The lab is moving to UCLA July 1st 2024!
Beau was recruited by the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles to start on July 1st. It’s a bittersweet move–we’ve made long-lasting connections with colleagues and students at UH, but UCLA is near Beau’s family. It’s a big move and some from the current lab are coming with! Exciting times!
Alward Lab End of Summer
To celebrate the end of a wonderfully productive summer, and say goodbye to our very talented undergrad Maxx who goes off to grad school in the fall, the Alward lab gathered at The Nook on campus for a well-deserved happy hour.
UREC was a success!
This month, the first Alward lab Undergraduate Researchers Exploring CRISPR (UREC) program was completed. The program was a success and we are thrilled with the accomplishments achieved by the participants! Major goals of UREC were to work on a research question, using existing literature and gene editing methods, to engineer a novel genetic mutant cichlid. The participants met those goals and so much more!
See the below thread on Beau’s twitter for more details:
Undergraduate Researchers Exploring CRISPR (UREC)
We are excited to announce that the lab is now is now accepting applicants for our Summer 2023 Undergraduate Researchers Exploring CRISPR (UREC) program. This 8-week research program is sponsored by the University of Houston Cougar Initiative To Engage, and will support six rising University of Houston sophomores, juniors, and seniors to learn how to perform CRISPR-mediated gene editing. Find out more information, and apply here.
The Alward lab is going to Atlanta for SBN!
The Alward lab will be well represented (8 of us are going!) at the Annual Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (SBN) Conference in Atlanta, GA from June 26-29. We are looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones!
Kat Munley is joining the lab as a postdoc!
Kat Munley, who earned her PhD in Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior in the Demas Lab at Indiana University, will be starting in the Alward SNL on July 1st 2022. We’re absolutely thrilled she’ll be joining our team!
April 8th 2022: Alward SNL Undergrad researcher Mariam Dumitrascu has been awarded the SURF!
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) from the UH Office of Undergraduate Research provides Mariam with $4,000 of support for summer research in the lab. Mariam will work with grad student Lillian Jackson and mapping neural activity that corresponds to sex-typical aggressive behaviors. Congrats, Mariam! Looking forward to a fun and productive summer!
December 2nd 2021: Alward SNL Undergrad researcher Jacqueline Bahrami has been awarded the PURS!
The Provost Undergraduate Research Scholarship (PURS) provided Jacqueline with a $1,000 award to work on an independent research project in the lab. Congrats Jacqueline!
June 29th 2021: Our NIGMS R35 is going to be funded!
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) will fund our R35 Early Stage investigator Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award! The grant, worth $1,900,000 (including indirect costs) over five years, will support our work investigating the hormonal, genetic, and neural basis of social behavior in A. burtoni.
June 3rd 2021: Dr. Alward has received a Beckman Young Investigator Award!
Dr. Alward has received a Beckman Young Investigator Award from the Arnold Beckman Foundation. The award is $600,000 over four years and will support work in the lab aiming to establish A. burtoni as a premier model of social disorders. More on the award here: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-06/uoh-eac060321.php
April 15th 2021: Alward SNL Undergrad researchers Megan Lean and Mark Mathews have been awarded the SURF!
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) from the UH Office of Undergraduate Research provides Megan and Mark each with $4,000 of support for summer research in the lab. Megan will map androgen receptors in the brain and their relationship to GnRH-1 neurons, while Mark will investigate how social isolation impacts future social interactions. Congrats, Megan and Mark! Looking forward to a fun and productive summer!
Our paper recently accepted in PNAS is getting press!
Using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing we showed two androgen receptors regulate distinct aspects of social status in A. burtoni. We’re especially excited because it is getting press! On to the links:
Article
Featured on UH Today
EurekAlert
New preprint on androgen receptors and social status!
We submitted to biorxiv a preprint showing that different androgen receptors control distinct aspects of social status. The findings have set the stage for ongoing and future work in the lab. Here’s the link: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.03.024190v1
New lab tech Andrew Hoadley starts Fall 2019!
Andrew Hoadley will be joining the lab November 1st 2019. His background in molecular biology, neuroscience, and behavior makes him a perfect fit! He is also quite the artist, as he made the lab logo (see below). Welcome, Andrew!
The lab is going to the Society for Neuroscience conference from Oct. 19-23, 2019 in Chicago, IL!
The lab will be attending the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) conference from October 19-23, 2019 in Chicago, IL. At SFN we will present work (done at Stanford with Russell Fernald) showing through CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing the highly modular manner by which androgen receptors govern social status in A. burtoni. The poster (499.23/T7) will be presented by Christopher Skalnik on Tuesday October 22nd from 8:00 am-12:00 pm.
Alward Social Neuroscience Lab 