Announcement: See the official #ISTH2021 Twitter Ambassadors! These esteemed communicators will be tweeting throughout the Virtual Congress and highlighting the science presented. See below for their Twitter handles. pic.twitter.com/r1elFtX8R0
— ISTH (@isth) July 9, 2021
Lab News
2024
October
We submitted an R01 application and celebrated everyone’s hard work with a lab lunch.
L-R: Nirupama Ramadas, Sharon Wang, Ashlyn Lowery, Erica Sparkenbaugh, Karissa Law, and Zoey Yeboah.
September
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Sparkenbaugh has been appointed to the UNC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine as a tenure-track Assistant Professor! Dr. Sparkenbaugh is excited for this next stage of her career. Dr. Sparkenbaugh is also a member of the Pathobiology and Translational Sciences (PBTS) Graduate Program within the BBSP at UNC, and accepting rotation students this academic year!
August
August 26
We welcomed rotation student Karissa Law to the lab for her first rotation in the BBSP program!
August 4-9
We attended the Gordon Research Conference on Hemostasis in Waterville Valley, NH. Nirupama and I enjoyed a week of intense science and networking, interspersed with mountain adventures like hiking, biking, and riding paddle boats.
June
June 10
Our paper, “Disease severity drives risk of venous thrombotic events in women with sickle cell disease in a single-center retrospective study” with first author Jennifer Light, MD, was accepted in Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis! https://www.rpthjournal.org/article/S2475-0379(24)00160-2/fulltext
May
May 15
We welcomed two new people to our research group! Ashlyn Lowery, a recent graduate of NC State University, is joining the lab as a research technician. Zoey Yeboah is starting her sophomore year at UNC this fall, and will be an undergraduate research assistant. Welcome to the lab, Ashlyn and Zoey!
May 11
Joshua Dutton, an undergraduate from the lab, graduated from UNC Chapel Hill on May 11, 2024. Josh contributed to three projects, is a co-author on our recently accepted paper, and will be a co-author on another one in the pipeline! Josh will be joining the UNC BBSP graduate program this fall and we’re very proud of his work!
April (A very busy and exciting month!)
April 25-27
The UNC Blood Research Center hosted the 11th Symposium on Hemostasis. Dr. Sparkenbaugh was the vice-chair for the event, along with the leading chairs Dr. Matthew Flick and Dr. Evi Stavrou. It was an amazing event with nearly 200 attendees, wonderful talks, and science. We also published a review article in Research and Practice in Haemostasis and Thrombosis with graphical abstracts from the invited speakers.
Dr. Nirupama Ramadas won an award for her poster presentation, “Dysregulated placental angiogenesis in a mouse model of sickle cell disease.”
April 22
Dr. Ramadas and Dr. Sparkenbaugh, along with other members of the Blood Research Center, were published in Blood Advances. It is the first senior author publication from the Sparkenbaugh lab!
April 16-17
Dr. Sparkenbaugh visited the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for a seminar. She presented in the Penn-CHOP Blood Research group grand rounds. Thank you to Kandace Gollomp for hosting!
April 4 – 6
Dr. Sparkenbaugh attended the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Society of North America in Chicago Illinois. She presented an invited seminar, “The role of antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapies in veno-occlusive crisis”.
February
February 27 – 29
Dr. Sparkenbaugh visited her hometown of Pittsburgh PA to present to the University of Pittsburgh Vascular Medicine Institute Sickle Cell Disease Seminar Series. She also visited the Department of Pharmacology at Duquesne University to discuss coagulation activation in sickle cell disease and did a fireside chat with trainees. Dr. Sparkenbaugh did a summer of undergraduate research at Duquesne University so it was really nice to be back!
Thank you to Dr. Misuk Bae (Duquesne) and Dr. Samit Ghosh (Pitt VMI) for hosting!
February 15
Dr. Sparkenbaugh and Dr. Ramadas were invited to write a commentary for JTH. “From coagulation to calm: factor VIIa’s microRNA magic trick”. Check it out here!
February 4
Dr. Sparkenbaugh presented at the Grand Rounds at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Division of Hematology. Thank you to Dr. Lydia Pecker for hosting!
2023
November – Dr. Sparkenbaugh joined the editorial board of the journal Research and Practice in Thrombosis and Haemostasis. She is a Social Media Associate Editor and creates infographics and tweets for all accepted publications.
September – Dr. Sparkenbaugh visited the University of Alabama at Birmingham to present a seminar at the Comprehensive Lifespan Sickle Cell Center. Thank you to Dr. Malgorzata Kasztan for hosting!
June – The Sparkenbaugh lab attended the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis meeting in Montreal Quebec. Dr. Ramadas had an oral presentation and Dr. Newcome presented a poster.
May
May 11 – 12
Dr. Sparkenbaugh is an invited faculty speaker at the NHLBI Workshop on Reproductive Health in Women and Girls with SCD: From Gaps to Solutions.
March
March 6-8
Dr. Sparkenbaugh attended the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Society (HTRS) Scientific Symposium in Orlando, Florida. She served as a social media ambassador for the meeting! Prior to the meeting, Dr. Sparkenbaugh attended the HTRS Research Colloquium where she presented on career transitions and networking to junior faculty.
February – Dr. Sparkenbaugh presented a seminar at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH.
January – Our work evaluating the role of FXII was accepted into Blood! Thanks to many people who made this publication possible!
Dr. Sparkenbaugh co-authored a Crosstalk article in JTH with BRC colleague Dr. Patrick Ellsworth, discussing the role of ADAMTS13 and VWF in thrombo-inflammation in sickle cell disease.
2022
December – The Sparkenbaugh lab attended the ASH annual meeting, with two posters!
October – Dr. Sparkenbaugh was an invited speaker at the Gordon Research Conference on Plasminogen Activation and Extracellular Proteolysis.
July – Dr. Sparkenbaugh attended the ISTH Annual Meeting in London, UK.
May – Dr. Sparkenbaugh was awarded a pilot grant from the NC TRaCS for a project on thrombosis risk of SCD women on hormonal contraception.
April – The Sparkenbaugh Lab attended the 10th Symposium on Hemostasis at UNC Chapel Hill, April 28-30.
March – Our new technician Laiya joined the group. Welcome Laiya!
February – Our technician Megan is moving to Colorado to help another PI start their new lab and serve as lab manager. She will be amazing in this new position, but we will miss her!
2021
December – Dr. Sparkenbaugh presented two oral abstracts at the 2021 American Society of Hematology Meeting.
December – Dr. Nirupama Ramadas joined our lab as a postdoctoral scholar. Welcome Niru!
July – Dr. Sparkenbaugh served as Twitter Ambassador for @ISTH during the 2021 ISTH Conference.
April – Kailyn Lowder joined our lab as an undergraduate research assistant! Welcome Kailyn!
March – Dr. Sparkenbaugh presented at the 2021 Hemostasis & Thrombosis Research Society Scientific Symposium.
March – Dr. Sparkenbaugh gave a seminar at Regis University Biology Department.
January – Dr. Sparkenbaugh received an R01 from NHLBI.
2020
December – Dr. Sparkenbaugh presented at the 2020 American Society of Hematology World Congress.
September – Dr. Sparkenbaugh presented at the 2020 Federation for Sickle Cell Disease Research Network Annual Meeting.
June – We returned to the lab after three months off of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are happy to be back and working again!
March – Megan Miller joined the lab right before we were shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic.
2019
December – Dr. Sparkenbaugh presented at the 2019 American Society of Hematology World Congress.
October – Dr. Sparkenbaugh was promoted to Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine.