bonthuis, Author at Bonthuis Lab

Summer 2024 -Sarah Kim Awarded Woese Research Scholar

Congrats to Sarah Kim for winning the Carl R. Woese Undergraduate Research Scholar Grant. Over the summer she will carry out research projects studying the effects of stress on individuals and their brains. Specifically, she will be looking at chronic social defeat stress in mice, which imitates stress responses in humans. To do so, she will be isolating RNA from the fear and reward regions in control mice and those under stress to measure changes in gene expression. She will then integrate those patterns with behavioral data to uncover which genes play a role during stress. We are appreciative of the opportunity provided by IGB for undergraduates to do summer research. We are impressed with Sarah’s strong bench skills and research as an uprising sophomore and dedication to the lab.

Summer 2024 -Sarah Kim Awarded Woese Research Scholarbonthuis2025-06-20T10:54:15-05:00

May 2024 – Ann-Farah Usman- Awarded Outstanding Oral Presentation:

Ann-Farah Usman presented on Noncanonical Genomic Imprinting of tyrosine hydroxylase (Th) in the Nervous System Affects Social Behaviors at the Undergraduate Research Symposium held at the Illini Union. She was awarded Outstanding Oral Presentation by the Office of Undergraduate Research panel of judges and peers. We are thankful for Ann-Farah’s dedicated effort and enthusiasm in the lab. We wish her the best at University of Chicago as she continues to pursue graduate studies in the field of human genetics.

Erin O’Leary Wins Poster Award

Congratulations to Erin O’Leary, Neuroscience Graduate Student, who won an award of $500 for her lightning talk and poster presentation entitled Effects of Noncanonical Genomic Imprinting in the Brain Monoamine System on Social Dominance at the College of Veterinary Medicine Research Day on April 27th, 2022.

Erin O’Leary Wins Poster Awardbonthuis2022-05-03T11:08:15-05:00

Highest Distinction for Sam Rahman

Sam Rahman

Congratulations to Sam Rahman who was awarded the Highest Distinction for his undergraduate research project and thesis. Sam presented his written thesis and talk, titled A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO DEEPLABCUT AND SIMPLE BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS, to his distinction committee and colleagues at the VetMed Basic Science building on April 18th, 2022 . Sam’s distinction committee (Professor Justin Rhodes, Psychology; Assist. Professor Jake Hinman, Psychology; and Assist. Professor Paul Bonthuis, Comparative Biosciences) unanimously and without reservation recommended Sam for literally the highest distinction possible for his Individual Plan of Study in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Sam’s future plan is to pursue a PhD in the field of Neuroeconomics.

Highest Distinction for Sam Rahmanbonthuis2022-05-01T13:01:46-05:00

Mouse Foraging Behavior Shaped by Opposite-Sex Parent’s Genes

“A study in mice finds that for certain genes, one parent’s allele can dominate expression and shape behavior—and which parent’s allele does so varies throughout the body.”

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/genomic-imprinting-from-opposite-sex-parent-shapes-mouse-foraging-69900

Dan Robitzski

Staff Writer and Editor at The Scientist

Apr 12, 2022

Mouse Foraging Behavior Shaped by Opposite-Sex Parent’s Genesbonthuis2022-04-13T09:10:38-05:00

Moudar Dweydari selected for prestigious Mayo Clinic fellowship

Moudar DweydariUIUC Second Year

Major in Kinesiology

I’m honored and extremely thankful to have the opportunity of partaking in Mayo Clinic’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF). The internship is a 10 week program on Mayo Clinic’s campus in Rochester, Minnesota. Throughout the summer, I’ll have the opportunity to learn and work alongside scientists and physicians in their research endeavors. Personally, I’ll be working with Dr. Saranya Wyles in Regenerative Sciences. I’m very excited for this opportunity and can’t wait to get started! Of course, none of this would have been possible without the support of my amazing family at the Bonthuis Lab. Shoutout Paul, Daryl, Erin, Leah, Jill, and Sam!

Moudar Dweydari selected for prestigious Mayo Clinic fellowshipbonthuis2022-03-29T10:12:10-05:00

Cell Reports March 8th
Gallery
Cell Reports March 8th

Featured, Publications

Cell Reports March 8th

Figure contributed by Coni Hoerndli

Noncanonical genomic imprinting in the monoamine system determines naturalistic foraging and brain-adrenal axis functions

See press release.

“The revelation that maternal and paternal alleles of the same gene along the brain-adrenal axis could have disparate, or possibly even antagonistic, phenotypic consequences on behavior is an intriguing observation,” says the paper’s first author, Paul Bonthuis, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Biosciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Cell Reports March 8thbonthuis2022-03-31T18:46:12-05:00

Major Award!

Best Use of Lab Supplies

Congratulations to the Bonthuis Lab for winning the “Best Use of Lab Supplies” award for the Comparative Biosciences Halloween Decorations contest! Special thanks to Daryl Meling for anchoring the decoration team.

Major Award!bonthuis2021-11-04T17:37:17-05:00

Bonthuis Villain Lab

Villain Lab

On September 10th, the Bonthuis lab took all its’ villainous members to Champaign-Urbana Adventures in Time and Space. Our super-evil overlord tricked and betrayed his fellow villains and left us with only one hour and our wits to escape from the clutches of his trap and prevent our certain doom! Is no super-evil overlord to be trusted? Our logic skills were put to the test, but we escaped and saved ourselves just in the nick of time with only 6 minutes and 55 seconds to spare! Our maniacal laughter filled the air upon our triumphant escape and proved that we would live to villain another day … and enjoy doing it.

Bonthuis Villain Labbonthuis2021-10-19T19:29:27-05:00

About bonthuis

“A study in mice finds that for certain genes, one parent’s allele can dominate expression and shape behavior—and which parent’s allele does so varies throughout the body.”

Dan Robitzski

Apr 12, 2022

Noncanonical genomic imprinting in the monoamine system determines naturalistic foraging and brain-adrenal axis functions