Welcome to the Rouhana laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Boston
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OVERVIEW
We use planarian flatworms as a model system to study the regulation of gene expression during regeneration and development of the reproductive system. 
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Lab News
October 2022 Jessica and Valeria attend the Aquatic Models of Human Disease meeting at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. Jessica presented our first poster from UMass Boston! September 2022 Valeria Dountcheva joined the lab as a Ph.D. student after graduating from Wentworth Institute of Technology. June 2022 Nicole Aguilar gets support from the U54 NIH program to work in the laboratory. Nickolas Rivas gets support from the REU program to work in the lab during the summer. January 2022 We moved!! The Rouhana lab is now part of the Biology Department at UMass Boston!! We are looking for graduate students and postdocs to join the team. Email labib.rouhana@umb.edu if interested. Methods for analysis of sperm development in planarians, published in collaboration with Phil Newmark and Tracy Chong, is published in Cytoskeleton Methods and Protocols (edited by Dr. Ray Gavin). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34542855/ December, 2021 - The Rouhana lab departs from Wright State University. Many thanks to all the students and colleagues that made this place home for the last 8 years. November, 2021 The work of Matt Almazan on auricle regeneration and transcriptome analysis is published in collaboration with Joe Ryan. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34901022/ September, 2021 -Donovan Christman's work on Kinesin II contributions to sperm head elongation are published in Developmental Biology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34090925/ August, 2020 - The work of Sydney Lesko, now at U. of Wisconsin, is published in Development, Growth & Differentiation. Sydney studied the role of a dynein assembly factor in motile cilia of planarians. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32359074/ Woot woot. May, 2020 - Five wonderful members of the laboratory graduate from Wright State: Donovan Christman (M.S.) Haley Curry (M.S.) Elizabeth Gomez (B.S. with Honors) Roy Villareal (B.S.) Josh Schwieterman (B.S.) Congratulations and thank you for your contributions! You will be missed but not lost. April, 2020 - The Rouhana Lab receives renewal of their R15 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. February, 2020 - Lab undergraduate Elizabeth Gomez travels to Madison, WI to present her work at the Molecules in the Midwest meeting, which was hosted by UW-Madison's ASBMB student chapter December, 2019 - An image from Robert Magley's TTBK paper is selected for the cover of MBoC! July, 2019 - Robert Magley's paper describing the role of Tau Tubulin Kinase function during spermatogenesis and formation of motile cilia is out at MBoC! https://www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/mbc.E18-10-0663 May, 2019 - Lab undergraduates Kendal Hanson and Sydney Lesko graduate. Sydney also defended her Honors Thesis. Congratulations! March, 2019 - Lab undergraduate researcher Kendal Hanson accepts an offer to join the Ph.D. program in Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology at the University of Cincinnati. Go Kendal! February, 2019 - Lab undergraduate honors researcher Sydney Lesko accepts offer to continue her education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She will join the doctoral program in Cell and Molecular Biology in the fall. Go Sydney! August, 2018 - Robert Magley begins his position as Middletown High School teacher of Biology after defending his M.S. thesis: "A Planarian Tau Tubulin Kinase Homolog is Required for Spermatogenesis and Epithelial Ciliogenesis". Best of luck Mr. Magley. We are going to miss you! August, 2018 - Labib Rouhana gets promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Thank you to all the students and colleagues who contributed to this achievement. July, 2018 - Sydney Lesko wins a travel award to the International Planarian Meeting at Madison, Wisconsin (Go Badgers!) to present her work on a DAW1. January, 2018 - Matt and Sydney's work on Girardia dorotocephala transcriptome and characterization is officially published in a Stem Cells and Regeneration special issue in Developmental Biology. December, 2017 - Jenna Counts and Tasha Hester's study of CCT complex subunits in planarian germline and somatic maintenance is published in Molecular Reproduction & Development. August, 2017 - Our sequence draft of the Girardia dorotocephala transcriptome and its application for study of stem cell biology has been published online in Developmental Biology. Congratulations Matt and Sydney! May, 2017 - Our work on Cytoplasmic Polyadenylation Element Binding Proteins and planarian reproductive system development is available from Developmental Biology. -Junichi Tasaki returns to Japan as a reproductive development scientist at Kao Corporation. He will remain a part of our laboratory as a Visiting Scientist. Good luck Junichi, Chihiro, Ayano and Chiori! April, 2017 - Congratulations to Matt Almazan on graduating as the Department of Biological Sciences and College of Science and Mathematics "Top Scholar". Good luck in your next challenge as an incoming student to the Boonshoft School of Medicine! December, 2016 - Congratulations to Junichi Tasaki for receiving support from the Sumitomo Foundation. October, 2016 - Congratulations to Sydney Lesko for receiving the Considine Award for Undergraduate Research. June, 2016 - Congratulations to Jenna Christman for completing her Honors thesis and graduating! May, 2016 -Jessica Steiner's work is published in PLoS Genetics! http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1006030 April, 2016 -Jessica Steiner successfully defends her Masters Thesis. Jenna Christman her undergraduate Honors Thesis. Both graduate. Congratulations! March, 2016 -Junichi Tasaki is awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science. (^-^) January, 2016 -Junichi's book chapter on planarian husbandry, partial irradiation and stem cell motility is published on Methods in Molecular Biology (Springer). December, 2015 -Congratulations to Steve Sayson on defending his M.S. thesis studies on the role of Exoribonuclease I on stem cell regulation. Steve is now a Genomics Research Assistant at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Laboratories. September, 2015 -Lab alumnus Tasha Hester is awarded a Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship to support her Science Education Masters studies at Rutgers University Camden. Good luck, Tasha! -Lab alumnus Ricardo Pineda starts his position as a Research Assistant at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH. Congratulations! August, 2015 -Matt Almazan won the Best Poster Award recognition in the STREAMS research symposium! His tenure as a BIOSTAR scholar begins in Fall, 2015. July, 2015 -Lab alumni Tasha Hester and Ricardo Pineda begin their new positions at Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Rutgers Camden and at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Congratulations and good luck! June, 2015 -Junichi Tasaki and Labib Rouhana publish a review on epigenetics and regeneration in the journal Stem Cells International May, 2015 -Jessica Steiner and Steve Sayson completed their MS preliminary examination. Way to go! April, 2015 -Congratulations to Matt Almazan, Jess Steiner and Steve Sayson for presenting their posters during the Celebration of Research event at Wright State. |
