June 2025
Yousef Emara, far left, and pictured here with most of the staff on his last day in the lab. Yousef was a research assistant under the tutelage of Dr. Christi Gendron during his undergrad years, and also for a summer well before that. Yousef has been admitted to Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit and will be starting this Fall. He has been a great addition to the lab, and we will miss him, but wish him well on his journey through med school, and beyond!
April 2025
Xavier Choussat (undergrad)- Poster presentation at The Michigan League, entitled "The Effect of Insulin-like Peptides 2 and 3 on Drosophila melanogaster Metabolic Activities". Co-authored with Christi Gendron Ph.D.
Luciana Zecchin (undergrad)- Poster presentation in the Biomedical Science Research Building, entitled "Identifying Which Tissues Regulate Lifespan In Response to Death Perception". Co-authored by Christi Gendron Ph.D.
Rachel Rucker- Congratulations to Rachel Rucker, who was nominated by the Neuroscience Graduate Program and selected a finalist for the Office of Postdoctoral and Graduate Studies Excellence in Teaching Award! This award recognizes those rare PhD students who have demonstrated extraordinary abilities to teach, mentor, and communicate science to the broader community. Way to go Rachel! Well deserved. We have no doubt that Rachel is and will continue to be an effective educator who inspires students to understand the world around them.
October 2024
Welcome to the Pletcher lab! UROP students Xavier & Lulu; Volunteer student Reeya; Rotation student Ulrica.
August 2024
Welcome new students, Elena Walters, and Logan Schneider!
Neuroscience Graduate Program (NGP) - Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Task Force and Champions
Jane Kruskop, of the Pletcher lab in the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology, and Alexa Putka were nominated and selected as the 2023-2024 NGP DEI Task Force Champions for going above and beyond the call to service in NGP. Both have worked tirelessly to extend greater equity and inclusivity within and beyond the graduate program. In recognition and appreciation of this, each has received an award of $200. Thank you to all who participate in the these efforts to make our NGP community a place where all feel welcome.
Anibal Tornes-Blanco is one of our fine Ph.D. candidates, and will be presenting his talk "Characterizing social isolation neuromodulatory impact on physiology", which he has been perfecting under the mentoring by Tuhin Chakraborty Ph.D. The 4th year seminar will be at the Taubman Health Science Library, onMay 2nd; we hope to see you there!
April 2024
Madelynn Verheek, Senior in the Class of 2024, and Pletcher lab member since September 2021. Maddie was presenting her Senior project (Deisecting rewarding effects of Drosulfakinin (DSK) on males under social stress in Drosophila melanogaster) at the Chemistry building. She has been a research assistant, mentoring under research scientist Tatyana Fedina for her last five semesters. Maddie will be working in Chicago, at the Rush University Medical Center until she starts Medical School. The Pletcher lab wishes her "Well!" in her future endeavors.
The Pletcher lab would like to congratulate our collegue, and former lab member, Tuhin Chakraborty, for being awarded a 2023 Outstanding Reviewer by the MDPI Journal Insects, announced March 31, 2024.
Basic Science Research Award
Nominees must be in the rank of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor or Professor, or Assistant Research Professor, Associate Research Professor or Research Professor of the University of Michigan Medical School, which includes faculty from the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME). This award recipient is an exceptional leader in research whose landmark contributions are recognized nationally and internationally. Their contributions are usually linked to pivotal discoveries that have wide-ranging impacts for the advancement of scientific knowledge. The recipient of this award also excels in teaching, mentoring, service to our institution, and collaborating with their colleagues in the scientific community at large.
October 17, 2023
The members of the Pletcher Lab would like to congradulate our captain, and Principle Investigator, Professor Scott D. Pletcher Ph.D. on being awarded the "Basic Science Research Award" by the Dean of the Medical School, Marschall S. Runge, M.D., Ph.D.
"Colleagues,
We are honored to celebrate 13 of the best and brightest individuals serving Michigan Medicine as recipients of Faculty and Staff Awards for 2023.
