Lab Activities
Click here to view slideshows from various lab activities
Lab News
October 2020
Congratulations to Sophia Praggastis who defended her Ph.D., published two first-author papers, and has moved on to a postdoc at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Tarrytown, NY.
October 2019
Congratulations to MORE Thummel lab members who are moving on in their careers!
Kate Beebe will be continuing her postdoctoral training with Dr. Aylin Rodan at the University of Utah.
Gilles Storelli has accepted a position as a Research Group Leader at the Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research (CECAD) at the University of Cologne, Germany.
August 2019
Congratulations to former Thummel lab graduate students who have moved on in their careers!
Jyoti Misra has accepted a job as an Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences at the University of Texas, Dallas
Becky Palu has accepted a job as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Dona Wisidagama has accepted a job as a Scientist II in the PharmaDx group at ARUP, Salt Lake City, UT
February 2019
Congratulations to Stefan Thomas for being admitted to the Molecular Biology Graduate Program at the University of Utah.
January 2019
Congratulations to Marcy Robins for being admitted to the Biological Chemistry Graduate Program at the University of Utah.
A paper from Gilles Storelli and Hyuck-Jin Nam on roles for HNF4 in lipid metabolism is featured in the latest issue of Developmental Cell and accompanied by a Preview article from Tania Reis’ lab.
January 2018
Congratulations to Dona Wisidagama for winning a 2017 DeLill Nasser Travel Award for Professional Development in Genetics.
September 2017
Congratulations to Sophia Praggastis who was awarded a position on the Metabolism NIH Training Grant.
August 2017
Congratulations to Kate Beebe for winning an NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship to support her research.
Congratulations to Gilles Storelli for winning a University of Utah Travel Award to attend the 25th European Drosophila Research Conference in London, England.
February 2017
Dona Wisidagama wins a travel award to attend the 2017 Society for Developmental Biology meeting in Minneapolis, MN. This was in recognition of her giving the best oral presentation at the 2016 SDB Southwest Regional Meeting.
January 2017
Dona Wisidagama wins a travel award to attend the Mitochondria Communication Keystone Symposium in Taos, NM.
December 2016
Welcome to Hyuck-Jin Nam, who joins our group as a Research Associate from Won-Jae Lee's lab in South Korea.
September 2016
Dona Wisidagama wins a poster award at the campuswide University of Utah Biosciences Symposium.
Gilles Storelli is awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the "Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale" (FRM).
August 2016
Kate Beebe is awarded a position as a trainee on the Metabolism Training Grant.
July 2016
Will Barry successfully defends his Ph.D. thesis and moves to Great Basin Scientific to take a position as a Scientist.
May 2016
Becky Palu successfully defends her Ph.D. thesis and will pursue postdoctoral research with Dr. Clement Chow in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Utah.
Dona Wisidagama wins a University of Utah Graduate Research Fellowship for 2016-17.
April 2016
Congratulations to Gilles Storelli for winning a 2016 Prize for Young Researchers from the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation in France. This award is given each year to fourteen young PhDs and MDs to enable them to pursue their postdoctoral studies in foreign laboratories.
Congratulations to former graduate student Matt Sieber (currently a postdoc with Allen Spradling) for receiving the first annual Postdoctoral Innovation and Excellence award from the Carnegie Institution of Washington. This award "recognizes exceptional Carnegie postdoctoral scholars who have demonstrated both scientific accomplishments and creative endeavors beyond what is expected."
March 2016
Congratulations to Dona Wisidagama for winning a travel award to attend the Copenhagen Bioscience Conference on the "Stem Cell Niche - Development & Disease" to be held in Denmark at the end of May.
Congratulations to Gilles Storelli for winning the 2015 Ph.D. thesis award from the French Society of Developmental Biology (SFBD), which will be presented to him at their annual meeting in Marseille, France. http://www.sfbd.fr/IMG/pdf/-6.pdf
February 2016
Welcome to Gilles Storelli, a new postdoctoral researcher from Francois Leulier's lab at the Institute of Functional Genomics in Lyon, France.
June 2015
Welcome to Katherine Beebe, a new postdoctoral researcher from Craig Micchelli's lab at the Washington University School of Medicine.
May 2015
Welcome to our new graduate student, Sophia Praggastis, who joins the lab following her undergraduate research with Jingshi Shen at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Congratulations to Tom Gallagher for winning an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship to support his research.
March 2015
Congratulations to Dan Bricker for winning the 2015 James W. Prahl Memorial Award, which is presented annually to the outstanding Ph.D. graduate student in the Health Sciences at the University of Utah.
February 2015
Congratulations to Stefanie Marxreiter, Rebecca Palu, and Dona Wisidagama for winning a University of Utah Travel Award to attend the 2015 National Drosophila Conference in Chicago.
August 2014
Carl gets interviewed by the University of Utah Health Sciences Radio about how fruit flies can be used for studies of metabolism, diabetes, and obesity. Check it out: Learning From Flies with Diabetes
June 2014
Welcome to Tom Gallagher, a new postdoctoral researcher from Virginia Commonwealth University.
