News from the Sekelsky Lab
February 11, 2022
The BBSP graduate program selected our lab manager, Susan Cheek, to receive a 2021-22 Science Mentoring Award.
This is the first year the award was opened to allow nominations of staff. Susan has contributed to the professional and personal development of essentially every former lab member, from
undergraduates to postdoctoral fellows.
January 21, 2022
Two 1st-year BBSP students, Mohamed Nasr and Priscila Santa Rosa, have elected to do their third rotations in the lab. Mohamed will conduct genetic
analysis of possible separation-of-function alleles of the Bloom syndrome helicase gene. Priscila will investigate the roles of RING finger proteins
in crossover patterning.
November 12, 2021
Nila passed her oral exam on her proposed project on centromeric suppression of meiotic crossovers. This is the last program
requirement except for publication and dissertation + defense.
October 21, 2021
A paper titled "Blm Helicase Facilitates Rapid Replication of Repetitive DNA Sequences in early Drosophila Development" was
accepted at GENETICS. This research was started by Dr. Eric Stoffregen when he was a postdoc in the lab, with contributions
by two other lab members, and completed in Eric's
lab at Lewis-Clark State College, headed up by two undergraduates. We show that lack of maternal Blm helicase results in massive
failure of genome replication, and that the frequency of failure is related to repetitive sequence load. The preprint is
here.
October 20, 2021
Colleen was selected to receive the Honors Carolina Excellence Senior Thesis Research Award.
Colleen has been conducting a structure-function study of the Bloom Syndrome helicase in Drosophila. She is mentored by Evan Dewey, PhD.
October 8, 2021
Evan's poster was judged to be the best at the 46th Annual UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Postdoctoral/Faculty Research Day organized and held by
the Integrated Training in Cancer Model Systems postdoctoral training program.
August 9, 2021
Carolyn's NRSA F31 fellowship proposal was funded by the National Institute on Aging. Carolyn's project
is titled Mechanisms and regulation of meiotic recombination. This is her first application so it will be funded
for up to three years, which should cover the rest of her graduate training period.
July 26, 2021
David Pecina completed his Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, an NSF REU program, and presented his results on a poster.
David found that mutants that prevent or mimic phosphorylation of the recombination protein Mei-218, which we have found to
alter crossover interference, do alter the centromeric suppression of crossing over, providing support for the hypothesis
that these two processes are controlled independently.
July 10, 2021
Nila and Carolyn co-authored a review of meiotic crossover patterning, covering crossover interference, assurance,
and centromeric suppression. Their discussion spanned discovery of each phenomenon to modern models for how they
work (which is mostly unknown). The article is open access and is available at
Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.
June 14, 2021
Juan Carvajal-Garcia, PhD, was selected for the Graduate Fellow Awards in Basic Science from the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center!
Juan was honored for the excellence and cancer relevance of his reserach on DNA polymerase theta-mediated end joining of DNA breaks,
a critical pathway in cells that are defecitve in homology-directed repair, particularly breast cancer cells with BRCA1/2 mutations.
April 14, 2021
Colette presented her research in the John J. Koeppe Undergradaute Honors Symposium. She turned in her honors
thesis the week before and will graduate with a B.S. with Honors in Biology!
March 18, 2021
Juan successfully defended his PhD dissertation, titled "Mechanisms and Genetics of Polymerase Theta-
Mediated End Joining. Congratulations Dr. Carvajal Garcia!
March 12, 2021
Juan's paper titled "DNA polymerase theta suppresses mitotic crossing over"
was accepted for publication in PLOS Genetics. Juan showed the DNA Polymerase theta is essential when
Holliday junction resolvases are missing and that loss of Pol theta results in elevated crossovers during
double-strand break repair.
Jan 24, 2021
Talia's paper titled "A pathway for error-free non-homologous end joining of resected meiotic double-strand breaks"
was accepted for publication Nucleic Acids Research. Talia and co-authors Danny Miller, Carolyn Turcotte, and Maggie Miller
describe a novel pathway in which NHEJ can be used in a an error-free way to repair resected meiotic DSBs when a homolog is not
available as a repair template.
Oct 16, 2020
Carolyn passed her oral examination! This consists of writing a research proposal on her project and defending it to her
dissertation committee. A pass means she is now a candidate for the PhD.
Aug 10, 2020
Colette Anikwue is a senior from Rochester,NY. She will study the role of Mei-218 in meiotic crossover interference.
Anna Synder is a freshman from Charlotte, NC. She is conducting computational research on satellite sequences this year.
April 20, 2020
Nila, after completing her spring rotation in the lab, has decided to join us for her dissertation research!
Nila will be investigating how promimity to the centromere negatively impacts probabilities of meiotic crossing over.
Oct 15, 2019
Juan and Evan cloned mus302 and showed that it encodes the Drosophila ortholog of RFWD3. The human protein is
believed to function during homologous recombination, but the fly protein does not. We suggest there is another important
function that the fly protein has and that may be the ancestral function of RFWD3.
