Courtney submitted and was successfully awarded an Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31-Diversity) from the NCI. The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (F31 Diversity Training Fellowship) enhances the diversity of the health-related research workforce by supporting the research training of outstanding predoctoral candidates from underrepresented groups (Credit: NCI). This fellowship will support the remaining years of Courtney’s MD-PhD training here at UAB. Her grant is titled, “Investigating the impact of hyperglycemia on modulating T cell populations in breast cancer” and Dr. Lalita Samant serves as her sponsor. You can learn more about this award and project here on the NIH RePORTER.
Courtney’s Visit to D.C. for the inaugural AAMC Learner’s Summit
Courtney received the great opportunity of attending the first Learner’s Summit led by the American Association for Medical Colleges (AAMC) in Washington, D.C. The Learner’s Summit was a professional development weekend workshop led by physicians, basic research scientists, and medical educators. She learned potential ways to shape her medical career to fit her research and clinical goals, and attended talks about work-life balance and resilience in medicine.
The Samant Lab at AACR 2023
In April 2023, graduate trainees of the Samant Lab, Courtney Swain and Amr Elhamamsy, traveled to Orlando, FL for the 2023 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting. They presented their PhD research and got the opportunity to network with other trainees and cancer experts from around the world.
Welcome Bhavya, Annie, Mohamed, Melanie, and Ian
In the past year, we’ve welcomed five new lab members to our group. Make sure to read more about them, their projects, and their interests by visiting their profiles under the “Profiles” tab!
New Publications from the Samant Lab!
Congratulations to Dominique, Heba, and Brandon for their recent publications!
Hedgehog Signaling Regulates Treg to Th17 Conversion Through Metabolic Rewiring in Breast Cancer
Hinshaw et al. , Cancer Immunology Research, 2023
You can view this article here.
Ribosome biosynthesis and Hedgehog activity are cooperative actionable signaling mechanisms in breast cancer following radiotherapy
Metge, Alsheikh, et al., npj Precision Oncology, 2023
You can view this article here.
Congratulations to Dominique Hinshaw, Ph.D.!
In November 2022, Dominique Hinshaw, Ph.D., successfully defended her PhD. She presented her work involving studying the role of Hedgehog Signaling in regulatory T cell and macrophage metabolism and activity in breast cancer. Congratulations for her hard work and success! We’re excited to see her advance her career in the field of academic writing!
Dominique Hinshaw & Courtney Swain are awarded for their presentations at the 2022 Annual Pathology Retreat and the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center Retreat!
This past fall, trainees of the lab presented at the 2022 UAB Annual Pathology Retreat (organized by the UAB Department of Pathology) and the 2022 O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center (O’Neal CCC) Annual Retreat (organized by the O’Neal CCC). At both the Pathology and O’Neal CCC Retreats, Dominique was selected to give an oral presentation of her dissertation work. Courtney presented a poster presentation at the both the Pathology and O’Neal CCC Retreats as well.
At the 2022 Annual Pathology Retreat, Courtney won a Pre-Doctoral Poster Award for her presentation! And at the O’Neal CCC Annual Retreat, Dominique won 2nd place for the Graduat Trainee category for her oral presentation! Congratulations!
Dominique Hinshaw and Courtney Swain publish their work in “Laboratory Investigations”
Our group has published our collaborative microbiome study investigating longitudinal changes in the gut microbiome and intestinal CD8+ T cell populations in a mammary carcinoma mouse model in response to systemic Hedgehog blockade using Vismodegib. We thank our collaborators for their contributions and efforts in this accomplishment!
You can read the publication here.
Hinshaw, D. C., Swain, C. A., Chen, D., Hanna, A., Molina, P. A., Maynard, C. L., Lee, G., McFarland, B. C., Samant, R. S., & Shevde, L. A. (2022). Hedgehog blockade remodels the gut microbiota and the intestinal effector CD8+ T cells in a mouse model of mammary carcinoma. Laboratory Investigation. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41374-022-00828-1
Congratulations to Dr. Lalita Shevde-Samant for her METAvivor Translational Research Award!
Dr. Shevde-Samant is a METAvivor 2021 Grant recipient for the Translational Research Award. You can read more about her award and the non-profit organization, METAvivor, here: https://www.metavivor.org/blog/metavivor-announces-the-2021-grant-awards-for-metastatic-breast-cancer-rese/
Congratulations to Dominique Hinshaw for receiving the 2022 Best Graduate Biomedical Sciences/Joint Health Sciences (GBS/JHS) Student Award!
For 2022, current Ph.D. candidate Dominique Hinshaw was named the 2022 Best Graduate Biomedical Sciences/Joint Health Sciences Student Award!
