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Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common culprit in hospital-acquired bacterial infections and is growing more resistant to antibiotics. New findings from Aaron Smith, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UMBC, and collaborators at Oklahoma State University show how a two-protein system inside the bacterium operates like a sensitive switch: The pair detects iron both outside and inside the cell and then rewrites large parts of the microbe’s metabolism in response. The results, published in Nature Communications, suggest this system could become a target for more effective treatments for stubborn infections.
Like most living things, Pseudomonas requires iron to survive. Bacteria prefer reduced, ferrous iron—a form with beneficial properties that is also sensitive to oxygen. That means ferrous iron is plentiful in low-oxygen microenvironments such as dental plaque, the lining of the gut, coatings on the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis, or the site of burn wounds. Bacteria can also generate these protective coatings, called biofilms, which help shield them from drugs and the immune system and contribute to antibiotic resistance.
Alex Paredes, first author on the new paper, presents related research at a conference. (Courtesy of Aaron Smith)
Given iron’s necessity, one way organisms fight invading microbes is by depriving them of it. As a result, bacteria have evolved complex mechanisms to monitor how much iron is available and in what form. The signaling system in Smith’s current study is one such mechanism. One protein, called BqsS, sits in the cell membrane and senses iron outside. It then passes a signal to a second protein, called BqsR, inside the cell. Based on that signal, BqsR binds to DNA and turns genes on or off, affecting a wide range of cellular functions.
A “multi-layered cake” of sensing
The new paper shows that BqsR and its partner regulate iron uptake into the cell, but also that the system does far more. “What we didn’t expect to find was how much the presence of this one ion rewires the bacterium, completely changing all sorts of genes,” Smith says. “It’s got hands in a lot of different pies.”
The researchers were also surprised to learn that BqsR itself can bind iron inside the cell. When iron levels rise too high, BqsR binds the iron and lets go of the DNA it had been attached to, turning off the corresponding genes. “It’s like a multi-layered cake where there are all these different layers of sensing that are happening in this system,” Smith explains.
Aaron Smith prioritizes professional development for his students. Here, from right to left, Smith, Alex Paredes, and other members of the lab relax between sessions at the SMBio conference. (Courtesy of Smith)
Student-driven discovery
The work was led by first author Alexander Paredes, Ph.D. ’25, the first UMBC graduate student named an HHMI Gilliam Fellow, an early career initiative that supports Ph.D. students and their faculty advisors as they pursue ambitious science and build inclusive training environments. Today Paredes is a postdoctoral researcher in chemist Squire Booker’s lab at the University of Pennsylvania.
The project also involved undergraduates and other graduate students in Smith’s lab, along with collaborators at Oklahoma State University and Reed College.
“We couldn’t do the work without them. Period, period, end of story,” Smith says. “These types of publications are like all-hands-on-deck kind of publications. Research experience prepares them to be more critical. It prepares them to solve problems.”
Aaron Smith (left) and Alex Paredes celebrate Paredes’ graduation from UMBC. (Courtesy of Smith)
Treatments of tomorrow
The discoveries point toward possible new ways to fight infection. Because the same system that manages iron also controls biofilm formation, disrupting it might force bacteria out of their protective coatings and make them more vulnerable to existing antibiotics. Related systems exist in other harmful bacteria, including the one that causes cholera, so this line of research could be broadly applicable.
A new NIH grant will let Smith’s team dig deeper into the molecular details of this iron-management system, again in collaboration with colleagues at Oklahoma State. The interdisciplinary team will examine how the membrane protein and its counterpart inside the cell interact, which building blocks of each protein are most critical, and how the system responds to oxygen. Students in the lab will help test these ideas in living bacteria, aiming to move from basic understanding toward strategies that could one day improve treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections.
“Hard work and luck both play into it,” Smith says. “It’s been such a collaborative effort that’s gone into solving these harder problems that bridge biology, chemistry, and everything in between.”
Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed after it has already spread to other parts of the body, at which point the five-year survival rate is under 30 percent. Further complicating treatment, standard therapies cause substantial harm to healthy cells alongside cancerous ones. But what if ovarian cancer treatment could more specifically target cancerous cells, causing less harm to the rest of the body? New research from Achuth Padmanabhan’s lab offers hope in the form of a potential molecular target for new cancer drugs: an enzyme called USP15, which ovarian cancer cells appear to rely on more heavily than normal cells.
Biological sciences Ph.D. student Ayokunnumi “Ayo” Ogunsanya led the work, which included experiments in cells and in mice. The results show that lowering USP15 levels causes a constellation of effects that make it a prime target for new treatments: It slows cancer-cell growth, prevents chromosomes in cancer cells from separating cleanly during division (leading to DNA damage and cell death), reduces the cells’ ability to migrate and invade other tissues, and makes them more sensitive to common chemotherapy drugs. The findings were published September 17 in Molecular Therapy Oncology.
A serendipitous discovery
Like much of science, this discovery began serendipitously. As a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor College of Medicine, Padmanabhan, Ph.D. ’11, biological sciences, was studying the protein p53, which in its normal form helps prevent tumor formation. Mutations in the gene that codes for p53 occur in nearly every case of the most common and lethal form of ovarian cancer, and are common across a wide range of cancer types.
Achuth Padmanabhn, left, leads a research group at UMBC that includes several undergraduate and graduate students. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
“Typically you would assume that a mutation would disrupt the function of a tumor suppressor,” Padmanabhan says—kind of like disabling the body’s natural brakes on cancer progression. But it’s actually worse, he explains. Two-thirds of p53 mutations in ovarian cancer convert its braking function into a stuck accelerator: Mutated p53 enhances cancer progression, and it also sticks around in the cell much longer than normal.
On further investigation, Padmanabhan found that it was the enzyme USP15 stabilizing a particular p53 mutant, therefore extending its effect on cancer progression. USP15’s function offered a clue as to why: It removes small molecular “tags” attached to proteins that label them for degradation. So when there is a lot of it around, fewer mutant proteins remain marked for destruction. When Padmanabhan returned to UMBC as a faculty member in 2019, he set out to explore what broader role USP15 might play.
“It’s rewarding to look back and see how much I’ve grown as a researcher. I hope this work contributes to developing better strategies for treating ovarian cancer.”
Ogunsanya joined Padmanabhan’s lab in 2021, and she has made exploring the role of USP15 in ovarian cancer the core of her Ph.D. “I’m very excited about these findings, as they provide new insight into how USP15 contributes to ovarian cancer progression,” she says.
Importantly, reducing USP15 made the cancer cells more vulnerable to the most common ovarian cancer treatment drugs, carboplatin and paclitaxel, and doxorubicin, a particularly toxic drug used to treat a range of cancers. With less USP15 present, lower doses of these drugs might achieve the same treatment effect with less toxicity.
Yet, reaching their conclusions wasn’t always straightforward. “Some of our early findings weren’t what we anticipated, so we repeated experiments and approached the questions from multiple angles,” Ogunsanya says. “The additional experiments strengthened the story and gave us greater confidence in the findings.”
Motivating further research
Moving forward, Padmanabhan’s team wants to further reveal USP15’s basic functionality, laying the groundwork for drug development work. For example, they want to learn what controls USP15 levels in cancer cells and whether inhibiting the enzyme can also reshape a tumor’s immediate surroundings.
