Web cookies (also called HTTP cookies, browser cookies, or simply cookies) are small pieces of data that websites store on your device (computer, phone, etc.) through your web browser. They are used to remember information about you and your interactions with the site.
Purpose of Cookies:
Session Management:
Keeping you logged in
Remembering items in a shopping cart
Saving language or theme preferences
Personalization:
Tailoring content or ads based on your previous activity
Tracking & Analytics:
Monitoring browsing behavior for analytics or marketing purposes
Types of Cookies:
Session Cookies:
Temporary; deleted when you close your browser
Used for things like keeping you logged in during a single session
Persistent Cookies:
Stored on your device until they expire or are manually deleted
Used for remembering login credentials, settings, etc.
First-Party Cookies:
Set by the website you're visiting directly
Third-Party Cookies:
Set by other domains (usually advertisers) embedded in the website
Commonly used for tracking across multiple sites
Authentication cookies are a special type of web cookie used to identify and verify a user after they log in to a website or web application.
What They Do:
Once you log in to a site, the server creates an authentication cookie and sends it to your browser. This cookie:
Proves to the website that you're logged in
Prevents you from having to log in again on every page you visit
Can persist across sessions if you select "Remember me"
What's Inside an Authentication Cookie?
Typically, it contains:
A unique session ID (not your actual password)
Optional metadata (e.g., expiration time, security flags)
Analytics cookies are cookies used to collect data about how visitors interact with a website. Their primary purpose is to help website owners understand and improve user experience by analyzing things like:
How users navigate the site
Which pages are most/least visited
How long users stay on each page
What device, browser, or location the user is from
What They Track:
Some examples of data analytics cookies may collect:
Page views and time spent on pages
Click paths (how users move from page to page)
Bounce rate (users who leave without interacting)
User demographics (location, language, device)
Referring websites (how users arrived at the site)
Here’s how you can disable cookies in common browsers:
1. Google Chrome
Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data.
Choose your preferred option:
Block all cookies (not recommended, can break most websites).
Block third-party cookies (can block ads and tracking cookies).
2. Mozilla Firefox
Open Firefox and click the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
Under the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, choose Strict to block most cookies or Custom to manually choose which cookies to block.
3. Safari
Open Safari and click Safari in the top-left corner of the screen.
Go to Preferences > Privacy.
Check Block all cookies to stop all cookies, or select options to block third-party cookies.
4. Microsoft Edge
Open Edge and click the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site permissions.
Select your cookie settings from there, including blocking all cookies or blocking third-party cookies.
5. On Mobile (iOS/Android)
For Safari on iOS: Go to Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security > Block All Cookies.
For Chrome on Android: Open the app, tap the three dots, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies.
Be Aware:
Disabling cookies can make your online experience more difficult. Some websites may not load properly, or you may be logged out frequently. Also, certain features may not work as expected.
Microscopic image of fluorescently labeled cardiomyocytes by the Hinson Laboratory.
We would like to congratulate MD/PhD candidates Anthony “Tony” Pettinato, Feria Ladha, and Rachel Cohn for their publication in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation. As members of the Hinson laboratory at Jax, students Pettinato, Ladha, and Cohn leverage powerful genetic research techniques to study cardiac dysfunction. Their paper “Development of a Cardiac Sarcomere Functional Genomics Platform to Enable Scalable Interrogation of Human TNNT2 Variants” provides a better understanding of how mutations in cardiac muscle proteins can lead to heart disease and failure. Beyond their study of the titular protein Troponin, these experiments illustrate a novel platform of single cell functional assays that can be used to study new drug candidates for heart disease or test patient-specific defects in a host of cardiac proteins.
For further information, see their full publication here
Alexandra “Allie” Goetjen (far right) with two of her siblings.
The UConn Health MD/PhD training program would like to congratulate Alexandra “Allie” Goetjen for winning a Diversity Award from the 35th Annual MD/PhD National Student Conference. The award was given in recognition of Allie’s “commitment to diversity in science” as well as her “passion for scientific achievement”. Allie is a second time winner of this award, which she previously received in 2017. While she admits that “things [did] look a bit different” with the virtual format of this year’s conference, she remains elated to be recognized for her work and dedication at a national level. As a first generation college student and eldest of 3 siblings, she applied for this award to demonstrate to her family and others that “anything is possible despite the challenges we may face in life”.
