News & Awards
Follow the Singhvi Lab on BlueSky to stay up-to-date with our latest news:
@SinghviLabGlia
2024
October
The Singhvi lab takes second place in the most horrific category in this year’s pumpkin carving contest.
Violet Sorrentino, graduate student, is selected for the Society of Developmental Biology's competitive Science Communication Program.
August
Sasha Kravchuk, undergraduate student, receives her BS (Honors, MCD Biology, Neuroscience) from UW and joins the Singhvi lab as Research Technician.
June
James Bent, Research Technician, receives a poster prize at the International C. elegans Neurobiology meeting.
Clarissa Sofian (previous undergraduate student) is named a Husky Top 100.
April
Aakanksha is promoted to Associate Professor.
Cecilia Martin’s study of epithelia-glia signaling, with James Bent, Irini Topalidou and Tyler Hill is published in Developmental Cell. Congratulations, Cecilia!
March
Pralaksha Gurung, graduate student, receives a Fred Hutch/UW/Seattle Children’s Trainee Travel Award.
February
Sneha’s paper on glial microdomains, with Pralaksha Gurung, Sean Manning, and Sasha Kravchuk, is now online at Cell Reports! Congratulations, Sneha!
Sneha Ray receives the inaugural “The Sydney Brenner Best Dissertation Thesis Award”. Woo Hoo. Congratulations, Sneha!
Janurary
Liza Severs is awarded a “Biological Mechanisms of Healthy Aging” T32 grant. Congratulations, Liza!
R. Sean Manning receives an NIH Supplement Award. Congratulations, Sean!
2023
December
Maria Purice, PhD is awarded an Interdisciplinary Training in Cancer Research NIH-T32 award. Congratulations, Maria!
October
We are grateful to the Van Sloun foundation for continued support of our research program.
Katie Schneider joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Katie!
September
R. Sean Manning wins the “Best Poster Award” at the Biological Structure Retreat. Congratulations, Sean!
German Rojas wins “2nd Prize, Poster Award” at the Basic Sciences Retreat.
August
We are grateful to the Brown family foundation for their generous support of our research program.
July
Sneha Ray graduates from the Neuroscience program. Heartiest congratulations, Dr. Ray!
Clarissa Sofian completes her lab tenure. Farewell for your future endeavors and our best wishes!
June
The lab is awarded a Brain Research Foundation Grant. Thank you for the support!
April
Our manuscript on the complete molecular atlas of C. elegans glia, led by Maria Purice, is now on bioRxiv. Yay!
March
Our manuscript on specificity in glia-neuron interactions, led by Sneha Ray, is now on bioRxiv. Woo Hoo!
January
Aakanksha and German organized a 2-day workshop, led by Cientifico Latino, called “Together”. This fantastic gathering hosted graduate students across 12 UW programs and led to many insightful discussions and fruitful networking on enhancing inclusivity in academia.
The lab is awarded an EvergGreen Fund Grant. Thank you for the support!
Sasha Kravchuk joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Sasha!
2022
November
Huge Congratulations to Violet Sorrentino for passing her General Exams and advancing to candidacy!
Our manuscript on epithelia-glia interactions and mechanical stress, led by Cecilia Martin, is now on bioRxiv. Woot!
October
Stephan Raiders graduates from the MCB program. Heartiest congratulations, Dr. Raiders!
The Koss Family generously donated to enable us to complete additional flow cytometry, bioinformatics, and functional genomics work to further our understanding of how different glia impact neural aging. Thank you, Koss Family!
September
Emily Teets is awarded the Biological Mechanisms of Healthy Aging NIH-T32. Congratulations, Emily!
Violet Sorrentino is awarded a second year of funding for the competitive CMBG Training Grant Award. Congrats, Violet!
August
Hot off the press! Another publication this year, this time in Frontiers in Cell & Developmental Biology. An extra big congrats to Sneha Ray (first author). Give it a read here!
July
Cecilia Martin starts at the UW MSTP program! Farewell, and our best wishes!
The lab is awarded the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award in Neuroscience from the Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund and the Simons Foundation. Thank you for your support!
June
Elgene John Quitevis joined the Singhvi and Setty labs as a data analyst / research intern. Elgene has been a huge help in analyzing single-cell RNA-seq data with Python and is splitting his time between the Singhvi and Setty labs. Welcome, Elgene!
Clarissa Sofian joined the lab as a research intern and is working with Stephan Raiders on his project “Defining the role of C. elegans Parkin/PDR-1 in glial engulfment of neuron fragments” while she works towards her BS in neuroscience at the University of Washington. Welcome, Clarissa!
Emily Teets (UW MCB program), graduate student, joins the lab. Outside of the lab, Emily can be found hiking, kayaking, and frequenting comedy shows. Welcome Emily!
Pralaksha Gurung (UW Neuroscience program), graduate student, joins the lab! When she’s not in the lab, Pralaksha loves to knit, hike, and spend time with her cats. Welcome Pralaksha!
