Winter 2015 PhD Defenses

During the winter 2015 semester, several graduate students performing biomedical research successfully defended their PhD dissertation. Consider the significance of these students’ accomplishments: through their dissertation research they have discovered new knowledge that has contributed to our understanding of basic physiology and modern medicine. Now they are no longer our students, but have become our colleagues, collaborators, and friends. These young researchers--and their dedicated mentors--represent the best of Oakland University. Congratulations. 

Biological and Biomedical Sciences 

Bala Bharathi Burugula 
Analyzing the Mechanisms Involved in Recruiting Spt6 to the Transcribed Regions Genome-Wide 
Mentor: Chhabi Govind 

Rachanna Radhamani Chandran 
Smad Protein Dysmorphic Regulates the Maintenance of Luminal Matrix Components to Control Tube Size 
Mentor: Lan Jiang 

Mida B. Pezeshkian 
The Role of Endothelial Cell Activation on Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cell Survival, Growth, and Chemoresistance 
Mentor: Gerard Madlambayan 

Cameron Prigge 
Regulation of Retinal Dopaminergic Amacrine Neuron Activity by Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells in Normal and Diseased Retinas 
Mentor: Dao-Qi Zhang 

Deepa Talreja 
Host Pathogen Interactions in Ocular and Lung Infection 
Mentor: Satish Walia 

Biomedical Sciences: Medical Physics 

Ji Hyun Lee 
Detection of the Early Osteoarthritis Changes in the Function and Structure of Articular Cartilage 
Mentor: Yang Xia 

Biomedical Sciences: Health and Environmental Chemistry 

Shi Chen 

Nucleophile-Catalyzed Cycloadditions of Ketenes and Applications 
Mentor: Nessan Kerrigan