After a three-year pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we relaunched the awards program this year and expanded its reach to include all of Michigan Medicine. We received more than 200 nominations, and all of the nominees deserve our praise and thanks for all they do. The award selection committees had tough decisions to make, but they selected these very deserving 2023 recipients"
Basic Science Research Award
Scott Pletcher, Ph.D., William H. Howell Collegiate Professor of Physiology; Professor, Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology; Research Professor, Institute of Gerontology
"Congratulations to the recipients — who will be honored Nov. 30 at a reception in the Jack Roth Stadium Club in Michigan Stadium — and thank you to all who participated in this year’s awards program."
Sincerely,
Marschall S. Runge, M.D., Ph.D.
Dean, University of Michigan Medical School
Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs
CEO, Michigan Medicine
Deloris Hunt, M.S.A.
Chief Human Resources Officer, Michigan Medicine
Christi Gendron Ph.D. presentation at TEDx Jacksonville, October 2023.
Kristy Weaver was awarded the OGPS/PIBS Research Award on June 22nd!
Funded through the Rackham Graduate School
This year the OGPS Student Awards takes a new name honoring and recognizing Dr. Phyllis Wise for her outstanding accomplishments throughout her distinguished career and her remarkable act of generosity. Her academic journey began at the University of Michigan, earning an AM and a Ph.D. in Zoology in 1972. She recognized the transformative power of graduate education and created the Phyllis M. Wise Endowed Graduate Student Award Fund at the Rackham Graduate School. This generous fund will allow us to increase future award amounts and assist doctoral students in biomedical science programs as they pursue their academic and research aspirations. Dr. Wise's philanthropy is a testament to her enduring commitment to the values of education, teaching, research, and academic excellence. We hope you will join us in extending our heartfelt appreciation to Dr. Phyllis M. Wise.
Dr. Kristina Waiver (sic), the 2023 Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research recipient, demonstrated exceptional scholarly work, having published five papers with two as first author and all in high-impact journals, such as Science and eLife. Her remarkable achievements include securing an NSF fellowship she wrote during her first year of rotations in PIBS. The recognition and support received through the NSF award allowed her to develop her research thesis further. Additionally, Kristina obtained the prestigious HHMI Gilliam Fellowship, the department's annual Davenport Award for Outstanding Research. She has been invited to present her work at renowned conferences. The significant attention her work in eLife received, with write-ups and highlights from multiple sources, underscores the profound impact her research findings will have on how hunger influences aging and behavior, nutrient sensing, neuronal function, epigenetic regulation, and lifespan control. Kristina is a 2023 graduate of the Ph.D. program in Molecular Integrated Physiology.
A study offers clues to the link between what the brain of an organism perceives and physical reactions in its body.
See article, below; (The Research Paper entitled "Ring neurons in the Drosophila central complex act as a rheostat for sensory modulation of aging" can be viewed on our "Publications " page):
Also: Dr. Pletcher talks to NPR Michigan Radio State Side; Nat Geo- Spanish reviewed June 26, 2023.
Kristy J. Weaver et al, published a paper, entitled Effects of hunger on neuronal histone modifications slow aging in Drosophila, which can be viewed from our "Publications" page.
Doctor Scott Pletcher with distinguished lab members undergraduate David Boettger (left), and former graduate student Allison Munneke Ph.D (right)
Doctor Pletcher with the distinguished former graduate student, and current lab member Kristina J. Weaver Ph.D.
The Pletcher Lab would like to welcome two new undergrads to the lab: Jane Kruskop, and Tahrim Choudhery. You can find their intro, and contact information on our "Members" page.
March 2023
February 2023
Michigan State University
DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY
Spring 2023 Seminar Series
You are invited to the next MSU Department of Entomology Spring 2023 Seminar Series
When: Monday, February 6th, 2023, 4:00 pm
Location: Gordon Guyer Conference Room 244-Natural Science or Zoom
Presenter: Dr. Tuhin Subhra Chakraborty, University of Michigan
Host: Dr. George Bird
Title: The neuronal and molecular mechanisms by which death perception impacts fly behavior and lifespan.
