Serenity Beaumont

Research Interests: I am currently a freshman at Tufts University, planning to major in Biology and Biotechnology on the pre-vet track. This semester, I am joining the Reagan Lab virtually to gain insight into their current research and to learn about multiple myeloma. I am grateful for the willingness of all the Reagan Lab members to welcome me into the lab and for the opportunity to learn about this field of research.

Katherine Bonawitz, BS

Research Interests: I am a recent graduate of the University of Southern Maine with a B.S. in Biology. I enjoy cycling, hiking, volunteering, and hanging out with my dog, Mikey. Academically, my interests include developmental biology and medicine. I am excited to be a part of the Reagan lab as I begin the next steps in my education and I hope to contribute to a better understanding of multiple myeloma.

Rebecca Condruti

Research Interests: I worked in the Reagan lab as part of my PhD rotations at Tufts University. My project involved isolating primary bone marrow adipocytes from human samples with the goal of developing a method to study their growth on a 3D silk scaffold model. I designed experimental methods to keep the adipocytes alive on the 3D scaffold and studied their adherence and growth with confocal fluorescence microscopy. I would like to thank Heather Campbell for teaching me these techniques and Dr. Reagan for her insight; I am grateful for the valuable mentorship and technical skills that I gained while rotating in this lab. I am now working on my PhD in Dr. Nikhil Nair’s lab studying enzyme engineering.

Samantha Costa

Research Interests:  Originally from the Pittsburgh, PA area,  Samantha moved to Maine to attend the University of New England.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology with a minor in Art. Since graduation,  she has gained experience with patient care and wound care treatments.  Samantha is excited to be a part of the Reagan lab where she will be honing her skills in a laboratory setting. Samantha’s focus of research will be to investigate the correlation between Multiple Myeloma (MM) and bone marrow (BM) adipocytes and how BM adipocytes are effected in the presence of different drug therapies.

Charlotte Crist

Research Interests:  I am originally from Boulder, Colorado and I am currently a senior at Tufts University studying biology. After graduation, I plan to attend medical school. During the summer of 2019, I studied the effects of oleic acid on myeloma multiple cells in the Reagan Lab. I am grateful for the mentorship I received in the Reagan Lab and I know that the skills I gained there will be vital to me as I enter the medical field.

Anastasia D’Amico

Research Interests:  I am currently a senior at the University of Southern Maine where I have a Human Biology major, Biochemistry and Honors minor. This is my second year working in Dr. Michaela Reagan’s lab and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the learning opportunities that have presented itself while being here. I am eager to continue learning more as I work more independently this year to better understand the relationship between adipocytes and Multiple Myeloma in the bone marrow microenvironment.

Reagan Di Iorio

Research Interests:  I recently graduated from the Ohio State University with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, where my research focused on injury biomechanics. I am currently studying at the University of New England COM. As an intern in the Reagan Lab, I am working with Mariah Farrell to characterize the effects of FABP inhibitors on multiple myeloma cells. I am grateful for her mentorship and enthusiasm, and I am excited to continue learning.

Carolyne Falank, PhD

Research Interests: I obtained my B.S. in Marine Science at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine in 2005, my M.S. in Applied Medical Sciences from the University of Southern Maine in Portland, Maine in 2009 and my Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Maine in Orono, Maine in 2015. During my graduate research, I studied the carcinogenic.  I will be focusing my research on the design of nanoparticles that will be used to deliver therapeutic drugs that target bone disease and Multiple Myeloma. These nanoparticles will facilitate drug delivery that will be tested in both in vitro and in vivo models, with the hope that this will provide more efficient and effective delivery techniques to multiple myeloma patients while impeding tumor growth in the bone.

Mariah Farrell, MS

Research Interests:  As an intern in the Reagan lab, I was focused on inhibiting Multiple Myeloma (MM) from homing to the bone marrow via sialylation. MM can be shielded by the bone from various chemotherapy treatments, so if MM can be contained in the blood it may be easier to treat.­­­ After I graduated with my BS in Human Biology from University of Southern Maine in 2017, I have focused on several projects such as the effects bone marrow adipocytes have on MM and how this can trigger specific responses to drug treatments, and using carbon nanotubes as a form of delivery system in the body.

Justin Ham

Research Interests:  During my time in the lab, I was involved in making 3D scaffolds, using material derived from silk cocoons, for cell culturing. Additionally, I reviewed an article for journal entry and co-wrote a review article on the topic of 3D cell culture models as well as multiple myeloma and fatty acid metabolism. As a current third-year medical student at the University of New England, the support and guidance I received in the Reagan Lab helped me grow as a scientist and as a future physician.

Danielle Harmer

Research Interests:  As a graduate of Bangor University in the UK, my area of interest and previous research experience was cancer biology and my passion was the effect of the immune system and stromal cells on cancer. I rotated within the Reagan lab from May 2018 until August 2018 and it was such an incredible experience. This lab specializes in Multiple Myeloma – a cancer which embodies the many interactions a cancer can have, originating as an immune cell and going on to home to the wonderfully complex bone marrow microenvironment. In this lab, I mostly worked to expand on the work of a post-graduate in the lab, Carolyne Falank, who was interested in how adipocytes within the bone marrow niche (BMN) possibly contributed to chemotherapy resistance, specifically as a result of inter-leukin-6 (IL-6) and connected pathways.  I worked in vitro, culturing myeloma cells with Dexamethasone chemotherapy, and then attempted to establish the effects of anti-IL-6 antibodies on chemotherapy resistance and then investigated the pathways which were over and under-expressed at a RNA and protein level through qPCR and western-blotting. During my time here, I was also encouraged to pursue my interests, which strongly reside in the communication of science, and thus began writing and then published a review article illustrating the role of IL-6 in Multiple Myeloma.

