Summer Research Spotlight: Athena, Carys, and Shahina

by Heidi Hehnly in


This summer, our lab welcomed three talented undergraduate researchers who made impressive contributions to our studies on cytoskeletal and cell junction dynamics in early development.

Shahina Alibekova, a SOURCE Scholar from Syracuse University, worked under the guidance of graduate student Yiling Lan to investigate centrosome dynamics in early embryos.

Athena Allred (Arizona) and Carys Timpson (Cambridge) worked with Dr. Heidi Hehnly and postdoctoral fellow Yan Wu to study tight junction assembly during left-right organizer development and its relationship to cytoskeletal dynamics. Their joint work culminated in a co-authored poster presentation.

  • Athena was supported through our NSF-REU award for Microscopy.

  • Shahina received funding from the Syracuse University SOURCE program.

  • Carys joined us as a visiting undergraduate scholar from Cambridge University.

Congratulations to Athena, Carys, and Shahina for a productive and successful summer of research!

Athena (Left) and Carys (Right)

Shahina


Congrats to Shahina and Alison!

by Heidi Hehnly in


Congrats to Shahina Alibekova for receiving a SOURCE Award this summer from Syracuse University on the role of vimentin and lateral line formation. This work is taking off from a great foundation set by a previous undergraduate Alison Gerety, who just won an award for outstanding research as a Biology student! Congrats Alison! Alison was also a previous SOURCE Scholar.

Shahina at work at the bench.