The perception of dead conspecifics drives a variety of behavioral and physiological effects that have been documented in a wide range of animal species. Recently, we demonstrated that when Drosophila melanogaster perceive dead conspecifics in their environment, they exhibit behavioral and physiological changes that influence energy metabolism, stress resistance, and lifespan. Sight and serotonin signaling through receptor 5-HT2A are required for these effects to manifest upon exposure to dead. New data using neural tracing and genetic analyses identified the ellipsoid body, a neuropil in the central complex that is known to be important for multifaceted sensory integration and motor coordination functions, as an important structure underlying the effects of death perception on lifespan. To better understand how this structure transduces perceptual experience into physiological changes, we dissected the contributions of individual ellipsoid body ring neurons and found that activity of the R4d and R4m neurons were required for the effect of death perception on lifespan. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms, we executed a targeted screen and discovered that RNAi-mediated knock down of 5HT2A in R4d neurons abrogated the lifespan effects caused by death perception. We also discovered that FOXO expression, a transcription factor associated with the insulin-signaling pathway and a known regulator of aging, was required in R4d neurons. Further evidence suggests a role for the insulin pathway in mediating the effects of death perception on lifespan; dilp3 and dllp5, but not dllp2, showed increased mRNA levels in dead-exposed wild type flies compared to the unexposed control animals. In addition, this mRNA increase was reflected at the protein level as dllp3 immunostaining was higher in dllp- expressing neurons of dead exposed compared to the unexposed controls. Changes in dilp3 was observed when R4d neurons were chronically activated but not for two days. This is the first work that identifies a specific subset of ellipsoid body ring neurons and insulin signaling network that links a perceptive event with aging.
January 2023
Jacob Johnson's paper has been published to Aging. The paper, entitled Light modulates Drosophila lifespan via perceptual systems independent of circadian rhythms, was accepted December 27, and published January 6, 2023, can be found here: https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204472
September 2022
Let's celebrate!
WHAT?!?
Inspecting the damage
Ta Da!!!
Ivy Glamour Irridescent* Power!
*The color of Allyson's 1973 Mercury Marquis, and her presentation dress
Scott Pletcher Ph.D., and the Pletcher Lab would like to invite you to our Dissertation Seminar for Allyson Munneke
"Serotonin Signaling Modulates Health and Lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster"
Friday, September 9th, 2022, 1:00 p.m.
Med Sci I Room M3330
Doctoral Commitee:
Professor Scott Pletcher, Chair; Assistant Professor Eleanor Josie Clowney; Assistant Professor Scott Leiser; Professor Audrey Seasholtz
July 2022
The Pletcher Lab would like to welcome Anibal Tornes Blanco to the team, effective July 20th.
June 2022
Tuhin Chakraborty Ph.D. gave a presentation at The Drosophila Research Conference, held in San Diego California from March 30 to April 10, 2022.
Authors:
Tuhin Chakraborty; Christi Gendron; Cathryn Duran; Scott Pletcher
Certain perceptive experiences, such as the sudden death of a companion or repeated exposure to traumatic events, have significant behavioral and physiological effects that are well established across taxa. Recently, we demonstrated that when Drosophila melanogaster perceive dead conspecifics in their environment, they exhibit behavioral and physiological changes that influence energy metabolism, stress resistance, and lifespan. Sight and serotonin signaling through receptor 5-HT2A are required for these effects to manifest upon exposure to dead. New data using neural tracing and genetic analyses identified the ellipsoid body, a neuropil in the central complex that is known to be important for multifaceted sensory integration and motor coordination functions, as an important structure underlying the effects of death perception on lifespan. To better understand how this structure transduces perceptual experience into physiological changes, we dissected the contributions of individual ellipsoid body ring neurons and found that activity of the R4d and R4m neurons were required for the effect of death perception on lifespan. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms, we executed a targeted screen and discovered that RNAi-mediated knock down of 5HT2A in R4d neurons abrogated the lifespan effects caused by death perception. We also discovered that FOXO expression, a transcription factor associated with the insulin-signaling pathway and a known regulator of aging, was required in R4d neurons. Further evidence suggests a role for the insulin pathway in mediating the effects of death perception on lifespan; dilp3 and dIlp5, but not dIlp2, showed increased mRNA levels in dead-exposed wild type flies compared to the unexposed control animals. In addition, this mRNA increase was reflected at the protein level as dIlp3 immunostaining was higher in dIlp-expressing neurons of dead exposed compared to the unexposed controls. At present we are testing a model in which visual input to the ellipsoid body influences insulin production to modulate psychological state, physical health, and aging.
