Announcements: 

The manuscript, "Tsc2 coordinates neuroprogenitor differentiation" is accepted at iScience! This project consisted of two talented teams including that of the Center for Human Genetics (Clemson University) and our laboratory. The Center for Human Genetics (directed by Dr. Mackay) provided outstanding expertise to employ state-of-the-art sequencing technologies and bioinformatics tools (Dr. Shankar) to determine at single cell resolution how neural stem cells that lose the gene Tsc2, which occurs in the genetic disorder TSC, causes growths called hamartomas in the brain. Led by primary author Tori Riley, the manuscript identified that mRNA transcript abundance is normally uncoupled from translation during key periods of development and differentiation. However, loss of Tsc2 prevents this uncoupling with mRNA translation leading to the abnormal transition of neural stem cell activation states and retention of stem-like phenotypes. This causes cells (glia) that normally are differentiated to produce neurons that comprise striatal hamartomas. These growths are reminiscent of subependymal giant cell astrocytomas (SEGAs) that occur in TSC patients. This transformative finding provides molecular and cellular mechanistic insight into how SEGAs form and leads to a paradigm shift in thinking about patient therapy. Congrats to Tori and the entire team! 

​

The laboratory attended and presented our most recent work on TSC patients at the 2023 International TSC Research Conference in Washington DC in September 2023. The TSC Alliance meeting had an amazing group of physicians, patients, advocates, scientists, companies, and agencies devoted to the same mission, curing TSC. The laboratory is honored to share this mission.

​

Reports from the National Defense Technical Information Center U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command regarding pipelines and plans are now published.

​

The new editorial from Dr. Feliciano entitled, "Do Neural Stem Cell Extracellular Vesicles Help EVade Depression?" in the journal Neuroscience is scheduled to be published soon.

​

A new Frontier in understanding the complex integrative neurobiology and behavior of humans and mammals arrived in 2022. Named as an editorial contributor for Nervous System and Cognate Behaviors at Frontiers in Mammal Science Dr. Feliciano published a review entitled, "Modeling Genetic Mosaicism of the Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Pathway in the Cerebral Cortex". This review discusses mutations that arise during development of the cerebral cortex and discusses the implications in neurological disorders but also allow in behavioral plasticity.​

​

The laboratory is pleased to announce a new project sponsored by the Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Alliance.  For details about this amazing foundation and mission, please visit https://www.tscalliance.org/.

​

The laboratory welcomes Selia Chowdhury to the laboratory. Selia is the fourth rotation student from our new program to join the lab. 

​

Dr. Feliciano presented recent findings on brain development and developmental disorders at the Greenwood Genetics Center as part of the NIH  COBRE. 

​

Dr. Feliciano and Tori Riley will be at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting. https://www.sfn.org/meetings/neuroscience-2022 

​

Congrats to Tori and Jen and Aidan for the manuscript entitled, "Tsc2 shapes olfactory bulb granule cell molecular and morphological characteristics"!

​

Congrats to Victoria Neckles for accepting a position at Johns Hopkins University.

​

Please join Victoria Neckles as she defends here thesis titled, "The characterization of microglia in the murine dorsal telencephalon in development and disease" on October 21st, 2022 at 10:00 am:

​

Please find TIGER mice at Jackson Labs here: https://www.jax.org/strain/033361

​

Congrats to everyone that participated at the COBRE in Human Genetics Summer Symposium 2022 held in collaboration between Clemson University and Greenwood Genetics Center. Posters from Tori, Victoria, Melanie, and Jen were amazing! 

​

Tori Riley and Dr. Feliciano presented talks on neural stem cells and neurons, respectively at the TSC-Associated Neuropsychiatric Disorders (TAND) international minisymposium on April 21, 2022! 

​

Congrats to Melanie Garcia and Tori Riley for being awarded a Graduate Travel Grant (GTG) to attend this year's Society for Developmental Biology Regional meeting at UNC Chapel Hill!

​

Congrats to Dr. Sokolov for accepting a position at Yale University: https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/aidan_sokolov/

​

The Feliciano lab is excited to announce that they have joined the Center for Human Genetics (https://scienceweb.clemson.edu/chg/) to collaborate with COBRE members on a new direction under the leadership of Dr. Trudy Frances Charlene Mackay.

