News
March 20, 2023. Congratulations Krystal for receiving the Spartan Volunteer Service Award!
Krystal volunteered 751 hours between November 2021 - November 2022. Read more here about Krystal experience volunteering!
February 6, 2023. Brooke passes her comprehensive exam!
Congratulations Brooke! This is a big step towards completing your Ph.D. degree!
January, 2023. Welcome to our new graduate student Rachel Eck!
Rachel Eck joins us as a graduate student through the Animal Science Graduate Program. Rachel's research will focus on increasing our understanding of what triggers labor onset.
December, 2022. Graduate student Brooke Devries is appointed the the RDSTP T32 training grant!
Congratulations Brooke on being selected to be supported on the Reproductive and Developmental Science T32 training grant. Brookes' research will focus on how mistimed light, such as shiftwork and light at night, negatively impacts mental health and reproductive hormone release in females.
October, 2022. Yearly Halloween Bowling Event
Pending amazing pictures ;)
October, 2022. Postdoc Alex Yaw receives a prestigious NIH F32 fellowship!
Congratulations Alex! Thanks to this F32 fellowship Alex will be able to increase our understanding of how light intensity and daylength impacts reproductive function.
April 13, 2022. Congratulations to our winners!
Mary Gardella (undergraduate) won first price for her poster presentation at the undergraduate forum (UURAF). Mary's research is in collaboration with the Jacob's lab at MSU and focuses on understanding how different light types impact cat wellbeing and stress.
Alex Yaw (postdoc) won the MSU postdoc associations mentoring of undergraduate students award -the PETMA award.
Congratulations to you both!
March 13, 2022. Brooke's podcast about why light matters for your wellbeing is published.
Brooke is a Neuroscience graduate student in the lab and her work focuses on how mis-timing of light negatively impacts your health. Learn more here: Sci Files - Health Effects of Light at Night
December 31, 2021. Two papers published in 1 week
What an end to 2021, two of our manuscripts were accepted for publication the last week of the year. One manuscript is a review summarizing our current understanding of the role of circadian rhythms in the neuronal circuit regulating the LH surge. The second paper is a research paper in collaboration with UC San Diego, where we identify the transcription factor SIX3 in post-proliferative neurons as required for the correct function of the growth axis: Deletion of Six3 in post-proliferative neurons produces weakened SCN circadian output, improved metabolic function, and dwarfism in male mice.
November 15, 2021. Welcome to our new undergraduate volunteer Jennie Soule!
Jennie will be working with Brooke on her project focused on increasing our understanding of the neuronal circuit responding to light modulating mood and behavior.
November 10, 2021. Brooke was awarded the SFN TPDA award
Congratulations Brooke for receiving the Society for Neuroscience 2021 Trainee Professional Development Award (TPDA)!!!
November 5 2021. Lab Halloween Bowling
October 7 and 8, 2021. 3 lab members presenting their work at MARTS 2021 and one winning best poster presentation!
Aneesh, Alex and Thu presented their research at the 11th Annual Michigan Alliance for Reproductive Technologies and Sciences (MARTS) at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (October 7 and 8, 2021, virtual event).
Thu Duong presented her poster entitled "The circadian clock gene Bmal1 modulates myometrium contractile function in pregnant mice" for which she won the 1st Keith Inskeep Best Poster Presentation Award Winner -Congratulations Thu!
July 29, 2021. Our research on finding biomarkers to identify women at risk of preterm birth is published in MSU Today
Identifying mothers at risk of preterm births
June 19, 2021. Lab get together at Spring Lake Beach
June 2, 2021. Paper accepted in Biology of Reproduction (BOR)!
Our first human research paper is accepted. We here show that CLOCK and CRY2 mRNA levels in 2nd trimester maternal blood might be a novel predictor of increased risk of spontaneous preterm birth in women without a history of PTB. Low CLOCK and CRY2 in 2nd trimester human maternal blood and risk of preterm birth: A nested case-control study
June 1, 2021. Paper accepted in Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology (MCE)!
In our latest paper, entitled "Kiss1 is differentially regulated in male and female mice by the homeodomain transcription factor VAX1", we show that VAX1 is a novel regulator of kisspeptin, and impacts kisspeptin neuron activation at the time of the surge.
May 27, 2021. Welcome to our Summer Undergraduate Student, Fabiola Ramos
Fabiola is part of the BPNP program lead by the Neuroscience Program. Fabiola is visiting for the summer from the Antillean Adventist University, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Fabiola will be working with Brooke, Alex and Hanne (PI) for the summer. Her project will focus on broadening our understanding of how the SCN translates light information to downstream neuronal populations.
