On April 17, 2024, six Larner-affiliated Ph.D. candidates represented the Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical Sciences (CMB) and Neuroscience departments as they competed for cash prizes in the first annual 3MT Three Minute Thesis Competition. The event was sponsored by the UVM Graduate College as a part of UVM Research Week.
In the following blog post, three 3MT graduate student competitors share their research, including Daniel Peipert (neuroscience), second-place winner, Amber Goerner (CMB), and Paola Peña Garcia (CMB).
“I observed that mice with Akkermansia muciniphila, a gut microbe which plays a role in multiple sclerosis, have increased disease severity.” —Daniel Peipert
“In the long-term, this work could lead to a better understanding of parasitic infections within the field, as well as being potential drug targets to improve global burden.” —Amber Goerner
“In my research, the data suggests that weight loss and methods that may elicit the benefits of weight loss can be used as therapeutic targets for the treatment of obese asthma.” —Paola Peña Garcia
About the Competition
All UVM Ph.D. students who passed their candidacy exam by the date of the competition were invited to participate in this first annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) internationally recognized research competition that challenges Ph.D. students to communicate the significance of their projects in just three minutes. UVM’s first 3MT was a celebration of the discoveries made by our Ph.D. students and allowed the broader community to learn about ongoing research at UVM, and win cash prizes from $250 to $750. Globally, the competition assists Ph.D. students with fostering effective presentation and research communication skills: it asks Ph.D. researchers to consolidate their ideas, crystallize their research discoveries, and capture the imagination of their audience. The rules are to present research in non-technical language to a general audience with only one static visual slide to accompany the speech, and competitors are judged on comprehension, content, engagement, and communication.
Daniel Peipert (Neuroscience): “Gut Bacterium Exacerbates Disease in a Mouse Model of Multiple Sclerosis”
My presentation is centered on the role of gut microbe Akkermansia muciniphila and its role in multiple sclerosis (MS). Many gut microbiome studies in people with MS highlight Akkermansia as being increased compared to health controls. To better understand why this may be, I use mouse models of MS in which I have colonized a specific microbiome, with and without Akkermansia. This allows us to isolate Akkermansia’s effect while controlling for the broader gut microbiome context and the genetics of the host mouse. I observed that mice with Akkermansia have increased disease severity. Furthermore, analyses of my mice’s gut microbiomes demonstrated that colonization of Akkermanszia reduced the abundance of many other bacteria known to produce butyrate, a beneficial metabolite that may regulate the immune system.
UVM lab affiliation: Kremensov Lab, Department of Biomedical and Health Sciences, CNHS
Laboratory Focus: Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of immune-mediated or infectious diseases. One of their principal interests is the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis (MS).
Amber Goerner (CMB): “Investigating Host Pathogen Interactions in Chronic Toxoplasma gondii Infection”
My presentation is about the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, and specifically I study the chronic stage of the parasite that occurs within the brain. The goal of my research is to understand host pathogen interactions of the chronic stage of Toxoplasma gondii and how the parasite is able to maintain a lifelong infection in hosts. I am pursing this through the use of a novel model system that uses cultured brain cells and parasitic infection. I am looking at the transcriptional changes within the parasite and host during infection. From this, I am finding genes that may be important for the parasite to take in nutrients or sense the host, mutating them and describing the parasitic changes. In the long-term, this work could lead to a better understanding of parasitic infections within the field, as well as being potential drug targets to improve global burden.
Larner College of Medicine faculty mentor: Bruno Martorelli Di Genova, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Martorelli Di Genova Lab Focus: Eukaryotic Pathogens and their interaction with the host. The long-term goal of the research is to develop efficacious therapies against parasites while learning basic biology.
Paola Peña Garcia (CMB): “From Wheeze to Ease: How Weight Loss Reduces Inflammation in the Lung”
My presentation is about my thesis work which focuses on understanding how obesity contributes to asthma severity, with the goal of identifying more effective treatment targets. Asthmatic patients who are obese often have poorly managed symptoms compared to their normal weight counterparts, even with increased doses of standard treatments. Individuals that lose more than 5% of their body weight significantly improve their asthma management so that they often come off their medications. We examined the effect of obesity on airway inflammatory responses by utilizing a model system of airway epithelial cells (the cells that line the airway) and samples collected from asthmatic and non-asthmatic obese patients that were undergoing bariatric surgery for weight loss. Overall, we confirmed in our cohort that patients lose a substantial amount of weight and have improved lung function after surgery. We also found that plasma, but not factors derived from abdominal fat, differentially affect airway epithelial cell inflammatory responses, with plasma from before surgery eliciting less inflammatory responses than plasma from after surgery. This demonstrates that weight loss affects factors in the circulation that directly and beneficially impact the airway. The data suggests that weight loss and methods that may elicit the benefits of weight loss can be used as therapeutic targets for the treatment of obese asthma.
Larner College of Medicine faculty mentor: Matthew Poynter, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine, Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine
Poynter Lab Focus: Investigate the crosstalk between the airway epithelium and resident or inflammatory leukocytes in the initiation and modulation of innate and adaptive immune responses.
Learn more about the Larner-affilated graduate programs mentioned in this post: Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Sciences (CMB) Doctoral Program; AND Neuroscience Graduate Program; View all other UVM Graduate Programs.