AKANKSHA PRESENTS at DLS-SURF 2023!

AUGUST 9TH 2023

Akanksha had a successful DLS-SURF poster session! The whole lab showed up to support! Congrats!

SHAM PRESENTS AT Aresty Summer Science Annual Symposium 2023

JULY 2023

After successfully completing her summer research in the Barber lab, Sham presented her beautiful brain constellations at the Aresty Summer Science Annual Symposium! Congratulations!

SEANNA VISITS SCOTLAND AFTER PASSING FIRST YEAR QUALS!

JULY 2023

After successfully completing her first year qualifier exam, Seanna visited Scotland with her family, moved in to a new home, received Deans list, and to top it off, was accepted to become a Teaching Assistant for the 2023-2024 academic year! Go Seanna!!!

barber lab goes on a hIKING trip!

JULY 2023

Our lab ventured off together on a 6 mile round trip to the Sunfish Pond near in the Delaware Water Gap area. The original Mt. Tammany hike was changed due to bear activity!!

STEPHEN SUBMITS MED SCHOOL APPLICATIONS!

jUNE 2023

After sleepless nights and hard work, Stephen has successfully taken the MCAT and submitted his med school applications. We wish him the best!!

Dr. Barber Saw stick bugs in Puerto Rico’s rain forest!

APRIL 2023

Happy 2023 from the barber lab!

APRIL 2023

At the second Barber lab new year party, we ate delicious food at Dr. Barber’s house and baked a three layered fly brain cake! It was a fun time and we look forward to another great year.

dr. barber runs 2023 Love run Half Marathon!

FEBRUARY 2023

Congratulations to Dr. Barber for completing the Love Run Philadelphia Half Marathon this spring!

New Member Alert - Welcome Vinithra Kathirvel!

January 29th, 2023

Vinithra Kathirvel, a sophomore studying Cell Biology and Neuroscience joins our lab through Project SUPER! Under the supervision of Dr. Keisuke Fukumura, she will study how age and high fat diet interact to accelerate degradation of circadian output signals in Drosophila melanogaster.

Akanksha is featured in Rutgers Today!

January 27th, 2023

Featured in Rutgers Today, Rutgers SAS, Aresty Research Center, and more, our undergrad, Akanksha Mathivanan voices out the story about her own Traumatic Brain Injury, her passion for public advocacy of Traumatic Brain Injury in high school sports as well as her scientific interests in the complex injury she studies in the lab! She strives to become a physician-scientist and achieve more in this field as she grows as a researcher and science communicator! Congrats Akanksha!!

New Member Alert - Welcome Evan Cirone!

January 17th, 2023

Evan Cirone, a sophomore studying Cell Biology and Neuroscience joins our lab to work on identifying connectivity between clock neurons and Pars-Intercerebralis neuron populations! Welcome Evan!

We Celebrated Naureen’s Baby Shower!

January 17th, 2023

Woohoo! With our first lab baby coming soon, we celebrated Naureen’s baby shower with lovely decorations and happy vibes. The room was filled with food, fun, laughter, and lots of love to shower Naureen and her little one on the way with gifts and cheers. Congratulations Naureen on becoming a soon-to-be mom!

New Member Alert - welcome Keisuke Fukumura!

November 4th, 2022

Flying in all the way from Japan, we welcome Keisuke Fukumura, our first postdoc! His role in the lab will be to investigate how unfavorable nutritional status affects circadian function and aging in Drosophila!

barber lab goes on a haunted house trip!

october 21st, 2022

For this special trip, the Barber Lab traveled to Creamy Acres Farm’s Haunted Houses! It was a spooky spectacle, starting with a hayride and followed by four houses that took us through different scary tales.

CSI Retreat - Congratulations Naureen & Akanksha!

October 12th, 2022

Today, the Barber Lab traveled to UPenn for the Chronobiology and Sleep Institute’s Annual Research Retreat! We got to hear lots of great talks about circadian control and sleep function and effects in neurological diseases. Congratulations to our graduate student, Naureen Hameed and undergraduate student, Akanksha Mathivanan also won awards for “Best Poster Presentation”!

New Member Alert - Welcome Seanna Kelly!

September 26th, 2022

Seanna Kelly, a first-year graduate student joins our lab for her first rotation to work on improving the auxin-inducible gene expression system (AGES) by incorporating an improved auxin inducible degron (AID2) technology involving mutated TIR1 receptors and use of the auxin analog 5-Ph-IAA!

Congratulations Akanksha!

August 4th, 2022

Akanksha wins an award for her first research poster presentation on investigating how Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) induces sleep dysregulation in fruit flies at the Aresty Summer Science Annual Symposium! Impressive accomplishment for a freshman who joined the lab just 10 weeks ago! Over the summer, she injured flies at different voltages to induce various severities of TBI in flies. After injury, their activity was recorded using Drosophila Activity Monitoring systems. From this data, the flies’ circadian rhythm strength, period length, and activity, and most interestingly, sleep was uncovered over a 7-day period!

Here we go to the Sterling Mine Museum!

July 3rd, 2022

The Barber Lab visits the Sterling Hill Mine Museum! We got to see lots of cool rocks, gems, and stones and visit the iconic mine scene from the movie Zoolander!!

New Member Alert - Welcome Akanksha Mathivanan!

June 6th, 2022

Akanksha Mathivanan, a sophomore studying Cell Biology and Neuroscience joins our lab through the Aresty Summer Science program! She will work on uncovering the effects of Traumatic Brain Injury on sleep and circadian rhythms in Drosophila melanogaster!

Congratulations Khushi! - DLS Surf

June 22nd, 2022

Khushi was awarded the Division of Life Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (DLS SURF). To conclude her fellowship, Khushi presented a poster on her project: the development of a new gene expression system that allows for the controlling of Drosophila genes without having to use temperature sensitive proteins. Khushi and her team uses an auxin(major plant hormone)-inducible degree system that can remove the need for a temperature shift in gene expression experiments. In collaboration with the Southall Lab, they were able to monitor how this system affects gene expression with GFP, a green fluorescence protein, as well as examine its behavioral effects and whether we are able to control behavior. During the summer, Khushi and the team ran experiments that monitored the recovery of Drosophila from auxin, as well as experiments that measure the effects of CRISPR when paired with this gene expression system. Congrats again Khushi!

Congratulation Chenyue! - WURF

May 4th, 2022

Chenyue was awarded the Waksman Undergraduate Fellowship Award (WURF) and will be investigating intra-PI research connectivity by using the neuro-tracing tools in this program, such as BacTrace(retrograde) and Trans-tango(anterograde). Congratulations Chenyue!