To support JAX’s dual mission of discovery and education, we continually strive to provide cutting-edge, unique, and highly relevant training opportunities designed to prepare all JAX trainees for successful scientific careers.
Our NIA T32–funded Training Program in Precision Genetics of Aging and Dementia (PGAD) provides high-quality graduate and postdoctoral training to prepare trainees for careers as independent investigators in universities, research institutions and the biomedical industry. It brings together more than 16 highly productive and well-funded faculty mentors at the JAX Mammalian Genetics campus in Bar Harbor, ME and the JAX Genomic Medicine Campus in Farmington, CT who provide a uniquely interdisciplinary, integrated and comprehensive training environment. Research foci within the context of aging and age-related disease include mammalian genetics, hematology, vascular biology, immunology, nephrology, neurology, behavior, microbiome, systems genetics, and bioinformatics.
The T32 provides two slots for postdoctoral fellows and two predoctoral students. JAX participates in collaborative Ph.D. training programs with the Tufts School of Medicine, the University of Maine, and the University of Connecticut that have grown to critical mass.
We have also developed a T32 network for Aging (with the University of Arizona) and Alzheimer’s disease (with Indiana University and the University of Kentucky).
For more details on JAX training programs see…
| Postdoctoral Appointments | Mentor | Appointment Date | Research Project | Fellowship/other support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tamar Abel | Greg Carter | March 2024 - present | I am interested in better understanding the contributions of lipid biology to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Altered lipid profiles have been associated with AD. Additionally, many late-onset AD (LOAD) risk alleles are in genes involved in the process of lipid metabolism, including the most significant LOAD risk allele, APOE4. There is a reported genetic interaction between the AD risk gene APOE and cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP). Furthermore, mice lack functional CETP which is critical to the balance of circulating lipoproteins; this imparts cardioprotective effects and may make mice resistant to AD. This project aims to determine molecular signatures in AD mediated by CETP with an emphasis on molecular pathways shared with APOE as a potential disease-altering mechanism. I am accomplishing this through the use of multi-omic datasets from both humans and mouse models. As part of this project, I am characterizing existing transgenic humanized CETP (hCETP) mouse models and working with the MODEL-AD consortium on a novel knock-in hCETP mouse. Computational strategies employed to analyze these datasets include trans-species analyses which have been designed to effectively compare mouse model data to relevant AD omic signatures from human cohorts. This study has significant relevance to public health since it will provide valuable insights into the role that lipids play in AD and may also pave the way for improved mouse models of AD. | N/A |
| Luke Trinity | Duygu Ucar | September 2024 - present | N/A | |
| Predoctoral Appointments | Mentor | Appointment Date | Research Project | Fellowship/other support |
| Jaycee Choi | Vivek Kumar | September 2023 - present | Since receiving T32 funding in Sept. 2023, Jaycee has continued work to quantify spatial learning and cognitive flexibility in aging and Alzheimer’s disease mouse models. Jaycee has made progress with analysis on reversal learning experiments of young adult C57BL/6J mice in a maze assay. Jaycee has also run aged C57BL/6J experiments at 15-months and 27-months to test age-related decline in spatial navigation and subsequent reversal learning of spatial navigation. Results show that young C57BL/6J mice learn to take perfect paths to the sugar pellet reward at a higher rate than another equivalently located node in the maze. | N/A |
| Emily Nickerson | Erik Bloss | June 2023 - present | The primary objective of Emily’s project is to identify the rules governing the transcellular spread of tau and to evaluate the intracellular consequences of the aggregation of the protein. | N/A |
| Postdoctoral Appointments | Mentor | Appointment Date | Research Project | Fellowship/other support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaina Reagan | Gareth Howell | June 2020 - October 2020 | Dr. Reagan investigated the MTHFR gene and its contribution to vascular dysfunction and blood brain barrier breakdown in Alzheimer's disease. | BrightFocus Foundation Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program Postdoctoral Fellowship |