Twitter comments followed:
"An inspiringly creative and eerie paper by
@TuhinSChakrabo1
who presented at #Dros22. He found that #flies are depressed by the presence of other dead flies :( "
"Amazing talk by
@TuhinSChakrabo1
! You should read his paper showing that flies who see other dead flies have dramatic changes in their lifespan and behavior "
A Celebration ofGraduate Education
The Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies
presents the OGPS Ph.D. Student Awards
Presented January 13, 2022
The Pletcher Lab was well represented by Kristy Weaver, and Allyson Munneke!
Kristina Weaver
Molecular & Integrative Physiology
Pletcher Lab
Nominated for Excellence in Teaching
“In addition to her mentorship in the lab, Kristy has shown dedication to issues of diversity and inclusion in education, with a specific focus on scientific outreach and access for disabled populations.”
Allyson Munneke
Cellular & Molecular Biology
Pletcher Lab
Nominated for Excellence in Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
“It is not an exaggeration to say that Allyson is currently at the forefront of organizing DEI-related activities at the University of Michigan.”
By Alex Piazza
Office of the Vice President for Research Campus News
The Office of the Vice President for Research will honor four staff members with its annual recognition awards for their expertise and support of research and scholarship activity across the University of Michigan. April Pepperdine will receive the Exceptional Service Award and Becky O’Brien is the recipient of this year’s Research Administrator Recognition Award. David Paris and Caleb Smith each will receive the Research Technical Staff Recognition Award. All four employees are expected to be honored during a reception this fall.
“The rapidly changing COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the way in which our entire research enterprise operates, but thanks in large part to the tremendous efforts of research staff across our three campuses, laboratories and research spaces remain safe and are close to fully operational,” said Rebecca Cunningham, vice president for research and the William G. Barsan Collegiate Professor of Emergency Medicine.
The Research Technical Staff Recognition Award recognizes staff members who have, independently or along with faculty, advanced the research mission of their unit in a way that extends beyond the ordinary fulfillment of a position’s duties.
David Paris joined the university in 2010 and now serves as a senior research laboratory technician in the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology. Paris handles a variety of important roles in the Pletcher Laboratory, which include mentoring students and creating devices that aim to improve research productivity. As noted by a colleague who nominated Paris for the award, “He’s the key personnel that keeps our lab clean and organized, and he has his own workshop that continually generates innovations that greatly facilitate the experiments in the lab.”
Department of Neuroscience and Dorris Neuroscience Center, The Scripps Research Institute, United States
Now, in eLife, Scott Pletcher of the University of Michigan and colleagues – including Yang Lyu as first author and co-workers at Michigan and the University of Washington – report that both our diet and our food choices can influence metabolism and lifespan (Lyu et al., 2021). The researchers set out to address this topic in a widely used model system, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.
Insight Feb 26, 2021
Cite as: eLife 2021;10:e66755 doi: 10.7554/eLife.66755
A Review of eLife 2021;10:e59399 doi: 10.7554/eLife.59399 ,
Yang Lyu, Kristina J Weaver, Humza A Shaukat, Marta L Plumoff, Maria Tjilos, Daniel EL Promislow, Scott D Pletcher
Hi Scott,
Today was the first day for regular decision MD program acceptances. This morning at work, I received a call from the dean of admissions at Sidney Kimmel Medical College/Thomas Jefferson University -- I've been accepted! I can see myself thriving at Jeff in every way, so there are only a couple programs I've applied to that could potentially pull me away at this point.
