Neli Ragina, PhD (2010) — cellular reprogramming

Assistant Professor of Research, Department of Surgery, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

E-mail: Neli.Ragina@med.usc.edu

PhD work in the CRL:
Neli first entered the Genetics Program at the Michigan State University in the fall of 2003 and was officially accepted as a PhD candidate in the Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory in December 2003. Her project focused on expanding differentiation potential of Cyno-1 cells. Cyno-1 cells are parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells derived from a non-fertilized Cynomolgus macaque egg. The aims of her project were:

1. Downregulate the expression of H19 in Cyno-1 cells

2. Determine the extent of in vivo differentiation in H19 downregulated Cyno-1 cells.

Masters' degree:

Neli acquired her Master's degree in Molecular Biology with an emphasis of Clinical Chemistry from the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", Bulgaria in 2002. During that time, Neli worked at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Medical University of Sofia, Bulgaria, where she further developed her interest in gene expression and regulation.

Awards:

2002 First award for oral presentation, International Congress of Medical Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

Publications from CRL:

§ Ragina NP, Schlosser K, Knott JG, Senagore PK, Swiatek PJ, Chang EA, Fakhouri WD, Schutte BG, Kiupel M, Cibelli JB Down-regulation of H19 improves the differentiation potential of mouse parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells. Stem Cells and Development, 21(7), 1134-1144 (2012).

§ Ragina NP, Cibelli JB. Chapter 3 Parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells in non-human primates. Trends in Stem Cell Biology and Technology, Baharvand, Hossein (Ed.) 2009; ISBN: 978-1-60327- 904-8

§ Pablo J. Ross, Ramon M. Rodriguez, Amy E. Iager, Zeki Beyhan, Kai Wang, Neli Ragina, Sook-Young Yoon, Rafael A Fissore, and Jose B.Cibelli Activation of bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos by PLCZ cRNA injection. Reproduction, 137(3), 427-437 (2009).

§ Pablo J Ross, Neli Ragina, Ramon M Rodriguez, Amy Iager, and Jose B Cibelli Polycomb gene expression and histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation changes during bovine preimplantation development. Reproduction. 2008 Dec; 136(6):777-85. Epub 2008 Sep 10.

§ Amy E. Iager, Neli P. Ragina, Pablo J. Ross, Zeki Beyhan, Kerrianne Cunniff, Ramon M. Rodriguez, and Jose B. Cibelli. Trichostatin A Improves Histone Acetylation in Bovine Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Early Embryos. Cloning and Stem Cells, Volume 10, Number 3, 2008