News

The Griffin lab was full of smiles and tears today as we celebrated Siqi’s successful Ph.D. defense! We will miss Siqi’s amazing presence in the lab but are excited that she’s staying in the vascular field, as she begins her postdoc with Dr. Mark Kahn at U. Penn next month. Many congrats, Siqi, for a fantastic graduate career and bright future!

Congrats to Chris Schafer for his newly published manuscript in PNAS describing a novel way to regress pathological blood vessels in mouse eyes. Many thanks as well to our collaborators across the street at the Dean McGee Eye Institute and to George Davis at USF.

Check out the following press coverage:

https://omrf.org/2020/10/06/omrf-discovery-holds-potential-for-reversing-vision-loss/

OMRF testing new drug that could reverse some types of vision loss

The lab just said “goodbye” to its 4th student from the Visiting Graduate Traineeship Program–Katarzyna (Stacy) Borawska. Stacy spent the last year in the lab studying vascular development in the embryonic omentum with Dr. Matt Menendez. We wish her the best as she returns to Poland to defend her Masters thesis.

The Griffin lab said a fond farewell to Kasia Kurylowicz on Friday. Kasia came to our lab from Poland through the Visiting Graduate Traineeship Program two years ago and has contributed valuable effort to numerous projects. We will miss Kasia but are excited for her new opportunity to study cancer research at the University of Chicago in the lab of Dr. Shannon Elf.

Kasia worked closely with Dr. Chris Schafer during her time in the lab; they’re pictured here at Chris’ wedding in 2019.

Courtney is excited to have been elected as the next President of the North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO). She will spend this year supporting the current President–Dr. Masanori Aikawa–in a President-Elect role and will take over the reigns in July 2021.

The Griffin lab is grateful to be back at the bench after the COVID-19 lockdown…albeit on staggered shifts and with plenty of social distancing for safety!

Siqi, Charmain, and Melinda are masked and ready to research…6 feet apart!

Courtney is honored to have been named the Scott Zarrow Chair in Biomedical Research at OMRF’s spring board meeting. Special thanks to the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation, which endowed this chair in memory of Tulsa attorney and philanthropist Scott Zarrow.

Congratulations to Sarah Colijn for her new cover-featured article in Disease Models & Mechanisms about an unexpected athero-protective role for RIPK3 in endothelial cells and macrophages.

We are excited to welcome two new graduate students to the lab: Bridget Parrish and Rahul Rajala. Thanks to you both for choosing to train in the Griffin Lab!

Congrats to Charmain Fernando for her new AHA Postdoc Fellowship on the role of RIPK3 in ischemia/reperfusion injury…way to go, Charmain!

The lab is just back from Vascular Biology 2019, where we had loads of fun learning great science and reconnecting with old friends and colleagues. Congrats to Siqi for winning a poster award…well deserved!!

Big congrats to Sarah Colijn, who successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis today! We are so grateful for Sarah’s hard work and perseverance over the last 5 years, and we’re wishing her luck as she heads to Washington University to start a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Amber Stratman.

Our newly minted Dr. Colijn with her proud husband Casey

The Griffin lab is excited to welcome its 4th visiting masters student from Poland–Stacy Borawska–via the bioLAB Visiting Research Graduate Traineeship Program. Stacy will be working closely with Matt over the next year studying the impact of peritoneal macrophages on vascular integrity. Thank you, Stacy, for traveling so far to do research with us!

We are delighted to have Abby Williams working in the lab this summer. Abby is a rising freshman at New York University and is spending several weeks helping Melinda study organ-specific roles for endothelial BRG1 and CHD4.

The Griffin lab is pleased to host Kate Wheeler as an OMRF Fleming Scholar this summer. Kate is a rising freshman at the University of Oklahoma and had visited our lab several times during her high school years to learn more about our research. This summer she is working with Siqi on studying novel intracellular roles for RIPK3, and we’re already so grateful for her hard work and dedication to her project.

Congrats to Sarah Colijn, Siqi Gao, and Kyle Ingram for acceptance of their manuscript on RIPK3 by Cell Death & Differentiation. This paper defines novel transcriptional regulators of Ripk3 and demonstrates that excessive endothelial RIPK3 expression causes embryonic vascular fragility.

