Lab News
Geyer lab awarded (with Drs. Brian Hermann and Yaxia Yuan as co-PIs) an NIH R61 grant (2024-2026) to develop novel male contraceptive drugs.
This 2-year grant (that can be transitioned into an additional 3 years of funding as an R33) will support our efforts to target the germ cell-specific RNA binding protein RBM46 as a novel means of male contraception. Additional information is on NIH Reporter.
Taylor Johnson has graduated with a Ph.D.!
Congratulations to Dr. Taylor Johnson, who defended his dissertation November 29, 2022. Taylor has accepted a faculty position as a teaching assistant professor here in the Anatomy & Cell Biology Department at the Brody School of Medicine at ECU and will be a full-time instructor of gross anatomy.
Oleksandr “Sasha” Kirsanov Successfully Defends his Ph.D. Dissertation!
Congratulations to Dr. Sasha Kirsanov, who defended his dissertation June 2, 2022. Sasha has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Carlos “Charly” Guardia (https://www.guardialab.com/)in the Reproductive & Developmental Biology Laboratory at the NIEHS. Dr. Guardia’s lab uses mice as a model to study the role of environmental stress and autophagy on placental function and development.
Geyer lab awarded (with Dr. Karen Schindler as co-I) an NIH R21
This 2-year grant (2022-2024) will support our work to critically assess the requirement for retinoic acid (RA) as the male mammalian meiotic inducing substance. Additional information is available on NIH Reporter.
Benjamin Hale, Ph.D. Awarded an NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship
Congratulations to Ben for his recent F32 grant award, from the NICHD, entitled “The role of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in sperm morphogenesis and male fertility”. Click here to see the project details on NIH RePORT.
Oleksandr “Sasha” Kirsanov Awarded a Fellowship
Congratulations to Sasha for being selected by the Male Contraceptive Initiative (https://www.malecontraceptive.org/) as a 2020-2022 Fellowship Award recipient. This award will fund his efforts identify novel male contraceptive targets in mammalian spermatogonia. Click to read a great article written by Spaine Stephens from ECU News Service.
Taylor Malachowski Selected for the 2020 NCSU Summer BIT SURE Program
Congratulations to Taylor for being selected to this highly competitive NSF-funded 10-week program at North Carolina State University. BIT SURE stands for BIoTechnology-based Sequencing-based Undergraduate Research Experience (http://biotech.ncsu.edu/pages/nsf-reu). Unfortunately, the program was canceled due to COVID-19, but hopefully she can participate next year.
Victor von Ebner is Back in the News!
We have translated another important manuscript from the “Histological Era” of spermatogenesis research (~1850-1950). It was during this mostly-forgotten era when the founding fathers of spermatogenesis research used fresh and fixed stained and unstained tissues from a variety of animals to define the cells and describe the cellular associations of the tissues of the male reproductive system. This follows up on our recent translation of Enrico Sertoli’s manuscript from 1878 (https://academic.oup.com/biolreprod/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biolre/ioy134/5046415). We became interested in what was evidently the main debate at the time, which was whether sperm were formed from the developing germline or from somatic Sertoli cells. Sertoli himself led a group of scientists who held the former (and we now know, correct) view, while Victor von Ebner (1842-1925) led a group of scientists who proposed that Sertoli cells gave rise to sperm, while the germline (specifically, round spermatids) disintegrated to provide fluid and nutritive support for sperm. We wondered how Ebner came to these conclusions, and wanted to provide his posthumous “side of the story”. We have published this German-to-English translation along with modernized terminology and illustrations as well as our thoughts on this important work - coming soon in Molecular Reproduction & Development (WILL PROVIDE LINK ONCE IT’S AVAILABLE).
Nicholas “Nick” Serra Successfully Defends his Ph.D. Dissertation!
Congratulations to Dr. Nick Serra, who defended his dissertation in July 2019. Nick has been co-author on 5 publications (and counting), including 2 first-author manuscripts in Biology of Reproduction. He is moving to Philadelphia, PA to live with his fiancee, who has been patiently waiting for him to graduate! Nick has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Meera Sundaram (https://www.med.upenn.edu/apps/faculty/index.php/g306/c404/p16752) in the Genetics Department at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Sundaram’s lab uses C. Elegans as a model system to study tube development and epithelial matrix biology.
Ellen (Velte) Harrington Successfully Defends her Ph.D. Dissertation!
Congratulations to the newly-minted Dr. Ellen Harrington, who graduated in November 2018. She leaves the Geyer Lab with 9 publications, including a first-author manuscript in Development. I’m afraid we are going to miss her more than she’ll miss us, as she has finally moved to London to live as a newlywed with her husband Peter, who is a paratrooper in the UK Armed Forces. She has also recently landed a job in the pharmaceutical industry in the UK.
A "new" publication from Enrico Sertoli!
