Students and Projects
Students and Projects
Current students
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Dominique Townsend, Ph.D. Student. Dominique is a doctoral student in the Environmental Toxicology Program at SUBR. She currently works under the direction of Dr. Konstantin Kousoulas at the LSU Vet School. Dr. Martinez-Ceballos is her co-Mentor. For her thesis project, Dominique seeks to elucidate the mechanism of HSV-1 entry into axonal termini through the AMPA receptor GluR2 |
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Augusta Smith, Ph.D. Student. Augusta is a doctoral student in the Environmental Toxicology Program at SUBR. She studies the HoxA1 cell signaling pathway in human breast cancer cells. HoxA1 has been recently identified as an important oncogene whose overexpression in cells induces malignancy. |
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Sri L.D. Kona, Graduate Student. Sri enrolled in the Biology MS Program in August 2015. Her current project focuses on the role played by the MAPK and ERK cell signaling pathways on the neuronal differentiation of mouse Embryonic Stem (ES) cells. |
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Amita Shrestha, Graduate Student. Amita enrolled in the Biology MS Program in August 2016. For her Thesis project, Amita has performed transcriptome analyses (RNA-seq) on mouse ES cells treated with AC55649 (an RAR-beta agonist) versus Retinoic Acid plus AC55649 in order to identify RAR-beta target genes. |
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Former students Cynthia Addae, Ph.D. Student. Cynthia enrolled in the Environmental Toxicology Program in August 2008. She joined Dr. Martinez-Ceballos group in August 2009. Cynthia studied the effect of residual pesticides on the neuronal differentiation of hydrogel-encapsulated mouse Embryonic Stem (ES) cells. Her work at Dr. Martinez-Ceballos' lab resulted in two peer-reviewed publications. |
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Lea Dixon, Ph.D. student. Lea entered the Environmental Toxicology Ph.D. Program in the Fall of 2005. She became a member of the Martinez-Ceballos lab in the Summer of 2008. For her Ph.D. thesis, she studied the effects of an environmental pollutant, Diepoxybutane, on the induction of Cancer Stem Cell (CSC) characteristics in DU145 Prostate Cancer Cells. Lea graduated in May 2012 and she is now the Laboratory & Quality Systems Supervisor at INEOS Oxide, Baton Rouge, LA. |
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Janana Snowden, Ph.D. Student. Janana enrolled in the Environmental Toxicology Ph.D. program in January, 2006. Under the mentorship of Dr. Eduardo Martinez-Ceballos, she sought to characterize the relationship between environmental genotoxin exposure and acquisition of anti-tumor drug resistance in human prostate cancer cells. Janana graduated in December 2011. She is now the Director of the Medicinal Plant Institute at the SOuthern University AG Center. |
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Ramkishore Gernapudi, Ph.D. Student. Ramkishore's project focused on the role played by the RAR beta 2 receptor during the differentiation of mouse Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs) in culture. Ramkishore graduated in December 2012 and he is now a Post Doctoral Fellow,University of Maryland, Baltimore,MD |
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Whitney Allen was an Undergraduate student from the Department of Biological Sciences. She joined the Martinez lab in August 2010. Her research project focused on the optimization of cell transfection using Multiobjective Programming. |
Trio Upward Bound students in the lab
Student's Awards and Presentations
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Lea, Cynthia and Janana at the Louisiana Academy of Sciences (LAS) meeting, February 27, 2010. |
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Janana presenting her poster to a judge, LAS meeting 2010 |
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Lea, Cynthia, and Dr. Martinez-Ceballos at the ASCB annual meeting in San Diego, CA, December 2009. Lea and Cynthia received a travel award from the American Society for Cell Biology to attend this meeting. |
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Lea Dixon receiving the Furst award at the annual meeting for the American College of Toxicology in Palm Springs, CA, November 2009. |