: Keegan Schoeller (UW Biology senior) is awarded the prestigious Waisman Center Intellectual Development and Disability  Research 2020 Undergraduate Student Award.

May: The UW Research Core Revitalization Application submitted by Xinyu Zhao (faculty director of Waisman BTS) and Jules Panksepp (BTS Core manager) is awarded. Now we will be able to upgrade several key equipment at Waisman BTS (see news release)

April: Dr. Minjie Shen (postdoctoral fellow) who receives second year renewal of a highly competitive postdoctoral fellowship from Fragile X Research Foundation (FRAXA).

April: Jack Hunt (MSTP/CMB trainee) for successfully defended his PhD dissertation and moving onto his last year of MSTP training!

2019:

May: Sahar Javadi (graduate student) is awarded a prestigious Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship!

April: Dr. Minjie Shen (postdoctoral fellow) receives a highly competitive postdoctoral fellowship from Fragile X Research Foundation (FRAXA).

April: Johnson Hoang (UW junior) receives a prestigious Hilldale Fellowship for Undergraduate Research from UW-Madison. He recently represents UW-Madison (as one of 6 undergraduates) to present in the state capitol.

Johnson with UW System president, Ray CrossJohnson with Wisconsin State Representative Mark Born

April: Ryan Risgaard, Lucy Zhao, Johnson Hoang, Samantha Baker, Keegan Schoeller, Tomer Korabelnikov presented their research projects (posters) during 2019 UW annual Undergraduate Symposia

April: Xinyu Zhao receives a new pilot fund from John Merck Fund to derive new iPSC cells from individuals with fragile X syndrome and exhibit differential cortical excitability based on extensive clinical assessment. This is a collaboration with Dr. Anita Bhattacharyya (UW-Madison) and Dr. Craig Erickson (University of Cincinnati).

2018:

July: Xinyu Zhao will give a keynote presentation at the National Fragile X Conference (Conference July 11-15, 2018, Cincinnati, Ohio): “Bridging the gap: how human stem cells may help us to find treatments for fragile X syndrome.

May: Congratulations to our seniors who have earned their bachelor degree from UW-Madison: – they all have worked in our lab until graduation and contributed to peer-reviewed articles (as coauthors)!! 

• Annie Novak (mentored by Kevin Yue Li, graduated Dec 2017)
• Jessica Miller (Hilldale fellow, mentored by Kevin Yue Li, graduated May 2018)
• Sydney Malone (mentored by Natalie Patzlaff and Minjie Shen, graduated May 2018)

April: Lucy Zhao (UW Biology junior, supervised by Dr. Yue Li) is awarded Hilldale Fellowship for undergraduate research.2018:

April: Jessica Miller, Molly Parres, and Lucy Zhao presented their research projects during UW annual Undergraduate Symposia 2018: 

April:  Ryan Risgaard has been awarded by three prestigious undergraduate research awards: Congratulations to Ryan and supervisors Meng Li and Jack Hunt!

• (National) National Fragile X Foundation (NFXF) undergraduate research award.
• (National) Autism Science Foundation summer research award
• (Uw-Madison) Mary Shine Peterson undergraduate research award.

2017

May: Congratulations to our seniors who have earned their bachelor degree from UW-Madison: – all of them have published peer-reviewed articles before graduation!! 

• Laurel Kelnhofer (Hilldale fellow, mentored by Yu Gao, graduated Dec 2016)
• Kathryn Ness (mentored by Meng Li, graduated Dec 2016)
• Charles Giuliani (mentored by Yu Gao, graduated May 2017)
• Michael Stockton (Waisman IDD Undergraduate Research awardee, mentored by Kevin Yue Li, graduated May 2017)
• Dianne Maglaque (Trewartha awardee, mentored by Meng Li, graduated May 2017)

April: Dr. Yue (Kevin) Li was selected as one of 10 finalists for the Rapid Fire (90 sec) presentation. He then won the competitive poster award 2nd place at the 12th Wisconsin Stem Cell Symposium (https://www.btci.org/stemcell/) ($300 cash).

April: Jessica Miller (UW Biology junior, supervised by Dr. Yue Li) is awarded Hilldale Fellowship for undergraduate research.

April: Jessica Miller, Michael Stockton, Charles Giuliani, Annie Novak, and Sydney Malone presented their research projects (posters) during UW annual Undergraduate Symposia2017: 

2016

December: Dianne Maglaque is awarded Trewartha undergraduate senior thesis award (UW L&S)! for her proposed thesis project on stem cells under supervision of Dr. Meng Li.

September: Yue (Kevin) Li won the competitive poster award: “Gregory Daniels Outstanding Poster Presentation Awards for the Fall Conference” of UW Stem Cell center ($1000 travel award to a scientific conference).

September 2016: Xinyu Zhao becomes the first recipient of the Jenni and Kyle Professorship 

August 2016: Michael Stockton, Jessica Miller, Charles Giuliani, Laurel Kelnhofer, Dianne Maglaque presented their research projects in our lab annual Undergraduate Data Blitz

August 2016: Michael Stockton (UW Biology senior) is awarded the prestigious Waisman Center Intellectual Development and Disability  Research Undergraduate Student Award.