“Ayo is able to think through a project and see different possibilities. I’ll suggest an experiment and she’ll say, ‘I’ve already done it.’ So I told her, ‘Now you run, and I’ll follow you.’”
Achuth Padmanabhan Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences
Even with that information, the need to figure out how to reduce USP15 levels safely in human patients will remain. The good news, Padmanabhan notes, is that molecules used to inhibit USP15 in laboratory experiments already exist and could be a starting point for developing human drugs.
“Hopefully,” Padmanabhan says, “work such as ours demonstrating the potential of USP15 as an anti-cancer therapeutic target will motivate pharmaceutical companies and other research groups to pursue the development of clinically translatable USP15 inhibitors.”
On Sunday, August 30, after more than a decade of development, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The telescope, with a field of view 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope, is expected to provide an unprecedented amount of observational data that will help unravel lingering mysteries, such as the role dark energy plays in the universe’s accelerating expansion.
UMBC’s Rebekah Hounsell, an associate research scientist with the Center for Space Sciences and Technology, began working on the mission in 2015 at the University of Illinois. She has continued to work on it at multiple institutions since then, including at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center since 2020. She is co-PI and project manager of the Roman Supernova Cosmology Project Infrastructure Team (PIT), tasked with determining the best way for the telescope to collect data about cosmic phenomena called type Ia supernovae. The group is also developing tools that will turn the telescope’s data into information that scientists expect to refine—and potentially upend—our understanding of the universe. In this Q&A, Hounsell shares more about her work and why it excites her.
The day before the telescope’s launch, the rocket that would carry the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope into space was in position on the launchpad. (Photo by Rebecca Hounsell)
Q: What is your role with the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope?
A: For the last 11 years, I’ve focused on optimizing the survey design for the High Latitude Time Domain Survey, so we can get the best sample ever of type Ia supernovae. We hope those data will give us a better understanding of dark energy, which is a hot topic right now. Also, in 2024 I became co-lead and project manager of the Roman Supernova Cosmology PIT, an international group of more than 60 supernova scientists. We’re building the tools that will take researchers from pixels to detailed cosmology analysis of type Ia supernovae. These tools give the community a strong starting place from which to run their favorite cosmology modeling tools on the data and answer their own questions.
Q: How did it feel to see something you’ve worked on for so long finally go up in space?
A: It was amazing—and also anxiety-inducing. This has been my career for over a decade, and I’m expecting it to be my career for a decade more. On launch day I was sitting in the viewing area with friends and colleagues trying to stay calm, telling myself, “It’s going to be fine. It’s going to be fine.” As we got close, one of them looked at me and said, “I think I’m going to throw up,” which was exactly how I felt. Then it launched, and seeing it go up was so fast, precise, and beautiful. Seeing the rockets come back down was also amazing. Having something you’ve poured so much time into actually going up, and knowing it’s doing the work we planned, feels really special. It’s nice to know I’ve had an impact on it.
Q: What is a type Ia supernova, and why are they important to study?
Hounsell captured this photo, of the rocket that would carry the Roman Space Telescope, from the Banana Creek viewing area at sunrise on launch day. (Photo by Rebekah Hounsell)
A: A type Ia supernova happens when a carbon-oxygen white dwarf—the dense leftover core of a star like our Sun—exceeds about 1.4 solar masses and completely destroys itself in a thermonuclear explosion. That critical mass can be reached as one star gradually pulls material off a companion star or when two white dwarfs merge. Because the explosion is triggered at a pretty consistent mass, the light released is remarkably similar from one event to the next, so astronomers call them “standardizable candles.” Because you know how bright they should intrinsically be, you can use the observed brightness, in addition to corrections to its color and light curve shape, to calculate how far away the supernova is.
In the late 1990s, samples of these objects showed that distant supernovae were fainter than expected—evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, which led to the idea of dark energy. Today’s best studies use around 1,500 to 2,000 type Ia supernovae. We always thought dark energy was constant, but recent results suggest it may be evolving, and we need far more data to settle the question. Roman will find tens of thousands of type Ia supernovae, including many much farther away and in larger numbers than previously identified. With that larger sample we should be able to refine our understanding of dark energy—or discover completely new physics.
Q: Now that the telescope has launched, what are the next steps in your work?
A: Right now Roman is undergoing commissioning, where we make sure everything is working as it should with the telescope. The first images should be released to the public early next year, and all of the data will be public right away. My main focus continues to be running the infrastructure team with my colleagues so we can produce high-quality products that enable the community to do research in the years ahead, and then also using those products to do the science myself. I actually just recently received a $1.2 million grant for work using data from the telescope.
Q: What are you most looking forward to once data starts coming back from Roman?
A: I’m excited to see what the wider community does with it. The data is public as soon as it’s ready—for researchers, students, citizen scientists, anyone. I’m really excited about the possibility that a 10-year-old version of me, or a student somewhere, will look at the images, spot something weird, reach out, and end up making a real discovery. This mission is for everybody. There are already plans for citizen-science projects, building on what was done with earlier surveys like NASA’s TESS mission, and platforms like the Roman Research Nexus, operated by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, will make the data accessible for all. Communication is going to be key so people know how to get involved.
Q: What got you into astronomy originally, and why does it still excite you?
A: I got into astronomy around age 10. I grew up in rural England, surrounded by rapeseed fields and very dark skies. As a really little kid I thought someone had put black sugar paper [British for construction paper] across the sky and poked holes in it to make the stars. My dad explained that they were giant balls of gas like the Sun, and I was fascinated. That led to learning the constellations, and I just kept going from there.
“We can imagine that this complicated array of moving things which constitutes ‘the world’ is something like a great chess game being played by the gods, and we are observers of the game. We do not know what the rules of the game are; all we are allowed to do is to watch the playing. Of course, if we watch long enough, we may eventually catch on to a few of the rules. The rules of the game are what we mean by fundamental physics.”
At university I studied classical novae, which turned out to be a natural gateway into type Ia supernovae. What still excites me is that we’re essentially watching the universe and trying to figure out its rules. We observe, make hypotheses, and then more data either supports or overturns them. Roman is going to give us a much more powerful view than we’ve had before.
I sometimes worry, though, that future generations may not get to experience that same sense of wonder I did as a kid. I think we have an ethical responsibility to think carefully about light pollution and cleaning up space debris so that future generations can look up and feel that same sense of wonder that got so many of us started.
Large-scale oyster reef restoration in the Chesapeake Bay is successfully creating three-dimensional habitats that support larger, more diverse fish communities, according to new research from scientists at UMBC, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The study, published in Ecosphere, provides compelling evidence that restoration efforts are shifting underwater ecosystems from communities dominated by small, transient schooling fish to those supporting larger, resident species.
The research focused on Harris Creek, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, one of the world’s largest oyster restoration projects, covering approximately 1.4 square kilometers. By combining underwater video with high-resolution imaging sonar, the team evaluated reef habitat and “nekton”—free-swimming animals like fish and turtles—six to 10 years after restoration was completed.
