Cellular Neuroscience Lab
At Louisiana Tech University
Mark A. DeCoster, PI
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
& Institute for Micromanufacturing
Associate Director, CBERS
Graduate Students
Kyle Rugg
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Position: Lab Manager, Graduate Research Assistant
Research Interests: Cellular and Materials Interactions, Novel Material Synthesis, Cancer Cell Treatments with Novel Nanomaterials.
Specializations: Chemistry, Nanomaterials, Cell Culture, Image Analysis, MTT assay.
Awards: National Science Foundation Scholar
doctoral Students
Navya Uppu
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Position: Graduate Research Assistant
Research Interests: Navya's research project focuses on human dermal fibroblasts. She specializes in treating and characterizing these cells.
Specializations: Cell Culture, Microscopy Imaging, Image Analysis, Nanotechnology
Awards: First place COES Graduate Student Symposium, Poster Presentation
Kelly McMahen
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Position: Doctoral Research Assistant
Research Interests: Kelly's research project involves developing and characterizing nano/micro materials. She synthesizes various metals to create new particles that can then be applied elsewhere (e.g. cell culture experiments).
Specializations: Nanotechnology, Nanomaterials
Awards:
masters Students
Tasneem Khasru
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Position: Masters Research Assistant (MS in MSNT)
Research Interests: Tasneem's research project involves developing the treatment of osteoarthritis using nano/micro materials. She uses Copper High Aspect Ratio Structure (CuHARS) to treat the chondrocytes in vitro. In addition, she uses different staining methods and image analysis procedures to study the effects of CuHARS on chondrocytes proliferation and extracellular matrix protein synthesis.
Specializations: Cell culture, Image analysis, MTT assay, Nanotechnology
Awards: First place COES Graduate Student Symposium, Poster Presentation
Katie McKenzie
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Position: Masters Research Assistant (MS in Biomedical Engineering)
Research Interests: Katie has always been passionate about Engineering and Medicine. Her projects focus heavily on chondrocytes and cartilage repair to improve patient outcomes. She is currently focusing on studying the proliferation of chondrocytes as well as other types of cells.
Specializations: Cell culture, Image analysis
Awards: Graduated with Honors
underGraduate Students
Shaylee Boudreaux
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Position: Undergraduate Research Assistant (BS in Biological Sciences with a Pre-Medical Concentration and Minors in Chemistry and Psychology)
Research Interests: Biology, Medicine, Anatomy, Neuroscience, Psychology, Chemistry
Specializations: Microscopy Imaging
Awards: Marvin T. Green, Sr. Scholarship, Outstanding Student Transfer Scholarship, Wilder Family Scholarship
summer
high school Students
Soumya Madhu
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Position: High School Intern
Research Interests: Biology, Medicine
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Breanna Padilla
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Position: High School Intern
Research Interests: Biology, Medicine
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Past Summer
High School
Students
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Matthew Jackson-June 2020
Ravin Lynn-June 2020
Alexis Goree-June 2021
Jayda Butler-June 2021
Vivanna Haval-June 2022
Jimmy Rodriguez-June 2022
Soumya Madhu-June 2023
Breanna Padilla-June 2023
Visiting
Scientists
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Dr. Charla Poole (M.D., Ph.D.): December 2015 - June 2016
Dr. Margarita Darder: January - June 2017
Alumni
1. Dr. Jamie Newman
Former Post Doctoral and Visiting Professor. Dr. Newman studied neural stem cell development. She is now a faculty member in the Biology department at the Louisiana Tech University.
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2. Dr. Kinsey Cotton Kelly
Dr. Cotton Kelly earned her Ph.D. in our lab (May 2012) studying signal transduction in brain cells. Kinsey completed a postdoctoral fellowship at LSU Health in Shreveport, LA, and is now a faculty member at Centenary College.
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3. Dr. James McNamara
Dr. McNamara earned his Ph.D. in our Lab (May 2011). He is currently enrolled in Medical Studies at William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Hattiesburg, MS.
4. Dr. Senaka Kanakamedala
Dr. Kanakamedala earned his Ph.D. in our Lab (November 2011) studying microdevices, micromixing, and enzyme-biosensor detection.
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5. Dr. Dustin Green,
Dustin earned his Master of Science degree in Biology in our lab. His research topic was "Nanopatterning for attachment and differentiation of neuronal cell lines". He went on to complete his Ph.D. at UT San Antonio and is now in a Post-Doc fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.
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6. Dr. Ruturaj Masvekar
Ruturaj earned his Master of Science degree in our lab studying inflammatory responses in the brain. He then went on to earn his Ph.D. at Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia, School of Medicine, Ph.D. program.
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7. Haidar Alshakhouri
Haidar earned his Master of Science degree in Molecular Sciences and Nanotechnology (MSNT; May 2011) studying the development of biosensors for brain cells.
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8. Si Chen
Si earned his Master of Science degree studying 2D and 3D matrices for tissue engineering of brain cells.
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9. Richard Davis
Richard earned his Master of Science degree in our lab. He is currently enrolled in Medical School at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana
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10. Chitra Jeyasankar
Chitra earned her Master of Science degree in November 2010 studying the topic "Agonist-Induced Calcium Signaling in Rat Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells".
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11. Sowgandhi Maddi
Sowgandhi earned his Master of Science degree in November 2010 studying cell methods for apoptosis.
12. Vivek Dutta
Vivek earned his Master of Science in our lab studying cellular imaging & image analysis.
13. Dr. Bharat Karumuri
Bharat earned his Master's in our lab studying Inflammatory action on Astrocytes. He then went on to complete his Ph.D. studying epilepsy with Dr. Leon Iasemidis at Louisiana Tech.
