The Meckes Lab
News
2019
Dr. Mujeeb Cheerathodi was awarded the 2019 Outstanding achievement as a postdoctoral scholar award from the Department of Biomedical Sciences (BMS).
Graduate students Allaura Cone and Sara York published a paper in Current Clinical Microbiology Reports titled “Extracellular Vesicles in Epstein-Barr Virus Pathogenesis”.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40588-019-00123-6
BMS graduate student Dingani Nkosi received a travel award to attend the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles and Metastasis Research Society’s Joint Conference on Extracellular Vesicles and Cancer in Nashville Tennessee. Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Li Sun and BMS graduate students Allaura Cone and Monica Abou Harb also attended the meeting and presented their work.
Dr. Meckes has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure!
BMS PhD alumna Stephanie Hurwitz graduated with her MD degree to become the COMs first MD/PhD graduate. During the commencement celebrations Stephanie received four awards including; the Stephen M. Nobles Pathogenesis Award, the Student Research Award, the American Medical Women’s Association Glasgow-Rubin Achievement Citation, and the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. During her 3rd and 4th year of medical school Stephanie published four additional papers (12 total). Some of the experiments needed for these papers were completed during research electives in medical school. Stephanie has now moved to Philadelphia and is starting a Clinical Pathology physician-scientist residency program at the University of Pennsylvania where she will complete clinical training and conduct postdoctoral research on extracellular vesicles and cancer. Congratulations Stephanie!
Former undergraduate student, Leanne Duke, was admitted into the BMS graduate program and obtained a highly competitive (only 15 students nationally) 2019 Repperger Research Internship through the Department of Defense. This is a 10 week paid internship where she will be working under an Air Force PI at Fort Sam Houston (San Antonio, TX) on an extracellular vesicle stem cell and tissue regeneration project. Leanne graduated with a BS in Biochemistry from FSU and completed an Honors in the Major thesis on the role of tetraspanin CD9 in EBV LMP1 trafficking.
2018
Dr. Meckes was awarded a supplement from the NIH to study the trafficking of amyloid beta to extracellular vesicles in the context of Alzheimer's disease.
2017
The Meckes lab has moved to a larger lab space on the third floor (COM 3360). Now Dr. Meckes can have his own lab bench again! His new office number is 3350-J.
Dinagni Nkosi, Sara York, Stephanie Hurwitz, Li Sun, Mujeeb Cheerathrodi, and David Meckes attended the International Society of Extracellular Vesicles meeting in Toronto. Dr. Meckes gave a talk titled “The EBV LMP1 interactome contains ESCRT-dependent and -independent extracellular vesicle sorting proteins”. Students and postdocs from the Meckes lab present posters on their research. Thanks to Dr. Sun some of us enjoyed Chinese hot-pot in Chinatown for the first time.
Marius Kostelic graduated with honors in Biochemistry. The title of his thesis is “Modification of exosomes due to Epstein-Barr virus oncoprotein LMP1”. Marius will pursue his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Arizona starting in the fall.
MD/PhD student Stephanie Hurwitz graduated with a PhD in Biomedical Sciences and returned to the 3rd year of medical school. Stephanie received the Outstanding Senior Graduate Student Award at the FSU College of Medicine and a national P.E.O. Scholar Award.
Allie Donlan presented her work at the WIMSE Symposium and received the “Best Overall Presentation Award”! Congratulations Allie! Allie will graduate this summer with a B.S. in Biology and will attend the Ph.D. program in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology at the University of Virginia.
Dinagni Nkosi and Allaura Sherman have joined the Meckes lab for their dissertation work!
Marius presented a poster of his honors thesis work at the undergraduate research symposium titled "Modification of exosomes due to Epstein-Barr Virus oncoprotein LMP1".
The FSU COM hosted the Life Sciences Symposium and this year’s theme was “Fighting the invisible Enemies: Host-Pathogen Interactions in Infectious Diseases.” An impressive list of speakers included many leading national and international scientists.
David Meckes was awarded a grant from the Florida Department of Health to identify biomarkers in fetal exosomes present in the maternal circulation for the detection of Zika virus infected fetuses and associated diseases.
Li Sun has joined the Meckes lab. Dr. Sun did his graduate work Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and postdoctoral training in Dr. Yi Ren’s lab before moving to the Meckes lab.
2016
Mujeeb Cheerathodi has joined the Meckes lab. Dr. Cheerathodi did his graduate work at the University of Vermont and obtained postdoctoral training at MD Anderson Cancer Center before coming to FSU. Welcome Mujeeb!
Stephanie Hurwitz published a paper in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. In this manuscript, we characterized vesicle secretion across the NCI-60 panel of human cancer cells and identified gene targets associated with the amount of vesicles produced. CRISPR/Cas9 knockout of one target, CD63, resulted in a decrease in small, exosome-sized vesicle secretion. Overall, these observations reveal new insights into genes involved in exosome and microvesicle formation, and may provide a means to distinguish EV sub-populations. This study offers a foundation for further exploration of targets involved in EV biogenesis and secretion.
Link to article
Stephanie Hurwitz and David Meckes presented work at the Keystone Symposia on Exosomes/Microvesicles: Novel Mechanisms of Cell-Cell Communication. This conference was held in beautiful Keystone Colorado.
Dingani Nkosi was accepted into the Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program. Congratulations Dingani!
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Mark Rider published a paper in Scientific Reports. In this study, we describe a method for purifying exosomes and other extracellular vesicles by adapting methods for isolating viruses using polyethylene glycol. This technique, called ExtraPEG, enriches exosomes from large volumes of media rapidly and inexpensively using low-speed centrifugation, followed by a single small-volume ultracentrifugation purification step.
FSU medical student Raye Ng was awarded a summer research fellowship to work in the Meckes lab! Congratulations Raye!
Antonia Velcheva and Allie Donlan presented their work at the Women in Math, Science, & Engineering Program (WIMSE) Research Symposium.
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David Meckes was awarded a five year grant from the National Cancer Institute to study how Epstein-Barr virus alters the components and functions of exosomes.
Sara York has officially joined the Meckes lab as a graduate student. Sara obtained her bachelor's degree from SUNY ESF and her MPH from USF. She worked as a Biological Scientist in the Virology Department of Health Bureau of Public Health Laboratories in Tampa prior to coming to FSU.
Mark Rider was awarded a Postdoctoral Travel Award to attend the Proteomics Course at Cold Spring Harbor. Congratulations Mark!