“Oyster restoration is important for lots of different stakeholders in Chesapeake Bay, so we wanted to know precisely how it influences reef habitat and the fish and crabs that use that habitat,” says Allison Tracy, the study’s lead author and assistant professor of marine biotechnology with UMBC at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology. “Large-scale oyster reef restoration in Chesapeake Bay has been a success,” Tracy adds, “and our study adds new and important metrics of success for one of the most high-profile sites in the project.”
Completing the picture
Allison Tracy lowers one of the underwater cameras into the Chesapeake Bay. (Courtesy of Matthew Ogburn)
The findings reveal that the restoration method matters. Reefs restored using a stone substrate plus juvenile oysters attached to adult oyster shells (called “spat-on-shell”) exhibited the highest habitat scores, showing greater vertical relief and structural complexity than reefs restored with spat-on-shell alone or reefs that had been continuously harvested. Restored reefs supported fewer total fish but significantly larger individual fish, with the highest abundance of fish exceeding 30 centimeters in length found on reefs restored with stone.
“The remote monitoring tools in this study make it unique,” Tracy explains. “We combined a simple but effective GoPro-based method for studying reef habitat with an elegant, high-tech survey of animals using sonar. We looked at reef-associated animals through many different lenses to get a complete picture of the community of finfish, crabs, and rays.”
The sonar data revealed a fundamental shift in how animals use these habitats. While harvested reefs and unrestored areas were dominated by small, schooling fish moving quickly through the water column, restored reefs supported more species that live and feed near the bottom. This suggests that the complex three-dimensional structure created by restored oyster reefs provides refuge and foraging opportunities for larger, commercially and ecologically valuable species.
“One of the key takeaways is that large fish in particular are taking notice of restored oyster reefs,” Tracy notes. “Harris Creek is one of the most valuable case studies of oyster restoration in the world. It was a great opportunity to study how animals use these reefs.”
Reef restoration efforts pay off
The timing of the study proved crucial to understanding restoration success. By surveying reefs at least seven years post-restoration, the researchers could assess long-term outcomes rather than immediate responses. The results indicate that Harris Creek’s restored reefs are self-sustaining, maintaining high oyster cover and structural complexity years after construction.
“This project was a powerful combination of scientists from different institutions and career stages,” Tracy adds. “We used the team’s mix of expertise to carry out a unique and important study.”
Figure 2c from the new paper shows the scale the researchers used to classify the oyster reef habitat sites in their study.
The research connects to broader efforts to restore Chesapeake Bay’s oyster populations, which are at only three percent of historic levels due to overharvesting, disease, and environmental stressors. The study aligns with recent findings from NOAA and other collaborators, including current study co-author Jay Lazar, on large-scale oyster restoration success across the Bay system.
“Official monitoring of the large-scale restoration efforts only takes place three and six years after restoration, but studying these reefs in the long term is needed to ensure that they continue to support oyster populations and provide habitat for other animals,” says Matthew Ogburn, senior author on the new paper and a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. “This study shows that underwater video can help fill this need.”
The study’s innovative approach—merging accessible video technology with sophisticated sonar imaging—offers a template for monitoring subtidal reefs in murky estuaries where traditional sampling methods face limitations. As restoration efforts expand globally, these remote sensing tools could help managers assess habitat quality and ecosystem services more efficiently and cost-effectively.
By studying reef habitat years after restoration, “we expected to be able to see how the efforts paid off—and they did pay off,” Tracy says. The findings suggest that investing in structural complexity—particularly through substrate enhancement with stone and protecting restored reefs from harvest—can accelerate the return of valuable fish communities and support the long-term health of the Chesapeake Bay.
An airplane does not simply fly in one continuous arc; pilots or software flip between modes like climb, cruise, or land. A humanoid robot’s leg swings continuously through the air as it walks, but when its foot strikes the ground, the forces acting on it change abruptly. A swarm of drones can glide smoothly into the shape of a letter, then switch strategies to form the next one.
These are all what are called “hybrid systems”—where smooth, continuous motion mixes with discrete changes or decisions. They are more realistic than purely continuous or discrete systems but also harder to analyze. However, it’s important to develop tools to do so accurately, because “in my view, most systems are really hybrid,” says Matthew Kvalheim, an assistant professor of mathematics at UMBC.
Matthew Kvalheim (courtesy of Kvalheim)
Even classical continuous systems (like a football flying through the air) and discrete systems (like computer code made up of only zeros and ones) can be tricky to analyze, so mathematicians have developed robust tools to simplify how they are modeled. Hybrid systems, however, lack these tools. That’s a challenge Kvalheim aims to address with support from a highly competitive award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Program (YIP).
Kvalheim will deploy the $448,000 grant, divided across three years, to develop new mathematical tools that will make complex, hybrid systems—such as robots, drones, or manned aircraft—easier to understand and control.
Do the space warp
“I want to figure out ways to simplify hybrid systems, because even continuous and discrete systems are so complicated, you need ways of simplifying them to understand what they’re doing,” he says. One approach is called “dimensionality reduction.” It involves discovering when a system that looks like it has a large number of parameters is actually behaving as if it has far fewer. For example, a humanoid robot may be able to move its arms in any direction, but if it is walking straight, the arms swing in a predictable pattern that reduces the total variability in the system.
Another approach intentionally warps the mathematical space in which the system exists. Imagine a bunch of dots on a sheet stretched out flat—that’s the original mathematical space. Now pull the corners to twist the sheet; the dots might line up in a neater way across this new space. When that lineup happens, complex dynamics become much simpler (ideally representable by linear equations, which are much easier to solve), and therefore much easier to predict and control.
UMBC students observe a humanoid Unitree robot as it walks through campus. Ramana Vinjamuri, associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering, purchased the robot for his research. Control of this type of robot could benefit from Kvalheim’s work. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
Kvalheim is especially interested in proving when these simplifying transformations are even possible. “I’m interested in answering the question of when in principle can you succeed in simplifying a system and when can’t you,” he says. Knowing the answer in advance gives researchers “a license to look” for a solution, as Kvalheim says—or the confidence to stop looking when the math says success is impossible, saving finite resources for other projects. As more teams start using machine learning to hunt for this kind of transformation automatically, better methods like the kind Kvalheim proposes to develop will streamline the process.
Practical mathematical tools
Kvalheim’s research could help improve drone flight and coordination. (Photo by David Martin Garcia, CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0)
It may sound abstract, but the ultimate outcome of Kvalheim’s work will be practical. Treating a hybrid system as if it were purely continuous introduces errors that often render the results mostly useless, and existing tools designed for hybrid systems are limited. Better hybrid modeling methods should yield more accurate results and allow researchers to ask questions they couldn’t hope to answer with existing techniques. That research could help Air Force engineers keep a spacecraft stable, coordinate a drone swarm, or help roboticists design more reliable devices—really, it could help researchers understand any system that mixes continuous physics with discrete decisions, which encompasses almost any physical system that affects human life.
The new award builds on Kvalheim’s earlier AFOSR grant on continuous systems and questions of stability and safety. That earlier work asked when it is fundamentally possible or impossible to keep a system behaving the way designers want. The new project broadens the toolkit so those questions can be asked of the hybrid systems that dominate real applications.
The new funding will also support applied mathematics Ph.D. student Josh McCarter. McCarter is already collaborating with Kvalheim; the award will allow him to focus more of his time on the project.
