Translational Medicine Lab at UNCW

Meet the Translational Medicine Lab’s two graduate students, Mackenzie and Kirby. Mackenzie worked in the lab during her undergraduate and has come back for more to earn her MS in clinical research. Kirby is just starting out, spending the summer learning cell culture, flow cytometry, and ELISA assays which she will use in her MS of Marine Biology. .

The Translational Medicine Lab is excited to announce that Dr. Laurie Minns has earned Associate Professor with tenure! Please help us congratulate her on this milestone achievement! 🎉🍾

Honors student, Niki, successfully defended her thesis titled "Leveraging allelopathy for drug discovery: Phytoplankton metabolomes as anti- T. gondii Drug candidates: A bioassay strategy". Niki has been with the TML since 2024 and we are excited to see where she goes next!

It’s a privilege to meet future scientists! We’ve hosted several school groups this academic year and are looking forward to continuing this community connection.

Pub Alert! Dr. McCall and Dr. Mead's newest publication titled "Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) alter immune responses from THP-1 human monocytes" is available for reading.

TLDR: All PFAS tested in this study activated the human immune cell line, often in differing ways (inflammation, suppression, and tumor-promoting). PFAS and their byproducts should be individually evaluated for their impacts on human health.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.etap.2026.104938

Nicely done Madison! 🥳 The lab loved working with you on your project titled “Influence of Acute Exercise Bouts on Biomarkers and Cognitive Functioning in Older Adults”. Shown here with Dr. Peterson and Dr. McCall, both of UNCW Clinical Research.