April 2014
Farewell to Wendou Yu, who has moved on to a Research Assistant Professor position in the Cardiac Signal Transduction and Cellular Biology Laboratory at the Department of Pediatrics, Univ. of Miami School of Medicine in Miami, Florida.
February 2014
Dan Bricker successfully defends his Ph.D. thesis and will pursue postdoctoral research with Dr. Matthew Weitzman at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.
January 2014
Congratulations to Stefanie Marxreiter, Rebecca Somer, and Dona Wisidagama for winning a University of Utah Travel Award to attend the 2014 National Drosophila Conference in San Diego.
Welcome to our new undergraduate researcher, Katie Dudley, from the ACCESS Program for Women in Science & Mathematics at the University of Utah.
August 2013
Jason Tennessen picks among his four job offers and decides to join the faculty in the Department of Biology at Indiana University in Bloomington Indiana — one of the leading institutions for Drosophila research and home of the Drosophila Stock Center.
July 2013
Will Barry was invited to present his studies of diabetes in Drosophila at the Cold Spring Harbor Metabolic Signaling & Disease meeting next month.
Rebecca Somer is appointed as a trainee on the Metabolism Training Grant.
April 2013
Rebecca Somer wins the second place "Best Poster Award" at the 54th Annual Drosophila Research Conference in Washington DC.
Welcome to our new graduate student, Dona Wisidagama, who will be studying mitochondrial protein function and diabetes.
March 2013
A Thummel lab video is featured on a BBC television program, "Metamorphosis: The Science of Change." Check it out: BBC Metamorphosis: The Science of Change
January 2013
Former graduate student, Julie Gates, is awarded tenure as an Associate Professor of Biology at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA.
Rebecca Somer and Stefanie Marxreiter win University of Utah Travel Awards to attend the 2013 National Drosophila Conference in Washington D.C.
November 2012
Dan Bricker wins a DeLill Nasser Career Development Travel Award from the Genetics Society of America. From the award letter: "This is one of the most important awards bestowed by GSA because it helps promote the future of our discipline by supporting early career scientists in their own professional development. Please see this short biography of Dr. Nasser, which highlights her commitment to early-career scientists."
Jyoti Misra successfully defends his Ph.D. thesis and will pursue postdoctoral research with Dr. Ken Irvine at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
September 2012
Commentary on NPR's All Things Considered by former Thummel lab graduate student, Voot Yin:
Mammalian Surprise: African Mouse Can Regrow Skin : NPR
August 2012
Will Barry is awarded a Human Genetics Graduate Fellowship, funding by the Little Red Riding Hood for Biomedical Research.
May 2012
The Science paper on the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier, done in collaboration with the Rutter and Brivet labs, is featured on news websites around the world. Check it out.
Welcome to our new graduate student, Stefanie Marxreiter, and congratulations to Dan Bricker for being selected to give a talk at the Gordon Research Seminar on Mitochondria and Chloroplasts, July 28-29, 2012.
Former graduate student, Matt Sieber, wins a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Jyoti Misra wins the ASBMB 2012 Thematic Best Poster Award in Gene Regulation.
March 2012
Thummel lab research is included in a BBC article on using fruit flies to study human disease. Check it out.
February 2012
Jason Tennessen wins a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the NIH.
December 2011
A paper from the Thummel lab is included as one of the top ten discoveries in the area of nuclear receptor research during the past year (2011). Check it out.
September 2011
Matt Sieber defends his Ph.D. thesis and will pursue postdoctoral research with Dr. Allan Spradling at the Carnegie Institution in Baltimore, MD.
Congratulations to Jyoti Misra for winning a University of Utah Travel Award to attend the 2012 ASBMB in San Diego, and to Will Barry, Dan Bricker and Rebecca Somer for winning a University of Utah Travel Award to attend the 2012 National Drosophila Conference in Chicago.
July 2011
Carl is interviewed for an article in the Deseret News.
June 2011
Welcome to our new graduate student, Rebecca Somer, and congratulations on being awarded a Human Genetics Graduate Fellowship, funding by the Little Red Riding Hood Ride for Biomedical Research.
April 2011
Dan Bricker is appointed as a trainee on the NIH Genetics Training Grant.
January 2011
Matt Sieber is selected to give a platform presentation at the National Drosophila Conference in San Diego, March 30-April 3, 2011.
November 2010
Will Barry, Dan Bricker, and Matt Sieber win a University of Utah Travel Award to attend the 2011 National Drosophila Conference in San Diego.
Thummel lab research is featured as one of the top ten most important discoveries in the area of nuclear receptor control of metabolism during the past year (2009 - 2010). Check it out.
Carl is interviewed (and misquoted) by ABC news on the use of fruit flies to study obesity.
July 2010
Carl, Matt, and Jason are featured in a Developmental Dynamics article on scientific career mentoring.
September 2009
The Thummel lab wins an NIH ARRA Challenge Grant to study metabolism in Drosophila.