Kvalheim’s reaction to the award is a mix of gratitude and responsibility. “I feel like gratitude is the only appropriate response. I’m really grateful that they liked my ideas enough that they thought it was worthy to fund,” he says. “I also feel a sense of responsibility now to do my best to deliver on what I promised to do.”
UMBC undergraduate students Noah Reichardt and Morgan Robbins spent this summer in Hawai‘i at one of the world’s top astronomy institutes, studying supermassive black holes and colliding galaxies, hiking volcanos, building their scientific networks, and refining their career goals. Their experiences at the Institute for Astronomy (IfA) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa was made possible by a National Science Foundation grant led by UMBC physicist Adi Foord and her collaborators, including David Sanders at the IfA.
Left: Noah Reichardt (right) and Hyde Kenney, fellow intern from the University of Florida, in front of the Subaru Telescope atop Mauna Kea. Right: Reichardt looks out at Koko Head crater and the Oahu coastline after a group hike to the summit of Koko Head. (Courtesy of Reichardt)
Robbins and Reichardt’s research projects looked at active galactic nuclei (AGN)—a small subset of supermassive black holes that are actively growing by gobbling up matter from their surroundings. To explore these rare cosmic entities, Reichardt and Robbins used fresh data from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Subaru Telescope, located near the summit of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano in Hawai‘i.
Reichardt, a junior physics major, examined images of 352 active galactic nuclei, hunting for streams of gas and dust that can indicate past or ongoing galaxy collisions. Studying these streams can help explain how black holes and their host galaxies interact. Robbins took a different approach, analyzing 350 spectra—observations of the wavelengths of light coming from supermassive black holes—to measure the masses of 140 AGN. Together, their work paints a richer picture of how these cosmic giants evolve.
Reichardt stands on a rocky outcrop at Kūloa Point in Haleakalā National Park on Maui. (Photo by Morgan Robbins)
Expanding horizons
But the science was only part of the story. Both Reichardt and Robbins stepped into new territory as researchers, growing their skills and becoming more independent. Through writing his first scientific paper, Reichardt is learning how researchers take piles of raw data and turn them into a polished manuscript. Authoring a scientific paper as an undergraduate is already rare, but Reichardt will be listed as first author, indicating his leadership in the work. He also designed his first research poster and presented it to graduate students, faculty, and staff at the IfA. The experience deepened his interest in galaxy structure and affirmed his future plans.
“I always wanted to go to graduate school for physics or astronomy, but this summer experience further cemented the idea,” Reichardt says. “After spending over two months at the IfA and learning more about the graduate program, it’s become one of my top choices.”
Morgan Robbins (left) and Noah Reichardt (right) present their summer research at the SURE Symposium for the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program at the University of Hawai‘i Mānoa. (Courtesy of Robbins and Reichardt)
Robbins, a junior computer science major, arrived with strong coding skills but almost no formal astronomy background. By the end of the summer, she had analyzed hundreds of spectra, built tools to organize complex data, created her first science poster, given her first research talk, and started writing her first paper. “Both my scientific and professional experience greatly expanded this summer under the guidance of my mentors, and I am excited to continue working with them,” Robbins says.
“Conducting research at the Institute for Astronomy has opened a potential new career path for me,” Robbins adds. In her remaining time at UMBC, she plans to keep doing astronomy research that capitalizes on her computer science savvy, and she is seriously considering graduate school and a future in academia.
Left: Lulumahu Falls. (Photo by Morgan Robbins) Center: Robbins taking photos in the Nāhuku Lava Tube at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. (Photo by Noah Reichardt) Right: Reichardt sizes up the climb to Koko Head. (Photo by Robbins)
Growth and inspiration in Hawai’i
Outside the lab, the summer program immersed students in Hawaiian culture and history. Robbins and Reichardt helped maintain taro patches in a loʻi, a traditional type of terraced agriculture. They learned about native plant conservation and hiked in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Reichardt’s favorite activity was a challenging hike along the Koʻolau Ridge, a steep mountain range on O‘ahu. Robbins enjoyed learning about traditional Polynesian wayfinding, which relies on natural signs like the stars, at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center. “Wayfinding is an incredibly complex art,” Robbins notes, one that was nearly lost and is now being carefully preserved and shared by groups like the Polynesian Voyaging Society. They also experienced sunset followed by stargazing under the Milky Way at the summit of Haleakalā on the Fourth of July.
The group of interns takes in sunset atop Haleakalā on the Fourth of July. (Courtesy of Robbins and Reichardt)The Milky Way as the interns saw it from the summit of Haleakalā (Photo by Dan Chen)
Both students also built lasting connections. They worked closely with Sanders at IfA; Connor Auge, a postdoctoral research scientist at Eureka Scientific; and Ezequiel Treister, a principal investigator at the Institute for Astronomy of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Robbins and Reichardt joined group meetings with scientists from institutions across the country, including the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. They also formed relationship with peers. “I made friends with students all over the U.S. and made a lot of great memories from the activities and trips we took,” Reichardt says. Robbins added that she hopes to keep those personal and professional ties for years to come.
When Reichardt and Robbins returned to campus for the fall semester and shared their experiences with Foord, with whom the two conduct research at UMBC, she was elated: “This is exactly the kind of growth and inspiration that I hoped to support with the grant.”
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to conduct research at the IfA this summer,” Reichardt reflects. “It was an amazing experience.”
Left: Robbins balances at a scenic overlook along the Keoneheʻeheʻe (Sliding Sands) Trail at Haleakalā National Park. (Photo by Noah Reichardt) Center: A rowing team practices during sunrise at Lanikai Beach on Oahu. (Photo by Morgan Robbins) Right: Reichardt hikes along the Kūloa Point trail in Maui. (Photo by Morgan Robbins)
Every morning this summer, junior biological sciences major Magdalen Ruth made her way to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda—a dense hub of biomedical research. There, at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, she helped investigate a genetic mutation in a patient with a rare form of juvenile arthritis known as Still’s disease, connecting her UMBC training to work that could improve patients’ lives. She is one of four CNMS students whose recent internships at Maryland-based companies and agencies show how local opportunities are helping Retrievers build skills, find mentors, and advance discoveries that matter here and beyond.
At the conclusion of her NIH internship, Magdalen Ruth presented her summer research on the role of a particular genetic mutation in a rare form of juvenile arthritis. (Courtesy of Ruth)
“I feel like I’m doing really important work,” Ruth, a Meyerhoff and U-RISE scholar, says. “Getting to know the patient’s diagnosis and being able to see that what I’m working on is affecting an actual person in real time has been awesome.” The internship has confirmed her interest in pursuing a career in pharmacology. It’s also stretched her communication skills. While familiar with presenting her work to colleagues in Deepak Koirala’s lab group at UMBC, communicating her research to a mix of researchers and clinicians—who don’t all share the same jargon and expertise—taught her the nuance of communicating with technical and non-technical audiences.
The Meyerhoff community helped make the opportunity possible. “I would not be in the place I am without Meyerhoff,” she notes. On campus, Ruth balances research and leadership as vice president of the STEM Ph.D. Society, a student-run organization designed to help students connect with scholarships, internships, graduate schools, and more. She also takes dance classes, is pursuing a music minor, and volunteers at her family’s Catholic parish—nurturing connections that ground her amid rigorous academic work.
