Our PhD students all earned summer fellowships this year! Congratulations to all these students on their awards (in alphabetical order):

• Devan Chancey, 1st year, 2026 Antonio H. & Marjorie J. Romano Graduate Education Fellowship
• Maria Lovallo, 1st year, 2026 Antonio H. & Marjorie J. Romano Graduate Education Fellowship
• Sarah Pasqualetti, 5th year, 2026 Carolyn M. Teschke and Todd E. Garabedian MCB PhD Dissertation Fellowship
• Megan Teigen, 2nd year, 2026 Jean Lucas-Lenard Special Summer Fellowship in Molecular and Cell Biology
• Caroline Vieira da Silva, 5th year, 2026 Jean Lucas-Lenard Special Summer Fellowship in Biochemistry

Sarah Pasqualetti and Caroline Vieira da Silva were also awarded the Summer Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from The Graduate School as both plan to defend their PhD theses in the spring of 2027. 

These awards are an indication of the progress these students have made in their projects. Well deserved, everyone!

The Milligan-McClellan lab was fortunate to receive multiple honors and awards this year! Lab members who were awarded included Sarah Pasqualetti (PhD), Jolie Atwood (Undergraduate), and Caroline Vieira Da Silva (PhD). Sarah Pasqualetti and Caroline Vieira Da Silva received the 2024 Antonio and Marjorie Romano Graduate Education fellowship. Jolie Atwood received the 2024 Todd M. Schuster Award in Molecular and Cell Biology. We are incredibly proud of these students and their achievements this year!

In addition to the awards received, two students from the Milligan-McClellan lab officially passed their 3rd year proposal defense. The two students, Sarah Pasqualetti and Caroline Vieira Da Silva, presented on proposed thesis work for their doctoral projects. Sarah’s proposal was titled “Microbes and their Interactions within the Gasterosteus aculeatus Microbiome that Contribute to Plastic Degrading Potential”. Carol’s project was titled “Investigating the Surface Layer Protein and Outer Membrane Vesicles in Aeromonas veronii”. We are incredibly proud of these students and their success in their 3rd year proposals!

Congratulations to Jolie Atwood for earning the Office of Undergraduate Research Supply Funding for her project! Jolie will use this funding to identify microbes from our collection of over 400 microbes that have the ability to break down plastics. We are excited to see what she finds!

Thanks to folks at UConn, especially Susan Vining in MCB, we now have a new website! We have removed broken links, updated biographies, added some new resources, and are ready to relaunch. Our previous website will be redirected to this website. Keep an eye on this space for news from our lab as we grow into our UConn space.