Hua Lab News
Hua Lab Site
2023
(updated December 1, 2023)
November 2023: Dora Avanzi Mesquita receives the CNPS Milo Baker chapter Research scholarship to study chromosome organization in the California Bay Laurel! What an accomplishment as a freshman student!
The lab hosts Calistoga Junior/Senior High School's Biotechnology course with Ms. Swarner and Alyssa Stadie, and Gabriel Quintero Plancarte shows the students how cool working with sea urchins are, and gets them thinking about developmental biology.
The Hua lab also hosts Dr. Coral Zhou from Rebecca Heald's lab at UC Berkeley for Biology Colloquium. Thank you for sharing your journey and for showing those beautiful images of Xenopus mitotic spindles!
Dr. Hua presents current student projects in the lab at the inaugural Spotlight on Scholarship lecture series at SSU!
October 2023: Congratulations to Christian Quintero on being selected to represent SSU Undergraduate Research at the upcoming COPLAC Undergraduate Research Conference! A total of 10 undergraduate students have been selected to present their research at SSU on on November 4th. Way to go, Christian! Watch his video!
The Hua lab hosts Ph.D. student Harold Marin from Abigail Buchwalter Cool's lab at UCSF for Biology Colloquium. Thank you for sharing your work with H3K9me2 chromatin regulation, and chatting with current MS students!
July 2023: Gabe Quintero Plancarte passes his Oral Exams! Way to go Gabe! The lab hosts two wonderful Mendocino Junior College EC3 students: David Brambila and Evelyn Gonzalez (Mentors Christian Casas/Christian Quintero), and 3 High School summer students: Allen Phuong (Mentors: Salma Torres Lopez/Gabriel Quintero Plancarte), Samv Ruk (Mentors: Alyssa Stadie/Kalani Valencia-Chin), and Luke Negri (Mentor: Christian Quintero) for summer research.
May 2023: Big month in May! Christian Casas and Joanna Cai submit their "Ipsilateral restriction of chromosome movement along a centrosome, and apical-basal axis during the cell cycle" manuscript to biorx. Check it out!
Dr. Hua presents the lab's work at the Biology Research Seminar at Santa Clara University!
Congratulations to all the senior lab students who will be graduating with Distinction: Vanessa Sanchez, Lexie Haralson, Marcos Peech, Samantha Smedshammer, Demitri Shami, Christian Casas, and Jem Morales!
CONGRATS to Samantha Smedshammer for being accepted to the MS program at SDSU! Christian Quintero, Salma Torres Lopez, and Kalani Valencia-Chin receive the Genentech Fellows Summer Research fellowship to conduct research over the summer ranging from identifying abnormal chromosome structures in Bloom's Syndrome to Setting up a Zebrafish system to study chromosome organization!
The lab presents their work at the SSU Research Days 1-2, and has a great time speaking about their research projects. We had 3 posters at the Faculty/Grad symposium and a record 6 posters at the Undergrad Science Symposium. That is a new record!
April 2023: The lab hosts Drs. John Sedat (UCSF), and David Toczyski (UCSF) for Biology Colloquium, and learns about the slinky formation for chromosomes and the biochemistry behind Ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis.
Dr. Hua and Vanessa Sanchez co-present a lecture for "Working together to complete a Research Poster" to the McNairs scholars. Thank you for having us Dr. Daniel Malpica and Stacey Pelton, it was fun to meet all the McNairs Scholars! Dr. Hua has also been selected to be a "Faces of SSU"!
March 2023: Another CONGRATULATIONS to Vanessa Sanchez for committing to UC Merced to start her Ph.D. program this Fall 2023! Wooohoo!
February 2023: CONGRATULATIONS to Vanessa Sanchez for receiving the competitive CSUPERB Doris Howell Research Scholar award! This is the first time this Research award has been given to an SSU student! Excellent job Vanessa!
January 2023: Fezza Arshad and Lexie Haralson present their research poster at the first "return to in person" 35th annual CSUPERB Biotechnology Symposium. Beautiful poster you two! Way to represent the Hua lab at SSU!
We hosted a joint lab meeting with Takashi Mikawa's group (UCSF) talking about research projects, and brainstormed over lunch at Lobos! Thank you Zhiling and Jem for presenting your work!