​

It is with the greatest enthusiasm that we announce that Dr. Feliciano will be working with Dr. Maria K. Lehtinen at Boston Children's Hospital for sabbatical. Dr. Lehtinen's ground breaking work has revolutionized the way that the scientific and medical community view cerebrospinal fluid and the choroid plexus.

​

Congrats to Victoria Neckles on publishing a review entitled, 

From seed to flower: blossoming of microglia in development and brain repair.

Neckles VN, Feliciano DM.

This review is part of a special issue with guest editor Prof. Dr. Christian Schachtrup, Cell Tissue Res.  print.

​

Excited to participate with Tori Riley and to attend and present at the TSC Research Conference 2021 17-19 June 2021.

​

We welcome our newest doctoral students Melanie Garcia and Sulagna Mukherjee! Congrats to the incoming 2021 graduate students on your admission to the program!
 

Congrats to Aidan Sokolov for defending his thesis! 

​

Our perspective on Slc7a5 regulation of neural development is out!

 

Congrats to Aidan Sokolov on his most recent publication in Human Molecular Genetics!

​

Congrats to Victoria Neckles on her most recent Fellowship award!

​

I am thankful and honored to contribute to Dr. Repressa's collection and to provide my perspective on "The Neurodevelopmental Pathogenesis of Tuberous Sclerosis Complex".

​

We are pleased to announce our attendance and presentations of ASD related work to the South Carolina Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Consortium 03/20/2020. We're excited to listen about the research progress in the field and to identify ways to help strengthen ASD research.

​

We are pleased to announce that we have recently been awarded a grant to study Tuberous Sclerosis Complex.

​

Congrats to Ph.D. candidate Victoria Riley for being awarded her first fellowship!

​

Congrats to Aidan Sokolov on his second  scientific grant and to Sigma Xi for further support of this research!

​

http://newsstand.clemson.edu/mediarelations/tiger-mouse-debuts-as-model-for-neurological-ailments/

​

I am honored to speak at the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development - Wayne State University School of Medicine on March 20th 2019.

​

Congrats to Victoria and the rest of the lab on publishing in Nature Scientific Reports the manuscript entitled "A transgenic inducible GFP extracellular-vesicle reporter (TIGER) mouse illuminates neonatal cortical astrocytes as a source of immunomodulatory extracellular vesicles". These mice and this paper are half a decade worth of effort. We are especially thankful to Dr. Nottoli at Yale University for his work, guidance, and expertise! 

​

Welcome Victoria Riley. Victoria is a doctoral student from Michigan.

​

The laboratory has been awarded a grant with Dr. Pingshan Wang entitled, "Cellular rectification of electrical stimulation fields".

​

Congrats to Ph.D. candidate Aidan for being awarded his first fellowship!

​

I am thankful to the organizers of the CSH Asia conference Dr. Raghu Kalluri, Dr. Graca Raposo, and Li Yu.  It was an adventure filled trip of a lifetime. I learned about so many wonderful research projects and labs doing inspiring, innovative, and impactful research! http://www.csh-asia.org/2018meetings/extra.html

​

Congratulations to Mary for earning her Ph.D.! Mary was a Ph.D. student from 2014-2018. We look forward to reading great science in the future.

​

We are excited to be embarking on a new bioinformatic voyage! Details will soon emerge.

 

Can't wait to visit University of Georgia neuroscience program this October 2018 to talk brains!

 

Thrilled to visit USC this coming September 2018 to share a talk about our new EV tool that we've been working to image using CLARITY at their core facility.

​

November 2018 we are honored to meet with extracellular vesicle visionaries and to present data at Cold Spring Harbor Asia located in Suzhou, China.

​

Congrats to PhD student Mary Morton on "Best overall talk" at the regional SEDB meeting. For more winners, please visit: https://sesdb.uga.edu/

​

Three presentations will be made this coming May by our graduate students during our annual pilgrimage to the southeast regional developmental biology 2018 meeting at UGA.

​

Our research is discussed  with Hannah Halusker and Wanda Johnson as a mechanism to convey our findings to a broader audience as seen here: http://newsstand.clemson.edu/mediarelations/new-research-points-toward-mechanism-that-regulates-brain-immune-cells/

​

The extracellular vesicle team has released a powerful study on exosomes in the developing brain. http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(18)30379-6

​

The most recent manuscript from our lab is officially up. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304394018300971)

​

Off to DC Nov 6-7 for ExRNA ERCC9 and to speak with the trans-NIH exRNA Project Team. 

