A US Army veteran, doctoral candidate Logan Dunn is driven to research the biochemistry behind neurological disorders.
As a doctoral candidate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Logan Dunn has been so passionate about his neurological research that he sometimes starts working in the lab hours before students head to their first class.
“I’m so excited to do protein purification that I can’t sleep,” said Dunn, who has been investigating Rett syndrome, a rare genetic disorder caused by mutations in the Methyl-CpG Binding Protein 2 (MeCP2) gene, which is important to brain development.
“I specifically look at expression phenotypes of MeCP2 protein and these neural structures called perineuronal nets, which are important regulatory structures connected to the brain’s ability to reorganize its structure, functions, and neural connections in response to learning and/or experience,” he explained.
Rett syndrome primarily affects girls beginning after six months of age and causes not only developmental delays but the loss of previously learned motor and communication skills.
Understanding the brain’s molecular and cellular functions can lead to therapies and treatments that make lives better for people with neurological disorders.
Support for Research
At UT he received a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and contributed to three related publications, including one recently accepted into Frontiers in Neuroscience. He also has presented his research in poster presentations at the annual conferences of the Society for Neuroscience and the International Rett Syndrome Foundation.
As a graduate student in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology (BCMB), Dunn also received the James and Dora Wright Graduate Student Fellowship and the Robert and Nell Keenan Bioscience Graduate Student Fellowship. He and BCMB Associate Professor Keerthi Krishnan were awarded a Student-Faculty Research Award in 2023.
Building a Career Path
Dunn’s interest in neurobiology was fueled in part by his grandmother’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease when he was a teenager, but he wasn’t interested in science as a high school student.
Serving as a US Army medic for seven years led him to consider medical school, but his first chemistry course at Pellissippi State Community College showed Dunn how fascinated working in a laboratory can be. After earning an associate’s degree in biology, he continued to Maryville College to complete a BS in biochemistry.
Maryville Professor Angela Gibson (BS biology ’93, PhD biochemistry ’98) recommended Dunn apply to UT’s Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology for graduate school.
“As a student at the end of their tenure, I have always felt like the BCMB faculty have rooted for my individual success,” Dunn said. “UT is an amazing place to attain a PhD doing any kind of science you could potentially be interested in.”
While some students enter graduate school with specific interests, Dunn said having technical skills and experience are more important. “You don’t need to have your path figured out completely in a department like BCMB,” he said. “Across labs in BCMB, we hit every level of biological investigation, from individual gene to organismal behavior. You need an instrument to do a certain experiment—we’ve probably got that instrument in one of the core facilities.”
Dunn, for example, has used UT’s Advanced Microscopy and Imaging Center and Bioanalytical Resources Facility. “We have incredible resources and incredible people running those facilities,” he said.
Dunn also found a department with a supportive and collaborative community. “Labs and PIs (principal investigators) internally collaborate all the time,” he said.
“My PI, Keerthi Krishnan, has led me through the ebbs and flows of the graduate school experience, my triumphs and my failures,” Dunn said, calling her “hands down, the best mentor and boss I could’ve ever asked for as a graduate student.”
As Dunn wraps up his PhD, he’s also training other graduate students and undergraduates, much as Billy Lau trained Dunn. Then a postdoctoral researcher, Lau is now an assistant professor in BCMB and the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. “He literally taught me everything I have needed to master at the bench, and I cannot thank him enough for his investment in me,” Dunn said.
“BCMB is filled with incredible people, and I am grateful for the experience they have collectively facilitated,” he said. “Gladys Alexandre (department head and Charles P. Postelle Distinguished Professor) and (Professor) Elena Shpak are two of the biggest cheerleaders of graduate student success that this department has.”
As he completes his graduate school experience and looks forward to continuing research, Dunn said he has lived the promise, “I will give my all for Tennessee today!”
“I think this mentality has served me well, and I hope my mentors could look at my track record and feel the same sentiment,” he said.
by Amy Beth Miller