A-State Molecular Biosciences Graduate Program

Congratulations to Sachleen Singh, Ph.D. student in Molecular Biosciences, on successfully defending his candidacy exam! Best wishes for an outstanding research journey ahead.

Congratulations Sachini Lakshika
A big Congratulations on successfully defending your proposal as an MBS master's student in Dr. Asela's Lab. Wishing you all the best for the rest of your research.

Congratulations to Dr. Than Boves, Professor of Ecology, and his team for their excellent publication titled 'Experimental Evidence of a Consistent Commensal Relationship Between Avian Hosts and Feather Mites of Differing Host Specificities' in the Journal of Ornithology, published by Oxford Academic Press.
The manuscript can be accessed here: [https://academic.oup.com/auk/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ornithology/ukaf037/8237422 ].

Experimental evidence of a consistent commensal relationship between avian hosts and feather mites of differing host specificities Abstract. The majority of research on birds and their symbionts has focused on putatively parasitic relationships, but this presumption often lacks experim

Congratulations Sam Messinides!
Sam Messinides, Molecular Biosciences PhD student in the Gustafson Lab, gave an oral presentation at the International Wildlife Congress in Lillehammer, Norway on Sept 1, 2025. This research and travel was funded through NSF NRT and NSF BRC awards, and through the Beck College of Sciences & Mathematics Molecular Biosciences Graduate Program.

Happening now:

MBS PhD Student, Sankalpa Chakraborty, is defending his PhD Dissertation titled “Roles of Long Non-Coding RNAs in Thyroid-Related Cardiac Dysfunction”

Location: ABI room 107

Happening now:

MBS MS Student, Raveena Ratnayake, is defending her MS thesis titled “Role of Gut-liver-brain axis in neuropsychiatric symptoms of Parkinson's Disease”

Location: ABI room 107

Happening now:

MBS MS Student, Kipa Tamrakar, is defending her MS thesis titled “Exploring Rhizosphere Microbial Dynamics in Soybean - Fusarium virguliforme Interaction for Sustainable Agriculture”

Location: ABI room 107

🌟 STUDENT SPOTLIGHT 🌟

Bishnu Joshi is a Ph.D. student in the Lorence Laboratory, originally from Nepal. He brings a wealth of expertise to his research, particularly in rice transformation and CRISPR-Cas technology. Bishnu holds a Master’s degree from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, where he laid the foundation for his current research.

Congratulations to MBS Ph.D. student Gaurav Gajurel on receiving the 2nd Place Oral Presentation Award at the 13th Annual Conference of the American Council for Medicinally Active Plants (ACMAP), hosted by Prairie View A&M University in Texas. We are very proud of you, Gaurav!

I was glad to see many of our A-State Environmental Sciences Graduate Program and A-State Molecular Biosciences Graduate Program students at our Fall student meeting today!