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LAB NEWS

Connelly Lab out in force at the Central Virginia Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience

April 5, 2025

The Connelly lab attended CVCSN! Five outstanding undergraduate students presented posters of their research. Congratulations to Sophia, Lindsey, Katelyn, Sydney, and Olivia!

Emma receives the Distinguished Teaching Fellowship!

March, 2025

Fifth-year PhD candidate Emma Page received the department's Distinguished Teaching Fellowship. She will design and be the instructor of record for her own course next spring, entitled "Human Genetics: Concepts, Cases, and Controversies".

Lab awarded Transformative Neuroscience Pilot Grant by UVA's Brain Institute

November 8, 2024

Dr. Connelly and colleagues Per Sederberg, Alev Erisir and James Morris were awarded a grant to acquire a new vole imaging coil for awake vole imaging!

Erin Ramos receives PhD!

July, 2024

Erin (co-supervised with Dr. Alev Erisir) successfully defended her dissertation titled "Mapping the oxytocinergic system in the prairie vole brain". We wish her well as she embarks on the next step in her career as a senior medical writer. Congratulations Erin!

Becky Waugh awarded 2024 Presidential Fellowship in Collabortive Neuroscience

May 16, 2024

Becky Waugh was awarded the prestigious Presidential Fellowship by UVA's Brain Institute to study the effect of early life experience on epigenetic aging in the prairie vole.

Taylor Hinton awarded Maury Pathfinder Award

March 26, 2024

Taylor's predissertation, entitled "" won the Maury Pathfinder award, continuing the lab's streak of winners in this department-wide competition. Congratulations Taylor!

Josh Danoff received PhD

February 2, 2023

Josh successfully defended his dissertation titled "Epigenetic and neurodevelopmental consequences of early life experiences." He heads to the University of Delaware to begin his post-doc. Congrats, Dr. Danoff!

Emma Whelan wins Maury Pathfinder Award

December 5, 2022

Emma's predissertation titled "A molecular mechanism of Oxtr gene regulation through a single CpG site" won the department's Maury Pathfinder Award for best predissertation. Congratulations Emma!

Amalia Skyberg received PhD

April 21, 2022

Amalia successfully defended her dissertation titled "An epigenetic mechanism for differential neural maturation and socio-emotional development in childhood". We wish her well as she begins her post-doc at the University of Oregon. Congrats, Dr. Skyberg!

Amalia Skyberg awarded Jefferson Trust grant for Brain Camp!

August, 2021

Amalia was awarded a three-year grant to develop a summer program, "Brain Camp", that brings neuroscience education to local middle schoolers.

NSF Grant awarded to faculty team to expand graduate education in life sciences

September 3, 2020

A team of faculty including Dr. Connelly, Dr. Laura Galloway, Dr. Butch Brodie, and Dr. Deborah Roach were awarded a 3 million dollar grant aimed at expanding graduate research opportunities aimed at understanding phenotypes. The grant allows for a new curriculum in graduate life sciences using multidisciplinary approaches to understanding how phenotypes develop and vary. The grant will also allow for a focus on career development and recruitment of graduate students. Read more here.

Katie receives STAR Grant

June 3, 2020

Katie's grant, titled “Nurturing the Epigenetic Architecture Underlying Social Development”, was selected for funding through the UVA Supporting Transformative Autism Research (STAR) Pilot Award program. Congrats, Katie!

Dr. Connelly receives UVA Research Collaboration Award

January 30, 2020

Dr. Connelly, along with Dr. James Morris and Dr. Tobias Grossman, received UVA's inaugural research collaboration award for their work on the development of the brain and social behaviors in infancy. Read more here!

Katie Krol's study covered by UVA news

November 7, 2019

Katie's study on dynamics of OXTR DNA methylation dynamics in infancy was covered by UVA news and featured on UVA's homepage! Read more here. Congratulations, Katie!

Meghan Puglia receives PhD

May 17, 2019

Meghan Puglia successfully defended her dissertation titled "The noisy brain in infancy: A neurobiological marker of normative social development." Congratulations, Dr. Puglia!

Josh Danoff wins "Neuroscience as Art" contest

April 29, 2019

Josh's picture of oxytocin and vasopressin immunoreactivity won the most votes in the "Neuroscience as Art" contest. Congratulations, Josh!

Kelly Wroblewski receives PhD

April 18, 2019

Kelly Wroblewski successfully defended her dissertation titled "Early life experiences alters epigenetic variation and gene expression of the oxytocin receptor gene." Congratulations, Dr. Wroblewski!

Katie Krol receives Hartwell Postdoctoral Fellowship

June 22, 2018

Katie Krol received the exceptionally prestigious Hartwell Postdoctoral Fellowship for her project titled Exploring plasticity of the oxytocin receptor in infancy and motherhood. UVA only endorses one fellow each year. Congratulations, Katie! Read more here.

Meghan Puglia's paper published in Translational Psychiatry

June 15, 2018

Meghan's paper titled "Epigenetic regulation of the oxytocin receptor is associated with neural response during selective social attention" was published in Translational Psychiatry. Read more about it here. Congratulations, Meghan!

Sarah Coe-Odess' Brain Fellowship Renewed

June 15, 2018

Sarah's fellowship to study the relationship between OXTR methylation and psychological outcomes in adolescence was renewed. Congratulations, Sarah!

Katie Lancaster receives PhD

April 26, 2018

Katie Lancaster successfully defended her thesis, titled "The Social Regulation of Emotion and Its Importance for Human Health". She will join the Kessler Foundation as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Traumatic Brain Injury Research. Congratulations, Dr. Lancaster!

Marlen Gonzalez accepts faculty position at Cornell

April 15, 2018

Graduate student Marlen Gonzales accepted an assistant professorship at Cornell University. Congratulations, Marlen!

Meghan Puglia featured in UVAToday

January 8, 2018

Meghan was featured in an article describing the interdisciplinary research projects within the UVA Brain Institute. Read more here: https://news.virginia.edu/content/brain-development-alzheimers-grad-fellows-take-wide-view

Amalia McDonald receives grant from the UVA Brain Institute

December 2017

Amalia received a grant from the UVA Brain Institute to study the relationship between OXTR methylation and neural activation patterns of emotion processing and social cognition in children.

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