Marnik, Elisabeth, PhD

Biography

Elisabeth grew up in Connecticut and earned her B.S. in Biochemistry from Central Connecticut State University. After graduation she moved to Maine to earn her PhD in a collaborative doctoral program between Tufts University’s school of Graduate Biomedical Science and The Jackson Laboratory. Her doctoral work was done in the lab of Dr. Derry Roopenian and used mice to study CD4+ T follicular helper cells in normal immune responses, and in autoimmune disease. During her time as a graduation student she received multiple awards for her presentations. Her doctoral research was published in Cell Reports.

Marnik EA et al. Precocious Interleukin 21 Expression by CD4 T cells of Naïve Mice Identifies a Novel Stage of T Follicular Helper Cell Development in Autoimmune Disease. Cell Reports. 2017; 21(1). PMID: 28978474.

During her doctoral work Elisabeth discovered a passion for science education and science training. So, after her PhD was completed she did a postdoctoral fellowship at MDI Biological Laboratory in the lab of Dr. Dustin Updike. A portion of her postdoctoral work was funded by an independent NIH postdoctoral fellowship she was awarded in 2018. During her postdoc she spent extensive time learning a new model organism called C. elegans and studying factors that influence germline pluripotency. She also obtained significant education experience she could bring to her role as professor, and was selected to be a Harold Alfond Foundation FAME Leader, and an early career leader for the Genetics Society of America. Her postdoctoral work has led to multiple publications.

Marnik EA, Updike DL. Membraneless organelles: P granules in Caenorhabditis elegans. Traffic. 2019 Jun; 20(6):373-379. PMID: 30924287.

Marnik EA, Fuqua HJ, Sharp CS, Rochester JD, Xu EL, Holbrook SE & Updike DL. Germline maintenance through the multifaceted activities of GLH/Vasa in Caenorhabditis elegans P granules. Genetics. 2019; 213(3). PMID: 31506335.

Elisabeth then left her postdoctoral position in 2020 to join the faculty at Husson University. Here at Husson she teaches a variety of science courses, and continues some of her research using C. elegans. She mentors many undergraduates in senior capstone projects related to this work. She also is coordinator or the pre-medicine program and is dedicated to helping students achieve their goals.

Marnik EA, Almeida MV, Cipriani PG, Chung G, Caspani E, et al. The Caenorhabditis elegans TDRD5/7-like protein, LOTR-1, interacts with the helicase ZNFX-1 to balance epigenetic signals in the germline. PLOS Genetics. 2022 18(6). PMID: 35657999.

Marnik EA, Bautista C, Drongowska-Way A, Simopoulos C and Merritt T. CRISPR: A New Way for Scientists to Edit DNA. Frontiers for Young Minds. October 2021.

In her spare time you can find her reading a book (often a thriller), running and hiking with her husband and two children, or communicating science to the general public on Instagram.