Spring 2025 Trainee Accomplishments
CIEHS proudly celebrates the achievement of outstanding trainees from Spring 2025. Their dedication to research and service exemplifies the mission of our Center. Congratulations to all!
Dakotah Cathey (Lu Cai Laboratory / Jiapeng Huang Mentor)
- Recipient of the 2025 Student Community Impact and Service Award for Graduate Students.
- Awarded an American Heart Association grant as Principal Investigator for the project “Study Metallomics in Pulmonary Hypertension using Advanced Machine Learning.”
Morgan Delnicki (Jamie Wise Laboratory)
- Received both a CIEHS Travel Award and a Graduate Student Council (GSC) Travel Award, which supported her attendance at the 2025 Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
Frederick Ekuban (Matthew Cave Laboratory)
- Appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, School of Medicine
- Featured in Toxicological Sciences’ Spotlight for a recent publication "Perfluorooctane sulfonate exposure and alcohol-associated liver disease severity in a mouse chronic-binge ethanol feeding model". See post on LinkedIn.
Daniel Gomes (Timothy O’Toole Laboratory)
- Featured in Toxicological Sciences’ Spotlight for a recent publication "Inhalation of Concentrated Ambient PM2.5 (CAP) Promotes Inactivation of Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase, Telomere Shortening, and Senescence of Multiple Cell Types in Mic". See post on LinkedIn.
Gabby Griffin (Jamie Wise Laboratory)
- Successfully defended both her Master’s and Ph.D. proposal.
- T32 Predoctoral Fellowship Awardee.
- Recipient of the 2025 Award for Excellence from the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology.
- Earned 1st Place in the RSESS Graduate Student Award at the Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting.
Kara Gouwens (Bradford Hill Laboratory)
- Successfully defended her dissertation in May 2025 and will return to her M3 year of medical school.
Idoia Meaza (John Wise, Sr Laboratory)
- Selected as the Spring 2025 recipient of the Guy Stevenson Award for Excellence in Graduate Studies.
- Carried the graduate banner during Spring Commencement and delivered the student speech at the Hooding Ceremony. More about the award
Daniel Nguyen (Bradford Hill Laboratory)
- Earned his Ph.D. in May 2025 and will return to his M3 year of medical school.
- Awarded the prestigious John Richard Binford Memorial Award, presented to the doctoral degree recipient who excels in both scholarship and leadership.
Belinda Petri (Carolyn Klinge Laboratory)
- Received 1st Place in the Bioinformatics/Data Science Poster Award at the KY INBRE Annual Research Conference.
- Delivered a talk at WKU’s Data Science Day (April 8) on m6A in toxicant-induced liver disease.
Justin Xu (Madhavi Rane Laboratory)
- Successfully defended his senior thesis on April 1, 2025: “Effects of Cadmium and Diet on Metal Accumulation and Kidney Cell Death Pathways.”
Collin Wells (Bradford Hill Laboratory)
- Successfully defended his dissertation in May 2025.
- Will be joining Dr. Tim McKinsey’s laboratory as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Colorado.