NEWS

Motivated by the general sense that scientists are not effectively communicating the importance of their work to the general public, we held our first Frost Lab and Friends Science Communication Chaaaaallenge! Frost lab members (and friends) were randomly paired with 15 undergraduate volunteers from Brown. Each lab member had 10 minutes to explain their project, after which the undergraduates each had five minutes to present the project to the group. The challenge was for lab

Are you interested in transcriptome complexity, RNA modifications, polyA tail length, or retrotransposons? Are you simply obsessed with mining new datasets? Our new Nanopore-based direct RNA sequencing study in Drosophila (in the context of health and tau pathogenicity) is for you: Our de novo transcriptome assembly reveals previously missed complexity in the Drosophila genome, including abundant transcripts with retained introns. Transcripts with long polyA tails are enriche

Julianna Chang Maufinda Howard, BS We would like to wish a warm welcome to two new Frost lab members! Julianna Chang is a senior at Brown concentrating in Biology and Political Science. She is working with Morgan Lambert to investigate mediators of retrotransposon DNA-induced inflammation in iPSCs. Maufinda Howard is a laboratory intern. She recently graduated from Lindsey Wilson College with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and minor in chemistry. She is working with Yutaka

We are thrilled that Aly has been awarded a position on the Brown University Biology of Aging T32! Aly is investigating double stranded RNA in the context of tauopathy, particularly as it related to retrotransposons and astrocyte reactivity. Woohoo!

Standing room only at Morgan's poster at AAIC! We are all about weird DNA species and how they may contribute to neurodegeneration.

Frost lab PhD student Claira Sohn was selected to give an oral presentation for the Dr. Samuel M. Nabrit Conference for Early Career Scholars. The Nabrit Conference is hosted by the Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Brown University. The meeting showcases trainees and early career investigators who are addressing challenging questions in biology and medicine through leadership and innovation. Way to go, Claira!

Meredith was awarded a Brown University Summer Advanced Undergraduate Research Fellowship! Meredith will be analyzing potential genetic modifiers of huntingtin-induced toxicity in Drosophila .

Morgan Lambert and Morgan Thomas tied for best poster at the 14th Annual Caregiver's Journey and Research Conference. In addition to programming focused on support for caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease, this conference brought together researchers across academic medical institutions and local universities to share their latest work and foster future collaborations. The event created a valuable opportunity for scientists in Rhode Island to learn from the live

Zach Uttke, MD/PhD student in the Brown MCB Graduate Program, successfully passed his qualifying exam and is officially a PhD candidate! Thanks to Dr. John Sedivy, Dr. Sofia Lizarraga and Dr. Marty Taylor for service on Zach's committee. Zach is focused on developing new assays for target engagement for nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitors.

Results from our AntiRetroviral Therapy for Alzheimer's Disease (ART-AD) clinical trial are available online today and will be included in the inaugural issue of npj Dementia. We detected some positive effects of the HIV drug lamivudine (3TC) on biomarkers of neurodegeneration and are excited to continue therapeutic development in this area.