Wow – the summer flew by with lots of graduations (from both undergrads and graduate students – see the posts for each PhD student who graduated this summer). Therefore I didn’t have time to do my usual post regarding the amazing undergraduates who were also in the lab and graduated. Stay tuned till the end to see what Liz is up to this Fall.
(Liz and her PhD students, Jesse, Sabiha, Amita and Lu)
Our lab has been really fortunate to have some amazing undergraduates pass through our doors and work with us on various projects. This Spring and Summer had many graduate, some of whom had been in the lab since freshman! Here is a little highlight of some of these students…
Olivia Emerson joined the lab as a sophomore physiology major. She immediately took to all things in the lab and has been a major contributor to many projects. Some of these will likely result in publication over the next few years. Olivia is technically still working in the lab while she works on her medical school applications (I’m confident she is going to get in wherever she wants since she would be an excellent physician!). She obtained the prestigious Niblack scholarship while in the lab where she worked on a independent project on the effects of mouse ear notching on head-related transfer functions. She also received several other scholarships and awards while at OSU highlighting her success and drive. Olivia also obtained an Honors degree (see photo from her Honors hooding). We have been so lucky to have her in the lab.
Grant Emerson also joined the lab in his sophomore year and has been an awesome contributor to all sorts of projects. We are so excited for him going to OU medical and obtaining his dreams of becoming a physician. Grant received the prestigious Wentz scholarship and numerous other awards during his time at OSU. He also contributed significantly toward our project understanding sound localization behavior during development in Fragile X Syndrome mice. He is also a co-author on manuscripts in preparation in the lab.
Gracie Toben joined the lab her freshman year and started collaborating on projects immediately. She is already a co-author on one paper out of the lab exploring the relationship between olfactory conditions and testes maturation in prairie voles which she worked on with Jess Hurd as a part of her PhD project. (paper here – https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X25001059). We are excited for whatever she does next.
Julie Luper has contributed to several different projects in the lab, mostly on auditory sensitivity in Fragile X Syndrome. She helped conduct seizure experiments and analyze tons of anatomical data as well. We hope that her dreams to become a physcian’s assistant come true!
I first met Abby Budd when she was a junior in my Principle’s of Neuroscience class. She always stood out since she asked so many insightful questions during lecture and was a real pleasure to have in class. When she then asked to work in the lab, it was an obvious yes. She really bloomed in her experiments in Summer 2026 when she had some dedicated time to spend in the lab. Putting in many hours of work on many different projects, she was instrumental to our summertime success. I am hoping all of this work will pay off with some publications in the lab soon. I know she is going to excel in her masters program in Psychology!
David Gelnar was also in my Principles of Neuroscience course (with Abby, Guy, and Lucas below). Similarly to Abby, David asked lots of insightful questions and was also pushing me for more knowledge. He joined the lab and jumped in with regular participation in lab meetings and working on several projects at once. He has contributed significantly to some work that will come out of the lab hopefully soon! Good luck David in pursuing graduate school (or whatever you end up deciding to do next).
Katie Kramer did her Honors thesis in the lab in her senior year. She examined differences in size of auditory brainstem areas (LSO, MNTB) in mice with an autism-risk gene (Shank3). She presented her work at the Karen Smith Symposium and was a great contributor to the lab during her short time. Good luck with whatever she decides to do next!
Lucas Boren was in the same Principles of Neuroscience course as Abby, David, and Guy (it was really one of my favorite classes to teach). He worked his butt off learning histological techniques with Lu examining the distribution of oxytocin and vasopressin molecules in the auditory brainstem across wild rodent species. We have submitted this paper for publication (see preprint here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.28.755085v1.abstract). Excited to see what Lucas decides to do next!
Hollis King joined our lab for the summer 2026 and was a delight to have around. He jumped into every project (literally came to all group meetings for each project team since he was so involved). He was an amazing contributor and we are definitely going to include him on future publications since he contributing so significantly to so many projects. He is now in his senior year back up Missouri and I know is going to do amazing things wherever he ends up.
Zachary Walling also joined the lab for a bit between Spring 2026 and Summer 2026. He was a pleasure to have in the lab, especially with his clinical Psychology expertise. I know lots of students asked him many questions about his experience as a clinician. It was really nice to have a different perspective in the lab for a bit!
Guy Lewins joined the lab after taking my Principles of Neuroscience class. He contributed significantly to Gen’s projects helping with data analysis and presenting his work at the annual Karen L Smith symposium. He works really well with others and I know is going to succeed in anything he puts his mind to in the future.
The rest of the lab was also up to lots in the Spring and Summer. Liz traveled 🧳 to the annual Winter Animal Behavior Conference in Steamboat Springs Colorado where she presented some work and started up some collaborations to explore some new animal hearing👂 (hopefully more about this in the future). She also got to go dog sledding for the first time with awesome colleague Angie Salles and Lauren Guilette (see photo below). Andi presented her work on sound localization during development in Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) at the Winter Conference on Brain Research in Montana. Next Liz and Lu traveled to the Association for Research in Otolaryngology in San Juan, Puerto Rico where they presented work on Fragile X oligodendrocytes (work from Nale and Laney in the lab) and social hormone expression in the auditory brainstem respectively (see photos). Around this time we also had our first postdoc Juhee join the lab – we are so excited for all the cool work with in vitro physiology she is learning and getting going in the lab. In the summer, Matt joined the lab as our second postdoc to work on all things Fragile X Syndrome, through our funded NIH R01. Safayet joined the lab as a new PhD student and will work on FXS projects as well. Gen and Casey traveled to Jordan River for the Acoustic Communication Gordon Conference where they presented their work on prairie voles. Later, Liz traveled to the same site but for the Gordon Conference on Autism and Related conditions where she presented Nale and Laney’s work again and hosted the “Building Power” hour. Liz also got to travel to FENS in Barcelona, Spain to present on Fragile X and network with European colleagues (foreshadowing). Over the summer, Andi attended the Biology of Hearing and Balance course at Wood’s Hole where she learned SO MUCH about auditory neuroscience and hopefully built some lifetime friendships and future collaborators. At the end of the course Juhee and Liz joined to teach part of the section on systems neuroscience. Casey and Gen were also busy passing their comps – so proud of them!
Special shout out to fellow UIC graduate student Jason Jacoby for spending some time in our lab to get our inherited (thank you Kate Macleod and Catherine Carr) in vitro physiology set up off the ground!!!
If you want to learn more about some of our recently funded work – check out here: https://news.okstate.edu/articles/communications/2026/osu-biology-researcher-earns-prestigious-nsf-career-award
OTHER STUFF – Liz was also lucky enough to get to travel to Worlds Masters for Ultimate Frisbee where she competed with her Dallas-based team Soar*Sore in Nottingham England over the summer. Her club team, the Dallas Dimes, just recently qualified for the National championship in San Diego at the end of October. This is a first for Liz in almost 20 years of playing Ultimate – woo hoo!
Lastly – Liz is currently on sabbatical in Mannheim Germany for the Fall semester (and will return in Summer 2027) as part of a prestigious Humboldt Experienced Researcher Fellowship (https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/apply/sponsorship-programmes/humboldt-research-fellowship#h1275). She is working with Dr. Valery Grinevich on oxytocin signaling using rat models and viral techniques that his lab has pioneered to explore alterations in oxytocin at the auditory brainstem level (https://www.zi-mannheim.de/forschung/abteilungen-ags-institute/neuropeptidforschung/grinevich-lab.html). The whole family (including Jack the dog) is here and having a blast taking in all things Germany and Europe.