May 14, 2021. Congratulations to our PhD/Do student Thu Duong for receiving the Women in Endocrinology Young Investigator Award for her work on the role of circadian rhythms in uterine function in pregnancy!
https://www.women-in-endo.org/
May 10, 2021. Paper accepted in Journal of Neuroscience research!
Our paper entitled "The transcription factors SIX3 and VAX1 are required for suprachiasmatic nucleus circadian output and fertility in female mice" has been accepted for publication! Congratulations to everyone, and thank you for all the work done to get this paper published!
May 5, 2021. Welcome to our undergraduate volunteer Nicolette Ly
Nicolette will be working with Thu Duong on her projected aimed at elucidating the role of the molecular clock in uterine function in pregnancy.
April 20, 2021. Congratulations to Autumn for winning the UURAF oral presentation of her category!
Big congratulation to Autumn for winning her category of the oral presentations at the 23rd University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) MSU.
April 15, 2021. Welcome to undergraduate volunteer Krystal Jang
Krystal will be working with Alex Yaw learning about behavior, data collection and data analysis.
April 12, 2021. It is official-Brooke is joining us for her PhD in Neuroscience-Welcome back Brooke!
We are so excited you are joining the lab as a graduate student Brooke!.
March 21, 2021. Congratulations to Thu and Brooke for receiving each an outstanding poster award at ENDO2021
March 1, 2021. Welcome to undergraduate volunteer Michael Hirschenberger
Michael will be working with Duong Nguyen learning about lab managing and helping with research projects focused on hypothalamic control of metabolism among others.
January 1, 2021. Welcome back Brooke
Brooke will do her second rotation with us, this time in person. We are glad to see you in person again!
December 30, 2020. Congrats Alex and Autumn for publishing your review on the impact of shiftwork and light at night on fertility and pregnancy in IJMS!
October 29, 2020. Safe outdoor Halloween Celebration during COVID-19
We had a fun, outdoor (chilly), safe Halloween event for the lab on a cloudy, chilly (and spooookkkyyy) October afternoon In Michigan ;)
We stayed warm with fun charades, more or less skilled frisbee playing, pizza and some chocolate!
September 2020. Autumn Mclane-Svoboda presented her data at the Undergraduate Research forum MID-SURE
To see Autumns MID-SURE presentation click here
September 1, 2020. Welcome to our rotation student Kaitlyn Gordon
We are excited to have Kaitlyn rotate with us in the Fall. Kaitlyn recently joined the MSU Neuroscience Graduate Program after obtaining her Masters degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Wayne State University (MI). Kaitlyns' rotation project will focus on how the brains circadian pacemaker, the SCN, adapts to pregnancy.
August 19, 2020. Congratulations to Thu for passing her comprehensive exam
Thu is a dual-degree student in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Osteopathic Medicine.
July 1, 2020. Welcome to our rotation student Brooke Devries
Welcome back (Brooke has been an undergraduate student in the lab for 2 years ;)). We are excited to have you rotate in the lab as part of the MSU Neuroscience Graduate Program Rotations. Brookes rotation project will focus on the role of the transcription factor VAX1 in specific SCN neurons.
June 10, 2020 Back in the lab after COVID-19 lock down!
COVID-19 cases are continuing to decrease in Michigan and ISTB is being reopened for research-taking numerous safety precautions. It is great to finally be back after 2.5 months of lock down!
May 10, 2020. Being a mentor is the greatest pleasure in science. I am very honored for the "Shoutout" from my student Tulasi Talluri
February 28, 2020. Editorial for special issue published
Check out the editorial for the special issue on Hormone release patterns in mammals: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0303720720300812#sec1
February 17-18, 2020. Lab moving to ISTB
Lab moved to the newly constructed Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building (ISTB) on campus!
February 11, 2020. Our paper is accepted in Journal of Neuroscience Research
Our paper showing how circadian rhythms change throughout the reproductive axis during the estrous cycle and in pregnancy is accepted for publication! Congratulations to all the authors-Alex, Thu and Duong, and thank you to everyone for feedback on the manuscripts and experiments!
February 3, 2020. Welcome to Dana Skarra
Dana Skarra, PhD, is joining the lab to help us develop our translational research program!
December 2019, Congratulations to Brooke for graduating from the MSU Neuroscience BS program!!!