Protecting lives, growing a career
Mark Harrison, a senior biological sciences major who started in chemical engineering, is in his third summer at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), a U.S. Army installation in Aberdeen, Maryland. His work involves designing and testing gas masks, bridging his early engineering training and his understanding of physiology. “I’m able to bring an understanding of what a warfighter may be experiencing in their body while wearing a gas mask in a way that others at APG may not,” Harrison says.
His mentors at APG, Jon Sampson ’03, mechanical engineering, and Edward Parshley ’06, chemical engineering, value the perspective Harrison brings and have supported his growth. “They made it clear that they want to reach back and offer opportunities to those coming behind them,” he says. They are making good on that commitment: Harrison will stay on board at APG this fall, and the plan is to transition him into a full-time position after he graduates in December. “They were always asking me what I wanted to learn and then giving me related opportunities,” Harrison says. “I could ask anyone how something worked, and they’d take the time to explain it to me. I’m so grateful for the way they’ve invested in me.”
UMBC alumni Jonathan Sampson (right) and Ed Parshley (left) have mentored Mark Harrison (center) over the last two-plus years as he completed three internships at Aberdeen Proving Ground. (Courtesy of Harrison)
Interning in a fast-paced, interdisciplinary environment has also changed how Harrison operates in the classroom. “I learned how to learn at APG,” he says. “Now I don’t have to spend as much time studying, because when I leave class I already have a good understanding of the material. I’m connecting the dots so much better than before.” For Harrison, the work has taken on personal meaning, as well. “I’m fighting right now to try to protect American lives—that’s why I’m here.”
Translating discovery into treatment
Zainab Idowu, a senior biochemistry and molecular biology major and a Meyerhoff Scholar, interned at pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca in Gaithersburg, Maryland, joining a robust group of Retrievers who’ve grown their skills there. Her project involved testing flow cytometers, which count and characterize individual cells and are used in manufacturing cell therapy treatments. Her goal was to determine the instrument and protocols that would be simplest and most effective for manufacturing teams to implement. The experience shifted Idowu’s focus toward translational medicine and reinforced her plans for an M.D./Ph.D. after UMBC. But the people around her made the biggest impression.
Zainab Idowu presented a research poster at the conclusion of a previous internship at the Mayo Clinic. She was supported by two mentors at the Mayo Clinic, Khashayarsha Khazaie (far left) and Cameron Marlow. (Courtesy of Idowu)
“I love everyone on my team,” Idowu says. “My managers, Ashley Ruddy and Jen Fox, were really insightful—giving me advice on what I want to do post-grad and what I should do my senior year to make sure I’m well-positioned for after graduation.” And when she had questions, the collaborative atmosphere showed her how scientists work together. “They were able to give recommendations and point me to scientific literature to help me along,” she says.
Opportunities through Meyerhoff gave her the chance to connect with AstraZeneca staff, which helped her secure the internship. “I was able to talk to them about my passions for research,” she says. Roles with UMBC’s chapters of the Society of Women Engineers, the international professional medical fraternity Phi Delta Epsilon, the National Society of Black Engineers, and the African Students Association have also enriched her UMBC experience. These organizations, she says, offered “a place to be ourselves, find new friends, and really build a home here at UMBC.”
The benefit of seeing both sides
Saeed Damadi (left) and his wife Sepideh Hematian at her graduation from UMBC’s master’s program in data science.
Saeed Damadi recently defended his Ph.D. thesis in applied mathematics after beginning in electrical engineering. This summer at the FDA, he developed a mathematical model for how illicit drugs taken during pregnancy transfer to the developing baby through the placenta—increasing important understanding in a situation where human testing would be profoundly unethical.
While the math was familiar, Damadi welcomed the new challenge of jumping into biology. “I learned so many things, and I am still learning,” he says. Yet he found that his interest in how to describe randomness mathematically, which led him to complete a master’s in statistics on the way to his Ph.D., was highly relevant to studying the quirks of the human body. Looking ahead, he wants to continue work at the interface of biology and mathematics.
“Hopefully in the future I can make a contribution by bridging fields,” Damadi says, “because you can computationally simulate millions of parameters and patients at once, which makes the rate of iteration and discovery much faster.” The work Damadi and colleagues do with simulations can help effectively target limited resources for expensive and lengthy clinical studies, he explains.
Damadi and his wife, Sepideh Hematian, M.S. ’23, data science, and a former data scientist at the Maryland Department of Human Services, are planning to build their lives in California. They are both thriving, but “sometimes I get emotional thinking about UMBC,” Damadi says, “because after I arrived nine years ago from Iran, it became like a home to me and my wife.”
Saeed Damadi (center) with his wife Sepideh Hematian (third from right), Ph.D. advisor Jinglai Shen (third from left), and the rest of his thesis committee and other members of the UMBC math faculty at his Ph.D. defense. (Courtesy of Damadi)
Damadi has given back through his teaching. As an engineer, “I just learned how to use the mathematical tools without understanding what was going on behind the scenes,” he says. Whereas, in math, “you learn the origins of all the theorems and how they work, but not necessarily how to apply them. I feel super lucky to get to see both sides.” So, in undergraduate calculus and linear algebra courses, “I just wanted to explain to my students, ‘Why do you need these equations? Why are they important?’ and give them a feeling of gratitude.”
Gratitude threads through all four of these journeys—for mentors who reach back, for teams that invest in their members, for communities that feel like home, and for the chance to do work that matters. As Magdalen Ruth at NIH puts it, “I’ve just found myself in a great spot with UMBC. I feel really blessed to have had all the opportunities I’ve had. Being able to do these internships has seriously been great.”
Izabella Maria Marzano, a senior biological sciences major who transferred to UMBC from Anne Arundel Community College, was one of more than 120 undergraduate and high school student presenters who packed the University Center Ballroom on August 5 for UMBC’s 29th annual Summer Undergraduate Research Fest (SURF). Marzano was presenting work she completed with Diana Elizondo, assistant professor of biological sciences, on certain enzymes involved in metabolic dysfunction resulting from a poor diet. The experience had been transformative.
“In the short time I’ve been here, Dr. Elizondo has shown more faith in what I can achieve and given me more confidence than anyone else ever has, and I’m incredibly grateful,” Marzano says. She was one of four undergraduates from Elizondo’s research group who presented their summer work at SURF, which included two poster sessions and six short oral presentations.
Marzano joined the lab after taking Elizondo’s cell biology course, drawn to the group by the far-reaching impact of diabetes research, Elizondo’s approachability, and her desire to gain research experience to support her goal of becoming an orthodontist. In addition to Elizondo, Marzano says graduate students Marveline Akinola and Benjamin Cole have supported her growth.
Izabella Marzano (left) and Zaira Ahmed (right) have steadily gained skills and confidence as scientists with the support of their research mentor, Diana Elizondo. Presenting at SURF was an important chance to share their work publicly. (Photos by Diana Elizondo)
Supported independence
Across the room, junior biochemistry and molecular biology major Zaira Ahmed, who began at UMBC this spring after transferring from Prince George’s Community College (PGCC), presented findings on how diet-induced obesity alters the composition of fat tissue’s extracellular matrix—a complex network of proteins, sugars, and other molecules surrounding cells. Ahmed first conducted research at PGCC, and she sought out Elizondo’s lab after taking the same cell biology course as Marzano, motivated in part by family members living with diabetes.