2022
October 2022: Dr. Hua represents the School of Science and Technology, and gives an invited talk at SSU's first Preview Day, where she gets to meet many wonderful potential SSU students and parents!
Dr. Hua has received a Koret Scholars Award to study the chromosome organization in adult endothelial cells!
The Hua lab hosts two wonderful speakers for Biology Colloquium: Dr. Neil Hunter from UC Davis, and Dr. Shona Mookerjee from Touro University/Buck Institute of Aging. Thank you both for coming and sharing your research projects!
September 2022: Dr. Hua gives an invited seminar at the SSU MATH Colloquium, and discussed modeling and chromosome behavior with the SSU Math faculty and students!
Christian Quintero gives a research talk at SSU Chemistry research group meetings! Good job Christian representing the lab and Biology!
August 2022: Dr. Hua presents the lab's research at MESA Faculty research talks, and Vanessa Sanchez and Marcos Peech present their summer research projects as Genentech Fellows at the MESA Semester Kick-Off party!
We had a great summer hosting 3 local high school students: Danya Ali (Mentor Vanessa Sanchez), Sammy Coopersmith and Julia Simon (Mentor Christian Quintero) in the lab. They all did a great job presenting their final summer research projects!
We had another fantastic joint lab meeting with Takashi Mikawa's group at UCSF: Thank you for hosting us at Oda pizza!
May 2022: Congratulations to the Hua lab seniors who will be Graduating with Distinction: Lauren Matthews, and Grace Hazel! Lauren will be starting a research analyst position at BioMarin Pharmaceutical, and Grace will be starting a research technician position at LGC Biosearch Technologies. So wonderful!
Congratulations to Vanessa Sanchez and Marcos Peech for receiving the Genentech/MESA Summer Fellowship this summer to get hands on training in the lab!
MS students Christian Casas and Gabe Quintero-Plancarte for receiving State University Grant (SUG) for the next academic year! Dr. Hua also receives a RSCAP fellowship for the 2022-2023 academic year!
April 2022: CONGRATS to Christian Quintero for receiving the competitive CSUPERB Presidents' Commission Scholars Award. A first for the Biology department at SSU!
The lab presents their research posters at Days 1-2 of the Week of Research and Creativity, and Dr. Hua shares the lab's research at SSU Monday Colloquium Series. Those are mighty fine research posters!
March 2022: Jem Morales passes her MS Oral Exams! Congrats Jem!
Joanna Cai and Christian Casas present their research poster at the UCSF CVRI Retreat at Chaminade Resort in Santa Cruz. Looking good you two!
We also host a wonderful joint lab meeting with the Mikawa lab during Spring break enjoying science discussions, milkshakes, and Superburger!
February 2022: Christian Casas and Dr. Hua's Review paper "Mitotic anti-pairing of homologous chromosomes" is accepted from Springer Nature. First publication for Christian, we are so proud of you! Time to celebrate at Lobos (great timing since it recently opened).
2021
December 2021: A big thank you to Takashi Mikawa's lab at UCSF for hosting our joint lab meeting. The lab had a wonderful time seeing everyone in person, having lunch together, enjoying Boba guys, and reuniting with Lab Alumni Angelica Aguilar at UCSF!
Congratulations to Katlyn Benton who is Graduating with Distinction, and starting her MS Teaching Credential Program at University of San Francisco in January! Christian Casas also passes his MS Oral Exams! Time to celebrate, woot woot!
Big congrats to Shuming (Annie) Huang for presenting her research at the Council for Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) Undergraduate Research,Scholarly, and Creative Activity (URSCA) Conference for her undergraduate research project “Actin localization in human mitotic cells”
November 2021: Great work to MS students Christian Casas, Jemery Morales, and Gabriel Quintero Plancarte for each receiving ORSP's Student Research Award!
Thank you to Dr. Meredith Protas from Dominican University for Zooming in to give a Biology Colloquium sharing her evolutionary developmental biology and genetic studies using the Asellus aquaticus!
October 2021: Dr. Hua has received a Koret Scholars Award to study the chromosome organization in cancer translocations!
June 2021: Congratulations to MS students Christian Casas for receiving a State University Grant (SUG) again, and Jemery Morales for receiving another scholarship from the Phalarope Fund Gaining Ground Graduate School Scholarship!
