Dori was recognized as one of the newest endowed chairs at UMass Chan Medical School!
The Offices of the Chancellor and University Events host the Special Investiture Ceremony for the newest endowed chairs at UMass Chan Medical School.
Check it out!
Pat and Travis gave an UMPA Science Cafe public outreach seminar describing our lab’s work on how microglia remodel brain circuits during normal development and disease.
Congratulations Jacob and Tsuyoshi!
Out now in Immunological Reviews
Nucleic acid sensing in the central nervous system: Implications for neural circuit development, function, and degeneration
Stillman JM, Kiniwa T, Schafer DP
DOI: 10.1111/imr.13420
PMID: 39503567.
Most Enthusiastic Halloween Lab!
Schafer Lab Pumpkin Carving Outing!
Congratulations to Melanie and Echo!
Cheers to Melanie and Echo who passed their Qualifying Exam in the Academic Year 2023-24. They were recognized for their progression into doctoral candidacy.
Congratulations Travis!
Out now in The Journal of Neuroscience
Glial Control of Cortical Neuronal Circuit Maturation and Plasticity
Faust TE, Devlin BA, Farhy-Tselnicker I, Ferro A, Postolache M, and Xin W
doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1208-24.2024.
PMID: 39358028
Congratulations to Dori on her award!
Congratulations to Dori on being one of the newest endowed chairs at UMass Chan Medical School! She will hold the UMass Chan Medical School Chair in Biomedical Research I, generously funded by the UMass Memorial Health and UMass Foundation.
Welcome Clarisse!
The Schafer lab is lucky to have Clarisse Skende join our lab as a research associate! She is a recent graduate of John Hopkins and interested in attending medical school in the future.
Summer outing!
Schafer lab had fun on STEM day at Polar Park. Cheer on the Woo Sox!
Welcome Anna!
Schafer was lucky to have Anna Aristarkhova join us as a MD/PhD student!
Congratulations to Jacob on his award!
PhD candidate Jacob Stillman receives a F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral National Research Service Award for multiple sclerosis research.
Schafer Lab Summer Outing!
Schafer lab having a great time celebrating Violeta and Becca’s baby shower
Congratulation Philip for earning his MD/PhD degree!
Congratulating Philip for earning his MD/PhD and receiving The Provost's Award and Catherine Miers Zurier Memorial Award in the process. You are a star!
Congratulations Becca and Pablo!
Cheers to the recipients of the mentor award from the graduate school!
Congratulations Becca and Pat!
Out now in Current Opinion in Neurobiology
Microglia phagocytic mechanisms: Development informing disease
Beiter RM, Sheehan PW, Schafer DP.
DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2024.102877
PMID: 38631077
Dori, Chun-Wei, Pat, Violeta and Pablo showed off their exciting work at the American Society for Neurochemistry annual meeting in April 2024. Saw some wonderful presentations and received great feedback on our work!
Congratulations to Melanie and Echo on passing their qualifying exam!
Schafer lab celebrating with Melanie and Echo.
Congratulations to Dori!
Congratulations to Dori for receiving the Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences Rising Star Award. Dr. Schafer helped delineate the mechanisms that propagate inflammation in neurodegenerative disease.
Congratulations to Philip on his match!
Congratulations to Philip Feinberg for matching at UMass Chan Medical School for Anesthesiology
Congratulations to Melanie on her award!
Congratulations to Melanie for receiving a Transdisciplinary Training in Cardiovascular Research NHLBI T32.
Congratulations to Pat on his award!
Congratulations to Pat for receiving a Marian Kies Memorial Award for his outstanding research conducted during graduate training from ASN!
Congratulations Violeta and Dori!
Out now in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Microglia: Activity-dependent regulators of neural circuits
Durán Laforet V, Schafer DP.
DOI: 10.1111/nyas.15105.
PMID: 38294960
Congratulations to Pat on his award!
Congratulations to Pat for receiving a National MS Society postdoctoral fellowship
Winter holiday party
Congratulations to Becca on her award!
Congratulations to Becca for receiving a Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32) from NINDS
Travis, Violeta, Jacob, and Eva did a great job presenting at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in Washington D.C. Stay tuned for their exciting work!
Congratulations Jacob, Francisco, and colleagues!
Out now in Nature Communications
Lipofuscin-like autofluorescence within microglia and its impact on studying microglial engulfment
Stillman, Lopes, et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42809-y
PMID: 37923732
Congratulations Jacob!