“Dr. Elizondo has been an amazing mentor. She explains everything so clearly and has been hands-on in teaching me different laboratory techniques,” Ahmed says. “But then once she sees I’ve got it, she lets me move forward independently.”
Irene Teye, a junior biological sciences major who started in Elizondo’s lab in January 2025, focused on the three-dimensional structural changes that obesity drives in the extracellular matrix. She worked with Tagide deCarvalho, manager of the Keith R. Porter Imaging Facility at UMBC, to generate and digitally analyze microscopy images of the matrix.
Irene Teye (left) loves working in Diana Elizondo’s research group, for both the sense of accomplishment she experiences doing the science and the closeness of the relationships she’s formed. Dzifa Ameko (right) is passionate about her research with Elizondo for its potential impact on women worldwide. (Photos by Diana Elizondo)
“It took three weeks to analyze the microscopy data to get just two images for my research poster, but it felt like such an accomplishment when I finished,” Teye says. She’s found a home in the Elizondo group, sharing that given how close the members are, “You’d think we’re all related.”
Dzifa Ameko, a junior biological sciences major, began with Elizondo in March 2025 after another faculty member recommended the lab based on Ameko’s interests. Long intrigued by endocrinology and gynecology, she investigated the role of neuropeptide Y, a small signaling molecule released by neurons, in an understudied hormonal and metabolic disorder that affects up to 170 million women worldwide.
“Dr. Elizondo’s door is always open,” Ameko said. “I can also always send her a Slack message and she is so responsive, whether it’s about research or a personal challenge.”
Students at the heart of research
Elizondo, who joined the UMBC faculty in January 2025, sees supporting student researchers as the heart of her work. “One of the most rewarding parts of starting my lab has been watching these students grow in confidence and independence,” she said. “Many of them joined with little or no prior research experience, and it has been incredibly exciting to see them develop into scientists who can think critically, troubleshoot experiments, and communicate their work so effectively. I strongly believe that the best way to learn science is by doing science. My goal is to create an environment where students are genuine contributors to the research, not just assistants.”
Ben Bazarsuren, a senior mechanical engineering major, was one of six students who gave five-minute “lightning talks” to kick off SURF 2026. (Melissa Penley Cormier, M.F.A. ’17/UMBC)
SURF gave those contributions a public stage. Outgoing dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, William R. LaCourse, welcomed participants to the event, highlighting the mix of student researchers from UMBC, regional community colleges, and other institutions. “SURF is one of the highlights of summer each year, because it celebrates the curiosity, perseverance, and excellence of our students and the faculty who guide them,” he said.
For transfer students like Marzano and Ahmed, and for first-time researchers across the university, the combination of hands-on projects, responsive mentoring, and a forum like SURF turns their motivation and potential into tangible results.
“You are ending this summer more knowledgeable, more experienced, more skilled, and a better scientist. Remember that the full benefits of your research may never be known to you. Science is not for those who seek glory—it’s not for me today, it’s for others tomorrow,” LaCourse reflected in his opening remarks. “Your spirit is an inspiration to us all. We hope that UMBC will always be a part of you.”
What does it take for a single cell to become a functioning organism—and what does it take for a scientist to thrive amid the systems that govern the research enterprise? Mayank Chugh is exploring both questions at once. As an assistant teaching professor in biological sciences and director of UMBC’s Applied Molecular Biology (AMB) accelerated master’s program, he is entering his second year in a role that blends hands-on teaching, program leadership, and research that extends beyond the lab.
In developmental biology, Chugh investigates how organs take shape, focusing on the inner ear in zebrafish and the role physical forces play in its development. Through his ReForm Lab, launched during his postdoc at Harvard Medical School, he turns the same careful eye toward the institutional policies and hidden costs that influence who gets to do science. A new paper published in Nature Biotechnology led by Chugh examines the real-world burdens international postdocs face to maintain their visas and continue their work.
In the conversation below, Chugh talks about the unusual mix of responsibilities that defines his position, the students and skills at the heart of the AMB program, what drew him to science policy, the collaborations and community he has found at UMBC, and how others might begin expanding their own work beyond traditional research.
Q: What are the components of your role at UMBC, and how is it unique?
Mayank Chugh studies developmental biology using zebrafish like these as a model organism. (Marlayna Demond ’11/UMBC)
A: My primary role is director of the Applied Molecular Biology program, our department’s accelerated one-year master’s. I lead everything from recruitment through teaching and collaborations with other faculty, taking the students from when they apply all the way to graduation. It’s primarily a teaching position, but it’s unusual because I also have access to the teaching lab for my own developmental biology research. So in addition to teaching, I can recruit students to pursue research with me. Right now I have two high school students, one undergraduate, and one recent graduate working in the lab with me. We’re studying how the inner ear forms in zebrafish and how mechanical forces shape organ development and influence cell decisions. I collaborate with UMBC developmental biologist Rachel Brewster on the fish work. We share microscopy resources and she’s generously offered me space in the fish facility.
Q: Can you explain the purpose of the AMB program and who could benefit from it?
A: I believe the program is underrated. It’s an intensive one-year master’s that combines coursework with rigorous research and builds skills that can transfer anywhere. The students practice communication through weekly presentations, develop their writing skills through reports, and improve their time and project management out of necessity as they design and run experiments—all skills useful within and beyond science.
The program is great for undergrads with strong grades who lack substantial lab experience to gain a sense of what graduate-level science is like, so they can decide from an informed place whether a Ph.D. is right for them. A part-time option also serves working professionals who want to advance their skills. UMBC undergraduates can transfer up to 12 credits from their bachelor’s program if they plan ahead, which saves them time and money. AMB graduates head onto a range of next steps including jobs in industry, medical school, academic positions, and more.
Mayank Chugh directs UMBC’s Applied Molecular Biology program and also conducts research in developmental biology and science policy. (Courtesy of Chugh)
Q: Why did you branch into science policy alongside developmental biology? What do you find most meaningful about that work?
A: I love basic research, but I’ve always cared about how science integrates into society. During my postdoc at Harvard I realized I did not want a traditional tenure-track path. I launched the ReForm Lab to examine the institutional structures and policies that govern who gets to do science, how we do it, and how it is evaluated. It’s highly interdisciplinary—today I collaborate with social scientists and others I never expected to work with.
My first ReForm Lab paper looked at postdoctoral compensation in the Boston area and showed how NIH salary guidelines ignore cost-of-living disparities across the country. Within two months of it being published, several institutions changed their policies. I got so many emails saying “thank you.” That tangible impact felt different from anything I’d experienced in basic research.
My new paper expands on that work. We surveyed hundreds of postdocs and quantified the often-invisible time, money, and psychological costs international scholars face, like having to travel back to their home country to renew their visas. We frame it as an administrative burden with real consequences for well-being and opportunity. The paper focuses solely on the data, but my personal opinion is that institutions could simply start with greater sensitivity toward scholars facing these challenges and offer practical support, like greater flexibility.
I’m also formally affiliated with the Human Context of Science and Technology program at UMBC. I love being part of that program; it gives me the chance to teach topics like the future of science and talk about race and gender in STEM. I recently organized a movie screening and discussion about Henrietta Lacks, whose local story is ongoing. Johns Hopkins is now constructing a Henrietta Lacks building in collaboration with her family.
