Schmidt Lab Alumni

12/12/2025

Another year comes to a close. I won't lie. It's been a tough year. Funding is tight (currently non-existent for the lab), and while some former alumni continue to have success in their careers, others are casualties of contraction in the biotech economy. Moving forward, the department is about to change dramatically. There are quite a few BCMB faculty who plan to retire soon (not me!). While there will be no direct replacements allowed by UGA Administration, we may hire 1-2 faculty soon, but that won't be enough to keep our workforce from shrinking. When combined with the ever-increasing numbers of the BCMB major and other STEM majors requiring BCMB courses, the natural conclusion is that teaching loads will increase dramatically in the near future. Despite all the gloom, the lab continues its slow march toward new discoveries. Publications will slow, but not stop. I wish each and every one of you health and happiness for the New Year!

08/07/2025

Franklin College of Arts and Sciences has started an alumni award program. Feel free to let me know if you want to be considered for any of the award categories. The deadline for nomination packages is Sept 30, and nominations require two Letters of Recommendation and a CV/resume. Graduates as recent as the classes of '15 and '18 have been awardees. Hoping all is well for each of you.

07/23/2025

Just a quick update. First of all, check out the 40 under 40 class of 2025 (https://alumni.uga.edu/40u40/). You may recognize someone (i.e. Colby). Congratulations Colby on this honorific!! Other than that bit of good news, not much else to report. Nothing has changed on the lab funding front. My last 3 attempts at securing funding were a bust. For this reason, Emily's effort has been cut back to 50% and will likely change to 25% soon. I'm funding her on small pots of $ that I've received outside of my standard salary (e.g., Meigs Professorship supplement of $1k; FYOS teaching supplement of $3.5k, etc.) There is simply no institutional support to help labs maintain even a skeleton staff. Think of this when donating to UGA, and maybe direct your alumni giving with this in mind. Sadly, similar staffing cuts are now happening all over the scientific workplace (academia, industry, government, etc.) and have affected certain Schmidt lab alums. I wish them all well in riding out the storm. I'm submitting a new NIH grant proposal in early Oct (funds would be available July 2026 at the earliest), but funding chances are obviously slim. The best graphic on what is happening to federal science funding is below (stolen from another post; https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/nih-the-quiet-engine-of-science-is). Sorry for the gloom and doom. I hope to report more positive lab news in the future, but all I can really hope for in the next 6 months is another Natty for UGA! Go Dawgs!!

02/21/2025

I hope that everyone is doing well. Feel connect anytime you are in Athens!! I've heard recently from many of you by phone/text/email (Thomas, Sarah, Colby, Betsy, June, Dillon, Chris, Zahilys, Jacob, Grace, Jenny, Ethan, Kareena) and even had visitors (Sayali, Sunny). Everyone seems to be doing great. Congrats to the new additions to several families and the new jobs! Now for some good, bad, and ugly. Starting with BAD. Since the last update, the lab has officially run out of research funds. I was unsuccessful in renewing my NIH grant despite MANY publications during the last 4-year funding period and plenty of exciting new research directions to pursue. My NSF proposal is still under review but unlikely to be funded; NSF requires “Broader Impacts” sections in their proposals and these types of government-funded proposals don’t currently enjoy much political support. My lab’s budgetary issues aren’t isolated, which brings UGLY. UGA’s budget is taking hits from overall reductions in federal grants and lndirect Costs. This means there will likely be a forthcoming combination of increased tuition and fees for students, staff layoffs and/or furloughs, no merit or COLA pay raises, and suspension of new faculty, staff, and graduate student hires. Sadly, there’s also discussion of initiating lab fees for undergraduate research courses since grants typically subsidize these costs. Now GOOD. The lab will weather the storm. We operate very well and cost-effectively with undergraduate researchers, but progress and publication will definitely slow. More GOOD. I was selected to be a Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor. There are a few perks associated with the title, but the one that most might recognize is being honored at halftime of a future football game. Wishing you all continued success!!

08/29/2024

The new academic cycle starts anew with lots of buzz around campus. I continue teaching in the same 3 lecture classes (FYOS 1001, BCMB 3100, and BCMB 8214), but this year there is a wrinkle. The BCMB department nominated me for the Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professorship. While an honor, it does require me to prepare a 25-page dossier that includes extensive teaching analyses and letters of support, that some of you have kindly provided. Word on the street is that it may take a few tries to earn the honor. In the lab, the March 5th grant proposal didn't fare well, so we are now in between grants. This means no grad students for the foreseeable future, fewer undergrads, and a lot of grant writing. Going to try my luck with an NSF proposal and will also resubmit an update to the failed NIH grant in November. Wish me luck! All else is good, and I hope that you are all well. Random updates from some of you reflect amazing professional advancements, positive life-changing events (marriages/kids), and fun vacations to places on my bucket list. Keep changing the world, everyone!!

05/08/2024

And so we arrive at another end of the academic cycle with several lab members graduating: a PhD for Anushka, and BS degrees for Ethan, Jenny, Kareena, and Khushi. ConGRADulations to them all! These graduations come on the heels of another publication being accepted, making it 4 for 2024 so far, with authors ranging from undergrads to grads. The pubs will hopefully help the NIH proposal that I submitted March 5th. The lab has shrunk a lot, but considering that funding is getting tight, this is a good thing. Crossing my fingers for a good score on the NIH proposal, which will let me build the lab back up. This summer will bring trips to meetings and will end my 3-year cycle as Associate Head of BCMB, with the likelihood that I'll throw my name in the hat to continue serving another 3 years. It's been fun (and also frustrating) to see how things operate behind the scenes at UGA. As alumni, I urge you all to complain if you perceive that the administration undercuts faculty and departmental governance. Emily and I continue well, the kiddos are adulting, and lab lunches are still a thing. Hoping that everyone has a good summer!