DOI: 10.1534/g3.119.400903
Oct 15, 2019
Talia published a paper showing that centomeric SMC1 is required to achieve meiotic centromere clustering and to
maintain chromosome pairing during synapsis. In the mutant she studied, a separation-of-function mutation in Mcm5,
synaptonemal complex forms between heterologous sequences. Due to the paring/synapsis defect, crossovers are not generated
at normal numbers so chromosomes nondisjoin. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008412
Oct 15, 2019
Evan Dewey visited our local Boys and Girls Club to talk to them about genetics and fruit flies. The kids were engaged and inquisitive.
Aug 19, 2019
Brandy is a 1st year BBSP student. She did her undergraduate studies at Grand Valley State University
in Michigan, where she did research on structure/function relationship of bacterial defense enzymes using X-ray crystallography. Now she'll
try something completely different: genetic approaches to improving CRISPR/Cas9 gene drive efficiency.
Aug 12, 2019
Talia defended her dissertation, titled "Meiotic Prophase I: From Homolog Pairing to Crossover Regulation."
It weighs in at 7 chapters in 192 pages, 46,290 words, 305,363 characters.
July 25, 2019
Kale's paper investigating the suppression of crossovers near the centromere was accepted at Genetics. Kale's research
on this 90-year old problem demonstrates that there are two components. First, double-strand breaks are excluded from the
pericentromeric satellite DNA. Second, DSBs in the less-repetitive heterochromatin and the flanking euchromatin are
suppresed by a crossover patterning mechanism that functions in meiosis and that is dependent on distace from the centromere.
See the paper at Genetics.
July 24, 2019
Kiarash and Hapi both presented posters at the UNC Summer Undergradaute Pipeline Research Symposium.
Both had a lot of interest and aquitted themselves well in their presentations.
June 18, 2019
Kale Hartmann defended her dissertation titled "Meiotic Crossover Patterning in Drosophila melanogaster. Dr. Hartmann will now
be the Curriculum Fellow in Genetics and Genomics at Harvard Medical School.
May 20, 2019
Hapshepsut (Hapi) Jackson has joined the lab through the SOLAR
(Summer of Learning and Research) program. Hapi is a rising senior at North Carolina Central University.
She is being mentored by Julie Korda Holsclaw.
May 15, 2019
Kiarash Saghaei will be doing research with us this summer. Kiarash is a UNC undergraduate who is participating in the
SMART (Science and Math Acheivement and Resourcefulness Track) program.
He is mentored by Susan Cheek.
May 13, 2019
Evan Gales was awarded a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
from the UNC Office for Undergraduate Research. This will allow Evan
to continue his research on mus302 and its roles in RPA regulation. Evan is mentored by
Juan Carvajal Garcia.
Apr 26, 2019
Our paper on roles of the mei-MCM complex in promoting and suppressing meiotic crossovers was accepted
at Genetics (link).
Authors include Kale Hartmann (1st),
former student Kathryn Kohl,
and Talia Hatkevich (corresponding author).
Apr 25, 2019
Carolyn Turcotte has joined the lab for her PhD research. She will investigate the function of the
Bloom syndrome helicase in regulating meiotic recombination.
Apr 9, 2019
Kale Hartmann has accepted a position as
Curriculum Fellow in Genetics and Genomics at Harvard Medical School. During her three years
there she will work to improve graduate education at HMS.
Mar 31, 2019
Talia Hatkevich gave an inspiring talk at the 2019 Genetics Society of America Drosophila Research Conference
She received lots of questions, which she answered with enthusiasm.
Mar 29, 2019
Kale Hartmann was elected into the
Frank Porter Graham Graduate and Professional Student Honor Society, in recognition of "outstanding service provided
to the University and community."
Mar 17, 2019
Talia Hatkevich was selected (along with two other students) to receive the Terry Magnuson Award for outstanding
graduating student in the Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology. The award was presented by Terry Magnuson
at the 2018 Genetics Retreat (held in 2019 because of hurricane delay). Talia also gave a great talk at the retreat.
Feb 11, 2019
Alexis Stutzman will be in the lab for Spring rotation. She will be investigating what Blm helicase
does in rapid syncytial-stage S phases, by ChIP-EM and Oxford Nanopore sequencing.
Jan 8, 2019
Jeff has been selected by BBSP for the inaugural Award for Excellence in Basic Science Mentoring. His selection
was based on a "compelling" nomination package assembled by his students.
Jan 8, 2019
Talia Hatkevich has been selected by the Genetics Society of America to recieve
the DeLill Nasser Travel Award for Professional Development. Talia will present her research at the 2019 Drosophila Research
Conference in Dallas, TX.
Jan 8, 2019
Diego Martinez Castañeda, a junior Biology major, will be conducting undergraduate research in our lab. He will be working with
Leeza Santiago Millán studying mechanisms of DNA repair during gene drive.
