Why does space travel create health issues? UNC, NASA scientists may have the answer
Kaitlan Smith named peer mentor of the month
Kaitlan contributes to outreach and mentoring for several groups here at UNC-CH. Well deserved recognition, Kaitlan!
Mariah Stewart awarded the Graduate Research Fellowship from the NSF!

Congrats to Mariah, winning the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. This award provides three years of support for Mariah’s doctoral research. Way to go!
Featured on the covers of Cell and Cell Reports- more news press on recent publications on Space Biology
Both papers featuring the Schisler Lab landed on the cover with pictures from the ISS taken by Scott Kelly (one of the twins from the twin study, whose data we used in these papers)!
They got some nice press too:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/mitochondria-cell-science
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/25/health/biology-of-spaceflight-studies-wellness-scn-trnd/index.html
https://www.popsci.com/story/science/spaceflight-human-body-effects/

da Silveira WA, Fazelinia H, Rosenthal SB, Laiakis EC, Kim MS, Meydan C, Kidane Y, Rathi KS, Smith SM, Stear B, Ying Y, Zhang Y, Foox J, Zanello S, Crucian B, Wang D, Nugent A, Costa HA, Zwart SR, Schrepfer S, Elworth RAL, Sapoval N, Treangen T, MacKay M, Gokhale NS, Horner SM, Singh LN, Wallace DC, Willey JS, †Schisler JC, Meller R, McDonald JT, Fisch KM, Hardiman G, Taylor D, Mason CE, Costes SV, Beheshti A. Cell. 2020 Nov 25;183(5):1185-1201.e20. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.11.002. PMID: 33242417
Circulating miRNA Spaceflight Signature Reveals Targets for Countermeasure Development.

Malkani S, Chin CR, Cekanaviciute E, Mortreux M, Okinula H, Tarbier M, Schreurs AS, Shirazi-Fard Y, Tahimic CGT, Rodriguez DN, Sexton BS, Butler D, Verma A, Bezdan D, Durmaz C, MacKay M, Melnick A, Meydan C, Li S, Garrett-Bakelman F, Fromm B, Afshinnekoo E, Langhorst BW, Dimalanta ET, Cheng-Campbell M, Blaber E, Schisler JC, Vanderburg C, Friedländer MR, McDonald JT, Costes SV, Rutkove S, Grabham P, Mason CE, Beheshti A. Cell Rep. 2020 Nov 21:108448. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108448. Online ahead of print. PMID: 33242410
Schisler Lab Paper News: 2 papers published on human pathophysiological response and counter-measure development to space flight
Read the commentary on these two papers, published in Cell and Cell Reports:
The Schisler Lab welcomes new rotation student, Jacob Pantazis
The Brown and Schisler lab put out a call for rotation students who want a unique co-mentoring opportunity, and Jacob was the first to answer. I had the chance to interview Jacob for his interview into our BBSP program, and it is great to see him in our lab now as a rotation student! He will be working with Selin and the Brown lab on purification and analyses of mutant forms of the enzyme CHIP.

Opening the door for CHIP pharmacology
A new study published from a great collaboration with David Kass, Mark Ranek, and the Hopkins crew is now out at Nature Communications; read and share! Strong work by Becky Sanchez, Cornelia Virus, and Team CHIP.

MiniMUGA paper published
We were happy to contribute to a genetics study to improve rigor and reproducibility in mouse research. Even in our preclinical models of SCAR16/SCA48, we see clear impacts on the severity of phenotypes based on mouse strain.
https://www.genetics.org/content/early/2020/10/16/genetics.120.303596
Kaitlan featured in Department of Pharmacology video on our community
Great Department and research family here in PHCO. Thanks for your insight, Kaitlan!

Read about how COVID-19 impacted our lab and our efforts to keep science happening safely!

A story in The Daily Tar Heel featuring lots of MHI faculty and our own Arjun Putcha! We are lucky to have great undergraduate researchers that make up a big part of our success. We may be limited in our time in lab, but we are still working hard remotely too. Be safe and wear a mask!
https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2020/06/research-operations-opening
COVID-19 collaborative research in the Schisler Lab
Read more about COV-IRT, some of our work on COVID-19, and join us in helping the world understand and develop treatments for COVID-19. A great write-up by Alyssa LaFaro. Check it out!!
