Eslim, a first year Molecular Biology Graduate Program student, joins us for a lab rotation. She has extensive experience investigating developmental biology using zebrafish as a model system and we are excited to have her with us.

Raisa, Kim, Kris, and Sheila joined Bruce for a day at his Habit for Humanity volunteer build site in Arvada. 

Raisa and Bruce (and others from CU Dev Bio) ventured to Newport, Rhode Island to attend the GRS/GRC on Neural Development where Raisa presented a poster on her work investigating microglia in neural development and Bruce presented a platform talk.

Kim and Bruce braved the temptations of Las Vegas to attend the annual SDB conference where Kim presented a poster describing her investigations of Wnt signaling and OPC specification.

Natalie Carey, a member of the Neuroscience Graduate Program, successfully defended her Ph.D. in September 2026. She is now a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Jessica Nelson.

A team consisting of Bruce Appel, Professor and Head of the Section of Developmental Biology and Diane G. Wallach Chair of Pediatric Stem Cell Biology, Wendy Macklin, Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Santos Franco, Associate Professor of Developmental Biology, and Ethan Hughes, Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, received one of three 2025 CU ASPIRE awards. Their project, entitled, “Molecular Mechanisms of Activity-Regulated Myelination” aims to determine how neuronal activity regulates gene expression in myelinating glial cells.

We recieved a new NIMH R21 grant entitled, “A Synaptogenic Adhesion Code for Myelin Specificity”. This project aims to elucidate underlying causes of white matter abnormalities in neurodevelopmental disorders. This is our first grant from NIMH!