May 21, 2021 Hua lab graduation celebration
May 2021: Congratulations to the Hua lab seniors who will be Graduating with Distinction : Angelica Aguilar, Kayla Arce, Marissa Cerros, Breanna Lee, Alissa Padilla, and Shayla Shahar! We are so proud of all of you!
Congratulations to Angelica Aguilar for being accepted to SFSU/UCSF's Cell Design Institute MS program for 2021, and Shu ming (Annie) Huang for receiving the Genentech/MESA Summer Fellows research internship to get hands on training in the lab this summer. So exciting!
Dr. Hua has received a RSCAP fellowship for Spring 2022!
April 2021: Dr. Hua has received a CSUPERB COVID-19 Research Recovery Microgrant to re-engage student training to study the fidelity of chromosome organization.
Congratulations to Shayla Shahar for being accepted to SDSU's Cell and Molecular Biology MS program for 2021, and McKennah Goshgarian for being accepted to USUHS Medical School for 2021! Fantastic news!
February 2021: Congratulations to Breanna Lee for being accepted to UOP's Pharmacy school for 2021!
January 2021: Dr. Hua gives a research seminar at Harvard Medical School Department of Genetics hosted by Dr. Ting Wu. Thank you Wu lab for your hospitality!
Dr. Hua, Christian Casas, and Shu ming (Annie) Huang attend the 2021 CSUPERB Annual Biotechnology Symposium, and presents a research poster.
2020
December 2020: Dr. Hua presents at a live webcast for "Exemplars in Biology" hosted by CSU STEM-NET (Office of the Chancellor).
October 2020: CNPS Milo Baker funds Hua lab member Alissa Padilla a student research scholarship to create a molecular protocol to study chromosome organization of Umbellularia californica. Congratulations to great ongoing work Alissa!
Dr. Hua has received a Koret Scholars Award to study the chromosome organization of Umbellularia californica with Phytophthora ramorum resistance. The lab is looking forward to collecting specimens outdoors!
September 2020: Dr. Hua's research is highlighted in SSU News!
Hua lab Zoom meeting!
July 2020: Dr. Hua's NSF Research grant proposal, titled "Chromosome organization in cellular development" has been approved for funding! The National Science Foundation is an independent agency of the United States government, that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering.
June 2020: Congratulations to incoming MS students Christian Casas for receiving a State University Grant (SUG), and the Forest W and Ida J Benson scholarship at SSU, and Jemery Morales for receiving a Phalarope Fund Gaining Ground Graduate School Scholarship! What a great start to graduate school!
May 2020: We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Hua's CSUPERB New Investigator (NI) Grant proposal, titled “Non-random chromosome positioning during mitosis" has been approved for funding! CSUPERB is a CSU wide funding agency for: CSU Program for Education & Research in Biotechnology. Congratulations, Dr. Hua!
April 2020: Congratulations to Angelica Aguilar for being accepted to MDI's Biological Laboratory summer REU program for 2020!
February 2020: Big Congratulations to the following Hua Lab students on their recent Koret Awards! So exciting!
- MaryGracy Antony (Biology): “Nuclear Polarity and Alignment During Cell Division”
- Breanna Lee (Biology): “Mechanisms of Parental Genome Organization”
- Kayla Noelani Arce (Biology): “Chromosome Organization in Osteosarcomas”
- Alexa Arce Garcia (Chemistry): “Chromosome Organization in Adolescent”
Dr. Lisa Hua accepts the
award on McKennah's behalf
from SSU Biology alumni
Sean McNeil, Deputy Director
of Environmental Services
of Santa Rosa.
February 2020: CNPS Milo Baker funds Hua lab member McKennah Goshgarian a student research scholarship to study chromosome organization of Umbellularia californica with Phytophthora ramorum resistance. Congrats McKennah!
January 2020: Lab Member Angelica Aguilar is the recipient of the prestigious McNair's Scholar Fellowship! Congratulations, Angelica!
2019
November 2019: Congratulations to Lab Members Angelica Aguilar and Shayla Shahar who recently received the Koret Award, part of the SSU 2019-2020 Student Research Awards! Angelica's project is “The Fidelity of Chromosome Organization in Aging” and Shayla's project is "Chromosome Organization in Renal Carcinoma". Way to go, Angelica and Shayla!
October 2019: Thank you to Dr. Takashi Mikawa from UCSF for coming to give a Biology Colloquium discussing primitive streak development, and showing such beautiful movies!