2020 Achievements and news

Won first place in the Graduate Student Association 15 Minute Oral Research Presentation,  Small Structure with a Big Impact category, with her talk about insights into a novel regulator of blood brain barrier dysfunction following traumatic brain injury.

Won first place in the Graduate Student Association Poster Presentation, Myths and Mysteries Unravelled category, with her poster on Improving blood flow through Eph4 inhibition as a novel stroke therapy. 

Defended his dissertation, "Eph-restriction of pial collateral remodeling after ischemic stroke." 

Won third place Postdoctoral Fellow Poster competition at The National Capital TBI Symposium, NIH.

Won third place Graduate student poster competition at The National Capital TBI Symposium, NIH.

Selected to participate in VT's 2019 OVPRI proposal development presentation.

Awarded 2019 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF).

Collaborative research featured in Virginia Tech News: Virginia Tech leads $2.6 million study of brain trauma, epilepsy connection

Receives Graduate School's outstanding mentor award

Receives Dannon® Gut Microbiome, Yogurt and Probiotics Fellowship Grant

Wins James C. Bradford Memorial Poster Award "Balancing the Maternal Microbiota-perinatal Neuroimmune Axis: Implications for Neurodevelopmental Disorders"

Is awarded the 2018-2019 Robert Jones Excellence Award for his proposal "Age-dependent effects on the peripheral immune transcriptome following traumatic brain injury."

Received top student poster award at the Central Virginia Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience conference in March 2018.

Receives 2018-2019 Fralin Undergraduate Research Fellowship to study "Microbiota dysbiosis in microglial development.

Is the winner of the World Rabies Day “Raffle for Rabies."

Awarded health research grant CVM-VCOM for the work entitled “Balancing the maternal microbiota-perinatal neuroimmune axis: Implications for neurodevelopmental disorders” to investigate the role of maternal microbiota on microglial and neurobehavioral development. Michelle Theus Co-PI with Terry Hrubec

Successfully defends his PhD dissertation: The Role of Age and Model Severity on Cortical Vascular Response Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Receives Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) F31 Fellowship to study the mechanisms regulation Eph-mediated Restriction of collateral remodeling after ischemic stroke

Receives the Spring 2017 Graduate Research Development Program (GRDP) award to study Role of maternal gut microbiome in neuroimmune development  

Receives ICTAS Junior Faculty Award, $60,000 per year for 2 years, effective July 2016.

Research featured in Virginia Tech News: Virginia Tech team investigates vascular health and traumatic brain injury with $1.7 million grant, March 2016.

Featured on Pulse of the Planet, a radio series providing two-minute sound portraits of Planet Earth, nature, culture, and science worldwide.

• Surviving Strokes, Airdate: Feb 11, 2016
  Why is it that some patients are able to survive a stroke and others are not?
• Strokes - Collaterals, Airdate: Feb 12, 2016
  After a stroke, a specialized network of blood vessels redirects the flow of blood in the brain.
• Drugs to Prevent Strokes, Airdate: Feb 15, 2016
  Scientists are trying to develop a drug that could help stroke patients maximize whatever bypass arteries they may have.

Wins 2016-17 Virginia Tech Center for Autism Research (VTCAR) Student Award

Awarded 3-year Diversity Supplement grant to study connexin and Eph receptor signaling in the hippocampal neurogenic niche with relation to cognitive dysfunction following traumatic brain injury.

Wins Best IMSD Graduate Presentation, 2016 Mid-Atlantic PREP/IMSD Research Symposium, Richmond, VA, May 2016.

Wins Outstanding PhD student presentation award, VA-MD Vet Med's 27th Annual Research Symposium, March 2016.

Wins American Society of Neural Therapy and Repair travel award, May 2015.

Wins Outstanding PhD student poster award, VA-MD Vet Med's 26th Annual Research Symposium, March 2015.

Wins Outstanding CVM Doctoral student award, March 2015.

Wins Silver Poster Presentation Award, Virginia Tech Research Symposium, April 2015.

Research featured in Virginia Tech News: Neuroscientist investigates how brain repairs itself after a stroke, March 2014.

Named Virginia Tech Scholar of the Week, Oct. 2014.

Is Virginia Tech’s featured graduate student, March 2014.