Celebrating with the lab after Jacob and Francisco’s paper is accepted in Nature Communications.
Schafer Lab go apple picking at Nashoba Winery!
Congratulations Eva!
Eva was recognized at the UMass Chan QE ceremony for passing her qualifying exam in March.
Congratulations Travis, Philip, and colleagues!
Out now in Cell Reports
A comparative analysis of microglial inducible Cre lines
Faust, Feinberg, et al
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113031
PMID: 37635351
Schafer Lab outing to cheer on the Woo Sox on STEM day at Polar Park.
Congratulations to Jacob Stillman on being awarded another year of funding on the autoimmunity and autoinflammation training grant!
Congratulations!
Celebrating with the lab after Travis and Philip’s paper was accepted in Cell Reports.
Summer outing!
The Schafer lab enjoyed an afternoon of minigolf and ice cream at Kimball Farms.
Congratulations to Violeta on her award!
Violeta Durán Laforet was awarded the 2023 Faculty Award for Outstanding Contributions to Trainee Mentoring and Professional Advancement by a Postdoctoral Associate
Congratulations to Eva on passing her qualifying exam!
Welcome Johana!
The Schafer lab was lucky to have Johana Cela join us as a research associate this week.
Happy Birthday!
Jacob and Violeta happily share birthday cupcakes.
Enjoying the fall weather in central Massachusetts after the annual UMass Chan Research Retreat.
Congratulations to Philip Feinberg for completion of his PhD thesis and the publication of his research in JNeurosci!
Follow the link below to read his work on “Elevated TNF-α Leads to Neural Circuit Instability in the Absence of Interferon Regulatory Factor 8”
Celebrating postdoc Sebastian Werneburg’s forthcoming new position as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan! Stay tuned for more amazing science from Sebastian.
Sadly wishing a fond farewell to Shannon Becker, our incomparable technician and lab manager
Shannon is headed to Virginia to pursue her medical education.
Postdoc Violeta Durán Laforet was awarded a fellowship from the BrightFocus Foundation. Congratulations!!
Congratulations to Francisco Lopes on successfully defending his Master’s thesis from NOVA Medical School with the highest honors!
Francisco did his Master’s thesis in the Schafer lab on microglia and immune memory
Excited to be adding two talented people to the Schafer lab: Ph.D. student Yi-Han (Eva) Lee and postdoc Tsuyoshi Kiniwa
Congratulations to Violeta Durán Laforet for receiving an Alzheimer’s Association International Research Fellowship Grant
Happy Holidays!
Congratulations! 2nd year PhD student Jacob Stillman won the poster prize at the UMass Chan Research Retreat
Congratulations to Anya Song and her co-authors on their new paper in Nature!
Read “A lymphocyte-microglia-astrocyte axis in chronic active multiple sclerosis” by Absinta et al. here:
Wishing our technician Lauren Merritt a fond farewell as she starts her new position at Atalanta Therapeutics
Celebrating the lab’s newest PhD. Congrats Georgia Gunner on a successful thesis defense!
Proudly congratulating Dr. Erica Mondo for receiving the Outstanding Thesis Award for her graduate work on juxtavascular microglia.
Werneburg et al. was selected by Immunity as one of the “Best in Immunity 2020”!!!
Dr. Erica Mondo was nominated by the GSBS as a finalist for the UMMS Chancellor’s Award! Congratulations!!!
March 2021: Meet Jacob Stillman and Chun-Wei Chen, the Schafer Lab’s 2 new grad students.
February 2021: The Schafer Lab welcomes 2 new postdocs - Dr. Violeta Duran Laforet and Dr. Leeyup Chung
Dr. Schafer was promoted to Associate Professor. Congratulations, Dori!
2020-2021: The Schafer Lab is looking to hire new post docs as well as accepting new graduate students!
Congratulations!!
Dr. Erica Mondo successfully completely her thesis defense on August 26, 2020!
See her Jneurosci paper “A Developmental Analysis of Juxtavascular Microglia Dynamics and Interactions with the Vasculature” by following the link below!
A socially distanced farewell to our technician Jonathan! He starts graduate school at UMMS this fall!
Congratulations, Erica and colleagues!
Mondo et al now available as an accepted manuscript in JNeurosci!
