Dr. Hong Luo received the Society for In Vitro Biology (SIVB) 2026 Distinguished Service Award for his contribution in fundraising and service as member of the SIVB Board of Directors.
Senior genetics and Honors College student Jennifer Covel was chosen to represent Clemson University at the 20th annual ACC Meeting of the Minds Undergraduate Research Conference.
Four Department of Genetics and Biochemistry faculty members were promoted at the beginning of the Fall 2026 semester: Lindsey Beebe to senior lecturer and Miriam Konkel, Lela Lackey and Fabio Morgante to associate professor with tenure.
Genetics and Biochemistry students Elizabeth Polatty and Addison Vondersaar have been selected to explore global policy issues through the Honors College’s selective Dixon Global Policy Scholars program.
Graduate students Alp Ummet, Fengge Chang, Vijay Shankar, Xiaotong (Stone) Chen, Zhaohui (Charlie) Chen, Ryan Watts and Ming Liu attended national and international conferences presenting posters and giving oral presentations.
Alexandra Harrington, an Honors College student and biochemistry and genetics double major with minors in Spanish studies and microbiology was selected for a Fulbright teaching assistantship in Galicia, Spain.
Ph.D. student Xiaotong (Stone) Chen received the Society for In Vitro Biology 2026 Philip R. White Memorial Award for his outstanding research.
Fun Fact: Junior biochemistry student Olivia (Liv) Palmieri’s high school in Galloway, New Jersey sat right on the beach. Even so, knowing that medicine was the end goal, she was drawn down south to Clemson University for her undergraduate experience. Clemson was an easy choice for Liv because of our strong sense of community, robust biochemistry program and the wide-ranging number of opportunities for both academic and personal growth.
“I chose biochemistry as my major because it combines my passion for science with my interest in medicine, allowing me to build a strong foundation for a future in healthcare. Being in the Genetics and Biochemistry Department has been a supportive community I am blessed to be a part of. The department allows students to gain hands-on learning opportunities and explore future career paths.”
Having psychology and cluster life science minors, Liv has loved learning campus and getting involved in all the extracurriculars and research opportunities that she can throughout her time at Clemson thus far. One of these is a research opportunity participating in a Creative Inquiry with Dr. Robin Kowalski in the Department of Psychology.
“Since my sophomore year, I have worked with Dr. Kowalski as a member of her Social Psychology Creative Inquiry team, gaining insight into research design and analysis. Our projects focus on perceptions and their impact on behavior. We have presented our work at multiple forums over the past two years, and one of our papers was recently published!”
Liv has even recently begun a Departmental Honors with Dr. Kowalski, which means that she will complete a thesis of a major research project. Departmental Honors provides Honors students a unique opportunity to do advanced, in-depth study and research within an academic discipline.
Additionally, Liv is a member of the Honors College, where she serves as both a Peer Mentor and an Honors Ambassador. Within the College of Science, she also serves on the Student Advisory Board and as a COSMIC mentor.
“Both roles that allow me to support students and foster growth.”
“I am also an active member of the Kappa Delta sorority and PhiDE, the pre-medical fraternity on campus. In my free time, I enjoy staying active and volunteering locally!”
While Liv stays deeply involved on campus, embracing the opportunities she hoped for when she first arrived, she still reflects on her future goals and the ambitions that brought her here in the first place.
“After I graduate, I plan to attend medical school and pursue a career in healthcare. I am interested in both neurology and surgery!”
Doctorate student Zane Tolbert pictured winning an award in the middle.
Ph.D. student with Dr. Jennifer Mason, Zane Tolbert, was awarded second place for his poster presentation titled, “Nascent strand degradation and genomic instability in FANCD2 and FANCA deficient cells requires RAD54L-mediated fork reversal” at the Inaugural Symposium on Genome Integrity and Chromatin Regulation at UNC-Charlotte.
Dr. Michael Sehorn received the Clemson University National Scholars Program Award of Distinction.
Biochemistry alum Adam Gatch ’25 has received a Fulbright research award to study abroad in Munich, Germany at Ludwig Maximilian University. Adam has respectfully declined the Germany Fulbright offer after earning a Churchill scholarship earlier in the spring.
Ph.D. student under Dr. Stephen Dolan, Jessica Aycock was honored with the Cell Press Best Poster Award at the Gordon Research Seminar & Conference on Microbial Adhesion and Signal Transduction in Newport, RI.
Graduate student Xiaotong Chen was awarded the first prize for poster presentation competition in the 2025 Society for In Vitro Biology Meeting.
Dr. Robert Anholt joined the Advisory Board of the Blackland Charity Initiative, Ghana.
Graduate student Bibhu Simkhada attended the summer course on Neurobiology of Drosophila at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. He also won second place in the Clemson iGRADS video competition and the people’s choice award for his video on Sanfilippo disease.
Dr. Kim Paul recently celebrated 20 years with Clemson Univeristy.
Naegleria fowleri is a rare and complex infection that is severely underresearched. After a case was confirmed in the state, the news outlet WYFF reached out to Clemson University’s Eukaryotic Pathogen’s Innovation Center and its post doctoral fellow Dr. Jillian MeKon, who focuses on these organisms.
Director of the Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovations Center (EPIC) and professor of Genetics and Biochemistry Dr. Kerry Smithhas taken a role with the Clemson University School of Health Research (CUSHR) as campus research director for the Prisma Health Education and Research Institute (PHERI).
Dr. Robert Anholt served on NIGMS COBRE Phase 1 reviews – Special Emphasis Panel/Scientific Review Group 2024/10 ZGM1 RCB-T (C1).
Ph.D. student in Dr. Jim Morris’ lab Sabrina Pizarro has been awarded an EPIC Graduate Translational Research Assistantship.
Dr. Alex Feltus was interviewed by WYFF4 about artificial intelligence and using it in the classroom and beyond.
Authority Magazine recently highlighted Professor Shahid Mukhtar’s work and career journey in science in the article, “AgTech: Shahid Mukhtar of Clemson University on The New Technologies That Are Revolutionizing Agriculture.”
At the American Society of Microbiology Joint Branch Meeting of South Carolina, 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“.
At the Clemson vs Virgina game on October 19th, Dr. Trudy Mackay was featured as professor of game.
Dr. Robert Anholt was invited to deliver a virtual scientific presentation skills workshop for the University of Chile in Santiago. In addition, he has been appointed a guest professor, in the Master in Genetics Program and Program of Human Genetics at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences within the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Chile.
Elizabeth Caldwell, senior genetics major, was selected as a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the most prestigious and selective major fellowships available to American college students.
At the American Society of Microbiology Joint Branch Meeting of South Carolina, biochemistry undergraduate Hayeon Cho received an Honorable Mention for her poster presentation titled, “Determination of the role of one cathepsin C-like protease, TgCPC2, in Toxoplasma gondii infection.”
Dr. Alex Feltus and Ph.D. candidate Xusheng Ai released open-source generative AI software called GEMDiff that can “deep fake” gene expression in diseased tissue to look like gene expression in normal tissue.
Clemson News featured an article spotlighting Drs. Trudy Mackay and Robert Anholt’s research of how fruit flies could help find treatment for “childhood Alzheimer’s.”
