NEWS

In work led by Dr. Simon Levy, we have developed a new Drosophila tool for quantifying tau-tau interaction in real time in the brain of a living organism. This split-luciferase-based model, which we term "tauLUM," allows users to quantify tau multimerization at individual time points or longitudinally in adult, living flies housed in a 96-well plate. TauLUM causes cell death in the adult Drosophila brain and responds to both pharmacological and genetic interventions. We find

We are thrilled that Annelise (Annie) Flores has returned to the Frost lab! Annie worked with us as Student Research Assistant in the summer of 2021. She recently graduated with a B.S. from UT Austin and is now with us full time. We love prodigal lab members who just cannot get enough.

Lulu Schulz was the 2022 recipient of the Armand J. Guarino Award for Academic Excellence in Master's Studies from the University of Texas Health San Antonio! This award is the most prestigious and longstanding student recognition given to a Master's student in the graduate school. Lulu was awarded at the Annual Convocation of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, where she also gave a summary of her experiences as a student that contributed to this award and words of a

We would like to give a warm welcome to Marissa Marquez, our newest Research Assistant! Marissa recently graduated from UT Austin with a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience. Bess and Marissa met through the Women in Neuroscience program, where Marissa was a WiNtern with the Brumback lab. Marissa - we are thrilled to have you!

Dr. Carlos Cruchaga, Dr. Celeste Karch, Dr. Ting Wang, Dr. Andrew Yoo and Dr. Bess Frost were awarded a new multi-PI R01 from the National Institute on Aging. The grant will fund highly collaborative work to identify and characterize cell type-specific transposable element dysregulation in familial Alzheimer's disease and healthy aging.

Rising second-year Neuroscience students gave their "Research Practicum" talks on Thursday, August 4th. The Research Practicum is the first formal oral presentation for students in our Neuroscience discipline, and is one of the evaluation criteria for appointment to the Neuroscience T32 directed by Dr. David Morilak. We are thrilled to announce that our very own Morgan Thomas was selected for appointment to the T32! We are pleased, but not surprised, as Morgan joined our grad

We are excited to share that Simon is now a Regulatory Scientist at RQM+!

Dr. Frost was recently announced as one of four gold prize winners of the Oskar Fischer Prize, an international competition to expand the understanding and knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease. The Prize launched in late 2019 following a $5 million gift from Texas businessman Dr. James Truchard. "Submissions from around the world underwent a rigorous evaluation process by an interdisciplinary committee of advisors. The winning entries include unique theories that help to shed lig

The Frost lab would like to give a heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Simon Levy for successful defense of his dissertation! During his time as a PhD student, Simon developed in vivo systems to quantitatively measure tau-tau and htt-htt interactions in the living Drosophila brain (in revision and in preparation, respectively). He earned second authorship on manuscripts from the laboratory published in Aging Cell and Alzheimer's & Dementia, as well as coauthorship on a collabora

Myra Lewis and Laila Lawson have joined us as summer undergraduate scholars for the summer. In partnership with Howard University in Washington, DC, this program hosts students with an interest in pursuing careers in medicine, health and research. Originally from Suffield, Connecticut, Laila Lawson is a Health Science major with a minor in Maternal and Child Health at Howard University. Laila's long term career goal is to become an obstetrician-gynecologist. At Howard, Laila