We were so lucky to have Abril Romero (from New Mexico State University) and Jadah Forbes (from Delaware State University) join us this summer as part of UC Irvine’s Summer Institute of Neuroscience program. Within 8 weeks, these two stellar student researchers worked with their mentors, Vi Dang and Nini Liu, to complete a research project and present it at the Summer Institute of Neuroscience conference.

Abril and Jadah have become a part of the Flanagan Lab family and we will miss them as they journey home. We wish them the best and know they will be doing great thing in the years to come!

 

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Congratulations Kirsten Ha and Nicole Lav!

We seriously have some of the hardest working, high achieving undergraduate researchers. Here are some captures of Kirsten and Lav at the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Symposium! We already that you’ll be doing amazing things in the future. A special shoutout to their mentor, Dr. Alan Jiang, for both training and inspiring these undergrads to accomplish such amazing work.

 

Congratulations to Kirsten Ha for being awarded the UROP fellowship!

 AND Nicole Lav for being chosen as a finalist in the UROP Symposium plus being awarded the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) fellowship!

Congratulations Dr. Gutierrez!! 🎉

One of our MSTP graduate students, Brenda Gutierrez, defended her thesis in April 2023! We are so proud of all of the accomplishments that she has had both in our lab and as an advocate for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the UC Irvine community. This summer, Brenda is going back to medical school and we will miss her fun and loving energy.

Wishing you the best, Brenda!

Congratulations Dr. Alan Jiang!!

Alan Jiang successfully defended his thesis on November 10th, 2022. Alan has been a pivotal member of the Flanagan Lab since he entered the lab during his undergraduate career. His mentorship and scientific intellect has taught and inspired past and present undergraduate and graduate students. We are so proud of Alan and all he has accomplished in the field of neural stem cells, cancer research and dielectrophoresis (DEP). Best of luck, Alan, in your future endeavors ~

This year, we had the grandest Halloween our lab has ever seen! Our day started off with the Halloween desk decorating competition where we got to see our creative sides shine. We also entered many a costume contest where dressed up as different members from Kim Possible and as none other than our own PI for the SCRC Halloween potluck!! (So many Lisas!) After winning said competitions, we’d like to give a special thanks to Jazmine Moore who organized all the events and costumes!! Can’t wait to see what we can do next year.

 

 

Brenda Gutierrez has recently received the MD/PhD Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Champion Award from UCI School of Medicine. We are so proud of her commitment to the recruitment and retention of students, faculty and senior administrative staff who represent our diverse communities!

One of our new graduate students, Vi Dang, is already making waves in the Flanagan Lab. She has just received the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Training Grant and will be continuing her work on glioblastoma and cancer stem cells! Best of luck to you Vi and all the great work that you’re doing!!

The Flanagan lab family is actually a lot bigger than you might realize. Here are some of the unsung heroes that have helped us get through failed assays, exams, and unending optimization experiments.

We have some awesome undergraduate students! Back in May, Nicole Lav was selected to present her research the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) UCI Undergraduate Research Symposium. We are so proud of all the work she has accomplished with her mentor, Alan Jiang.

The Flanagan Lab was also fortunate enough to have Carly Rodriguez join us this summer all the way from Ursinus College in Philadelphia. She was part of Summer Institute in Neuroscience and her mentor was Brenda Gutierrez. Carly has an excellent work ethic and was so much fun to have in our lab. We wish her the best in her future endeavors!