For the most recent updates, follow us on Twitter: @claesengroup
December 1, 2022: Sara is now officially a PhD Candidate! Congratulations on and excellent presentation and discussion.
November 23, 2022: Luke’s paper on “A gut microbial metabolite of dietary polyphenols reverses obesity-driven hepatic steatosis” from his PhD work was published today! Thanks to all collaborators and the members of the Brown and Claesen lab for their help and support.
November 3-4, 2022: We shared our research at the Rust Belt Microbiome meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. Sara delivered an excellent rapid fire oral presentation!
July 25, 2022: Yaheya Idris, our new technician, started today. Welcome to the team!
July 22, 2022: Congrats to Layan on the publication of her perspective article: Engineered cancer targeting microbes and encapsulation devices for human gut microbiome applications.
July 11, 2022: Today, we’re welcoming Emma Dester to our team. Emma is a first year medical student in the CCLCM program and she will be working with Rachel on her Summer Research project.
July 10-14, 2022: Sara, Layan, Viharika and Jan had an awesome time sharing our research at the Beneficial Microbes meeting in Madison, WI.
January 26, 2022: Welcoming Mario Alberto to the team today! Mario is a third year student in the Chemical Engineering program at CSU.
October 22, 2021: Today we welcome Maggie Ginter-Frankovitch to the lab! Maggie is a second year student in the Medical Anthropology & Evolutionary Biology program at CWRU.
September 28, 2021: We had two new group members starting today! Layan is a rotation graduate student from the CSU Biomedical Engineering program and Tharika a freshman studying Biology at CWRU. Welcome both!
September 17-18, 2021: The group had a great time at the Midwest Microbial Pathogenesis Conference (MMPC) in East Lansing! It was nice learning about the microbial pathogenesis research in the region and meeting new people – and all of this in person! Thanks for the organizers for an awesome and safe meeting and thanks to everyone who stopped by our posters to chat and provide feedback.
September 17, 2021: Congrats to Luke for getting his paper on the link between a fast food meal, the gut microbiota and liver metabolism accepted for publication: A Single Human-Relevant Fast Food Meal Rapidly Reorganizes Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Signatures in a Gut Microbiota-Dependent Manner.
September 16, 2021: We submitted the main paper from Luke’s PhD research. Thanks to everyone who helped out, especially our collaborators in the Brown lab! You can read the preprint here: A gut microbial metabolite of dietary polyphenols reverses obesity-driven hepatic steatosis.
September 15, 2021: Kelsey gave a killer talk to her fellow CCLCM classmates on her aryl polyene research project, marking the end of her basic science summer internship in our lab. We wish her all the best in her medical training and thank Rachel for her excellent mentorship.
August 18, 2021: Today we welcome our new postdoc Viharika to the team! Viharika recently obtained her PhD in Clinical and Bio-analytical Chemistry from Cleveland State University and she will be applying her expertise to discover new molecules from the human microbiota.
July 12, 2021: We’re welcoming Kelsey to or lab today. Kelsey is a first year med student in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and for her Summer Basic Research Experience, she will be working with Rachel on unraveling the biological function of aryl polyenes.
July 2, 2021: Big congrats to Isabel! Her paper on “Identification of essential genes for Escherichia coli aryl polyene biosynthesis and function in biofilm formation” is published today in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes. Isabel’s study identifies essential genes within our model E. coli aryl polyene (APE) biosynthetic gene cluster, and characterizes two physiological roles for APEs as bacterial fitness factors. APE expression provides increased protection from oxidative stress and contributes to faster and more robust biofilm formation.
July 2, 2021: Today we’re saying goodbye to Karlee, an amazing undergrad student who helped out in several lab projects. Her cheerful presence in lab will be missed. While we’re sad to see her leave, we’re excited she’s going to med school and we expect she will become an awesome physician! Enjoy your well-deserved vacation Karlee.
June 15, 2021: Luke did an awesome job at his thesis defense! Congratulations Dr. Osborn!!! Afterwards the Claesen and Brown labs went out to celebrate Luke’s accomplishment with a Taco Tuesday dinner.
May 17, 2021: We’re welcoming Sara, who started her rotation in our lab today. Sara is a first year graduate student in the Clinical Bioanalytical Chemistry program at Cleveland State University.
May 10, 2021: Congratulations to Luke and Danny Orabi (Brown lab) on getting their manuscript on “A surgical method for continuous intraportal infusion of gut microbial metabolites in mice” published in JCI Insight. Danny developed a surgical technique for cannulation of the portal vein, which uses a mini pump implanted under the skin for continuous delivery of gut microbial metabolites. This method will be useful for functionally testing long-term effects of individual metabolites in mouse disease models.
April 1, 2021: We received the notice of award for the lab’s first R01! Many thanks to NIAID for supporting our plans to characterize the chemistry and biology of bacterial aryl polyene production.
March 11, 2021: Check out the updated preprint of Isabel’s paper on aryl polyene biosynthesis and role in biofilm formation.
January 18, 2021: Welcoming Rachel, a new Postdoctoral Fellow, to the team!
December 9, 2020: Congratulations to Luke for winning a Velosano Trainee Dream Experiment Fellowship!
December 4, 2020: We received a Jump Start pilot grant from the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center to study the role of the gut microbiome in modulating brain cancer development.
October 29, 2020: Danny Orabi (Brown lab) and Luke’s collaborative paper on intra-portal delivery of small molecules in mice has been posted on bioRxiv.
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