Author: ylin3

The 2023 Drucilla Russ-Jackson and Dorothy Olivery Vaccine Lecture and Symposium was held on Oct. 11, 2023 at the Alys Stephens Center. Ungergraduate trainee Olivia Johnston won the top poster award in junior category and Eddie-Williams Owiredu in senior category with an award of $100 each. 

Olivia Johnston (center with the mask) was chosen as one of the Presidential Merit Finalists at the Society for Leukocyte Biology meeting. Instructors Aaron Silva Sanchez, Selene Meza-Perez, and graudate trainee Xinran Wang also attended and presented at the SLB2023 in Atlanta, GA.

Eddie-Williams Owiredu, graduate student of the Lund lab, collaborated with colleagues and professors from Ghana to organize a week-long workshop aimed at enhancing the research capacity of Ghanaian undergraduates and postgraduates. The event took place from September 4^th – 8^th and close to 200 participants from various universities in Ghana joined the workshop.

The workshop encompassed a wide range of training modules, including theory and techniques for cell isolation from tissues, flow cytometry, and data analysis with FlowJo, ELISA/ELISPOT, mouse models, and more.

Frances Lund, Ph.D., Charles H. McCauley professor in the Department of Microbiology and director of the Immunology Institute, and Anoma Nellore, M.D., associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, are the latest winners of the Heersink School of Medicine’s Featured Discovery. This initiative celebrates important research from Heersink faculty members.

The study, “A transcriptionally distinct subset of influenza-specific effector memory B cells predicts long-lived antibody responses to vaccination in humans,” was published in Immunity.

Aaron Lucander, MD-PhD graduate trainee, has been selected as a 2023 Kidney STARS award recipient by the American Society of Nephrology. He will receive the award at the ASN Kidney Week in Philadelphia November 2nd-5th. (https://www.asn-online.org/grants/travel/details.aspx?app=MSR)

and congrats to Olivia Johnston for winning the first place in the oral presentations in the Works in Progress category at UAB’s Undergraduate Research Expo this summer.

Reflecting on a heartfelt send-off event, Lund-Randall Labs celebrated the achievements of two exceptional graduates, Chris Risley, Ph.D., and John Killian, MD.,Ph.D., expressing gratitude for their invaluable contributions during their time in the lab. Filled with reminiscing and well-wishes, the event highlighted the strong bonds and collaborative spirit that define our lab community. As they embark on new journeys, we extend our best wishes and eagerly await the continued positive impact they will bring.

The lab trainees had poster presentations during these two-day annual event in Nashville, TN and had a chance to explore the Music City. Dr. Frances Lund also gave a talk titled “Effector and mucosal tissue resident memory B cells – first responders to vaccination and viral infection” at the SIS as a faculty speaker.

Students from Lund and Randall labs, accompanied by other students from UAB, attended 2022 AAI Advanced Course in Immunology in Boston. Among the 300 students who attended the course, UAB had the most students at 14, and 6 out of which came from the labs.

“Overall I enjoyed the course and was really glad to have gotten the chance to have gone,” said Hannah Meshell Canter. “I learned a lot about not only my field but in others as well. At the same time, learning about how certain the results came about was interesting. One of the most important things I learned were the different methods and mice that can be used. It was a great course, I got to meet so many people and have a chance to talk to the professors. It’s a course I would recommend to any grad student who wishes to gain a better understanding of immunology. 10/10 I would go again!”