Allie is in the 6th and final year of her graduate phase of training and conducts research with Dr. Jonathan Covault in the department of Psychiatry. Here, she is studying how mutations in the gene GABRA2 increase the risk of developing alcohol use disorder. As a testament to her scientific efforts, Allie was awarded a prestigious F30 predoctoral fellowship by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for which she is “beyond grateful”. Outside of her laboratory work, she volunteers as a Counselor with the Crisis Text Line where she has served over 1,000 individuals in crisis situations. Allie also values her time as a student advisory board member for UConn Health’s Psychiatry Interest Group. After graduation, she aims to pursue a career as a physician scientist in the field of addiction psychiatry. In this role, she envisions leading a behavioral genetics lab and following her clinical passion of addiction counseling.
From strokes to spinal cord injuries, neuronal damage presents a significant burden of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Though such neuronal damage has conventionally been viewed as irreversible, MD/PhD candidate Bruce Rheaume is working to shift this paradigm. Rheaume, a member of Ephraim Trakhtenberg’s lab in the department of neuroscience, uses a model of optic nerve damage to better understand the regenerative capacity of the nervous system. While investigating why certain neurons can heal after optic nerve injury while others do not, he identified and characterized novel cell populations in the eye using single cell technologies. This work, published in Nature Communications [1], serves as a basis for better understanding cellular diversity in the central nervous system while also pointing to new targets for regenerative therapies. As a testament to the importance of his work, this paper has been cited nearly 100 times since publication.
Bruce hopes to combine his unique perspectives from both laboratory and medical training to pursue a career as physician scientist specializing in cardiology. Additionally, as one UConn Health’s “Biomedical Science Graduate Student Mentorship Award” winners for 2019, he hopes to continue advising and fostering the growth of budding clinicians and scientists.
Citation:
Rheaume, B. A., Jereen, A., Bolisetty, M., Sajid, M. S., Yang, Y., Renna, K., … & Trakhtenberg, E. F. (2018). Single cell transcriptome profiling of retinal ganglion cells identifies cellular subtypes. Nature communications, 9(1), 1-17.
MD/PhD Candidate Nick Wasko Starting his Dissertation Defense with a Far Side comic
The UConn MD/PhD Program would like to congratulate Nicholas Wasko on his successful public dissertation for the Department of Immunology on April 24th. Nick did his PhD work in the lab of Dr. Robert Clark, whose research seeks to identify the role of the microbiome in regulating autoimmunity in multiple sclerosis. Seeking to identify new therapeutic pathways in MS, Nick studied the capacity of systemic exposure to low doses of microbiome-derived molecules to induce a state of “tolerance” in the immune system, and how that tolerance influences the brain’s ability to repair damaged myelin. He used the cuprizone model to induce myelin injuries in mice, then tolerized the mice with innate immune ligands to see if systemic tolerance improved their recovery. After identifying a significant improvement in myelin repair following tolerance induction, he then used immunostaining techniques to investigate which cell types in the brain played a role in improving recovery in the tolerized mice. He recently presented his work at this year’s Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) meeting in Dallas, TX. This research provides a framework for developing systemic tolerance as a two-pronged therapeutic approach in MS, capable of inhibiting autoimmune activity (as demonstrated by a previous graduate of the MD/PhD program) while simultaneously facilitating repair of existing myelin damage.
Dr. Robert Clark proudly introducing Nick Wasko before his public defense.
Nick joined the Clark lab because of his longstanding interest in neurology and neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Clark’s immunology background provided a novel perspective on how neurodegeneration transpires, providing Nick with a new appreciation for the role of the immune system in neurologic diseases. His mentor extolled his commitment to his work and boundless curiosity and enthusiasm throughout his transition from neuroscience into immunology, and suggested his experience in both fields will make him uniquely prepared to tackle difficult questions in study of neurodegenerative diseases.
The weeks following Nick’s dissertation featured numerous milestones in his professional and personal life, including re-entry into clinical medicine, the submission of his thesis work for publication, and the introduction of a new rescue dog to his family. Greta, a 2 year old Weimaraner, will join Nick, his partner Kathleen, and their 12 year old Weimaraner Jasmine as they prepare to take on the challenges of the remaining two years of Nick’s medical education.
