Scholars

Current scholars

Josh Ohrtman, PhD.
Ohrtman works in the lab of Stanley Thayer, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Pharmacology. The lab uses a variety of techniques including electrophysiology and calcium imaging to study neurotransmission and the basic processes by which neurons respond to neurotoxic insults. More specifically, the work has begun to uncover key molecules and critical cellular signaling cascades that occur in brain cells during pathological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy.

Ohrtman received his B.S. in Psychology from Colorado State University. Following graduation, he worked in a mental health center for 18 months as a residential counselor for mentally ill adults. During this experience, Ohrtman became fascinated by the molecules and complex physiological mechanisms that underlie behavior.

He performed his Ph.D. thesis work at the University of Colorado Denver where he studied short-term regulatory mechanisms of calcium channels in muscle.

In 2011 Dr. Ohrtman received his Preparing Future Faculty Certification from the University of Minnesota Center for Teaching and Learning. In this program Dr. Ohrtman experienced a teaching and learning forum in which participants engaged with a multidisciplinary, cross-cultural mix of masters students, doctoral candidates, and post-doctoral fellows. Dr. Ohrtman discussed learning theory and strategies, cultivated teaching skills, created classroom and job search materials, and worked with faculty from a range of institutional types. In the fall of 2011, Dr. Ohrtman worked closely with a psychology professor at a local college to implement a variety of active learning strategies and instructed several course sessions in a neuroscience course titled Brain, Mind, and Behavior.

Poster presentation abstracts-
Ghosh B, Ohrtman JD, and SA Thayer (2011) Src family tyrosine kinase modulates plasma membrane Ca²⁺ pump activity in hippocampal neurons. Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting 2011.

Polster A, Ohrtman JD, Beam KG, Papadopoulos S (2012) FRET reveals substantial reorientation of the cytoplasmic interface of the skeletal muscle DHPR in the presence of RyR1. Biophys J, in press.

Publications-
Ohrtman JD and Beam KG. (in review- J Biol Chem) PKA anchoring to the CaV1.1 distal C-terminus is not important for depolarization-induced potentiation.

Ohrtman JD and Thayer SA. (in preparation) Plasma membrane Ca²⁺ ATPase 1 (PMCA1) influences Ca²⁺ clearance in hippocampal neurons.
 

Katie Nemeth, Ph.D.

Nemeth studies transporters of the blood-brain barrier under Drs. Anika Hartz and Bjoern Baur at the University of Minnesota, Duluth campus. She is interested in understanding the physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms of ABC efflux transporters at the BBB and how as they apply to brain cancer.

Nemeth has developed her education interests in scientific teaching by participating as a fellow in the National Academies of Science Summer Institute. Additionally, she is teaching at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. She has designed a student-centered course with a forensic theme for the non-major student population. Concurrently, she is carrying out an educational study exploring learning styles.

Prior to IRACDA, Nemeth earned her doctorate in biomedical science from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and St. Jude’s Research Hospital, where she focused on cancer research (retinoblastoma) and preclinical studies using various imaging techniques in Dr. Michael A. Dyer’s lab.

Prior to her graduate work, she pursued careers in clinical and biotech industry at the Blood Center of Southeastern Wisconsin and at GeneProbe Prodesse, respectively.

Select Publications:

Co expression of normally incompatible developmental pathways in retinoblastoma genesis. McEvoy J, Flores-Otero J, Zhang J, Nemeth K, Brennan R, Bradley C, Krafcik F, Rodriguez-Galindo C, Wilson M, Xiong S, Lozano G, Sage J, Fu L, Louhibi L, Trimarchi J, Pani A, Smeyne R, Johnson D, Dyer MA.
Cancer Cell. 2011 Aug 16;20(2):260-75.

Zhang F, Tagen M, Throm S, Mallari J, Miller L, Guy KR, Dyer MA, Willians RT, Roussel MF, Nemeth K, Zhu F, Zhang J, Lu M, Stewart CF. Whole Body Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic Model for Nutlin-3a in Mice after Intravenous and Oral Administration. Drug Metab Dispos. 2011 Jan;39(1):15-21. [Epub 2010 Oct 14].

