Who am I?

I'm a 1st year PhD student at the University of Kentucky Department of Biology in the Seifert Lab. I previously worked as a research technician, contributing to animal husbandry and bench science in multiple active and now published manuscipts while eventually transitioning to my current PhD program and TA-ship.

 

Research Interests and Model Systems

My research focuses on regenerative biology, seeking to understand the cellular mechanisms of complex tissue regeneration with a multi-species, evolutionarily-guided framework.

 

I am currently involved in work with salamander limb regeneration in Ambystoma mexicanum, mammalian regeneration in multiple organ systems in the deomyid rodent Acomys dimidiatus, and now expanding into a broader, phylogenetically-informed multi-species assemblage in the rodent subfamily Deomyidae with Lophuromys zena. 

 

Publications

My first paper recently published in PNAS December 30, 2024. We show Lophuromys zena as a novel mammalian instance of epimorphic regeneration in the ear pinna, which in light of their sister genera and well-known mammalian regenerators Acomys spp. formally shows a phylogenetic signal for enhanced regenerative ability in a mammalian clade. This system can be used to answer fundamental questions about the drivers and constraints of the emergence of regeneration in mammals, and the suite of cell types, cell states and their mechanisms underpinning this phenotype.

 

B. Riddell, M. McDonough, A. Ferguson, J.M. Kimani, T.R. Gawriluk, C. Peng, S.G. Kiama, V.O. Ezenwa, A.W. Seifert, Complex tissue regeneration in Lophuromys reveals a phylogenetic signal for enhanced regenerative ability in deomyine rodents, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
122 (1) e2420726122,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2420726122 (2025).

 

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2420726122