Welcome to the University of Kentucky Biomedical Graduate Student Organization
Laura Peterson-Brown, PhD (To-Be)
Laura is a fifth year PhD student in the Physiology Department and will defend her dissertation via Zoom next week. She is graduating from the lab of John McCarthy and will return to UK as a postdoctoral scholar.
When Laura Peterson-Brown started college at Eastern Kentucky University, she dreaded taking science classes. Her discouraging high school experience made her want to avoid them at all costs. She planned to bite the bullet and complete the required science courses during her first semester of college. To her surprise, Peterson-Brown underwent a major heart change when the talented professors convinced her that science could be fun. After the first semester, she switched her major to biology with a minor in chemistry and charted a new path for her future career.
Peterson-Brown entered the Integrated Biomedical Sciences PhD program at the University of Kentucky in 2015. She is currently a fifth-year student in John McCarthy’s lab in the physiology department. One of her favorite things about the McCarthy lab is weekly brainstorming sessions.
“My PI comes into the lab on Friday afternoons and we all throw around ideas,” Peterson-Brown said. “One time a random idea turned into a funded RO1 grant.”
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The brainstorming sessions also taught Peterson-Brown how to navigate challenges in her own research. Her dissertation project focuses on ribosomal proteins that are exclusively expressed in striated muscle to determine how they influence translation. During her third year, she spent months struggling to fractionate clusters of ribosomes, or polysomes, from skeletal muscle.
Instead of giving up on the experiment, Peterson-Brown decided to shift her focus. She performed a successful polysome fractionation in cardiac muscle, another striated tissue, that opened a new door for completing her dissertation project goals. This experience is just one example of how Peterson-Brown developed resiliency during graduate school.
“I learned that I am a fighter and that experiments going wrong only fuels me,” Peterson-Brown said. “Graduate school can beat you down if you let it, but it can also teach you that you are strong and that you don’t give up.”
On June 2nd, Peterson-Brown will defend her dissertation thesis and cross the finish line for her graduate career. She then plans to work as a postdoc in clinical chemistry at UK. The clinical chemistry group pioneers new scientific methods for detecting and diagnosing pathologies.
By Kerri Beth Boggs
Peterson-Brown Fights Through Failures
Bodnar awarded NIH F31 fellowship
By Kerri Beth Boggs
Colleen Bodnar, PhD Candidate
Colleen is a third year PhD student in the Neuroscience Department and has been an active member of BGSO ever since joining the IBS Program. She is conducting her dissertation work in the lab of Adam Bachstetter.
While watching a television show about autism, Colleen Bodnar became fascinated with the human brain. The fact that scientists could perform brain scans to identify functional differences linked to autistic behaviors amazed her. She wanted to learn more about how the brain worked and the changes that led to its dysfunction.
Bodnar pursued her fascination by entering the Integrated Biomedical Sciences PhD program at the University of Kentucky in 2017. Now a third-year student in Adam Bachstetter’s lab in the neuroscience department, she explores the intricacies of traumatic brain injury, or TBI.
In 2019, Bodnar began the arduous task of assembling data and proposed experiments into an F31 predoctoral fellowship application. She planned to analyze inflammation in the brain following mild TBI and to determine how much of the inflammation is driven by endothelial cells via the interleukin-1 receptor. After months of hard work, Bodnar submitted the application and waited patiently for her results.
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While at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bodnar received a notice of award for her fellowship.
“It was definitely a surreal experience,” Bodnar said. “The absence of being able to celebrate with the people that helped me was a bit of a bummer, but I had my roommate, Courtney Kloske, to help celebrate, and I was able to virtually celebrate with the BGSO weekly happy hour.”
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Bodnar welcomed support from fellow students and faculty during her training and the fellowship application process.
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“Graduate school is a weird and stressful experience. The people I’ve met that I can go to for advice, for a laugh, or for a bit of therapy have made this whole process so much better,” Bodnar said. “They will be the best part of this experience that I carry with me when I leave.”
While at UK, Bodnar learned that she enjoyed mentoring other students and helping them understand difficult topics. After earning her PhD, Bodnar would like to teach at a liberal arts college where she can share her passion for neuroscience with future generations of students.
