The Delventhal Lab

Welcome!

This is the website for the Delventhal Lab at Lake Forest College

You can learn about our research, any news and updates, and general information of the lab activities

Feel free to contact us!

Overview

One major goal of research in the Delventhal lab is to uncover molecular mechanisms that underlie the physiological and behavioral changes observed in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. To do this, we use a model of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) to induce neurodegenerative phenotypes in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We are interested in measuring the physiological, behavioral, and molecular changes that occur over time following an early-life TBI event. We aim to better understand the kinetics of these TBI-induced changes, and how they interact with aging processes, in the short-, mid- and long-term periods of time following an injury. Furthermore, we hypothesize that brain injury triggers changes that may occur in many common neurodegenerative diseases, and we hope to identify and study how these molecular pathways to the deterioration of the nervous system.

Learn more about our research.

News & Updates

Majo is awarded Victoria Finnerty Undergraduate Travel Award to attend TAGC 2024!

Majo applied and was one of just 12 students to receive the Genetics Society of America's (GSA) Victoria Finnerty Undergraduate Travel Award to support her attendance at The Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC) in March 2024! We're so proud of her! https://genetics-gsa.org/awards/victoria-finnerty-undergraduate-travel-awards/

Delventhal lab awarded BRC-BIO NSF grant

Becky applied for a Building Research Capacity (BRC-BIO) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support a new area of research in the lab on the tissue- and lifestage- specific function of the ER Membrane protein Complex (EMC). Here'a new article highlighting the achievement: https://www.lakeforest.edu/news-and-events/becky-delventhal-awarded-prestigious-nsf-grant


GLC-ASPET Conference '23

Kamden and Majo did an amazing job presenting their research at this year's GLC-ASPET conference at UIC and won 1st and 2nd prize in the undergraduate poster presentation category!

Kamden & Hannah graduate!

Kamden and Hannah have officially graduated Lake Forest College and are moving on to exciting careers in research and medicine! We're going to miss them

Kamden successfully defends his thesis!

Kamden delivers an excellent research seminar to a packed house and completes a thorough, written thesis in April 2023!

Fly Meeting in Chicago

The whole lab went to Fly Meeting in Chicago March 1-5, 2023. Becca, Majo, Kamden, and Daniel presented posters!

https://www.lakeforest.edu/news-and-events/becky-delventhal-and-students-attend-fly-meeting

GLC-ASPET Conference

Majo and Kamden won poster presentation awards at the GLC-ASPET conference on June 17, 2022! 

https://www.lakeforest.edu/news-and-events/foresters-sweep-undergraduate-poster-competition-at-glc-aspet