Dec 5, 2018
To celebrate the last day of classes, the lab got together at Top of the Hill for lunch. Left to right: Leela Wissman, Evan Gales, Maggie Miller,
Leeza Santiago Millán, Carolyn Turcotte, Juan Carvajal-Garcia, Susan Cheek, Kale Hartmann. Princess and Talia couldn't make it, and Jeff is taking the photo.
Nov 16, 2018
Three undergraduates researchers in the lab presented their posters. Left to right:- Maggie Miller ( Talia Hatkevich): "How Drosophila meiotic chromosomes repair breaks in pairing mutants"
- Evan Gales ( Juan Carvajal-Garcia): "Mapping and characterization of mus302 in Drosophila melanogaster"
- Leela Wissman ( Kale Hartmann): "Understanding the Blm helicase in Drosophila melanogaster"
Oct 12, 2018
Talia Hatkevich has been selected for the Lineberger Graduate Fellow Award.
The purpose of this award is to recognize "outstanding graduate students in the research programs of members of UNC's
Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center".
.
Oct 10, 2018
Desperately in need of a new photo, the lab went to the spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois.
Top photo (L to R): Susan Cheek, Carolyn Turcotte, Leeza Santiago Millán, Leela Wissmann, Talia Hatkevich, Evan Gales,
Princess Onuorah, Jeff Sekelsky, Maggie Miller, Juan Carvajal Garcia, Kale Hartmann.
Bottom photo. Standing: Jeff Sekelsky. Lying: everyone else. Photos by Vincent Boudreau..
July 16, 2018
Carolyn Turcotte, a 1st-year student in BBSP, has selected our lab for her Fall rotation. Carolyn comes with
outstanding research experience, having studied C. elegans meiosis in the lab of Paula Checchi
at Marist College. Carolyn published a paper on her research in GENETICS,
and also wrote a review article published in GENETICS.
July 16, 2018
Leeza M. Santiago Millán, a post-baccalaureate researcher in the UNC PREP program,
has joined the lab. PREP helps prepares students for graduate school through workshops, courses, and a year of full-time research (though Leeza
comes to us with varied and substantial research experience already).
July 2, 2018
Nicole's paper on the interchromosomal effect on recombination was accepted at
Current Biology. This paper, titled "Local inversion heterozygosity alters recombination
throughout the genome," employs whole-genome sequencing to understand how inversions on one chromosome impacts meiotic recombination globally. For analysis of the
WGS data, Nicole teamed up with co-first author Danny Miller, formerly of Scott Hawley's
lab at Stowers Institute for Medical Research.
June 18, 2018
Talia won the award for best poster by a postdoc at the Gordon Research Conference on Meiosis.
That's especially impressive because Talia is a graduate student! Her prize includes an "I ♥ Meiosis" mug and a one-year print subscription to Trends in Genetics.
June 18, 2018
Jeff was elected to be Vice Chair of the next (2020) Gordon Research
Conference on Meiosis. He will become Chair of the following meeting, in 2022..
May 31, 2018
Dr. Nicole Crown has left the lab to start her own lab in the
Department of Biology at Case Western Reserve University. The photo on the left is from our farewell dinner.
May 30, 2018
Kale finished teaching a course this semester at
Durham Technical Community College. She was the instructor of record for General Biology II.
May 12, 2018
Caitlin Moffatt received a well-deserved B.S. with Honors in Biology. Caitlin was
mentored by Kale and (previously) Danielle.
Caitlin will continue her path in research through the
NIH Postbac Intramural Training Award in the lab of
Orna Cohen-Fix. at NIDDK. The photo is here is from a going away party for Caitlin and David (see below).
at Top of the Hill.
May 12, 2018
David Morgan received his B.S. in Biology. David was mentored by Julie and,
after Julie graduated, by Susan. This fall David will enroll in the
Sidney Kimmmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University (where his mother earned her MD).
April 18, 2018
We had our traditional Sekelsky lab and alumni (amd F2, loved ones, etc.) Fly Meeting dinner. Attending were
(clockwise from lower left):
- Nicole Crown (postdoc)
- Tara Finegan
- Dan Bergstralh, (former postdoc)
- Eric Stoffregen (former postdoc)
- Kathryn Kohl (former grad student)
- Elyse Bolterstein (former postdoc of Mitch McVey)
- Jan LaRocque (former grad student)
- Jeff Sekelsky
- Amy Yu (former grad student of Mitch McVey)
- Mitch McVey, (former postdoc)
- Caitlin Moffatt (undergrad).
Apri 5, 2018
Caitlin gave an outstanding talk at the
Koeppe Biology Honors Symposium,
titled "
Altering Substrate Specificity of the Nuclease GEN". Caitlin described swapping the helical
arch of the GEN endonuclease with similar regions from a human and a fungal protein in an effort
to separate the Holliday junction resolvase activity from the 5' flap endonuclease activity.
January 16, 2018
Caitlin received a travel award from the
UNC Office of Undergraduate Research to attend and present a poster
at the Genetics Society of America's
Drosophila Research Conference in Philadelphia in April.