Begemann earns PhD during COVID-19 pandemic
By Kerri Beth Boggs
Diane Begemann, PhD
Diane defended her dissertation March 25, 2020 via Zoom, just as the COVID-19 pandemic began effecting UK. Diane has graduated from the Kyprianou lab with a PhD in Toxicology and Cancer Biology.
As an undergraduate, Diane Begemann developed a deeper appreciation for science and fell in love with the horse farms of Kentucky. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, she moved to Danville, Kentucky in 2010 to study biochemistry and molecular biology at Centre College.
“I had always been drawn to biology because of how fascinating living systems were,” she said. “Everything is so intertwined that I found it incredible that cells could function at all.”
Begemann, an avid horse rider, relished the idea of continuing her studies of biomedical science in the horse capital of the world.
She applied to graduate school and in 2015 entered the University of Kentucky’s Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology as a direct admit PhD student. She joined Natasha Kyprianou’s lab where she researched mechanisms of resistance in prostate cancer to the FDA-approved chemotherapy Cabazitaxel.
While at UK, Begemann encountered a roadblock that impacted the final portion of her graduate training. Her PI accepted a position at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Manhattan, New York. Begemann faced two options: she could stay at UK and delay her graduation or move from the horse capital to the big apple to complete her dissertation work.
Begemann sacrificed the status quo of her Kentucky life to finish her PhD research in New York. She navigated the challenges of resuming research in a new place and completed her project in a timely manner. However, Begemann’s roller coaster ride through graduate school soon took another unexpected turn.
After returning to Kentucky, Begemann finished writing her dissertation at the same time the COVID-19 pandemic upended
nearly all aspects of our daily lives. With new social distancing restrictions in place, Begemann prepared for the reality of a nontraditional defense seminar. At the end of March, she successfully defended her thesis via Zoom.
“Small things like that pale in the face of a pandemic, but working for five years to end with such an anti-climax was definitely a challenge,” she said.
Once the state lifts social isolation restrictions, Begemann will start her new job to expand and support a cancer gene testing network in Eastern and Northern Kentucky.
Meredith Eckstein
Meredith will be defending her dissertation this May and is graduating with a PhD in Biochemistry from the lab of Dr. Yvonne Fondufe-Mittendorf.
Eckstein lands her dream job
By Kerri Beth Boggs
As a sophomore at Morehead State University, Meredith Eckstein decided she wanted to be a college professor. Nine years later, Eckstein has landed her dream job as a tenure-track assistant biology professor at Georgetown College. How did Eckstein transform her dream into reality? Perseverance and a positive attitude!
In 2014, Eckstein applied to the Integrated Biomedical Sciences PhD program at the University of Kentucky.
“When I interviewed, it seemed like an environment that was supportive and collaborative,” she said. “Everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful, and that was exactly the type of environment I wanted.”
Eckstein entered the IBS PhD program in 2015 and joined Yvonne Fondufe-Mittendorf’s lab in the biochemistry department the following spring. Fondufe-Mittendorf supported Eckstein’s future career goals and encouraged her to acquire experience inside and outside of the lab.
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“I’m so grateful that Yvonne helped me develop into a competent scientist within the lab and that she gave me the freedom to gain teaching experience,” she said.
Eckstein took “baby steps” to reach her future career goals. She tutored fellow students and served as a teaching assistant for the undergraduate biochemistry course at the University of Kentucky. As she became more confident in her teaching abilities, she took a position as a lab instructor at Eastern Kentucky University and later taught an introductory biology course at the Bluegrass Community and Technical College. Eckstein balanced her demanding teaching and research responsibilities with a healthy dose of positivity.
“Graduate school is difficult, and many people in science can be pretty negative,” she said, “I realized that I needed to have a healthy perspective about my work, maintain a positive attitude, and try to create a positive environment for my fellow coworkers and students.”
Next month, Eckstein will defend her PhD thesis on the role of DNA methylation and histone variants in inorganic arsenic-mediated carcinogenesis.
“I’m thankful that my hard work and preparation have paid off and that I was able to get my dream job!” she said. “I can’t wait to begin my career at Georgetown College this fall to teach, mentor, and collaborate with students, faculty, and staff.”