Translational Medicine Lab at UNCW

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.

Spring semester is here, we are excited about our undergraduate research students. 👩🏻‍🔬🔬🧫

Nicky and Niki presented Saturday at the American Society for Microbiology meeting. Additionally, they were both awarded Center for the Support of Undergraduate Research & Fellowship (CSURF) funding to continue their DIS exploration of phytoplankton compounds as anti-toxoplasmosis therapeutics. 🎉🧫🧬

Meet the TML’s two DIS students. Niki is a marine biology major and Nicky is a public health major. Here they are counting cells on a hemocytometer, learning cell culture basics, practicing and sterile technique. Both of them are seeing where their majors intersect with immunology benchtop research.

Publication alert! 🚨

This article is the result of multi-year research led by Dr. Minns of the Translation Medicine Lab and GBM Caregiver Research Group at University of North Carolina Wilmington, inclusive of Lisa (Elizabeth) A. James’ Clinical Research & Product Development, M.S. capstone project. Lisa performed high quality and impactful work alongside a team of passionate researchers and shed important light about patient care and the patient/caregiver dyad from Dr. Laurie Minns and Dr. Barbara Lutz as we seek to improve patient and caregiver outcomes for families navigating GBM.

Dr. Minns was invited to present her team’s work at the American Brain Tumor Association in Chicago, IL. Her research team of clinical research students (M.S. and B.S.) contributed significantly to this work offering valuable insights for patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers, highlighting the need for improved communication, stronger support systems, and the inclusion of caregivers in the treatment process. It was such an honor to speak with patients, caregivers, family members, and clinicians during the biggest brain tumor patient advocacy meeting.

Today School of Nursing Director, Dr. Suplee, visited the Translational Medicine Lab in MarbioNC. We feel honored to share with her team how the SON is collaborating with Center for Marine Science research to better human health.