To support JAX’s dual mission of discovery and education, we continually strive to provide cutting-edge, unique, and highly relevant training opportunities designed to prepare all JAX trainees for successful scientific careers.
Our NIA T32–funded Precision Genetics in Neural Aging and Dementia (PGAD) Training Program (2T32AG062409) provides high-quality graduate and postdoctoral training to prepare trainees for careers as independent investigators in universities, research institutions, and the biomedical industry. It brings together highly productive and well-funded faculty mentors at the JAX Mammalian Genetics campus in Bar Harbor, Maine, who provide a uniquely interdisciplinary, integrated and comprehensive training environment. Led by T32 co-PIs Dr. Gareth Howell and Dr. Kristen O’Connell, PGAD preceptors bring strengths in neural aging, ADRD, non-ADRD neurodegenerative diseases, technology development, cell modeling, and data sciences.
The T32 provides two slots for postdoctoral fellows and two predoctoral students training on the JAX-MG campus. Grant appointees engage in a curriculum focused on research and professional development that includes networking with the JAX/UK/IU T32 AD Network, a collaboration between T32 training programs at JAX, University of Kentucky (UK), and Indiana University (IU), that enabled cross-campus interactions between trainees and preceptors.
| Trainee | Mentor | Trainee Type | Research Project | Appointment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Katie Murray | Predoc | Katie studies cell-type-specific mitochondrial dysfunction in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD)using genetically engineered mouse models. | July 2026 – | |
| Carly Rodriguez | Predoc | The field currently faces a limited capacity for modeling aging in PSC-derived neurons. Carly's project aims to overcome these limitations by leveraging glutamatergic neurons derived from genetically distinct strains of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) in the context of long-term culture and dexamethasone-mediated physiological stress. | July 2026 – | |
| Lucy Sloan | Gareth Howell & Mike Sasner | Postdoc | Dr. Sloan investigates the role of APOE allele status on the peripheral metabolism throughlipidomics, metabolomics, and liver expression of AD-associated proteins. | July 2026 – |
| TBD | TBD | Postdoc | TBD | TBD |
| Trainee | Mentor | Trainee Type | Research Project | Appointment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luke Trinity | Postdoc | September 2024 – April 2025 | ||
| Tamar Abel | Postdoc | Dr. Abel is interested in better understanding the contributions of lipid biology to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Altered lipid profiles have been associated with AD. Additionally, many late-onset AD (LOAD) risk alleles are in genes involved in the process of lipid metabolism, including the most significant LOAD risk allele, APOE4. As part of this project, I am characterizing existing transgenic humanized CETP (hCETP) mouse models and working with the MODEL-AD consortium on a novel knock-in hCETP mouse. Computational strategies employed to analyze these datasets include trans-species analyses which have been designed to effectively compare mouse model data to relevant AD omic signatures from human cohorts. | March 2024 – April 2025 | |
| Jaycee Choi | Vivek Kumar | Predoc | Jaycee's work focuses on quantifying spatial learning and cognitive flexibility in aging and Alzheimer’s disease mouse models. Jaycee has made progress with analysis on reversal learning experiments of young adult C57BL/6J mice in a maze assay. Jaycee has also run aged C57BL/6J experiments at 15-months and 27-months to test age-related decline in spatial navigation and subsequent reversal learning of spatial navigation. Subsequently, Jaycee's research was supported through an ESIP Community Fellowship. | September 2023 – April 2025 |
| Emily Nickerson | Predoc | The primary objective of Emily’s project is to identify the rules governing the transcellular spread of tau and to evaluate the intracellular consequences of the aggregation of the protein. | June 2023 – April 2025 | |
| Cara Hardy | Ron Korstanje | Postodc | Voiding function and behavior are impacted in individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).The primary focus of Dr. Hardy’s work has been optimizing the Void Spot Assay (VSA) and the associated image analysis to be used on the numerous AD-associated pathology models available through MODEL-AD. Dr. Hardy also earned a JAX Paigen Endowed Fellowship to support her work. | June 2023 – February 2024 |