Thank you again for your letter and your support throughout two application cycles. I really think my time at the Pletcher lab was a springboard for other amazing opportunities, and I am so grateful that you chose me to be part of your lab in 2018.
Take care and thank you,
Hailee
Jacob Johnson- In blue blazer on left, Graduate Student was part of a team that was runner-up in the 5th Annual Midwest Case Competition.
Hailee presenting her Summer Research efforts...
Two new Rotation Students have joined the lab this September- Ben and Allison...
eLife published a paper by our lab that was headlined by Jenny Ro, with contributions from Yang Lyu and Dr. Pletcher, as well as collaborators Gloria Pak, Paige A Malec, David B Allison, and Robert T Kennedy from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Follow the link on out Publications page, and catch some Reviews of the publication in the following links:
http://www.futurity.org/protein-fruit-flies-lifespan-1243432-2/
http://phys.org/news/2016-09-pleasures-perils-protein-fruit-reveals.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/51s7pp/the_pleasures_and_perils_of_protein_study_in/
Highly Efficient Fun was had by all who attended Pinball Pete's for an hour and a half of hoops, pinball, air-hockey, and the like. Scott treated the lab, and we all had a good time brushing up on some very important skills. Thank you Scott!
Pinball Pete's- 1214 South University, Ann Arbor
Following closely behind Pinball Pete's by barely two weeks was Putterz Golf in Ypsilanti.
It was a competitive atmosphere, with three teams of two, including: Brian & Zachary Harvanek; David & Yang; and Scott & Jacob.
Three categories of Champions were: Best Team 18-Hole Low Score, Best Individual 18-Hole Low Score, and Most Holes-In One, which were won by Scott & Jacob, Scott (20 putts), and David (3 Holes in one), respectively.
No image available, but Putters Golf is located at 2675 Washtenaw Avenue.
Congratulations to Yousef Emara, an outstanding young scientist whose research project investigating the effects of genetically modified food on lifespan and reproduction in Drosophila was awarded a gold medal. Yousef was awarded the ASCIS Elementary Student Council Leadership in Oral Communication Award. Way to go Yousef!
The Pletcher Lab had the honor of hosting several young students (grades 1-5) in our lab. The kids looked at flies under the microscope (including flies with GFP eyes), learned about drosophila brain dissection, and at least one has decided to be a scientist! Additional photos can be seen HERE.
Congratulations to Tatyana for the publication of Cryptic Female Choice in Arthropods, a textbook that includes a chapter she wrote! The textbook can be found HERE and the full reference for the chapter (#16) is below:
Fedina TY, Lewis SM (2015) Evaluating cryptic female choice in highly promiscuous Tribolium beetles. pp. 431-454. In: Cryptic female choice in arthropods: patterns, mechanisms and prospects. Peretti AV & A. Aisenberg, eds. Springer International Publishing AG.
The Pletcher lab showed up in force at the Annual BioGerontology Research Symposium with six excellent posters. Also, Jenny Ro received the Best Presentation award for her talk entitled "Serotonin mediates protein evaluation in aging" at the CMB research retreat. Congratulations to Tsung Han Kuo, a former Ph.D. student in the lab (now a post-doc in Lisa Stower’s lab at Scripps), who landed his first faculty position at National TsingHua University in Taiwan. Lastly, our new Ph.D student Jacob Johnson joined the lab! Welcome Jacob!
Once again, many members of the Pletcher lab gave great talks and posters at the GSA's 2015 Annual Drosophila Research Conference! Christi and Zach gave great platform talks and Tatyana and Scott presented excellent posters!
Also, Zach's son Bennett is born!! Congratulations to Zach and Amanda!!
Dr. Pletcher and Christi represented the Pletcher lab as speakers at the Interventions in Aging Conference in Cancun, Mexico.
Welcome to the lab Yang, a new Post-doctoral fellow in the lab!