May 2016: Emily Jobe (CMB graduate student) has successfully defended her thesis and received a PhD degree.

April 2016: Laurel Kelnhofer, Kelsey Nemec, Jessica Miller, Michael Stockton presented their research projects (posters) during UW annual Undergraduate Symposia

April 2016: Laurel Kelnhofer (UW Biochemistry junior) is awarded Hilldale Fellowship for undergraduate research. Congratulations!

Feb 2016: Dr. Brian Eisinger is awarded a prestigious NIH postdoctoral fellowship (NRSA)! Congratulations!

Jan 2016: Dr. Xinyu Zhao has been chosen to receive the Vilas Faculty Mid-Career Investigator (Kellett) Award!

2015.

Oct 16 2015: Dr. Zhao is co-organizing a Waisman-Allen Institute Neuroscience Symposium (registration is free but limited):  http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/wcallen.htm

Sep 27 2015: Natalie Patzlaff (MCP 4th year) has been selected to be a ASPET 2015 Washington Fellow. This is an extremely competitive national program for students who have demonstrated exceptional potentials for making great impact in both scientific research and science policy. She will travel to Washington DC in the Spring and spend two days at the Capitol Hill. She will also present her own research at the ASPET annual meeting in San Diego in April 2016.

Sep 25 2015: Emily Jobe (MCB 4th year) won the SCRMC fall conference poster award, which came with a travel award for her to attend a future meeting. As a winner, she gave a talk after the keynote speaker Amy Wagers. Her presentation was excellent!

September 2015: Our students presented their research projects in our lab annual Undergraduate Data Blitz  

April 2015: Laurel Kelnhofer, Kelsey Nemec, Joseph Tidei presented their research projects (posters) during UW annual Undergraduate Symposia

April 2015: Kelsey Nemec (UW Biology junior) is awarded Hilldale Fellowship for undergraduate research.

Feb 2015: Dr. Zhao (in collaboration with Dr. A. Bhattacharyya) received a three-year award from the John Merck Fund to develop novel therapeutics for fragile X syndrome. (news: http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/news2015-FragileXGrant.htm )

2014. 

August 2014: Our students presented their research projects in our lab annual Undergraduate Data Blitz

August 2014: Natalie Patzlaff (graduate student, Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology) served as a moderator (with award) for Gordon Research Seminar on Neurodevelopment.

August 2014: Eric Polich (UW Biology senior) received a Waisman Center Outstanding Undergraduate Research award. Eric worked in our lab from August 2011 to May 2014 when he graduated from UW. He has 4 co-authored publications.

April 2014: Ismat Bhuiyan, Daniel Magyar, Laurel Kelnhofer, Eric Polich, Janessa Mladucky presented their research projects (posters) during UW annual Undergraduate Symposia

April 2014: Daniel Magyar was awarded Hilldale Fellowship for undergraduate research.

2013

Nov 2013: Natalie Patzlaff’ s NIH predoctoral fellowship (NRSA) application received a 1% score!!!

Aug 2013: Natalie Patzlaff (graduate student, Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology) is awarded a Waisman Center Wayne and Jean Roper Memorial Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship Award.

June 2013: Emily Jobe (graduate student, Cellular and Molecular Biology/Molecular Biosciences Training Grant Program class of 2011) and Natalie Patzlaff (graduate student, Molecular Pharmacology Program class of 2011) have passed their preliminary exams for PhD training.

April 2013: Eric Polich (UW Biology junior) is awarded Wisconsin Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowship with funding to attend 2013 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting (San Diego, CA).

April 2013: Eric Polich (Biology junior), Ismat Bhuiyan (Biology sophomore), Dan Magyar (Biochemistry Sophomore) presented their research projects (posters) during UW annual Undergraduate Symposia 

Feb 2013: Weixiang Guo (postdoc) received a postdoctoral travel award to attend Keystone Symposia Neurogenesis meeting (Santa Fe, NM)

2012

Sep 2012: Emily Jobe (graduate student) won one of the two poster awards in SCRMC Fall Research Conference (http://stemcells.wisc.edu/)

Aug 2012: Emily Jobe (graduate student) was awarded a fellowship to attend Stereology Workshop at Chicago taught by Dr. Daniel Peterson (http://www.neurorenew.com/)

June 2012: Our lab renewed our NIH funding for 5 more years

June 2012: Weixiang Guo (postdoc) received travel award to attend Gordon Research Conference on Fragile X syndrome (Easton, MA). He also received a travel award from Friends of the Waisman Center to cover part of the conference cost.

June 2012: Natalie Patzlaff (graduate student) received a travel award for attending Gordon Research Conference on Fragile X syndrome (Easton, MA).

Jan 2012: Wexiang Guo (postdoc) was awarded a competitive postdoctoral fellowship from SCRMC (http://stemcells.wisc.edu/)