| Brianna Gurdon | Kristen O'Connell & Catherine Kaczorowski | Predoc | Brianna explored tge relationship between Lrfn2 expression and cortical AD-related neurodegeneration by creating an Lrfn2 overexpression mouse model. Neurodegeneration, dendritic spine morphology, and memory performance were measured to determine whether increased Lrfn2 expression could rescue some of the detrimental effects of AD. Subsequently, Brianna earned an NIA F31 Fellowship. | June 2022 – May 2024 |
| John Bachman | Nadia Rosenthal | Postdoc | During postnatal muscle growth, muscle stem cells (satellite cells, SCs) divide and give rise to progenitors that fuse to developing muscle fibers. Fibro-adipogenic progenitors (FAPs) have been documented to play a role in dictating SC proliferative ability and ability to differentiate. To understand the role of FAPs in postnatal muscle development, Dr. Bachman bred an inducible depletion model (PDGFRaCreER/+; Rosa26DTA/+) in order to deplete FAPs at 4 weeks of age to assess the effects on SC proliferation, myofiber size, and myonuclear number. Dr. Bachman earned subsequent postdoctoral funding from the American Cancer Society. | June 2022 – May 2024 |
| Ryan Englander | Olga Anczukow | Predoc | Ryan leveraged advances in long-read RNA sequencing to interrogate tumor transcriptomes and understand how aging-related changes in alternative splicing may impact cancer risk and prognosis. He focused on lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and breast cancer, which are among the leading causes of cancer burden and mortality in the United States. This research was subsequently funded through an NCI F30. | June 2022 – August 2023 |
| Michael Maclean | Gareth Howell | Postdoc | Dr. Maclean hypothesized that microglia contribute to the development of diabetic retinopathy and have unique transcriptional programs not found in otherwise healthy tissues. To test this hypothesis, he examined microglial diversity in obese type II diabetic murine central nervous system (CNS) tissues and microglial states over time in type I diabetic CNS tissues. Subsequently, Dr. Maclean earned a JAX Scholar Award, and a K99 from NEI. | October 2021 – June 2023 |
| Elli Hartig | Basile Tarchini | Predoc | A group of five proteins; MYO15A, WHRN, GPSM2, GNAI, and EPS8, are together referred to as the stereocilia elongation complex (EC). The primary hypothesis of this proposed research is that EC proteins play an active role in the maintenance of mature hair cells. Elli earned F31 funding from NIDCD to continue her T32 project. | June 2021 – May 2022 |
| Jennifer SanMiguel | Jennifer Trowbridge | Postdoc | Dr. SanMiguel aimed to understand the cellular and molecular changes that occur in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells that lead to hematological disorders and use genetic mouse models of the complement gene, CR1, to dissect long vs short isoforms on their ability to influence altered inflammation and development of AD pathology from the periphery. After the T32, Dr. SanMiguel earned an ASH Scholar Award. | November 2020 – October 2021 |
| Sarah Heuer | Gareth Howell & Catherine Kaczorowski | Predoc | Sarah completed deriving 10-15 embryonic stem cells lines for 14 B6xBXD mouse strains, analysis of AD-BXD single nuclear RNAseq comparison glia populations from resilient and susceptible strains, expansion of Lag3-KO-5XFAD mouse colony for candidate validation. | June 2020 – May 2022 |
| Brittany Angarola | Olga Anczukow | Postdoc | Dr. Angarola’s research aimed at uncovering the link between aging breast biology and the increased incidence of breast cancer in aged breast tissue. Subsequently, she earned a Brooks Scholar Award from the JAX Cancer Center. | June 2020 – May 2022 |
| Teresa Easterbrooks | Ron Korstanje | Predoc | Teresa aimed to elucidate how senescence and senescence-targeting drugs (senolytics) function, particularly focused on a genetically diverse population. | June 2020 – May 2021 |
| Alaina Reagan | Gareth Howell | Postdoc | Dr. Reagan investigated the MTHFR gene and its contribution to vascular dysfunction and blood brain barrier breakdown in Alzheimer's disease. Subsequently, Dr. Reagan earned a postdoctoral fellowship from the BrightFocus Foundation. | June 2020 – October 2020 |