November 2025: Claire's paper, titled "De novo CSDE1 missense variant T595N regulates miRNA expression in a patient with complex neurodevelopmental condition", was accepted for publication in BBA Molecular Basis of Disease...Congratulations, Claire and Evan...!!!
October 2025: Amin's paper, titled "MicroRNA chemical modifications in post-transcriptional gene silencing and human diseases", was accepted for publication in Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids...Congratulations Amin...!!!
September 2025: Sushmitha's paper, titled "CSDE1 regulates the miR-20a-5p/TMBIM6 axis in melanoma", was accepted for publication in RNA...Congratulations, Sushmitha and Yuguan...!!!
April 2025: Congratulations, Lucas (NSERC USRA), Mason (FoS SURA) and Sanuda (FoS SURA) for securing the Research Awards...Well Done...!!!
February 2025: Congratulations, Sushmitha, for winning the Biochemistry Teaching Assistant Excellence Award...Well Done...!!!
December 2024: Zaid and Yuguan's paper on piRNAs in gene regulation, stem cells, and disease was accepted for publication in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology...Congratulations, Zaid and Yuguan...!!!
September 2024: One more good news...Arezou secured funding from the Janeway Children's Hospital Foundation to pursue her research on heat shock proteins...Congratulations, Arezou...!!!
August 2024: We got lucky this year...Our grant application was approved for funding by the Cancer Research Society Canada...Thank you, CRS...!!!
March 2024: Claire received the NSERC Undergraduate Science Research Award for the 2nd time to continue her project work in the lab during Summer 2024. Congratulations, Claire...!!!
March 2024: Claire's paper on the Regulatory role of RNA-binding proteins in microRNA biogenesis was accepted for publication in Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences...Congratulations, Clarie...!!!
September 2023: Zaid and Yuguan joined the lab to pursue their graduate studies. Welcome to Kakumani Lab, Zaid and Yuguan...!!!
August 2023: This August has been good for our lab. Just heard that Claire got the Janeway Research Foundation Trainee Award for Undergraduate...Congratulations, Claire...!!! And thank you, Janeway, for your support.
August 2023: Here comes another...I was just notified of funding for our grant to study CSDE1's involvement in miRNA processing and function in leukemia development...Thank you, Janeway Research Foundation...!!!
August 2023: It is official...We have been awarded an Operating Grant from the Cancer Research Society (CRS) to elucidate the mechanisms by which RBPs regulate miRNA biogenesis...Thank you, CRS...!!!
August 2023: Claire won the First prize in poster presentations during the 13th Annual Biochemistry Symposium at Memorial University. Congratulations...!!!
July 2023: We just got the decision. Our manuscript, titled CSDE1 promotes miR-451 biogenesis, is now accepted for publication in Nucleic Acids Research...!!! Congratulations to Sushmitha, Grace, Mia and all the other co-authors who made this possible...!!!
June 2023: Arezou joined our lab to pursue her MSc studies. Welcome to the lab, Arezou...!!!
April 2023: It's official...!!! Claire was awarded the prestigious NSERC Science Undergraduate Research Award to continue her project work in the lab during Summer 2023. Congratulations, Claire...!!!
July 2022: As they say, "Better late than never"...!!! Sushmitha joined the lab (in June) to pursue her PhD studies. Welcome to Kakumani Lab, Sushmitha...!!!
April 2022: The First paper from our lab, entitled "AGO-RBP crosstalk on target mRNAs: Implications in miRNA-guided gene silencing and cancer," was accepted for publication in Translational Oncology, part of Elsevier's Oncology Journal Network.Â
April 2022: Awarded the NSERC Discovery Grant (2022-2027) and Discovery Launch Supplement (2022-2023) as an Early Career Researcher (ECR).
Title: PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA)-guided somatic gene regulation in cell homeostasis and differentiation.
January 2022: Kakumani Lab is open.
October 2021: Moved into the Office and Lab space in the brand new Core Science Facility of the Faculty of Science, Memorial University.
July 2021: Dr. Kakumani joined the Department of Biochemistry as an Assistant Professor (Tenure-track).