Courtney is grateful to have been awarded OMRF’s Edward L & Thelma Gaylord Prize for Scientific Excellence. This award reflects all the hard work and creativity displayed by current and former lab members over the last several years…thank you!

The Griffin lab is thrilled to have received an R35 (Emerging Investigator Award) from the NHLBI to study “Protease-Mediated Vascular Instability in Development and Disease.” This 7-year grant provides the timeline and funds to do some truly creative work, and we intend to take full advantage of this terrific opportunity. See our OMRF press release here.

Congrats to Chris Schafer for winning a Postdoc Poster Award at the Vascular Cell Biology Gordon Research Conference he recently attended in Ventura, CA.

Courtney is honored to have been appointed as Scientific Director of the Oklahoma Center for Adult Stem Cell Research (OCASCR) this month. This center is funded by the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) and distributes grant money for research, equipment, and travel related to adult stem cells and regenerative medicine. Our goal is to help these research areas continue to grow and thrive in Oklahoma. Read more here.

The lab is very happy to welcome Dr. Charmain Fernando as our newest postdoc. Charmain recently earned her Ph.D. with Dr. Steven Segal at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. Welcome, Charmain!

Big congrats to Melinda Wu for winning an AHA Postdoc Fellowship and to Siqi Gao for winning an AHA Predoc Fellowship today. We are so proud of you two!

Congrats to Chris Schafer for winning the Wei Cao Award for Innovation for his outstanding oral presentation at the 2018 OU Vision Workshop.

Most of the lab members are just back from NAVBO’s annual meeting–Vascular Biology 2018. We had a great time exploring the new meeting site in Newport, RI. Melinda and Sarah gave oral presentations of their research, while Matt, Chris, and Siqi presented posters. Congrats to NAVBO on hosting another terrific meeting.

Siqi, Courtney, Melinda, and Sarah at VB2018

Loved our view of the sailboats from our hotel in Newport

The Griffin lab moved in October…from the 6th floor to the 7th floor of the OMRF Research Tower! We are loving our new digs…stop by for a visit and to see our terrific views from the lab windows.

Courtney, Melinda, and Siqi assembling a bench in the new lab space

Congrats to Chris Schafer on winning an OMRF Postdoc Travel Award to attend the Vascular Cell Biology Gordon Research Conference next January in California. Way to go!

We are delighted to welcome Kasia Kurylowicz–a visiting masters student from Jagiellonian University–to our lab for the next year. Kasia will be working closely with Dr. Chris Schafer to study vascular growth and regression in the eye under developmental and pathological conditions. Welcome, Kasia!

Kasia proudly displays her organizational skills!

The Griffin lab has been honored to host Paige Miles, a rising Junior at the U.S. Naval Academy, as our Saxon Scholar this summer. Paige spent three intense weeks studying the effects of macrophages on embryonic vascular development. We are grateful for her hard work and amazed at how much she learned in such a short time. Check out this news article about Paige and the Saxon Scholar program.

Chris Schafer just won a 2-year Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology Postdoc Fellowship! This is a new funding mechanism for OCAST, and we’re so proud to have Chris representing our lab as one of the first recipients.

Congrats to Siqi on her new paper accepted to Hepatology assessing plasmin-mediated vascular damage in adult mouse livers after acetaminophen overdose. Check out this news article about her findings.

Big congrats to Chris Schafer who was just awarded a 2-year AHA Postdoc Fellowship for his fascinating project studying hyaloid regression in the neonatal murine eye. We’re proud of you, Chris!

Congrats to Chris Schafer for winning a travel award at this year’s OMRF Scientific Retreat for his outstanding poster presentation!

The Griffin Lab is excited to welcome our new lab manager, Dr. Jun Xie, who joined our team this week. We are grateful for the extensive expertise that Jun brings to this job and look forward to learning from and with her.

Congrats to Siqi for winning the Best Student Talk at this year’s OUHSC Cell Biology departmental retreat. Siqi gave a terrific summary of her research on acetaminophen-induced hepatic vascular injury.

The lab is just back from Pacific Grove, CA, where we all attended the annual NAVBO meeting (Vascular Biology 2017). Sarah won a travel award and gave a talk in the Vascular Cell Biology session of the main meeting, while Siqi and Melinda gave talks at the pre-meeting. Sarah, Siqi, Melinda and Matt also presented posters describing their research projects. Great job, everyone!

