March 2019: Emily Sekera

Emily Sekera, 4th-year Ph.D. student in Prof. Wood’s group

First author publications:

• Cover article in Mass Spectrometry Letters December 2018
  Sekera, E.R. and Wood, T.D. (2018). Examination of the Fragmentation Behavior of Hemin and Bilin Tetrapyrroles by Electrospray Ionization and Collision-induced Dissociation. Mass Spectrometry Letters, 9(4), 91. DOI: 10.5478/MSL.2018.9.4.91 http://www.msletters.org/journal.do?method=journalintro&journalSeq=J000011&menuId=&introMenuId=0101
• Sekera, E. R., Rudolph, H. L., Carro, S. D., Morales, M. J., Bett, G. C. L., Rasmusson, R. L., and Wood, T. D. (2017). Depletion of Stercobilin in Fecal Matter from a Mouse Model of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Metabolomics: Official Journal of the Metabolomic Society, 13(11), 132. PMID: 29147105. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29147105
  

Co-author publications:

• Gerloff, J., Sundar, I. K., Freter, R., Sekera, E. R., Friedman, A. E., Robinson, R., … Rahman, I. (2017). Inflammatory Response and Barrier Dysfunction by Different e-Cigarette Flavoring Chemicals Identified by Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry in e-Liquids and e-Vapors on Human Lung Epithelial Cells and Fibroblasts. Applied in Vitro Toxicology, 3(1), 28–40. PMID: 28337465. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28337465
• Rudolph, H., Sekera, E., and Wood, T. (2016), Stable ¹⁸O-labeling method for stercobilin and other bilins for metabolomics. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. PMID: 27321834. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4916856/

Contributions to Books:

• Sekera, E. R. and Wood, T. D. (2019). Sequencing Proteins from Bottom to Top: Combining Techniques for Full Sequence Analysis of Glucokinase. Advancements of Mass Spectrometry in Biomedical Research, Eds. Alisa G. Woods & Costel C. Darie, 2nd edition, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology Series (ISSN: xxxx-xxxx), Springer International Publishing Switzerland, xxx: xxx-xxx. In Press.
• Wood, T.D.; Charlebois, A.F; Sekera, E.R.; Pennington, C.L.; Rudolph, H.R.; Choi, Y.S.; Fanciulli, G. (2019) Stercobilin: a Putative Link Between Autism and Gastrointestinal Distress?. Autism Spectrum Disorders- Advances at the End of the Second Decade of the 21^st Century, Ed. Michael Fitzgerald, InTech Open London, 978-1-78984-022-3. In Press.

Awards:

• MSACL 2019 US Young Investigator Educational Grant, January 2019
  Mass Spectrometry: Applications to the Clinical Lab Conference Committee
• IMSC 2018 Fellowship Recipient , April 2018
  Mass Spectrometry Division of the Italian Chemical Society

My research in the Wood lab focuses on the utilization of high resolution mass spectrometry to investigate small molecules in their roles in disease states. Although the majority of my work focuses in metabolomics, investigating stercobilin as a putative biomarker for autism, I have recently started work in the fields of lipidomics and proteomics.

I enjoy being a graduate student at UB because of the endless opportunities to grow both professionally and socially. I am also fortunate to work for an advisor who is not only an extremely skilled mass spectrometrist, but also tremendously generous in sharing his knowledge to help me to further develop as an analytical chemist.

Outside of lab I enjoy playing video games with friends as well as taking advantage of our regions multitude of wineries. I also enjoy spending time with my cat, Tesla.