| Brittany Angarola | Olga Anczukow | June 2020 - May 2022 | Dr. Angarola’s research aimed at uncovering the link between aging breast biology and the increased incidence of breast cancer in aged breast tissue | JAX Cancer Center Brooks Scholar Award |
| Jennifer SanMiguel | Jennifer Trowbridge | November 2020 - October 2021 | Dr. SanMiguel aimed to understand the cellular and molecular changes that occur in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells that lead to hematological disorders and use genetic mouse models of the complement gene, CR1, to dissect long vs short isoforms on their ability to influence altered inflammation and development of AD pathology from the periphery. | N/A |
| Michael Maclean | Gareth Howell | October 2021 - June 2023 | Dr. Maclean hypothesized that microglia contribute to the development of diabetic retinopathy and have unique transcriptional programs not found in otherwise healthy tissues. To test this hypothesis, he examined microglial diversity in obese type II diabetic murine central nervous system (CNS) tissues and microglial states over time in type I diabetic CNS tissues. | JAX Scholar Award |
| Cara Hardy | Ron Korstanje | June 2023 - February 2024 | Voiding function and behavior are impacted in individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).The primary focus of Dr. Hardy’s work has been optimizing the Void Spot Assay (VSA) and the associated image analysis to be used on the numerous AD-associated pathology models available through MODEL-AD (JAX). | N/A |
| John Bachman | Nadia Rosenthal | June 2022 - May 2024 | During postnatal muscle growth, muscle stem cells (satellite cells, SCs) divide and give rise to progenitors that fuse to developing muscle fibers. Fibro-adipogenic progenitors (FAPs) have been documented to play a role in dictating SC proliferative ability and ability to differentiate. To understand the role of FAPs in postnatal muscle development, he bred an inducible depletion model (PDGFRaCreER/+; Rosa26DTA/+) in order to deplete FAPs at 4 weeks of age to assess the effects on SC proliferation, myofiber size, and myonuclear number. Additionally, Dr. Bachman investigated the role of IGF-1 signaling in dictating SC fate during postnatal development. | N/A |
| Predoctoral Appointments | Mentor | Appointment Date | Research Project | Fellowship/other support |
| Teresa Easterbrooks | Ron Korstanje | June 2020 - May2021 | Teresa aimed to elucidate how senescence and senescence-targeting drugs (senolytics) function, particularly focused on a genetically diverse population. | N/A |
| Sarah Heuer | Gareth Howell & Catherine Kaczorowski | June 2020 - May2022 | Sarah completed deriving 10-15 embryonic stem cells lines for 14 B6xBXD mouse strains, analysis of AD-BXD single nuclear RNAseq comparison glia populations from resilient and susceptible strains, expansion of Lag3-KO-5XFAD mouse colony for candidate validation. | N/A |
| Elli Hartig | Basile Tarchini | June 2021-May 2022 | A group of five proteins; MYO15A, WHRN, GPSM2, GNAI, and EPS8, are together referred to as the stereocilia elongation complex (EC). The primary hypothesis of this proposed research is that EC proteins play an active role in the maintenance of mature hair cells | NRSA F31 NIDCD A small calcium-binding protein may be key to stabilizing the sensory hair cell stereocilia Elongation Complex |
| Ryan Englander | Olga Anczukow | June 2022 - August2023 | Ryan leveraged advances in long-read RNA sequencing to interrogate tumor transcriptomes and understand how aging-related changes in alternative splicing may impact cancer risk and prognosis. He focused on lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and breast cancer, which are among the leading causes of cancer burden and mortality in the United States. | NRSA F30 NCI Alternate splicing as a source of shared neoantigens in a non-small cell lung cancer |
| Brianna Gurdon | Kristen O'Connell & Catherine Kaczorowski | June 2022 - May 2024 | Brianna explored tge relationship between Lrfn2 expression and cortical AD-related neurodegeneration by creating an Lrfn2 overexpression mouse model. Neurodegeneration, dendritic spine morphology, and memory performance were measured to determine whether increased Lrfn2 expression could rescue some of the detrimental effects of AD. | NRSA F31 NIA Lrfn2 as a Novel Resilience Factor to Protect Against Alzheimer's Disease-Related Cortical Neurodegeneration |
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