Q: What do you appreciate about the UMBC community?
A: UMBC hits a Goldilocks size—neither too small nor too large. People are approachable and kind, and the department has been welcoming from day one. I’ve already begun collaborations and feel supported in doing interdisciplinary work. And the students are exceptional. Even those who arrive with limited lab experience repeatedly surprise me with how quickly they grow. The small size of the AMB program gives me the chance to connect with each student on a deeper level and continue to mentor them after they graduate, if they choose. I’ve helped students with their CVs, run mock interviews, and helped them make connections for opportunities. I’d say that has been one of the most rewarding parts of the role.
Q: What advice would you give others interested in expanding into science-policy work?
A: Use existing professional appointments as platforms. Join groups like the Scholars Strategy Network that connect scholars with policymakers and community builders. And for anyone at UMBC, feel free to just email me—maybe we could get a science and policy interest group started. The expertise is already here to engage in that way and benefit society with our work; we should put it to good use.
This summer, six rising juniors from UMBC are among the 176 undergraduates nationwide selected for the inaugural cohort of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) Cech Fellows program. Named for Nobel laureate Thomas R. Cech, the nine-week research experience pairs promising students with HHMI scientists at top institutions across the country. For these Retrievers, the fellowship is more than a prestigious opportunity: It’s a culmination of support, community, and hands-on experiences at UMBC that have opened doors.
Amir Walton-Irvin, a computer engineering major and an Undergraduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (U-RISE), HHMI, Meyerhoff, and Goldwater Scholar, is spending his summer at MIT as a Cech Fellow and an MIT Summer Research Program in Biology intern. As a member of Steven Flavell’s research group, he’s developing deep learning methods to analyze brain imaging data from C. elegans—a microscopic roundworm with just 302 neurons used as a model organism in research. The work builds directly on Walton-Irvin’s research at UMBC with Tulay Adali, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, where he uses fMRI to investigate how environmental factors affect the brains of neurologically healthy adults. “This jump allows me to explore how contextual and physiological factors reshape the functional organization of the nervous system,” he explains.
Amir Walton-Irvin (left), and a Ph.D. student in the Flavell Laboratory perform confocal microscopy. (Courtesy of Walton-Irvin)
Walton-Irvin’s path to Flavell’s lab started with the Quantitative Methods Workshop (QMW) at MIT, a seven-day professional development program that the Meyerhoff Scholars Program nominated him for. There, group lunches with faculty and sessions on machine learning in neuroscience, protein folding, and genomic sequencing sparked lasting connections. In particular, a lunch with Flavell led to ongoing conversations that aligned with the Cech opportunity, which is now creating fresh networking opportunities. Walton-Irvin’s leadership roles in the National Society of Black Engineers and UMBC’s chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers have created further opportunities for networking with peers and mentors.
Shared ambition supports success
Aryan Srivastava is pursuing virology research in the Harrison Lab at Harvard. (Courtesy of Srivastava)
Aryan Srivastava, a dual degree student in biochemistry and molecular biology and bioinformatics and computational biology, is diving into structural virology in Stephen C. Harrison’s lab at Harvard. As president of both the Honors College Council and the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Association, and a Meyerhoff, HHMI, and U-RISE scholar, Srivastava has built a strong scientific identity at UMBC: In his first year, he began conducting research with Michael Summers, HHMI Investigator and professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
A talk Harrison gave at an HHMI Science Meeting inspired Srivastava; financial support from his scholars programs had made his attendance possible. That encounter combined with his ongoing structural HIV research in the Summers Lab positioned him to pursue the Cech Fellowship. With Harrison, he will further explore the complex ways viruses enter cells that Harrison discussed at the meeting.
“Meeting peers who share your ambitions is one of the most important things an undergraduate can do,” Srivastava says. He also participated in the QMW at MIT, and roles in student organizations have connected him with program directors at federal grantmaking agencies, graduate students, and even Nobel laureates. Those relationships continue to pay dividends in Boston, where he’s reconnected with UMBC alumni like Arjun Kanjarpane ’24, biochemistry and molecular biology, a Ph.D. student at Harvard.
From participation to leadership
Silvi Shah, a Meyerhoff Scholar studying biochemistry and molecular biology, is in Elizabeth Engle’s lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute. Shah’s neuroscience research with Weihong Lin at UMBC, where she is examining the effects of e-cigarette vapor on the olfactory system and behavior in mice, sparked her interest in deepening her mechanistic understanding of the brain by focusing on biomarkers for neurodevelopmental disorders.
Silvi Shah is conducting neuroscience research with Elizabeth Engle at the Harvard Medical School. (Courtesy of Shah)
Being a member of the Meyerhoff, HHMI, and U-RISE scholars programs, and taking on leadership roles in Meyerhoff and the Phi Delta Epsilon Medical Fraternity, built Shah’s confidence and supplied community and mentorship. She connected with Harvard neuroscientist Beth Stevens at an HHMI Science Meeting, who introduced her to the Engle Lab. Award-winning presentations at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Students (ABRCMS) and interactions with Nobel laureates, renowned faculty, graduate program directors, and alumni have broadened her perspective, she says.
In Boston, she’s reconnecting with scientists from the HHMI meeting and tapping into the Meyerhoff alumni network. “I am developing advanced research techniques and approaches that I would not have otherwise had the opportunity to learn at this stage of my education. These experiences have strengthened my commitment to an M.D./Ph.D. and a career in pediatric neuroscience research,” she shares.
Meanwhile, Nina-Simone Hunter, a biological sciences major, Meyerhoff, HHMI, and U-RISE Scholar, is at Cornell University in Liz Johnson’s lab. The group’s integration of microbiology, biochemistry, genomics, and molecular biology perfectly matches her interests and future Ph.D. plans, she says.
Preparation for the national stage
Nahom Getachew, a biochemistry and molecular biology major, Meyerhoff and HHMI Scholar, and Ethiopian immigrant, initially doubted research was for him, but opportunities at UMBC changed that, he says. Getachew attended an HHMI Science Meeting and ABRCMS with support from the Meyerhoff program. Squire Booker, a University of Pennsylvania biochemist and HHMI Investigator, spoke at both events, and Getachew asked follow-up questions about his work and the opportunity to contribute—which is now being realized through the Cech Fellows program.
Nina-Simone Hunter is integrating microbiology, biochemistry, genomics, and molecular biology in Liz Johnson’s lab at Cornell. (Courtesy of Hunter)
“Networking is one of the most important skills for finding summer research opportunities,” Getachew notes. In addition to Booker, he connected with a Cech program coordinator at ABRCMS. Getachew prepared for national conferences by practicing communicating his work under Marcin Ptsazek, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, at UMBC’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fest and Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day.
Now in the Booker Lab, he’s mastering new techniques in a drug discovery project, presenting results at the Cech Fellows Research Symposium at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus, and connecting with peers who share similar goals, including fellow UMBC Cech Fellow Djina Awungnjia, a biological sciences major and McNair Scholar. All six UMBC fellows will present at the culminating symposium at HHMI Janelia, further expanding their national network.