​

Excited to be visiting Washington D.C. and once again share our work at that annual Society for Neuroscience meeting.  

 

I am thankful to present our work entitled, "Identifying Mechanisms and Therapeutic Approaches for Tuberous Sclerosis Complex and mTOR-Dependent Neurodevelopmental Disorders" at Michigan State University School of Medicine, Van Andel Institute, and The Helen Devos Hospital for Sick Children.

​

We are excited to share our research and check out what is new at the southeast regional developmental biology meeting at Kennesaw University 5/19/17.

​

Please help to congratulate our very own Caitlin Seluzicki on being named an Astronaut and Goldwater Scholar.

​

An enormous thanks to the Yale Transgenic Core Facility and to Charles River for their extraordinary team of scientists that have turned our dream of generating a cell specific and inducible fluorescent marker of extracellular vesicles into a reality! 

​

For information regarding our most recent NIH Grant see below: Announcement: http://newsstand.clemson.edu/mediarelations/clemson-scientist-receives-442000-grant-to-study-molecular-causes-of-autism-and-epilepsy/?utm_source=homepage

 

Excited to be sharing our latest findings on Monday 10/24/2016 at University of Georgia (Athens). 

​

We are excited to announce that we are the recipients of an NIH grant to study developmental regulation of the mTOR pathway.  

​

We will be attending SFN 2016 to present on a neurodevelopmental source of exosomes.

​

We welcome two new students to the laboratory this summer for participation in the NSF REU Phenome to Genome project.

 

March 1-6 we'll be in Cancun Mexico to attend the Neurogenesis Conference Implications for Lifelong Development and Disease http://www.fusion-conferences.com/conference35.php?utm_source=o&utm_medium=e&utm_campaign=m178

 

We participated in the 35th annual Neurobiology of Disease Workshop. It was an amazing event put on by a group of amazing scientists and clinicians. It started with an interview with a 3 year old with TSC. It ended with a statement by a scientist, that inspired the discovery of the Huntington gene. I am humbled and inspired by their stories. 

 

Our laboratory is honored and grateful to be awarded a WHITEHALL FOUNDATION grant for the next three years to facilitate the generation  of an intercellular protomap of the developing brain. 

 

Join us October 17th-21st in Chicago for the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting. We were chosen to speak about our identification and in vivo manipulations of a novel protein implicated in brain development and neuropathologies including epilepsy and intellectual delay.

 

Excited to be contributing to a special issue for a great journal that will be published this September! Check back for more news ...

 

August, 2015, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press will officially publish "Neurogenesis". I feel honored to have contributed to this book (chapter 8, Angelique Bordey (Yale University) and  Luca Bonfanti  (NICO Neuroscience Institute, Turin, Italy). It was nearly 7 years ago that I received "Adult Neurogenesis" as a graduation present. I can't wait to read the new book this summer! For more information, visit the CSHLP website. Edited by Fred H. Gage, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, California; Gerd Kempermann, Center for Regenerative Therapies, Dresden, Germany; Hongjun Song, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.

 

The Feliciano lab is helping to organize the Southeast Regional Developmental Biology meeting held at Clemson University. A wonderful group of scientists will present their findings from May 11-13th 2015. For more information on the meeting including attendance, abstract submission, and lodging please visit the website: http://www.clemson.edu/cafls/departments/biosci/sesdb/index.html

Our lab members will be presenting two posters and I'll be giving a talk on our recent work on the mTOR pathway and development of the cerebral cortex.

 

Community Gatherings

April 3rd, 2015: Attend the Genetics and Biochemistry Seminar Series to hear about our new findings.

 

November 2014: Thanks to all those at this years Society for Neuroscience meeting that met with us and visited our poster.

 

June 21, 2014: Join the TS Alliance of the Carolinas for an Educational Meeting with guest speaker Dr. David Feliciano of Clemson University. Dr. Feliciano will present on his research on the mTor pathway and TSC. The meeting starts at 2 pm at Anderson County Public Library, 300 South McDuffie Street, Anderson, SC 29621.

 

​