11/09/2023

Some quick updates to share. 1) UGA has massively changed policies regarding lab websites, so this resulted in me having to find a new option for the lab website. I managed to learn Google Sites rather quickly to make the new website look somewhat like the old one. Enjoy a walk down memory lane on the Lab Members page. 2) I updated my office computer today and lost all ability to access the lab databases. Very nerve-wracking for me, but others in the lab can use the older computers for access. I think it's time to buy a new license. 3) I was honored to receive UGA's Graduate Student Mentoring Award earlier this year. My nomination packet will be advanced to a regional competition managed by the Council of Southeast Graduate Schools competition. I'm sure the competition will be fierce! 4) Wasps have returned after a brief 4-year hiatus. The last 'fix' involved caulking all the cracks on the exterior of the building. Until they do this again, I'll be spending about 30 min per day playing exterminator. Not fun!! 5) Fall has been glorious in terms of weather and color. Sadly, that all comes to an end this week. I'm expecting this Saturday's football game to be an endurance test for the crowd (high 40's, breezy, and steady rain). Go DAWGs! Until the next update, I hope everyone continues well.

06/27/2023

I must apologize for the delay; it’s been over a year since the last one! A LOT has happened since then! Multiple papers published, multiple grads and undergrads graduating, a visit and seminar by alumnus Sunny Kim (check out his recent PNAS and eLife papers: Pubmed search "Seonil Kim Colorado"), and Schmidt kids doing their thing passing milestone exams (USMLE Step 1 and NCEES FE). Sadly, we lost our beloved dog Bean; she had a good 14.5 years with us. As usual, summer has correlated with a slower pace around town and far less busy restaurants. I anticipate that the end of summer will bring growing excitement about the new football season. We finally secured season tickets two seasons ago, so we‘ve never seen UGA lose a home game or CFP Championship. If you’re ever in town for a game, we’d be happy to connect.

05/13/2022

Forgot to mention... another great lab lunch! This time it was CAVA takeout. Photo is at the PBIO amphitheater (Creamery in the background).

05/13/2022

Time for another quick update. Spring sprung a while ago. We seem to finally be past peak pollen storm season, but many are still sneezing and coughing, which is always a bit disconcerting to hear during a pandemic (or is it now an endemic?). Still, Spring enlivened campus. Today is even livelier with graduation, which means lots of people are out and about, restaurants are swamped, and Summer and its 90-degree days are around the corner. I also think Summer is when STEM2 will finally be finished (see photo for latest progress). I know Chemistry and Engineering faculty are very eager to move in. In the lab, we have 1 paper out for review and another soon to be submitted, so stay tuned for some hopefully good news on that front soon. There’s also this proud papa moment: Natalie just learned that she had a paper accepted by PNAS; the work was performed at U Miami during her 2-year gap between undergrad and medical school. She obviously gets her smarts from Emily. I also want to share that I had a great time virtually reconnecting with Surya who invited me to guest lecture (by Zoom) for his Biochemistry & Drug Discovery class at Cal State Long Beach. It was good to see him. He's doing well, and I wish the same for all of you.

02/04/2022

In case you missed this, several groups are reporting that the OAS1 protein (a dsRNA sensor that protects against COVID) depends on prenylation for optimal activity. Some people produce a shortened, non-prenylated version of OAS1 that is correlated with more severe infection.

Genetic variation in a sensor of double-stranded RNA can exacerbate COVID-19

01/14/2022

Welcome to the New Year, everyone! Having the CFP 'ship finally go our way was a great follow-up to the Braves' World Series win. I am convinced that the UGA outcome was inevitable because this was the first season that I owned season tickets. Had UGA Sports awarded me tickets earlier in my career, maybe they'd have had won the CFP sooner 😀. The buzz around town is still upbeat (see link), with a parade and a celebration event planned for tomorrow. The new year also brought the opening of Stem 1 (left building in the photo) and Stem 2 is nearing completion (right). On the lab front, one of my graduate students (Brittany) graduated in December, and she is now working in Ohio, which may pose a challenge sports-wise since she is an ardent supporter of the Maize & Blue (U Mich). Another grad student married recently, and yet another is engaged, so the lab social calendar is busy. Everyone continues to progress well with their research despite the challenges of Covid. Current UGA Covid positive rates are high (15% through surveillance testing) but severe illness seems to be waning, likely due to many being vaccinated. I'm not in the class this semester, so perhaps I can avoid catching Covid for a bit longer. On the home front, our kids are thriving. Our daughter is enjoying M1 at FAU, while our son finished his Fall internship at Long Engineering in ATL with an offer to return (the company helped design/build Mercedes Benz Stadium). His internship workplace was located next to Truist Park, so he was up close and personal to the Braves' World Series run. Wishing everyone a joyous and safe new year!

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/33061912/georgia-bulldogs-qb-stetson-bennett-surprises-customers-raising-cane-chicken-restaurant