As these Cech Fellows advance ambitious projects—from neural imaging analysis and virus structures to drug discovery and neurodevelopment—they carry forward skills, relationships, and confidence cultivated at UMBC through scholars programs, faculty mentorship, student organizations, and more.
Getachew says that the experience has reinforced his pursuit of an M.D./Ph.D. in translational clinical research: “This program has shown me what I am capable of.”
HIV continues to pose a major global health challenge, with about 1.3 million new infections reported annually worldwide in recent years. One of the most important HIV prevention strategies is pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. Healthy individuals at risk of HIV take a daily pill containing two antiretroviral drugs—tenofovir (TFV) and emtricitabine (FTC)—to block the virus before it can take hold.
These drugs only become protective after they are modified inside cells, specifically by adding a phosphate group in a step called “phosphorylation.” This activation turns them into their working forms. However, people’s responses to the drugs vary widely, sometimes leading to reduced protection.
Herana Kamal Seneviratne, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has received a two-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to explore how two key HIV prevention drugs work inside the body—specifically in colon tissue, where HIV transmission risk is especially high. The project seeks to explain why these drugs protect some people better than others and could help make prevention tools more reliable.
“One of the reasons for PrEP failure is the huge variability observed among individuals,” Seneviratne explains. This variability is concerning, because someone might partake in riskier behavior based on a belief that they are safer than they actually are.
Seneviratne’s work focuses on the colon, because unprotected anal sex carries an 18-fold higher risk of HIV transmission than vaginal sex. Oral PrEP spreads through the bloodstream, but the amount of active drug that reaches colon tissue is not well studied, and could be one of the reasons for variable drug responses. Understanding what happens in these tissues is therefore crucial for improving PrEP, Seneviratne says, particularly for men who have sex with men.
Mapping cellular machinery
Previous work, including from Seneviratne’sgroup, has shown that certain enzymes are involved in activating and deactivating PrEP drugs in the blood by adding and removing phosphate groups. Certain kinases add a phosphate group, and certain nucleotidases remove it. However, the activity of these enzymes in colon tissue is unknown.
“What matters is the drug metabolite concentrations in specific sites like in colon. That’s the point that we’re trying to make,” Seneviratne says.
To address that knowledge gap, Seneviratne’s team will grow human colon cells in the lab and use genetic tools to modify the expression of these kinases and nucleotidases one at a time. Then they will measure how those changes affect the drugs’ phosphorylation status. The project will take an innovative approach using mass spectrometry imaging, a technique that lets researchers see where molecules are located and active inside tissues.
“Our group is trying to contribute to overall improved HIV prevention,” Seneviratnes says. To that end, “understanding the metabolism of these two drugs in colon tissue is important.”
In conjunction with the lab’s work with human cells, Seneviratne’s team will examine mouse colon tissue to map these enzymes’ presence and activity across different cell types and tissue regions. The project will combine traditional techniques—specifically enzyme histochemistry and mass spectrometry—in novel ways. The dual approach will allow the team to observe enzymatic activity directly in its natural tissue environment rather than in a test tube, Seneviratne explains.
Pharmacology & Translational Science featured a study by Seneviratne’s group about the effect of HIV drugs on the brain on its cover in 2024.
The NIAID grant type supporting the work, an R21, supports innovative high-risk, high-reward ideas that push scientific boundaries. Work is already underway on this approximately $440,000, two-year award. Graduate students Korin Murray and Nimalee Jayasekera and research fellow Christian Oh will take leading roles. Jayasekera will focus on the cell and molecular biology aspects, Murray will work on advanced imaging and tissue analysis, and Oh will support both students. There will be opportunities for undergraduates as well. Overall, the project expands the group’s focus on the negative side effects of drugs that treat HIV (including a study led by chemistry Ph.D. student Nav Raj Phulara on the brain) into the effectiveness of HIV prevention drugs.
From the bench to better PrEP
By revealing how these enzymes control drug activation and deactivation in specific parts of the colon, the project aims to provide knowledge that could lead to better dosing strategies, improved formulations, or other ways to make PrEP more effective. “The data that we generate from this work, we can leverage to optimize the therapeutic efficacy of the HIV PrEP drugs,” Seneviratne said. “These two drugs set the foundation for HIV prevention.”
Seneviratne’s interest in this area grew from his postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University, where he worked closely with clinicians to identify pressing real-world problems, leading him to ask, “How can I use my bioanalytical chemistry expertise to address those questions?” His chemistry expertise, combined with early publications on these enzymes, provided the foundation for the proposal.
This kind of fundamental research strengthens public health tools like PrEP, helping more people stay protected against HIV. The findings could eventually support more personalized or reliable prevention approaches across diverse populations.
The study, published in Remote Sensing Letters and led by Karl F. Huemmrich, a research professor at UMBC’s Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research (GESTAR) II center, focuses on detecting changes in leaf pigments including chlorophylls (greens), anthocyanins (reds), and carotenoids (yellows and oranges).
Fred Huemmrich stands 100 feet above the ground on a meteorology tower at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. (Courtesy of Huemmrich)
PACE’s advanced sensors capture fine details of light reflected from leaves, with near-daily global coverage. The research team used indices that associate the reflectance data with the presence of various pigments, allowing them to produce detailed leaf color maps and track color changes throughout the fall. These maps could help support the multi-billion-dollar leaf-peeping tourism economy by directing visitors to peak viewing areas in real time and helping communities manage visitor flows.
Traditional greenness indices, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), primarily show a gradual decline in green leaves. The PACE-based indices improve on those methods by allowing scientists to identify more precise markers of the end of the growing season, including dates of peak fall color. Over time, the data could also yield insights into plant stress from drought or insect damage—with potential benefits for agriculture—and help improve models that predict fall color timing based on environmental conditions.
“PACE is the first mission that can measure these pigment indices over large areas, and repeatedly, so we can look at change through the fall,” Huemmrich says. The indices he and Caplan used were developed in the early 2000s, but the new paper applied them at a global scale for the first time. Huemmrich adds, “I anticipate that as we accumulate more years of PACE data, we will be able to observe changes in the timing of peak color, which may be related to climate change.”
PACEopens frontiers in ecosystem science
Study co-author Skye Caplan visited the Ocean Color Instrument, the instrument on PACE whose data she and Huemmrich used in their new study, before it launched. It’s visible through the window. (Courtesy of Caplan)
Study co-author Skye Caplan, a NASA data scientist, expressed enthusiasm about the broader research potential unlocked by PACE. “I’m excited about observing fall colors with PACE, because I think it’s the beginning of a real exploratory period for global hyperspectral leaf pigment measurements,” she says. “I’m hoping we get to see folks read the paper, see how PACE observes these metrics like relative chlorophyll, anthocyanin, and carotenoid content, and apply those observations to their own work.”
“Working with PACE data is really fun, because you get to see the world in so many different ways,” Caplan adds. “It doesn’t just offer observations of the oceans, but also characterizations of the atmosphere and land—and all of these domains as a system, rather than as separate entities. I think that is critical and a real advantage of PACE.”
Plus, PACE observations aren’t only for scientists: Caplan notes that the public can access NASA Worldview, an interactive site for browsing satellite images from many different NASA missions. “Sometimes I like to pull up PACE data on NASA Worldview and just scroll around to see what the world looked like on any given day,” she says. “I often find something interesting and worth exploring.”
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