April 2020: The Lenz Lab has its first PhD graduate! DR. LARS NELSON successfully defended his PhD! Lars presented a beautiful body of work demonstrating the role that microglia play in program sex-specific organization of cell genesis, myelination, and behavioral development in the rodent. Despite COVID keeping us from celebrating properly, we are so proud of Lars and will miss him so very much. Lars will be going on to a fantastic postdoc position in the lab of Dr. Rui Peixoto at The University of Pittsburgh. Congrats, Lars!!!!!
August 2020: Lars Nelson was awarded a slot on the Training in Neuroimmunology T32 Program training grant, to support his dissertation year research.
May 2019: Congrats to graduate student co-authors Lars Nelson and Angela Saulsbery on our new review article now out in Progress in Neurobiology!
April 2019: Angela Saulsbery was selected to give an oral presentation of their research at the IBMR research day! Congrats, Angela.
February 2019: Dr. Lenz and Dr. Leuner’s R21 Award from NIMH is funded! Our labs will study the role of microglia and neuroimmune signaling in mediating the effects of stress during pregnancy on neuronal remodeling and key behavioral outcomes in new mother rats that echo the symptoms of postpartum depression. YAY!
October 2018: At long last, our work on mast cells as regulators of sexual differentiation is now published in Journal of Neuroscience. This is the culmination of long collaboration between Lenz and McCarthy labs and the heroic work of many awesome trainees, including Lindsay Pickett in the McCarthy lab. https://www.jneurosci.org/content/38/37/8044?_ga=2.35944169.875540200.1534432969-1211984461.1534432969
April 2018: Our newest review written by Lars and Katy is now published in Frontiers in Immunology. open access: https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2018.00698 Check it out if you are interested in reading a comprehensive overview of microglia in the developing brain.
August 2017: Katy co-authors a review on sex differences in Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Check it out here: https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn.2017.61.pdf?origin=ppub
August 2017: The Lenz Lab welcomes Angela Saulsbery, a new graduate student, who joins us from The University of Albany. Angela also won a prestigious 2 year fellowship to support their doctoral research in the Psychology department. Angela will be working on studying the role of mast cells in mediating the effects of early life stress on the developing brain. We are excited to have you, Angela!
March 2017: Our most recent series of studies on sex differences in hippocampal microglia during development is accepted for publication in Brain Behavior and Immunity. Congrats to first author Lars Nelson and co-author Spencer Warden!
March 2017: Undergraduate researcher in the lab Annemarie Krug is accepted to many PhD programs in microbiology, and will be attending the University of Illinois next year to pursue her interests in the microbiome. Congrats, Annemarie!
February 2017: Dr. Lenz has joined the Institute for Behavioral Medicine (IBMR) at OSU as an associate member.
January 2017: Two new undergraduate researchers join the lab: welcome Amraha Nadeem and Claire Dodson.
December 2016: Graduate student Lars Nelson passes his candidacy exam for the Neuroscience Graduate PhD program. Congrats, Lars!
November 2016: Our review article on sex differences in the neuroimmune system in the developing brain has been published in a special issue on brain sex differences in The Journal of Neuroscience Research. We are honored to have been included in such a high-profile and timely group of articles.
September 2016: Our study on the effects of early life microglial loss on the development of mood and social behavior has been published in Behavioural Brain Research. Congrats to first author Lars Nelson!
September 2016: Our collaborative paper with the Leuner lab on pregnancy-induced changes in microglia and their signaling is published in Brain Behavior and Immunity. Congrats to first author Achik Haim!
August 2016: Dr. Lenz gives a contributed talk at the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Annual Meeting in Montreal, Quebec.
May 2016: Graduate student Lars Nelson wins 1st place in the IGP graduate student symposium poster competition. Congrats, Lars!
May 2016: Graduate student Lars Nelson in the lab is selected to give an oral presentation on his research at the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences annual meeting in Philadelphia, PA.
March 2016: Two new undergraduate researchers join the lab: welcome Pavan Peketi and Douglas Vanderhoof.
February 2016: Former undergraduate researcher in the lab Aarohi Joshi has been hired as our new full-time research assistant/lab manager. We are glad to keep Aarohi around for a while longer!
September 2015. Dr. Lenz wins the Early Career Alumni Award from the Indiana University Program in Neuroscience and presents a research talk at the Program in Neuroscience’s 50th year celebration.
August, 2015. Dr. Lenz receives a NARSAD Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation to study the role of innate immune cells in regulating blood-brain-barrier function following early life stress.
July, 2015. Dr. Lenz receives at R21 grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health, to study the role of brain-resident mast cells in the development of social behavior and social behavior deficits following early life inflammation.
May, 2015. Steven Platko is the first undergraduate student in the Lenz Lab to complete a successful honors thesis. Steven’s experiments focused on the role of prenatal allergen exposure on the development of social behavior. Following graduation, Steve will attend medical school at Wright State University. Congratulations, Steve!
April, 2015. A group of OSU faculty, including Dr. Lenz, found the Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Group, to foster collaboration in hormones and behavior research at OSU. http://www.psy.ohio-state.edu/BehavioralNeuroendocrinology/
October, 2014. Chloe Page, a graduate student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program, begins a rotation in the Lenz lab. Chloe will be studying the role of acute neonatal stress on the number and activation of brain resident mast cells and the secretion of inflammatory molecules associated with blood brain barrier permeability.
July, 2014. Lars Nelson, a graduate student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program, joins the Lenz lab. Lars will be studying the role of microglia in sex differences in cell genesis in the developing hippocampus.