Author: Jean Paul Chadarevian

Pedagogical Fellows are a group of productive apprentice scholars who also have an interest in providing superlative instruction in their roles as Teaching Assistants.

Fellows are selected through a competitive process based on teaching evaluations, letters of recommendation, and demonstrated interest in pedagogy. They commit to additional coursework and training in order to learn more about pedagogy in higher education, educational trends, and how to better prepare for the academic job market. They also provide an important service to the academic community by designing and implementing discipline-specific training for new TAs in their departments and Schools.

With their skills, experience, and increased self-confidence, the Pedagogical Fellows have been successful in securing professorial and professional positions in which they are interested.

Congratulations Morgan Coburn!

Examining how the TREM2 R47H mutation effects microglial lipid content and the interactions between human microglia and AD pathology within the brain

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior, and so far we don’t understand this disease well enough to find a cure to help these patients. In our proposal, we want to increase our understanding of this disease by studying microglia, the resident immune cells of the brain, and a gene called TREM2 which when mutated can significantly increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Our recent studies show that when we transplant healthy human stem cell-derived microglia carrying a normal version of TREM2 into the brain of Alzheimer mice that develop amyloid plaques (a main characteristic of this disease), human microglia near the plaques show similarities to peripheral ‘foam cells’, which are immune cells filled with lipids and linked with another disease called “atherosclerosis”. As TREM2 is a lipid-sensor expressed by microglia, we now want to study the lipid content and the reaction of human microglia that carry the TREM2 R47H mutation to amyloid plaques in this specialized mouse model, to greatly improve our understanding of how this mutation can increase Alzheimer’s risk, which will in turn allow scientists to find treatments that increase the functionality of microglia to protect our brain from the damage caused by these amyloid plaques.

The Rose Hills Foundation Scholarships will be awarded to meritorious graduate students who meet the following criteria are pursuing a graduate degree in the life or natural sciences, or engineering; are U.S. Citizens; and whose permanent address is in Southern California and reside South of the Tehachapi Mountains. Only students with University cumulative grade point averages of 3.5 or higher are considered.

Congratulations Morgan Coburn!