14. Jessica Wasserman
Jessica earned her Master's degree in our lab studying biocompatibility of two-dimensional matrices for brain cell growth. You can now find her in the Chemistry Department at Louisiana Tech.
15. Dr. Chaitanya Joshi
Chaitanya earned his Master's degree in our lab studying the development of automated cell analysis/ cell shape changes. Chai is currently working on his Ph.D. at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
16. Sneha Deodhar
Sneha Deodhar earned her Master's degree in our lab studying the development of novel nanomaterials for biological applications. Sneha is currently a Research Associate at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
17. Manish Pawar
Manish earned his Master's degree in our lab studying the application of three-dimensional systems for modulation by neurotransmitters.
18. Charuta Ulhas Agashe
Charuta earned her Master's degree in our lab looking at the application of three-dimensional systems for studying cancer drug treatment. Charuta is now working in New York City at the Mount Sinai Hospital, Icahn School of Medicine.
19. Dr. Mark Gragston
Mark successfully defended his Master's thesis from our lab in the summer of 2015 and has moved on to the University of Tennessee and has competed his Ph.D. work. Congratulations Mark!
20. Umamaheswari Manoharan
Uma earned her Master of Science in our lab. She studied materials processing in 3D spheroids and integration with engineered devices. Uma graduated 11/21/2015 with Master's Degree. Congratulations Uma!
21. Enkhjin Bayarsaikhan
Enkhjin was an undergraduate researcher in the lab studying image analysis during apoptosis. Her work was supported by an NIH-LBRN grant in collaboration with Dr. Andrei Paun.
22. Kris Chain
Kris was an undergraduate researcher in the lab also studying image analysis during apoptosis. Her work was also supported by an NIH-LBRN grant in collaboration with Dr. Andrei Paun.
23. Gina Hegyi
Gina is an undergraduate student from Rutgers University who carried out research in our lab (summer 2013) as part of NSF-funded REU program (Dr. Steve Jones, PI).
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24. Michelle Sibille
Michelle studied as an undergraduate student in our lab. She graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (2013). Her work involved studying nano and micropatterns for brain cell growth and repair which was supported by NASA-LURA grant.
25. Christin Denmon
Christin Denmon was an undergraduate student carrying out research in our lab. Christin graduated in May 2014 with her Bachelor of science in biomedical engineering and is now a product development intern at Smith and Nephew.
26. Justin Huckaby
Justin was an undergraduate student who completed research in our lab and graduated in May 2015. Justin has now moved on to the University of North Carolina (North Carolina) to start his Ph.D. work- good luck, Justin!
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27. Chris Campbell
Simsboro High School Science Teacher, 2007 & 2008. Past Einstein Fellow at the National Science Foundation.
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28. Dr. Ali Navaei
Ali joined us at Louisiana Tech University in the Fall of 2013. He studied cellular scaffolds in 2D and 3D. Ali has now completed his Ph.D. at Arizona State University.
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29. Miles Delahoussaye
Miles completed his Masters in the lab studying cellular interactions with nanomaterials in Spring 2017.
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30. Zach Norcross
Zach earned his Masters degree in our lab in Fall 2017 studying biocompatibility of CuHARS with various cells.
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31. Emily Hoard
Emily was a Summer 2017 REU student involved in the NeuroNEM project.
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32. Hunter Rasnic
Hunter was a Summer 2018 REU student involved in the NeuroNEM project.
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33. Connor Haskins
Connor was involved assisting in projects related to treatment of cancerous brain cells. While observing, he has acquired skills in image analysis, and cell culture.
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34. Neha Karekar
Neha earned her Masters degree in the Spring 2018 quarter studying the characterization of the physical properties of silver nanoparticles that she developed.
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35. Dr. Kahla St Marthe
Dr. Kahla St Marthe earned her Ph.D. in our lab studying brain cell signaling dynamics in health and disease.
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36. Dr. Urna Kansakar
Dr. Urna Kansakar earned her Ph.D. in our lab studying surface modification and functionalization of biomaterials for material-cellular interactions in 2D and 3D using magnetics.
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37. Dr. Nam Nguyen
Dr. Nam Nguyen earned his Ph.D. in our lab studying 2D & 3D modeling of brain tumor cells as well as 3D cell spheroid interaction in vitro for the purpose of cancer and brain injury treatment.
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38. Muhetaer Tuerhong
Muhetaer earned his Masters degree in our lab studying quantifying stability of CuHARS materials under different environmental conditions.
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39. Kortni Clements
She was 2019 Summer REU student as part of the NSF-funded NeurNEM project.
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40. Dr. Anik Karan
Dr. Anik Karan earned his Ph.D. in our lab studying Scale-Up, Characterization, and Functualization of Copper High-Aspect Ratio Structures (CUHARS) and Other Metal-Organic Biohybrids (MOBS) for Cell Studies. He is now working at University of Nebraska Medical Center.
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Dr. Neela Prajapati earned her Ph.D. in our lab studying Glial Endothelial Brain Cell Co-cultures for Testing Signaling Response and Delivery of Novel Materials Across Blood Brain Barrier. She is now working at Houston University Medical Center.
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42. Dr. Elnaz Khezerlou
Dr. Elnaz Khezerlou has now started the next step in her career at Rutgers University. Congratulations Elnaz!
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43. Morgan Roque
Morgan was an undergraduate researcher in the lab in 2020.
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44. Jordan Love
Jordan was an undergraduate researcher in the lab in 2020.
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