LAB NEWS

The University of Virginia School of Arts & Sciences featured a front‐page article titled “Researchers Secure Major Grants to Study How Birth Shapes Mothers’ Health and Their Brains” by Russ Bahorsky. The story spotlights how Dr. Allison Perkeybile and Dr. Jess Connelly secured significant NIH funding to explore how different birth experiences influence maternal brain function and health outcomes. (Click the picture to see the article!)

5th-year graduate student, Taylor Hinton, has once again taken top honors at the EXPAND Open House, earning the award for Best Poster for the second year in a row! Taylor’s outstanding work and dedication continue to shine, showcasing both innovative research and clear communication. Congratulations, Taylor, on this impressive back-to-back achievement!

Over the summer, they worked on tracking the development of microglia in the prairie vole model for human behavior. They hope to understand whether microglia development differs with parental care and how this might influence later behaviors. Thanks to the Double Hoo Award, Trina will be officially joining the Connelly Lab as an undergraduate student!

For those who don’t know much about LIFE: in a nutshell, it is a supplementary graduate training program that can greatly enhance the knowledge and careers of both LIFE Fellow and LIFE Faculty participants. A collaboration between UVA Psychology and School of Education, the University of Michigan, the University of Zurich, the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Humboldt University, and Freie University in Berlin, LIFE focuses on human development across the lifespan, from granular to societal levels.

Allison has been awarded her grant, R01HD115687-01A1, "Impact of cesarean section on the epigenetic and transcriptional state of the maternal brain". This proposal will provide valuable information on how natural birth and cesarean section, a very common birth intervention, differentially shape development of the maternal brain and maternal behavior.

The lab has been awarded the renewal of R01 HD098117-06A1, “Mechanisms of maternal brain changes with birth interventions” (originally a collaborative grant with Sue Carter and Jessica Connelly), allowing for the continuation in the exploration of the molecular changes in the maternal brains of prairie voles.

She seeks to understand how differences in parental care will change an offspring's behavior by interfacing with microglia in early life. Venezia is a PhD student in the Psychology department and is co-mentored by Dr. Ukpong Eyo and Dr. Jess Connelly.

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

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".

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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 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.