Assistant professor Stephen Dolan has been awarded a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant to acquire the university’s first hyperspectral snapshot imaging (HSI) system, a transformative technology poised to revolutionize pathogen research. This system will provide unparalleled spectral and spatial imaging capabilities, allowing researchers to enhance phenotypic profiling of eukaryotic pathogens that impact human health.
The title of the grant is “CU-MRI: Next-Generation Hyperspectral Snapshot Imaging for Enhanced Phenotypic Profiling of Eukaryotic Pathogens Impacting Human Health.”
The grant supports the acquisition of Ximea snapshot imagers, which leverage cutting-edge CCD technology to capture high-resolution spectral data across 57 bands in the visible spectrum. Unlike traditional hyperspectral imaging approaches that require slow, labor-intensive scanning, this new system operates in snapshot mode, capturing full spectral datasets at speeds of up to 300 frames per second. These capabilities will enable Clemson scientists to study dynamic biological processes in real time, advancing research in pathogen detection, host-pathogen interactions, and microbial physiology.
Three Genetics and Biochemistry undergraduate students, Kaitlyn Anderson, Berkeley Cannon and Brittain Gainesran a G&B sponsored table at the Be A T.I.G.E.R. Field Day, an event for children that was before the Spring Football Game.
Biochemistry student Mary Grace Flowers represented Clemson University and the department at the 2025 Meeting of the Minds conference, a prestigious undergraduate research and creative inquiry conference that brings students from all 18 ACC member institutions together. Mary presented her research “Examining the Role of Sex in Bone Remodeling using Differential Feeding Stresses.”
Many G&B studentsparticipated in presenting their research at the 20th Annual Focus on Creative Inquiry (FoCI) event, Clemson’s university-wide poster forum that showcases undergraduate research, service-learning and other experiential learning activities supported by the CI program.
In April Dr. Haiying Laing’s lab participated in an outreach event at the Hemlock Festival in Mountain Rest, SC, where they engaged with the public, providing educational information on American chestnut trees and the restoration efforts. The lab also volunteered with The American Chestnut Foundation at a Chestnut Return Farm. They inoculated American chestnut trees with blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica for resistance screening. Students involved include Jay Liu, Sky Lu, Roger Zhang and Stone Chen.
Dr.Trudy Mackay, the director of the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics, was honored by the Linnean Society of London with the Darwin-Wallace Medal, one of the top international prizes in evolutionary biology.
Dr. Robert Anholt was named as a 2025 Member of the Advisory Board of the Blackland Charity Initiative in Ghana.
Genetics graduate student Adeyemi Akinade received a scholarship to attend a summer course in statistical genetics in Atlanta.
Senior biochemistry major Albash Kahan recieved first place in the 2025 J.T. Barton Jr. Memorial Ethics Award, which recognizes outstanding students who show exceptional ethical leadership and a commitment to advancing good decision-making on campus.
Bibhu Simkhada, Ph.D. student under Drs. Trudy Mackay and Robert Anholt, came in 2nd place at the iGrads competion with his talk titled “Genetic architecture of variation in senescence.” In addition, Bibhu won the people’s choice award by popular vote from the audience members who attended the event.
Alumni Dr. Phyllis MacGilvray ’96, a family medicine practitioner of over 20 years, has been named dean of The University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville.
Undergraduate researcher in Dr. Stephen Dolan’s lab Mallory Murphy, a microbiology major and psychology minor, has been selected for the prestigious Blue Key Academic and Leadership Award, which honors one student from each college at Clemson for excellence in academics and leadership.
The Greenville Journal released an article highlighting genetics doctoral student Sriya Pothapragada’s love for both her studies and skydiving.
Senior biochemistry major Kaylee Board was selected to write an “IfYou’reReadingThis” Letter to the Clemson University community.
Albash Khan was part of the team that came in 3rd place at this year’s College of Science Catalyst Competition for their self-heating and cooling lunchbox, ThermaChill.
Jessica Aycock (second year Ph.D. student) received Best Graduate Student Poster Prize for her presentation, “Pseudomonas aeruginosa activates a novel defense cascade in response to fungal toxins”
Muhammad Shafiul Alam Mondal (first year Ph.D. student) was awarded the Best Graduate Student Talk Prize for his talk, “Aspergillus fumigatus demonstrates species-dependent physiological modulation in polymicrobial biofilms”
Cameron Kennedy (freshman) earned Best Undergraduate Student Poster Prize for her work, “Parallel Evolution of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Polymicrobial Interactions with Fungi and Chronic Lung Infections”
Senior biochemistry major Kristen Gulbrandsen placed 1st at the 20th annual Focus on Creative Inquiry (FoCI) event, which is Clemson’s university-wide poster forum that showcases undergraduate research, service-learning and other experiential learning activities supported by the Creative Inquiry program. Kristen’s poster presentation was titled “Enterococcus faecalis Inhibits Clostridium innocuum In Vitro Under Multiple Conditions.”
The Greenville Journal released an article highlighting genetics doctoral student Sriya Pothapragada’s love for both her studies and skydiving.
Sriya arrived at Clemson after in 2023 after majoring in bioengineering at the University of Maryland to study with Dr. James Lewis and obtain her Ph.D. Sriya’s research revolves around evolutionary genetics and biology with the hope of eventually applying it to a career as an astrobiologist.
When she arrived in the Upstate she also had a goal to obtain her first skydiving license.
“I value almost equally the skills you get from stuff like skydiving, especially in flying, like self-accountability, discipline, common sense,” she said. “My reflexes have gotten better. I’m in better physical shape.”