Sophie Harris

Research Interests:  I first found my love for research in the Reagen lab when I was a summer intern through the MHIR Summer Student Program in 2016. During this time I studied how sialylation affects the ability of multiple myeloma cells to home to the bone marrow microenvironment. I had such an enriching experience in the Reagan lab that the following summer, after graduating from Pitzer College, I returned as a research assistant. Today, I am studying non-mutational drug resistance in cancer at University of California San Diego.

Kristen Krip

Research Interests: I’m entering my senior year as a biochemistry major at Arizona State University. I spent the summer of 2022 with the Reagan lab, under the supervision of Heather Campbell, studying the effect of adipocyte conditioned media on the growth and proliferation of multiple myeloma cells. I learned so many new techniques and developed a skill set in cell culturing, which is already proving useful as I plan a personal project for one of my classes. Thank you for everything, and I hope I have the opportunity to return before grad school!

Lauren Lever

Research Interests: I am currently a medical student at the University of New England & I did my undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. I had the opportunity to join the Reagan Lab during my first two years of medical school. While there, my research focused on the interaction between myeloma and bone marrow adipocytes as well as 3D models to study the bone marrow niche. Outside of medicine and research, my passions include hiking, running, and traveling. I am very grateful to have been a part of this dynamic and innovative team of scientists.

Constance Marques-Mourlet, MS

Research Interests:  As I was studying for my master’s degree in chemistry and biotechnologies at the University of Strasbourg (France), Dr. Michaela Reagan gave me the opportunity to complete a 6-month internship in her lab. During that time, I worked on In-vivo and In-vitro models to investigate the role of obesity in Multiple Myeloma, and studied the effect of a drug on our mouse model. While doing research in the Reagan Lab, I gained experience in multiple areas such as In-Vivo and In-Vitro experiments, Cell Culture, and Cell-Based Assays. I also wrote a review on the role of obesity on Multiple Myeloma. I am very thankful for the support that I received from Dr. Michaela Reagan, Heather Fairfield Campbell and the rest of the team. I have received my master’s degree, and are looking forward to pursue my career in research.

Majdi Masarwi, PhD

Research Interests:  I received my BS in Pharmacy from Petra University, Amman, Jordan and my PhD degree in Biomedical Sciences, at the Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology and Diabetes, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. During my PhD research I was committed to investigating factors that limit catch-up growth after a period of food restriction in rat models. I’m pleased to be part of Dr. Reagan’s lab. During my postdoctoral research, I’ll deeply investigate the role of the Wnt signaling inhibitor Sclerostin (SOST gene) in bone marrow adipogenesis, and explore if it plays a role in mediating bone destruction and fractures in multiple myeloma disease in-vitro and in-vivo models.

Connor Murphy

Research Interests:  I am originally from Hull, Massachusetts and received my B.S from Brandeis University. At Brandeis I was mentored by Dr. Nelson Lau and I investigated PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNAs) biogenesis. Additionally, I served as a summer research fellow and later a research assistant in the laboratory of Dr. Ralph Isberg at Tufts School of Medicine, where I studied Legionella pneumophila and Yersina pseudotuberculosis pathogenesis. In the Reagan lab, I am studying the influence of bone marrow adipose tissue on multiple myeloma lipid metabolism and how this contributes to resistance to current chemotherapeutic agents directed against multiple myeloma.

Anne Ryan

Research Interests:  I found my love of bone biology while working as an intern in the Reagan lab from January 2017 – May 2017. I grew up in southern Maine and went to the University of Maine at Orono for my bachelors of Animal Science with a pre-veterinary concentration. During college, I worked with several professors on projects ranging from Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis to parasite management in flocks of sheep. After college, I worked in Dr. Michaela Reagan’s lab studying the bone microenvironment and its relationship to Multiple Myeloma, while developing my skills in cell culture. I am currently working in the Hankenson Lab at the University of Michigan studying fracture healing in bone, specifically looking at the role of R-spondin.

Luna Soley

Research Interests:  I started out in the Reagan lab as an Academic Intern the summer after my Sophomore year of high school in 2016. I was mentored by Michaela’s postdoc, Carolyne Falank, and had the incredible opportunity to be a part of the Reagan lab’s work investigating the mechanisms through which the Bone Marrow Microenvironment contributes to myeloma progression. I got to conduct conduct co-cultures of various myeloma cell lines in conjunction with murine adipocytes, Dexamethasone, and anti-adipokine antibodies. I worked with Michaela to write a review paper on microRNAs implicated in myeloma progression during my Junior year, and learned how to genotype with Heather the following summer. I recently transferred to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where I’m hoping to study Marine Science. I am deeply grateful to Michaela and everyone in her lab for showing me how a love of experiments and living things could be translated into meaningful and exciting work.

Sadie Tirrell

Research Interests: I am currently working toward earning my degree in Biology with a Human Concentration at the University of Southern Maine. My passions are science and art and I live locally here in Maine, as I have my whole life. I am thrilled to be a part of Dr Reagan’s research and look forward to contributing to the team as I pursue my education.