Some recent good fortune for the Chapkin Lab in the past few months.  We are pleased to report that a new NIH R21CA245456 grant “Diet and the colonic exfoliome: A novel, non-invasive approach to testing interventions in humans”, which leverages our novel non-invasive transcriptomics (exfoliomics) platform in relation to humans fed a chemoprotective diet, was funded in January, 2020.

The second piece of good new relates to the validation of our groundbreaking work on a membrane therapeutics approach to target cancer stem cells.  Our NIH RO1 CA244359 grant, “Targeting plasma membrane spatial dynamics to suppress aberrant Wnt signaling” will also be funded. It received a priority score = 11, placing it in the 1^st percentile!  I believe that these efforts reflect the best work generated by the Chapkin lab to date, and we anticipate that our seminal discoveries in cancer biology, computational biology, disease prediction, and single cell analyses, will be highly cited in the years to come.

Chapkin et al discuss how several dietary constituents implicated in colorectal cancer are modified by gut microbial metabolism, and how highly fermentable fiber and n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) may alter critical pathways critical to colorectal cancer prevention.

Chapkin co-edits a special issue of Digestive Diseases and Sciences providing a broad perspective of the role of the human microbiome in health, chonic disease risk, and prevention.

Our own N. Roberto Fuentes, Jr., PhD, delivered the keynote address at the TAMUS Pathways to the Doctorate Symposium in Laredo, TX. Robert was a Pathways fellow in the Chapkin Lab, completed his PhD in Toxicology, and is currently a T32 Postdoctoral Fellow in the Toxicology program. In January he starts a new chapter as a postdoctoral fellow with MD Anderson Cancer Center. Congratulations, Robert!

Robert competed in the Biomedical category and placed 2nd with his poster entitled: Elucidating the impact of environmental chemicals and membrane-targeted dietary bioactives on EGFR nanocluster formation

Two graduate students from the Chapkin and Ivanov Labs at Texas A&M University have been awarded a HEEP Graduate Fellowship sponsored by the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study. 

The HEEP Graduate Fellowship is awarded to those who demonstrate outstanding academic performance, research ability, and potential leadership qualities.

Both Destiny Mullens and Michael Salinas will be working with Dr. Sharon Donovan, incoming Hagler Faculty Fellow from the University of Illinois, Champaign.  The Chapkin lab, Dr. Donovan and collaborators (Dr. Ivan Ivanov, Dr. Irina Gaynanova, and Dr. Grace Yoon) will systematically integrate genomic data from both the infant (host mucosa) and gut microbiota in order to define host-microbe gene-diet interactions within the context of the structure and functionality of gut microbial communities.