So far, Pothapragada has completed 61 jumps and recently competed in the USPA National Collegiate Skydiving Championships in Zephyrhills, Florida.
Dr. Cheryl Ingram-Smith is an associate professor of genetics and biochemistry and serves as the department’s graduate program director. She teaches courses in biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology and her primary research interests include metabolism of eukaryotic pathogens during infection in a human host and enzymology of metabolic enzymes.
Dr. Ingram-Smith graduated with her B.S. in biology from MIT and her Ph.D. in molecular biology from University of Pennsylvania. She came to Clemson in 2001, serving as a lecturer, senior lecturer and undergraduate academic advisor before moving to a tenure track position in 2011.
As part of Clemson University’s Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center (EPIC), an interdisciplinary research cooperative founded in 2013 that is at the forefront of biomedical research on the devastating eukaryotic pathogens, Dr. Ingram Smith’s lab is interested in the intestinal parasite Entamoeba histolytica, which causes severe dysentery in ~100 million people each year worldwide.
E. histolytica causes amoebic dysentery in ~100 million people each year. E. histolytica is ingested in its cyst form in contaminated food and water. In the small intestine it converts to its amoeba form and then colonizes the large intestine, where is can cause dysentery or establish an asymptomatic infection.
Dr. Ingram-Smith’s lab is studying how E. histolytica adapts to and thrives in the glucose-poor environment of the large intestine where it colonizes. Her lab has established robust, reproducible cyst formation in laboratory culture and are studying how this process is regulated directly in the human pathogen.
On Monday, December 16th, the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry held its semi-annual Research in Progress (RIP) Symposium, where graduate students give a 20-minute presentation on their research. This year’s presenters included Sabrina Pizzaro, Xiaotong Chen, Amara Onoh and Chia-Lun (Allen) Wu.
Titles of Presentations
Sabrina Pizzaro: Putative Sodium/Proton Exchangers in Trypanosoma brucei
Xiaotong Chen: How miR164 fine tuning plant growth to balance abiotic stress response and potential off target activity in DNA recombinase
Amara Onoh: Biochemical Characterization of MEILB2/HSF2BP as a Key Factor in Meiotic Homologous Recombination
Chia-Lun (Allen) Wu: Abnormal Trafficking and Processing of Multiple Matrix Metalloproteinases Drives Cartilage Defects in PMM2-CDG
For the last few years, Bryson Woodard BS ’23, MS ’24 has been a staple around the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry and the Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center (EPIC), first working as a lab manager for the Morris lab as a biological sciences undergraduate and then as a graduate student.
Bryson graduates on Thursday with a master’s in biochemistry and molecular biology. With Dr. Meredith Morris as his PI, Bryson’s research focused on assessing glycosomal heterogeneity in the parasitic kinetoplastid Trypanosoma brucei.
“We are interested in the diversity of glycosomes, which are essential metabolic organelles within the Trypanosomes; previous research findings suggest that not all glycosomes are the same.”
To assess this diversity, Bryson and his lab mates use an endogenous tagging technique to attach fluorescent protein tags to essential glycosomal membrane proteins. These tagged membrane proteins allow analyzation of glycosomal diversity using fluorescence expansion microscopy and advanced forms of flow cytometry.
In his free time, Bryson enjoys visiting local coffee shops, hiking, reading, and spending time with friends. His favorite moment while at Clemson was in his undergrad years when it snowed.
“A couple of friends and I went sledding at the dikes and ended up meeting Dabo, such a cool experience!”
After graduation, Bryson plans to work as a phlebotomist while he applies to medical school.
“I would like to thank my lab and everyone in EPIC/B&G for all of their support throughout this process, awesome people have truly made all the difference!”
Dr. Hong Luo has received a $650,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study the unintended consequences of three site-specific DNA recombination systems commonly used to genetically engineer target crops.
Drs. Trudy Mackay and Robert Anholt have been awarded a $170,000 grant from the Cure Sanfilippo Foundation. The grant will be used to utilize Drosophila models of Sanfilippo A and B (also called mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) IIIA and IIIB) to screen FDA-approved drugs that may ameliorate the symptoms and disease progression of these devastating pediatric diseases, also called “Childhood Alzheimers.”
At the American Society of Microbiology Joint Branch Meeting of South Caroina (SC ASM) on November 9th, biochemistry and molecular biology master’s student Bryson Woodard received an Honorable Mention for his poster presentation titled, “Construction and Characterization of Transgenic Cell Lines for the Analysis of Glycosome Heterogeneity in Trypanosoma brucei“.
Bryson works in Dr. Meredith Morris’ lab in the Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center (EPIC). The lab focuses on Trypanosoma brucei (the causative agent of African Sleeping Sickness) as a model organism and seeks to explore and close knowledge gaps within the parasite’s cellular biology.
“We are interested in the diversity of glycosomes, which are essential metabolic organelles within the Trypanosomes; previous research findings suggest that not all glycosomes are the same.”
To assess this diversity, Bryson and his lab mates use an endogenous tagging technique to attach fluorescent protein tags to essential glycosomal membrane proteins. These tagged membrane proteins allow analyzation of glycosomal diversity using fluorescence expansion microscopy and advanced forms of flow cytometry.
“To date, we have successfully attached our first fluorescent tag to our selected membrane proteins, subsequent attachment of additional tags and analysis is to follow.”
Attending the SC ASM fall meeting was an excellent experience for Bryson, where he was able to learn more about microbiological research happening in our state, network with other scientists and faculty and further prepare for his career as a physician.
“I am honored to have received an honorable mention for my poster presentation. I want to thank the conference organizers, my advisor, Dr. Meredith Morris and my lab mates for supporting me in these endeavors.”
