RESEARCH

Leafcutter ant brains stained for different markers. Majors (left) defends the colony and Minims (right) care for the fungus garden.

PhD Project

My PhD project investigated the first molecular characterization of leafcutter ants (Atta cephalotes) which identified:

  1. Transcriptomic demarcation of four morphometric groups

  2. Behavioral roles of two neuropeptides (Neuroparsin-A and CCAP)

  3. Molecular consequences of neuropeptide perturbations

  4. First molecular characterization of caste in a eusocial mammal (Naked Mole Rat)

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

1.     Matthew Simon, Jiping Yang, Jonathan Gigas, Eric J Earley, Eric Hillpot, Lei Zhang, Maria Zagorulya, Greg Tombline, Michael Gilbert, Samantha L Yuen, Alexis Pope, Michael Van Meter, Stephan Emmrich, Denis Firsanov, Advait Athreya, Seyed Ali Biashad, Jeehae Han, Seungjin Ryu, Archana Tare, Yizhou Zhu, Adam Hudgins, Gil Atzmon, Nir Barzilai, Aaron Wolfe, Kelsey Moody, Benjamin A Garcia, David D Thomas, Paul D Robbins, Jan Vijg, Andrei Seluanov, Yousin Suh, Vera Gorbunova. A rare human centenarian variant of SIRT6 enhances genome stability and interaction of Lamin A. The EMBO Journal (2022). doi:10.15252/embj.2021110393

2.     Sarallah Rezazadeh, David Yang, Seyed Ali Biashad, Denis Firsanov, Masaki Takasugi, Michael Gilbert, Gregory Tombline, Natarajan Bhanu, Benjamin Garcia , Andrei Seluanov. SIRT6 mono-ADP ribosylates KDM2A to locally increase H3K36me2 and DNA damage sites to inhibit transcription and promote repair. Aging (2020). doi:10.18632/aging.10356

3.     Steven Zhao, Cholsoon Jang, Joyce Liu, Kahealani Uehara, Michael Gilbert, Luke Izzo, Xianfeng Zeng, Sophie Trefely, Sully Fernandez, Alessandro Carrer, Katelyn D Miller, Zachary T Schug, Nathaniel W Snyder, Terence P Gade, Paul M Titchenell, Joshua D Rabinowitz, Kathryn E Wellen. Dietary fructose feeds hepatic lipogenesis via microbiota-derived acetate. Nature 586-591 (2020). doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2101-7

4.     Xiao Tian, Katherine Doerig, Rosa Park, Alice Can Ran Qin, Chaewon Hwang, Alexander Neary, Michael Gilbert, Andrei Seluanov and Vera Gorbunova. Evolution of telomere maintenance and tumour suppressor mechanisms across mammals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 20160443 (2018). doi:10.1098/rstb.2016.0443

5.     Li Tan, Zhonghe Ke, Gregory Tombline, Nicholas Macoretta, Kevin Hayes, Xiao Tian, Ruitu Lv, Julia Ablaeva, Michael Gilbert, Natarajan V Bhanu, Zuo-Fei Yuan, Benjamin A Garcia, Yujiang G Shi, Yang Shi, Andrei Seluanov, Vera Gorbunova. Naked mole rats have a stable epigenome that resists iPSC reprogramming. Stem cell reports 1721-1734 (2017). doi:10.1016/j.stemcr.2017.10.001

Research Talks

  1. US HUPO - Nontraditional Models, Portland, OR (2024)

  2. Biology Capstone Course (BI 455), DeSales University, PA (2024)

  3. Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Seattle, WA (2024)

  4. Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Retreat, Skytop, PA (2023)

  5. Entomological Society of America - Biochemistry and Chemical Biology, National Harbor, MD (2023)

  6. Friday Research Discussion - Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (2023)

  7. Weill Institute Emerging Scholar Symposium, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (2023)

  8. Symposium on Epigenome Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (2023)

  9. Penn Genetics Symposium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (2023)

  10. US HUPO - Fundamentals of the Nervous System, Chicago, IL (2023)

  11. Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild, Philadelphia, PA (2023)

  12. Fulbright Lab to Market, Boston, MA (2022)

  13. Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, NJ (2020 - virtual)