Sarah receives her travel award from Dr. Brian Black

We are delighted to welcome Shruti Desai, our new Research Assistant, to the Griffin Lab. Shruti will be managing our mouse colony and helping the lab to run smoothly. Thank you, Shruti!

This week we are sad to bid farewell to our outstanding lab manager, Vijay Muthukumar, who worked with us for the last eight years. Vijay has accepted an exciting new position at the Jackson Labs in Maine as a Project Manager/Research Animal Facility Director. Congratulations on your new job, Vijay, and know that you’ll always be a part of the Griffin Lab!

Vijay and Courtney say “goodbye” over Big Truck Tacos!

Congrats to Matt Menendez and former Griffin lab postdoc E-Ching Ong on their new ATVB paper showing a role for BRG1 in establishing capillary integrity.

We are grateful for the dedication and hard work of two individuals departing our lab this month. Anna Drozd spent the last year with us as a Visiting Scholar from the University of Lodz in Poland. She worked closely with Matt Menendez in studying the role of BRG1 in lymphatic development. We are excited that she is entering a PhD program at the University of Copenhagen this fall. Jocelyn Rodriguez spent three weeks with us as a Saxon Scholar studying the interaction of CHD3 and CHD4 in early vascular development with Chris Schafer. She will start her junior year this fall at the U.S. Naval Academy. Both of these young women were an asset to our lab, and we’ll miss their wonderful personalities and sharp scientific minds. Best of luck in your future endeavors, Anna and Jocelyn!

Lab farewell lunch for Jocelyn (2nd from left) and Anna (5th from left)

Congrats to Siqi Gao for winning the OMRF John and Mildred Carson Ph.D. Scholarship, which recognizes her outstanding achievements and momentum at this early stage of her graduate training.

Griffin lab trainees had a big week! Congrats to Matt for winning the 2017 Best OMRF Postdoc Fellowship for his AHA Fellowship. Congrats to Anna for winning Best Poster among the Visiting Research Graduate Traineeship Program students at the OMRF Annual Retreat. And congrats to Siqi for winning the OMRF GREAT Symposium Travel Grant for her oral presentation last Tuesday. Terrific job, everyone!

Hats off to Siqi Gao, who passed her Ph.D. qualifying exams yesterday in the OUHSC Department of Cell Biology. We’re proud of you, Siqi!

Griffin lab champagne celebration with Siqi (center) after her oral qualifying exams

We are delighted to welcome Chris Schafer, who is starting postdoctoral training in our lab this month. Chris is already hard at work studying the NuRD complex, and we are thrilled to have him as part of the team.

A warm welcome to Melinda Wu, who moved to Oklahoma City from Taiwan this month to join our lab. Melinda will be studying combinatorial roles of BRG1 and CHD4 in embryonic vascular development.

Melinda with her new Oklahoma driver’s license!

Congrats to the lab on our new R01 funding investigation into the causes and effects of embryonic vascular necroptosis. We’re looking forward to making great discoveries with this grant money.

A big ‘thank you’ to Ta’Na Alexander, who worked with us as a full-time technician this summer. Ta’Na will continue part-time work with the lab as she completes her bachelor’s degree at Oklahoma City University this academic year.

The lab is wishing Patrick Crosswhite a fond farewell as he starts his new Assistant Professor position at Gonzaga University (Department of Nursing and Human Physiology). We will miss him but are grateful for the four years he spent with us. Congratulations, Patrick!

Griffin lab members bidding farewell to Patrick (2nd from left)

A big congratulations to Matt Menendez for his new AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship on “Epigenetic Regulation of Necroptosis in Lymphatic Endothelial Cells.” We’re proud of you, Matt!

We have had the privilege of hosting Robert Pahissa this month through the OMRF Saxon Scholar Program. Robert is a rising senior at the U.S. Air Force Academy and has been helping us investigate roles for the CHD3 chromatin-remodeling enzyme in developing blood vessels. Thanks for your hard work, Robert!

A warm welcome to Anna Drozd, who is visiting us through the Polish Student Research Trainee Program. We’re excited to make new discoveries with Anna over the upcoming year.

The lab is excited to see the release of our new publication on CHD4-regulated plasmin activity today in JCI. Congrats to Patrick Crosswhite for spearheading this story about plasmin-mediated degradation of lymphovenous thrombi and hepatic extracellular matrix.