Solomon Wossene joins the lab as a student participating in the UW ENDURE summer research program. Solomon will be working closely with German Rojas. Welcome Solomon!
May
Welcome to Olivia Okamoto! Olivia is completing her Overlake School senior project, working in the lab with Sneha Ray and Violet Sorrentino.
March
Violet Sorrentino is awarded an NSF-GRFP Fellowship! Congratulations Violet!
Cecilia Martin receives a conference scholarship from Hutch United! Congratulations Cecilia!
Big YAY... the lab’s first research paper is published in eLife! It describes our discovery of glial pruning in C. elegans, and role of glial pruning in sensory behavior. Huge Cheers for Stephan Raiders (first author) and Erik Black (second author)!
Nina-Tuyen Tran joined the lab as a research technician. When she's not in the lab, she enjoys backpacking, biking, and baking bread. Welcome, Nina!
Welcome to rotation student Emily Teets (UW MCB program)!
February
On Feb 7, Liza Severs joins the lab as a postdoc. Welcome. Liza!
On Feb 28, Sean Manning joins the lab as a research technician. Outside of the lab, Sean enjoys Sean enjoys skiing, hiking, video games and hanging out with his cats. Welcome Sean!
January
Amina Khan, a freshman at UW, joins the lab as an undergraduate intern. Welcome, Amina!
Welcome to rotation student Randal Eck (UW Neuroscience program)!
Raiders et al, J. Neurosci: we had a blast writing this multi-lab review on glial pruning! Check it out here.
Donor Barbara Stephanus generously supports our ambitious science, in particular our research to understand glial roles in neural circuit processing as it relates to Alzheimer’s and related diseases. Thank you, Barbara!!
2021
December
The Singhvi Lab welcomes Rachel Reed on board as our Research Administrator! She makes sure our lab stays ship-shape (and out of all sorts of trouble!). Besides shepherding us, she is also a cool cat-mom and a naturalist who loves dispersed camping.
James Bent joined the Singhvi lab as a Research Technician. When not in the lab creating transgenic worms to discover glia secrets, James also enjoys crafting undiscovered cocktails among other things. Welcome James!
November
Stephan Raiders receives the Paul Neiman Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Congratulations, Stephan!
The Singhvi lab's first research preprint is now on biorxiv!
September
Stephan Raiders receives the NIH-F31 Predoctoral Training Fellowship! Congratulations Stephan!
October
Violet Sorrentino is selected for a competitive CMBG Training Grant Award. Congratulations, Violet!!
The lab receives its first NIH - NINDS R01 funding, yay! So much exciting glia biology to continue exploring.
August
Huge Congrats to German Rojas for passing his General Exams. Singhvi Lab’s third student (in less than a year!!!) to advance to PhD Candidacy! We started with a socially-distanced picnic.
July
German Rojas is awarded a 3-year HHMI-Gilliam Predoctoral Fellowship, a prestigious award given annually to a student-faculty pair! WooHoo! Congratulations German!
June
Stephan Raiders is awarded a competitive Biological Mechanisms of Healthy Aging NIH-T32 Training Fellowship through HALO. Congratulations Stephan!
Violet Sorrentino joins the lab, welcome Violet!
March
Welcome to rotation students Sujin Byeon, Pralaksha Gurung (UW Neuroscience program) and Violet Sorrentino (MCB program). The “virtual” rotation in a wet lab (unfortunate COVID19 era fallout) can be challenging, but all three of these young scientists stayed amazingly engaged and driven!
A complete lab shut-down for months was hard. We helped each other keep our glia in shape through zoom chats/TeaVino hours/games.
January
Heartiest congratulations to Maria Purice for being awarded a Washington Research Foundation Post-doctoral Fellowship!
2020
December
From our lab to all of you – happy holidays!
December 18th, 2019 - The Singhvi lab thanks The Glenn Foundation and American Federation for Aging Research for their support of our work.
December 2nd, 2019 - Huge Congrats to Sneha Ray for passing her General Exams. Singhvi Lab’s second student to advance to PhD Candidacy (first from the Neuroscience Program)! Celebrations called for cake, bubbly and LaserTag!
November
November 8th, 2019 - Big Congrats to Stephan Raiders for passing his General Exams and becoming Singhvi Lab’ s first student to advance to PhD candidacy! Celebrations included a lab boardgame night.
October
OOOH…Yeah! Singhvi Lab wins the Most Horrific Pumpkin Award 2nd year in a row!! Mutagenesis gone wrong Pumpkinstein sprouted pig body parts. Go Team! (although pig-brain-in-red-gel zipping around on Roomba in PI's office was freaky yuck!)
September
Serious about our annual Serious Pie outing.
Welcome to rotation student Victoria Mallet (UW MCB program).
July
The First Singhvi Lab Beer Hour Luau! Food, games, sun and a dog.
The New York Times interviews Aakanksha on the updated worm connectome published by the Emmons lab.
Singhvi Lab hosts a train of Seattle-area high-schoolers.
June
Fun and Science at the International C. elegans meeting.
German Rojas, Neuroscience graduate student, joins the lab, welcome German!