Nemeth KM et al. Improved Retinoblastoma Treatment Using Subconjunctival Carboplatin and Systemic Topotecan in Preclinical Models. Cancer. 2011 Jan 15;117(2):421-34. Epub2010 Sep 3.

Volk EL*, Schuster K*, Nemeth KM et al. MDM2-A, a common Mdm2 splice variant, causes perinatal lethality, reduced longevity and enhanced senescence. Dis Model Mech. 2009 Jan-Feb;2(1-2):47-55. Epub 2008 Dec 22.

Former scholars

Anne Gingery, Ph.D.
Gingery studies women’s health issues including preeclampsia, breast cancer, and cardiovascular disease; she trains in Jeffrey Gilbert’s lab  in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.

She also studies the association between preeclampsia and breast cancer utilizing both in vivo and in vitro techniques. By investigating the critical windows of development during the development of mammary glands, she hopes to identify factors that reduce breast cancer risk and find targets for preventative therapies.

Gingery completed her dissertation at Mayo Clinic under Merry Jo Oursler, Ph.D., where she examined the role of TGF-β during bone development, normal bone remodeling and during conditions of excessive bone loss such as tumor driven osteolysis and post-menopausal osteoporosis.

Brooke Kelley, Ph.D.
Kelley works in the lab of Paul Mermestein, Ph.D., in the Department of Neuroscience. Kelley focuses on the non-genomic effects of steroid hormones on nerve cell function. Several effects of estrogen in neurons occur in minutes, rather than hours or days, suggesting that the hormone could be a player in shaping rapidly induced forms of synaptic plasticity.

Current projects include the study of estrogen effects G-protein Coupled Receptor signaling and the ion channel modulating properties of high concentrations of progesterone.

Prior to joining the Mermelstein lab, Kelley trained in the laboratory of Stanley Thayer, Ph.D., at the University of Minnesota's Department of Pharmacology where he completed his thesis titled: Effects of THC and endogenous cannabinoids on synaptic transmission between hippocampal neurons in primary culture.

Jeff Pasley, Ph.D.
Pasley research work focuses on pain perception and taste, environmental conditions and their influence on those at risk for hypertension, delayed onset muscle pain, alternatives for pain reduction, physical activity, and stress. He works under the supervision of Mustafa al'Absi, Ph.D., the Director of the Duluth Medical Research Institute (DMRI), in the Behavioral Medicine Laboratory.

Pasley also is interested in many chronic conditions such as anxiety, coronary heart disease, depression, hypertension, fibromyalgia, and neuropathic pain.

He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from Ohio University, his master of science in exercise and sports sciences from the University of Florida, and his doctoral degree from the University of Georgia.

Andy Skildum, Ph.D.
Skildum's research interests are in understanding the basic molecular biology of cancer cells, with the goal of decreasing the often devastating impact cancer has on the lives of patients and their families. He works as a research associate in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth campus.

He graduated from Bemidji State University in 1996 with a B.S. in Environmental Studies, then earned his Ph.D. at Michigan State University's Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center, he moved to the University of Minnesota Medical School Duluth in the fall of 2004, where he worked in the laboratory of Kendall Wallace, Ph.D. There he initiated a study of potential links between mitochondrial infidelity and estrogen signaling in human breast cancer.

Richard G. Melvin, Ph.D.
Melvin is interested in the natural molecular, genetic and endocrine mechanisms molecular that induce a state of torpor in mammals. Torpor is an adaptation that allows an animal to conserve energy during periodic food shortages.

He earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia in April of 2008. His interest in connecting naturally occurring genetic variation to organism phenotype in natural populations has led him to train in the laboratory of Matthew T. Andrews, Ph.D., Department of Biology and Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth campus. Professor Andrews has pioneered the translation of natural torpor biology to human medicine. Melvin also is the recipient of a NRSA postdoctoral fellowship from NIH and continues to work in Andrews’s laboratory.