November 20, 2019 Tulasi's research experience in the Hoffmann lab with the SRF fellowship is featured on the RDSP website!
https://rdsp.canr.msu.edu/92-student-testimonial-and-her-experience-with-rdsp
November 19, 2019 Review paper published in MCE
This review focuses on the contribution of cellular circadian rhythm in reproductive axis function, with a focus on hormone release and tissue sensitivity https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0303720719303570
November 9, 2019 Paper published in Molecular Neurobiology
We here identify Vax1 as a transcription factor required for SCN development. In addition we show that one of the two Gnrh-cre alleles used targets the SCN causing impaired SCN output in both Vax1 and Six6 conditional knock-out mice. This paper is a reminder to properly understand the potential impact of ectopic cre-allele expression in the obtained results.
November 6, 2019. Halloween themed Bowling
We had a great evening with a high and low score winner!!!
And some great costumes!
October 11, 2019. Welcome to Aneesh and Autumn
Welcome to our two new undergraduate volunteers Autumn and Aneesh.
Autumns research in the lab will focus on shift-work and circadian rhythms, whereas Aneesh's research will be on GPCR pharmacology!
August-September, 2019: Lots of celebrations
We have had a great start on the new school year where we have:
- Welcomed our rotation student Rabail Khan (Fulbright Scholar) to our lab!
- Celebrated Thu's home purchase-Yeah!
- Celebrated Duong's birthday-Congratulations!
- Published our first paper showing that VAX1 is required for SCN development and function-congrats everyone!
June 17, 2019. Welcome to Alexandra Yaw
Alexandra (Alex) Yaw obtained her PhD in Neuroscience at Kent State University (2019). She is the first postdoc in the Hoffmann lab. A warm welcome to Alex!
May 31, 2019 MARTS (Michigan Alliance for Reproductive Technologies and Sciences).
MARTS 2019 was hosted by MSU East Lansing.
Dr. Hoffmann was one of the organizers of MARTS 2019-an event attended by +120 students, staff and faculty.
Thu (graduate student) gave an oral presentation at MARTS on her research project focused on the role of circadian rhythms in the timing of labor onset.
Tulasi presented her work and progress at MARTS 2019. Tulasi's poster was on the topic of circadian rhythms and female fertility.
April 2019. All students present their work at conferences
University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF)-poster presentations by Tulasi and Brooke
Brooke at UURAF-Congratulations to Brooke for receiving the Honorable Mention Award at the MSUFCU poster session at the 2019 Lyman Briggs Research Symposium.
Tulasi at UURAF
Thu Duong (graduate student) presented her work at the yearly APSA meeting in Chicago
April 2019. Birthday celebration at group meeting ;)
April 2019. Welcome to Mohammed Asad
Mohammed is an undergraduate in the Neuroscience program at MSU
February 2019. Oral presentation at AGAC conference by Thu
Thu gave an oral presentation at the Annual Graduate Academic Conferences at MSU
January 2019. Congratulations to Tulasi Talluri
Tulasi received the 2019 Summer Research Fellowship Award from the Endocrine Society
December 2019. Celebrating the end of 2018 and the start of 2019
October 2018. Dr. Hoffmann presents the Neuroscience Graduate Seminar (MSU)
October 13, 2018. First paper from the Hoffmann lab is published in Jove
August 29, 2018 Welcome to Gloria Yarandi
Gloria is an undergraduate student in the Neuroscience and Psychology Program.
August 17, 2018 Welcome to Thu Van Quynh Duong
Welcome to the first rotation student in the lab- Thu Duong. Thu is part of the PhD/DO program at MSU.
August 1, 2018 Welcome to the Duong Nguyen-lab manager
Welcome to my first lab manager- Duong Nguyen. She is joining us from Wayne State University (Detroit, MI) from where she obtained a Masters Degree in Biological Sciences. Duong has expertise in microbiology, computational biology and comparative genomics.
July 15-18, 2018 ICN meeting Toronto
Thank you to the organizers of ICN for such an outstanding and interactive meeting.
Dr. Hoffmann chaired the session "Circadian and Seasonal Changes in Brain Function and Behaviour" and presented her current work on the role of circadian rhythms in fertility.
March 26, 2018
We have published some exciting new findings in Molecular Neurobiology showing that haploinsufficiency of the homeodomain transcription factor Six3 leads to male infertility due to impaired development of the main olfactory epithelium (MOE, nose area detecting volatile odors), disrupting the capacity of the male to smell female pheromones, impairing male sexual behavior.
March 1, 2018
Dr. Hoffmann starts as Assistant Professor in Animal Science
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