A big welcome to Tuhin, a new Post-doctoral fellow in our lab!
Welcome Lindy, a new Lab Tech joining our lab!
Our recent graduate Mike Waterson has left us and we already miss him. He will be starting a new lab at Yale! We had a great goodbye and good luck picnic at the Gallup Park, and Scott had an interview at the Michigan Radio with Stateside with Cynthia Canty about his work which was a special parting gift. Listen to the interview here.
This morning, on May 15th 2014, Mike Waterson, our first through and through Michigan Graduate Student, has defended his thesis successfully! We were proud to see him defend his work, and very very happy to call him Dr. Waterson!
His research article on water sensing and longevity has been published online ahead of print and has been buzzing in the media as well! Read it at the Huffington Post, Science Daily or UofM website!
We also congratulate our graduate student Zach Harvanek, for being awarded an NRSA F30 grant from the NIH! This award will fund his research for the next two years starting in July, after he finishes his time on the Systems and Integrative Biology Training Grant!
As the month draws to an end, we also welcome two summer research students Josh and Sean to our lab!
Pletcher Lab was well represented in the GSA's 2014 Annual Drosophila Research Conference! Ceyda and Jung-Eun gave awesome Platform Talks on Friday and Saturday afternoon, respectively; and Jenny gave a workshop on Saturday evening. Several other members of the lab were there with posters too. Another very successful Fly Meeting!
Congratulations to Christi and the other authors for another great publication! Her paper on sexual perception and reward as they relate to lifespan and physiology is published online, ahead of print, on November 29th, in Science! The media has been once again crazy on the subject, and the paper has been featured in Science Now, BBC News, National Geographic, LA Times, Science Daily, and even Forbes! Click away for the news articles!
In other news, Nancy was once again the face of our lab at the Midwest Fly Meeting, giving a talk on “Gustatory Perception of Nutrient Stress”.
Dr. Pletcher, Nancy and Mike were at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories (CSHL) Neurobiology Meeting this month. Mike went with the Rackham Travel Grant once again and presented a poster in the CSHL Neurobiology Meeting. Nancy's poster was on “Gustatory Perception and Starvation Response”.
We also welcome another UROP project in the lab: Nancy received UM UROP research support for undergraduate training for a project called “Mapping genes that regulate sleep behavior in Drosophila.” Nancy is also the instructor for the UROP Training Seminar Series at the time.
Nancy represented our lab at the Midwest Rhythms Conference at MSU and gave a talk on “Sleep and Circadian Rhythms in Drosophila.”
Mike and Jenny presented their work at the CMB Student Syposium. Jenny won 2nd place for the Best Poster Presentation and Mike got an Honorable Mention. Another good month for Pletcher Lab!
Also, kudos to Mike for finishing on the Biology of Aging Training Grant!
Zach Most Aesthetic Presentation – MSTP Annual Retreat, University of Michigan, August 2013
Zach Rackham Precandidate Research Grant – University of Michigan, June 2013
May is the month of Mike! He gave a great talk on his project at the CMB Retreat and won the CMB Presentation Award! He also gave a second talk on his work at the Geriatrics Center Syposium. To top it all, he received the CMB Student Service Award!
Congratulations as well to Zach Glenn/AFAR Scholarship for Research in the Biology of Aging – Glenn/AFAR, May 2013
Congratulations to Nancy, Ceyda, Jenny and Scott for publishing "Measurement of lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster" at the Journal of Visualized Experiments!
In other news, Christi gave a great Platform Talk at the 54rd Annual Drosophila Genetics Conference, 2013. She was accompanied by Scott as well as poster presenters Ceyda, Tatyana, Nancy, and Mike as well as participants Jenny and Zach. We also congratulate Mike and Jenny, for being awarded the Rackham Graduate School Travel Grant and the Aging Training Grant, respectively, for this meeting!
Nancy was a guest lecturer for PHYS 600: Pathophysiology this month. She lectured on “How and Why We Age -Historical Perspective and Landmark Experiments”.