Congratulations to Shannon Tsai, PhD candidate in the lab, who has been awarded a fellowship from the UMD-NCI Partnership for Integrative Cancer Research! Shannon will be working with our collaborators at NCI to build better adjuvants for cancer vaccination.
 
Congrats Shannon!

Read more about Shannon on the team page.

A new paper from the lab is featured on the front cover of this week's issue of Advanced Functional Materials. The work, led by Krystina Hess, DoD SMART Graduate Fellow, uses quantum dots as a tool to study some of the material features important in designing more selective therapies for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Congrats to Krystina, the other authors in the lab, and our collaborators at the Naval Research Laboratories!

Follow the link to view the cover or read the article. Learn more about Krystina on the team page.

Congratulations to Lisa Tostanoski, NSF Graduate Fellow in the lab, who has accepted a postdoctoral position at Harvard in Dan Barouch's lab. Dr. Barouch directs the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, focusing on clinical and non-human primate research in HIV and Zika virus. Lisa will join the Barouch lab after finishing up her PhD this year. Congrats Lisa!

Read more about Lisa on the team page. 

This week's issue of Science Translational Medicine (STM) includes a new editorial by Prof. Jewell highlighting research to understand how the design features of engineered nanoparticles direct specific features of immune tolerance during autoimmune disease. Dr. Jewell is an Associate Scientific Advisor at STM.

Follow the link to read the editorial, "Nanomedicine goes to school", or read the featured paper by the Santamaria Lab and Yang Lab (University of Calgary) in Nature Nanotechnology. 

Congratulations to Dr. Jim Andorko, who received his PhD in Bioengineering yesterday - the first PhD awarded from our Lab! Jim came to us from Drexel University in 2012, where he was an AJ Drexel Scholar. During his PhD he created 15 papers and received 15 fellowships and awards. Some of the highlights include the University's Pelczar Award, the Keystone Symposia Future of Science Scholarship, the AAPS Doctoral Fellowship, an NIH Fellowship, and the Graduate Dean's Dissertation Fellowship. This summer Jim will begin his postdoctoral training with Dr. Drew Pardoll and Dr. Jennifer Elisseeff at Johns Hopkins University. Jim plans to launch his own lab after his postdoc.

Congratulations Jim on all of your accomplishments, and good luck! 

Read more about Dr. Andorko on the team page.   

Congratulations to Ms. Boyan Xia, who graduated this weekend with a 3.9 GPA and a major in Physiology & Neurobiology, and a minor in Statistics! Boyan was also the commencement speaker for the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences.

A few words about Boyan. She has been in the lab for 4 years, is an HHMI Fellow, a Philip Merrill Presidential Scholar, and a President's Scholarship recipient, among many other accolades. Boyan will wrap up her project in the lab in June and join the NIH as a Post Bac IRTA Fellow at the Vaccine Research Center in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Boyan plans to enroll in medical school after her IRTA research. 

Congrats Boyan on your outstanding accomplishments! Read more about Boyan on the team page.

Congratulations to Neil Dold, NCI CRTA Fellow in the lab, who has been awarded a 2nd year fellowship from the NIH NCI Partnership program. Congrats Neil!

Read more about Neil on the team page.

Members of the Jewell Lab attended the national meeting of the American Association of Immunologists this week in Washington D.C. Dr. Qin Zeng and graduate students Krystina Hess and Shannon Tsai each presented posters on their research. Dr. Jewell presented a talk on the lab's work, and chaired a session on Anti-body Based Cancer Therapeutics.  Thanks to all the attendees and the organizers for a great meeting!

Read more about the AAI.