A number of people have completed degrees at Cornell from the lab this year. Ida Bernstein, Rob Fetcho, Dalanda Jalloh, Susie Jin, Sanket Pattanaik, and Steve Tilley all received undergraduate degrees. Morgan Brophy, Ryan Chowdhury, Jason Jones, and Andy Siliciano all received Master of Engineering degrees. Finally, Matt Farrar and Puifai Santisakultarm received Ph.D. degrees. Congratulations to all the graduates!

 

 

Ladies of the lab show off their karaoke skillz at The Haunt

 

 

Matt Farr, pictured below with the mouse spinal implant he invented, worked with colleagues to develop surgical techniques and imaging procedures that enable long-term, time-lapsed imaging in the mouse spinal cord. An advanced online version of the paper on this work appeared in Nature Methods in late January and the paper will appear in the print version of the journal later this year. The new procedure will enable researchers to study the dynamic interaction among spinal cord axons, inflammatory cells, and other components of the spinal cord after spinal cord injury with unprecedented detail. The approach may also prove useful in studying other diseases of the spinal cord. An article highlighting this new work also appeared in the Cornell Chronicle. A second article discussing the impact of this work appeared in the Cornell Daily Sun. The Alzheimer Research Forum also highlighted the work.

 

 

Several Schaffer Lab members participated in Cornell’s Commencement Ceremony this year. Nate Rosidi, John Nguyen, and Flor Cianchetti (see photo!) all participated in the Ph.D. ceremony in the Biomedical Engineering department. All three will defend their thesis and complete their Ph.D.’s this summer. In addition, Bennett Rummel and Bong Kyo Seo completed their Master of Engineering degrees in Biomedical Engineering. Finally, four undergraduates from the lab graduated: Evan Bander, Gabe Otte, Sally Dimiduk, and Francesca Minale. Congratulations to all the graduates!

Liz Wayne is one of eight recipients of the 2013 Cook Award. The Cook Award is named in honor of the late Constance E. Cook, Cornell’s first woman vice president, and the late Professor Emeritus Alice E. Cook, founding member of the Advisory Committee on the Status of Women. The Award honors individuals who deserve recognition for their commitment to women’s issues and their contributions for changing the climate for women at Cornell. Liz was nominated by Dr. Sheri Notaro in acknowledgement of her achievements and contribution to the Cornell community. In particular, for organizing the Northeast Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics. The awards ceremony will be held February 28th, 2013.

In two new papers that appeared this week, the Schaffer-Nishimura lab continues to increase our understanding of how bleeds from small blood vessels impact the health and function of nearby brain cells. A short review paper that appeared in the journal Stroke outlines differences in impact of a clot or hemorrhage to a small blood vessel in the brain, emphasizing the greater destruction caused by occlusions and the potential role of inflammation in driving cognitive dysfunction after microhemorrhage. An original article that appeared in PLoS ONE shows that microhemorrhages cause a temporary loss of the ability of nearby neurons to respond to a peripheral stimulus, but that these cells recover normal function in the hours after the injury. Together these articles advance our understanding of how small brain bleeds may contribute to cognitive decline.