We became interested in and recently translated into English, for the first time, a chapter written by Enrico Sertoli in 1878. Unfortunately, it was lost to history; it was only cited twice by his contemporaries, and twice by modern scientists who referenced his beautiful hand-drawn illustrations. This important scholarly work contains a number of amazing discoveries that were attributed to scientists working in the mid-20th century! These discoveries include: first description of mammalian spermatogonia; first description of germ cell intercellular bridges and cytoplasmic projections; first accurate description of the stages of the seminiferous epithelium; and first apparent mention of the blood-testis barrier. In addition, he makes a compelling case for germ cells, rather than Sertoli cells, as the precursors to spermatozoa (this was evidently a hotly-contested topic in the 1870s). The translation was done by Elisa Salemi, a native Italian-speaker who is pursuing a Ph.D. in Romance Studies at UNC-CH, and the original artwork was faithfully re-done by Katya Harris, who recently completed her M.F.A. here at ECU. I edited the translation to modernize the terminology and did my best to interpret Sertoli's observations and descriptions. The chapter and my commentary were recently published in Biology of Reproduction, and both can be found by clicking the links below.
The complete translation: https://academic.oup.com/biolreprod/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biolre/ioy134/5046415
My commentary on the translation: https://academic.oup.com/biolreprod/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biolre/ioy104/4990667
Jamie Chamberlin selected for the Brody School of Medicine 2018 Summer Biomedical Research Program
Jamie (pictured above) was accepted into this competitive program for summer 2018, and will be continuing her work in the lab while attending seminars to learn about a wide variety of scientific and career-based topics such as grantwriting, statistical analysis, CV prep, etc. For more details, visit: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-dhs/sbrp/
Oleksander "Sasha" Kirsanov finishes his Master's Degree
Congratulations to Sasha for successfully defending his Master's Thesis entitled "Analysis of Transgenic Mouse Models to Study Mammalian Spermatogonia" on Monday, July 9, 2018. We are lucky that he has decided to stay in the Geyer lab to pursue his Ph.D., so we'll have him around for a few more years!
Ellen Velte wins 2018 ECU Berbecker Award
Congratulations to Ellen Velte (shown above with Dr. Rich Franklin, Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies) for being the 2018 recipient of The Berbecker Fellowship. This award goes to a full-time doctoral student at the Brody School of Medicine who has an exceptional record of scientific accomplishment, recognition at the national/international level, and dedication to service during their tenure at ECU. Great job!
Chris Geyer awarded 2018 ECU Five-Year Research & Creative Activity Award
Geyer, an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, and John Hoppenthaler, Professor of English, each received Five-Year Research and Creative Activity Awards. The awards are presented to faculty members whose work over the past five years has made an impact on their field of study (Geyer, above left, is shown with ECU Chancellor Dr. Cecil Staton). The full article can be found at: https://news.ecu.edu/2018/02/22/researchers-saluted/
Geyer lab is awarded an R01 grant from the NIH/NICHD
This 5-year grant (2017-2022) will support studies into how spermatogonial stem cells form at the beginning of mammalian spermatogenesis. For more information, see a recent article from ECU:
(http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/news/Reproduction-Research.cfm).
Nick Serra receives 2017 Lalor Foundation Merit Fellow Award, Society for the Study of Reproduction
Based on his abstract entitled "Differential requirements for the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) and mTORC1 component Raptor in spermatogonial development in the mouse", Nick was selected as a 2017 Lalor Foundation Merit Fellow for the 50th Annual Society for the Study of Reproduction meeting in Washington, D.C. In addition, Nick has been selected as a Finalist for the Trainee Research Award in the Poster Competition. Congratulations Nick!
Nick Serra wins best oral presentation, 2017 ECU Research and Creative Achievement Week
Nick's talk entitled "Differential requirements for the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) and mTORC1 component Raptor in spermatogonial development in the mouse" was selected as the best oral presentation in the Doctoral - Biomedical Sciences category at the ECU 2017 Research and Creative Activity Week.
Chris Geyer wins 2017 SSR New Investigator Award
Chris Geyer has been selected to receive the 2017 New Investigator Award by the Society for the Study of Reproduction (http://www.ssr.org/NewInvestigatorAward).
Trey Cook accepted to The NC State College of Veterinary Medicine!
Congratulations to Trey Cook, who was accepted as a member of the Class of 2021 at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine! Trey will be graduating magna cum laude from East Carolina University in May 2017 with a degree in Biochemistry, and has worked in the Geyer lab since 2014.
2017 Triangle Consortium for Reproductive Biology Meeting
The Geyer lab attended the 26th Annual Meeting of the Triangle Consortium for Reproduction on February 25th at the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, NC (http://www.med.unc.edu/tcrb/). Chris Geyer served as vice-chair, and will chair the meeting in 2018. Congratulations to Nick Serra, whose abstract was chosen for a short talk! Other lab members Bryan Niedenberger, Ellen Velte, Kenneth (Trey) Cook, and Oleksandr (Sasha) Kirsanov, as well as Randy Renegar each presented their work in poster format.