Chelsey, Ana, James and Sam recently c0-authored a paper for Developmental Biology investigating the role of Semaphorin3A (Sema3A), a cell guidance chemorepellent, on angioblast migration and corneal avascularity during development. Please check it out! Chelsey C. McKenna, Ana Ojeda, James W Spurlin, Sam Kwiatkowski and Peter Lwigale. Sema3A maintains corneal avascularity during development by inhibiting Vegf induced angioblast migration. Dev Biol. 2014 Jul 15;391(2):241-50. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2014.04.017.

James recently authored a paper for IOVS describing how minimal keratocyte activation, rapid ECM reconstruction, and proper innervation occur during non-fibrotic regeneration of the embryonic cornea. Please check it out! James W Spurlin, III and Peter Lwigale. Wounded Embryonic Corneas Exhibit Non-fibrotic Regeneration and Complete Innervation. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. September 3, 2013 IOVS-13-12504. 

Welcome to Colette Kendrick, a senior undergraduate at Rice, who will be working on corneal structure and dynamics with Sinu. Welcome, Colette! Welcome to Mackenzie Nettlow, also a senior undergraduate at Rice, who will be working on corneal avascularity with Sam. Welcome, Mackenzie! Welcome to Kassandra Rivera, who will be working on corneal wound healing with…

Chelsey received The George R. Schroepfer, Jr. Award for Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis in Biochemistry & Cell Biology. She also got First Place at Rice University/Texas Medical Center Chapter of Sigma Xi 2013 Thesis Awards. Bravo!

Sam recently authored a paper for Developmental Dynamics describing how pro- and anti-angiogenic factors regulate avascularity in the developing cornea. Please check it out! Sam Kwiatkowski, Ravi P. Munjaal, Teresa Lee, Peter Y. Lwigale. Expression of pro- and anti-angiogenic factors during the formation of the periocular vasculature and development of the avian cornea. Developmental Dynamics. 2013 DOI: 10.1002/dvdy.23956

Congratulations to James Spurlin on publication of his manuscript! James recently authored a paper for Developmental Dynamics describing the technique to increase the accessibility to late-stage chick embryos. Please check it out! James Spurlin and Peter Lwigale. A technique to increase accessibility to late-stage chick embryos for in ovo manipulations. Developmental Dynamics. 2012 DOI:10.1002/dvdy.23907

Chelsey McKenna successfully completed her PhD with the dissertation titled ” The role of Semaphorin3A/Neuropilin1 and  Semaphorin3F/Neuropilin2 in the development of innervation and vascularization of the cornea”,under the supervision of Prof. P Lwigale. Chelsey’s PhD focuses on identifying the developmental regulators that establish avascularity and innervation of the cornea. Her work has also identified molecular regulators…

Chelsey is the proud recipient of Rice University Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology Service Award 2011-2012. Kudos!

Sam successfully passed his PhD candidacy exam. Bravo!