Congratulations to Sarah Colijn on winning the OMRF travel award for her oral presentation at this year’s OUHSC GREAT Symposium!

A warm welcome to Siqi Gao, our newest predoctoral student. We are delighted that you have joined our lab, Siqi!

Congrats to Patrick Crosswhite, Matthew Menendez, and Sarah Colijn for Outstanding Poster Awards at this year’s OMRF Retreat. Thank you for representing the Griffin Lab so impressively!

Congrats to Patrick Crosswhite for winning this year’s Paul Kincade Outstanding Grantsmanship Award for his AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship!

Welcome to Nadia Sirajuddin, who will be working part time in our lab during her senior year at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics through the Investigative Research Scholars Program.

It has been a great pleasure hosting Tirzah Prince this month through the OMRF Saxon Scholar program. Tirzah spent the last 4 weeks initiating new research into the role of CHD3 in vascular development. We’re wishing her the best as she returns to Colorado to start her senior year at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Congratulations to Sarah Colijn for winning a travel scholarship to attend NAVBO’s Vasculata conference this summer in Charlottesville, VA. She will be sharing her new research on the role of the CHD3 chromatin-remodeling enzyme in vascular development.

Congratulations to Kyle Ingram for successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation today! He’s been a tremendous asset to the lab, and we’re all wishing him the best as he gets ready to start his postdoctoral fellowship at Stowers later this summer. Way to go, Kyle!

Congratulations to Sarah Colijn for winning an OMRF Pre-Doctoral Scholarship sponsored by the Barrett Scholarship Fund. Well done, Sarah!

We are bidding a fond farewell to Asia Podsiadlowska, our Visiting Research Graduate Trainee from Poland. Asia spent the last year with us studying the role of chromatin-remodeling complexes in lymphatic development. She made terrific contributions to the lab, and we are wishing her good luck as she starts her Ph.D. program back in Warsaw!

Congratulations to Patrick Crosswhite who won a travel award at this year’s OMRF retreat for his oral presentation on chromatin remodeling and lymphatic development.

We’re so proud of Patrick Crosswhite, who was recently awarded an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship for his project studying the role of CHD4 in lymphatic vascular development.

Congrats to E-Ching Ong for winning an Outstanding Poster award at the annual NAVBO meeting for a 2nd year in a row. Great work, E-Ching!

Our lab had the pleasure of hosting Tanner Bowen this summer through the OMRF Fleming Scholar program. Tanner is a rising freshman at Oklahoma Christian University, and he spent eight weeks with us studying causes of endothelial cell death during vascular development. Thanks for your hard work, Tanner, and good luck at OC!

Congratulations to E-Ching Ong for winning a scholarship to attend Vasculata 2014 in Seattle this summer (hosted by NAVBO). We’re looking forward to all the new techniques and knowledge she’ll bring back to the lab.

We are happy to welcome Joanna Podsiadlowska to our lab for the next year. She is visiting from the University of Warsaw and is participating in a Graduate Traineeship Program through the Polish-American Fulbright Commission.

We are delighted to welcome Sarah Colijn as the lab’s newest graduate student and look forward to supporting her on her journey toward a Ph.D.

Congratulations to Kyle Ingram for winning a Graduate Student Travel Award based on his oral presentation at this year’s OMRF Scientific Retreat.

Kyle Ingram’s manuscript about the role of CHD4 in promoting embryonic vascular integrity was published today in PLoS Genetics. Congratulations to all who contributed to this exciting new story.

Congratulations to Reema Davis, who successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation for the OUHSC Department of Cell Biology on November 8th. Reema has spent the last 5 years studying the impact of SWI/SNF and NuRD chromatin-remodeling complexes on arterial/venous specification. We’re so proud of all her achievements!

Congratulations to E-Ching Ong for winning an Outstanding Poster Award at the NAVBO Vascular Biology 2013 meeting in Cape Cod last week.

We have been delighted to welcome Eileen Dilks to our lab this summer through the OMRF Saxon Scholar Program. Eileen is a rising junior at the U.S. Naval Academy, and she spent three weeks in the lab studying lymphatic development. Thanks for your dedication and hard work this summer, Eileen!