Dr. Dorothy P. Schafer and Dr. Jean A. Frazier receive funding for their collaborative project “Human-derived Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) to Study Microglial Cells in the Context of Autism Spectrum Disorder" from the Dan and Diane Riccio Fund for Neuroscience
Graduate student Anya Song passed her Qualifying Exam on June 22,2020! Congratulations, Anya!
Congratulations to our post doc Dr. Ivelisse Cruz Torres on being selected to the 2020 associates cohort of the Society for Neuroscience Scholars Program!
Erica Mondo has been selected for the GSBS Student Mentoring Award! She will receive her award during the virtual GSBS commencement ceremony on May 31, 2020.
Congratulations to our technician Jonathan Jung on being accepted into the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UMass Medical School!
Congratulations to Georgia on receiving F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship funding!
Philip awarded Outstanding Program Contribution as well as Best Poster at the UMMS MD/PhD Annual Reserach Retreat! Congratulations!
Snow Tubing Lab Outing to celebrate Sebastian and Jonathan’s paper in Immunity!
Congratulations, Sebastian and colleagues!
Out now in Immunity
Werneburg et al
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2019.12.004
Targeted Complement Inhibition at Synapses Prevents Microglial Synaptic Engulfment and Synapse Loss in Demyelinating Disease
Congratulations to Philip Feinberg on being awarded a Predoctoral Fellowship from Autism Speaks!
Congratulations to Dori on her 2019 Freedman Prize Honorable Mention from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation!
Interns present their data to the lab!
2019 summer undergraduate interns Tete Brenda Thomas and Meggan Mwangi spent 8-10 weeks in the Schafer laboratory working on microglia-related projects and presented their findings on July 25th.
Gunner et al., is out now in Nature Neuroscience June 17, 2019!
DOI: 10.1038/s41593-019-0419-y.
Congratulations to Georgia Gunner for being selected by the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences program as the outstanding mid-thesis research awardee for 2019! Well deserved! - May 2019
The following paper is in press with Nature Neuroscience. Congrats to Georgia and everyone involved!
Sensory lesioning induces microglial synapse elimination via ADAM10 and fractalkine signaling
Authors: Georgia Gunner, Lucas Cheadle#, Kasey M. Johnson#, Pinar Ayata, Ana Badimon, Erica Mondo, M. Aurel Nagy, Liwang Liu, Shane M. Bemiller, Ki-Wook Kim, Sergio A. Lira, Bruce T. Lamb, Andrew R. Tapper, Richard M. Ransohoff, Michael E. Greenberg, Anne Schaefer and Dorothy P. Schafer*
Anya Song has joined the lab as the newest graduate student - Welcome!
- April 2019
Yankee Swap at annual Schafer Lab holiday party - December 2018
We welcome new postdoc Travis Faust to the lab!
- November 2018
Schafer Lab goes on their annual Fall apple picking adventure! - October 2018
Congrats to graduate student Georgia Gunner who was recognized for successfully completing her qualifying exams earlier this year!
- September 2018
Graduate student Erica Mondo was awarded the NIH/NRSA T32 innate immunity training grant for the second year in a row. Congrats Erica!
- August 2018
Schafer Lab takes a trip to Six Flags New England - June 2018
We say goodbye to Anoushka and welcome to Shannon who is starting as a new research technician - June 2018
Congrats to Georgia Gunner on passing her qualifying exam! - April 2018
We welcome Jonathan Jung as a new research technician to the lab! February 2018
Congrats to Dr. Schafer and her family on the birth of their beautiful baby girl!
Welcome Avery!
Liam is excited to be a big brother!
The Schafer lab celebrates the holidays with a Yankee Swap and some bowling (accompanied by the Byrne lab)! - December 2017
The Schafer lab goes apple picking! - October 2017
We welcome Amanda Kautzman as a new postdoc in the lab! - October 2017
MD/PhD student Philip Feinberg was awarded the predoctoral clinical and translational sciences training grant. Congrats Philip! - October 2017
Recipient of Adelson Medical Research Foundation Funding - October 2017
Graduate student Erica Mondo was awarded the T32 innate immunity training grant. Congrats Erica! - September 2017
Graduate students Erica Mondo and Philip Feinberg are recognized for successfully completing qualifying exams earlier this year! Congrats to both Erica and Philip! - September 2017
Recipient of R21 from NIMH - September 2017
