Spring 2024

The Halo lab begins a third consecutive R15 AREA to study ERVs in the domestic dog! Go ERVs!!

Julia is named as a recipient of the 2024 President’s Awards for Collaborative and Creative Research

Sean Carroll visits from the University of Maryland as the annual Pasakarnis-Buchanan Speaker! Here’s to butterflies and snake venom!

Fall 2023

Our paper “Expression and high levels of insertional polymorphism of an endogenous gammaretrovirus lineage in dogs” is accepted in PLoS Genetics! Congratulations to all who contributed and THANK YOU for all of your great work!

Molly Huffenbarger and Genesis Pyles join the lab as undergraduate researchers! Welcome!

Spring 2023

Zach Williams visits from Boston College! Here’s to ERVs!

Fall 2022

MJ Lashbrook is awarded the Linda and Larry Oman Graduate Award!! Congratulations!!

Abbey Jarosz-DiPietro successfully defends her Ph.D.!! First doctoral student from the lab! Congratulations!!

Dr. Abbey Jarosz-DiPietro

1st Annual Halloween Party by Grad Students! Also a solid decor of our lab door for a win for the Halo Group!

Boson bringing smiles around campus:)

Summer 2022

Julia reaches a career milestone — Tenure with promotion to Associate Professor! Thank You to Halo Lab students past and present, to Mentors past and present, and to Family:) Cool and amazing science is ahead!

Maddie Altieri successfully defends her Master’s! Congrats! Maddie remains for her Doctoral studies here in the Halo Lab on her research on SINE evolution and impact in mammalian genomes! Congrats twice!

Savanna Spitnale returns from ONU for her Master’s research! Welcome!

Undergraduate Abby Grady is awarded a competitive CURS Summer Fellowship with one of the highest scores among the applicant pool! Congratulations!

Spring 2022

Undergraduates Abby Grady and Emily McKeen are there recipients of individual CURS Fellowships from BGSU! Congratulations!

Fall 2021

Undergraduates Emily McKeen and Abby Grady join the lab! Welcome!

Summer 2021

Savanna Spitnale completes her Capstone Project for Ohio Northern University! Check out her poster of her work:)

May 2021

Julia is named as a recipient of the Elliot L. Blinn Award for for Faculty-Undergraduate Student Innovative Basic Research/Creative Work

March 2021

Baileigh accepts a Research Assistantship with John Gunn (a BGSU grad!) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital! Congrats!! She also graduates with Honor’s in Biology and multiple CURS semesters! You will be missed!

February 2021

Julia is nominated as Faculty Fellow for Sigma Phi Epsilon!

Our paper on an updated canine genome (and LOTS of retro elements) is published in PNAS!! Congrats to all authors and contributors!!

January 2021

A New Year!!

Undergraduate Kyle Hallowell joins the lab! Welcome!

Fall 2020

The Halo lab begins a second consecutive R15 AREA to study functional determinants of retroelements!

Madison Altieri joins the group for her MS thesis research! Welcome!

Balliegh Laipply joins the lab for her undergraduate research thesis and is awarded a BGSU CURS grant! Welcome!

April 2020

Julia is the university recipient of the Outstanding Early Career Award! Thank you to all students, peers, and advisors!

March 2019

Our work exploring the history of retroelement germline invasion in domestic dogs and extant canid species is available!

Origin and recent expansion of an endogenous gammaretroviral lineage in domestic and wild canids

December 2018

Erica Cech graduates with Honors in Biology and presents her thesis work on canid ERV envelope proteins in the Halo Lab! Congrats!

November 2018

Our colleague Amanda Pendleton says hello to Purdue University! Congrats!

October 2018

Our work exploring the history of retroelement germline invasion in domestic dogs and extant canid species is available! Access the  article on BioRxiv: Origin and recent expansion of a gammaretroviral lineage in canids

September 2018

Abigail Jarosz  joins the Halo Lab for her doctoral research!

May 2018

Erica Cech, Ben Sayer, and Liz Harper  are selected as recipients of Summer Fellowships from the Center for Undergraduate Research at BGSU! Congratulations!

May 2018

Malika Day graduates Summa Cum Laude with her Bachelor’s of Science in Biology! Congratulations!

March 2018

Undergraduate Malika Day is selected by Dr. Lee Meserve for a supplemental scholarship award from Biological Sciences!! Congratulations!

February 2018

M.S.  student Abigail Jarosz is accepted into the Ph.D. program at BGSU!! Congratulations!

Undergraduate Jordyn Hutchison is accepted into the M.S. program at BGSU!! Congratulations!

February 2018

Spencer Lockwood is revealed as BGSU mascot Freddie Falcon!!

January 2018

Undergraduate Spencer Lockwood joins the lab!

November 2017

Our work is featured in The Toledo Blade Peach Section (newspaper print!): “BGSU Researcher making A Closer Look at Dog DNA“, by Bonnie Blankinship (special to The Blade)

October 2017

Research in the Halo Lab is presented to the BGSU Board of Trustees!! We are very grateful for the honor and opportunity!!

September 2017

Our work is featured in BGSU Zoom News: BGSU virus-host interactions specialist has research award to study retroviral elements

August 2017

Our AREA R15 is awarded from the NIH! Congratulations to all involved!

July 2017

Undergraduate Zach Jacoby joins the lab!

May 2017

Undergraduate Erica Cech joins the lab!

April 2017

Undergraduate Ben A. Sayer joins the lab!

Undergraduate Sabrina Owens joins the lab!

October 2016

The lab attends the 50th Anniversary meeting HIV/AIDS Research: It’s History and Future at Cold Spring Harbor.

August 2016

Abigail Jarosz joins the lab as our first Master’s graduate student!

May 2016

Our research on endogenous retroviruses is presented at the Cold Spring Harbor Retroviruses meeting!

April 2016

Undergraduate Malika Day is awarded a competitive summer fellowship for her research! Congratulations!

March 2016

Our paper on HERV discovery and characterization in collaborations from the Kidd Lab at University of Michigan and the Coffin Lab at Tufts University Medical School is published in PNAS!

The paper can be found here: unfixed HERVs in diverse populations. The paper is accompanied by a press release that can be viewed here PNAS_press_release.

News buzz: Tufts Release, Daily Mail Release, IFLS Release

February 2016

Undergraduate Malika Day joins the lab!

We welcome Abigail Jarosz (BGSU ’16) to join the lab in the Fall 2016 semester to being her M.S. research!

January 2016

The Halo Wildschutte Lab opens in January 2016 !!