April
The Singhvi lab thanks The Anderson Foundation and The Marco J. Heider Foundation for their support of our work!
Welcome to rotation student German Rojas (UW Neuroscience program).
March
Stephan wins Best Talk Award at the North West Developmental Biology Meeting, including a trip to SDB 2019 in Boston! Congratulations, Stephan!
Lab goes Pin-bowling on Pi day.
February
Sneha’s collaboration with the Vidal-Gadea lab is out in print at PNAS.
January
Welcome to rotation students Fred Yeboah and Alex Neitz (UW MCB program).
2019
December
First Singhvi Lab Holiday Party. Happy Holidays!
October
Singhvi lab WINS the uber-competitive and heavily coveted Fred Hutch Pumpkin Carving Award as the “Most Horrific Pumpkin”! OOOO-YAY!!! Live worms, broken pipette through torn gloves, broken Nobel medal and specimen slides….and an ongoing plastic roach infestation in the PI’s office (YIKES!)
Maria Purice joins the lab as our first postdoc, welcome Maria!
September
Sneha wins a competitive T32 Neuroscience Training grant award. Congratulations, Sneha!
Riley Kimsey joins the lab as our Research Administrator, welcome Riley! She keeps our administrative toes in line, and her favorite color is (128, 0, 128).
Science and fun at the Fred Hutch Basic Science Retreat, Museum of Flight.
Summer/Fall
Awesome news: Stephan, Sneha and Cecilia have their “previous lab” papers out + multiple birthday celebrations! i.e. we spent every week with cake, beer, or both, for months (oh, and a “no-photo-evidence” lab ice-cream outing). We forgot to take pics of all.
July
Erik Black joins the lab as Research Technician, meme collator, and official Radiohead fan. Welcome Erik!
June
Lab @ C. elegans Neuro Meeting in Madison, WI. Stephan presents the lab’s first poster!
Stephan Raiders joins the lab as our first MCB graduate student, welcome Stephan!
Sneha Ray joins the lab as our first Neuroscience graduate student, welcome Sneha!
Aakanksha is delighted to join the Department of Biological Structure, UW School of Medicine as an Affiliate Assistant Professor.
April
Just Hatched! Bai-Singhvi labs warming party.
Aakanksha gives a talk at UW Biochemistry.
March
Cecilia Martin is the first Singhvi lab member, welcome Cecilia! Now we officially get down to business. Cecilia makes sure to keep the lab up and running, and is our worm database czar.
Welcome to rotation students Stephan Raiders (UW MCB program) and Sneha Ray (UW Neuroscience program)!
Lab in News
2024: Ray et al in Hutch Spotlight and EurekaAlert
2023: Violet Sorrentino speaks at the UW Engage Public Townhall
2023: Brain Research Foundation Spotlight
2022: Evergreen Fund Spotlight
2022: Klingenstein Fund Spotlight
2022: The lab’s research covered by AAPI, an Asian Weekly
2021: Aakanksha talks with Fred Hutch DirectorTom Lynch and Dr.Sita Kugel at the Allied Professional Forum, Fred Hutch
2021: Aakanksha talks to Simons Foundation on glia and aging
2021: Aakanksha talks to SFARI about the lab’s work
2021: Raiders et al in Hutch News
2020: Hutch High-Five – German Rojas HHMI-Gilliam Award
2020: Fred Hutch Spotlight – Stephan Raiders Neiman Award
2020: Fred Hutch Spotlight – Aakanksha Singhvi
2019: Aakanksha talks to New York Times about the recently completed male C. elegans connectome
2019: Aakanksha featured in GSA Faculty Profile
Awards & Funding
Philanthropic Support
We sincerely thank all philanthropic donors for their generous support of our research program on glia.
Lab Grants & Awards
Brain Research Foundation Seed Grant
Esther A & Joseph Klingentein Fund and Simons Foundation
NIH-NINDS
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI-Gilliam to German Rojas and Aakanksha)
Simons Foundation for Autism Research (SFARI)
American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR)
EverGreen Funds
Washington Research Foundation
Trainee Honors and Awards
International Sydney Brenner Best Thesis Award (Sneha Ray)
Poster Awards, Various (German Rojas, R. Sean Manning)
NIH Diversity Supplement Award (R. Sean Manning)
Dr. Paul Neiman Outstanding Graduate Student Award (Stephan Raiders)
National Science Foundation NSF-GRFP (Violet Sorrentino)
Biological Mechanisms of Healthy Aging (Stephan Raiders, Emily Teets)
National Institutes of Health NIH-F31 (Stephan Raiders)
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI-Gilliam to German Rojas and Aakanksha)
Washington Research Foundation Postdoctoral Award (Maria Purice)
Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation Award (German Rojas)
GO-MAP Graduate Opportunity Program Fellowship (German Rojas)
National Institutes of Health (NIH-T32, Neuroscience) (Sneha Ray, German Rojas)
National Institutes of Health (NIH-T32, Cell and Molecular Biology) (Violet Sorrentino)
© 2025 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.