T32 AWARDEES
Since 1999, the Molecular Biology Graduate Program has been funded by a T32 Training Grant from NIGMS. Thanks to NIH funding each year, we award ten T32 pre-doctoral fellowships.
Meet the MOLB T32 Awardees for 2021-2022
Undergraduate: University of North Carolina Asheville in 2014, PRA at Duke from 2015-2017
Research: Working in the Rissland Lab discovering how translational elongation speed affects mRNA degradation and protein output.
Lab: Olivia Rissland
Undergraduate: University of Texas at El Paso, NIH BUILDing SCHOLAR Fellow, BS in Microbiology
Research: I am working on characterizing how specific RNA-binding proteins, through their RNA-modifying functions, regulate RNAs in the Drosophila fat body to promote metabolic differences. My work will elucidate how male and female metabolism is established and regulated at the molecular level.
Lab: Tania Reis
Undergraduate: BS in Biochemistry, Azusa Pacific University
Research: Understanding the function of Eya proteins in tumor associated immune populations.
Lab: Heide Ford
Undergraduate: BA in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder
Research: My research focuses on the differential regulation of SIX1 in normal muscle development and the pediatric cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma.
Lab: Heide Ford
Undergraduate: Washington University in St. Louis, BA 2015
Research: I study the localization of RNAs to the centrosome. What RNAs are present there? What mechanisms do they employ to get there? What happens when they become mislocalized? I am excited to understand how centrosomal RNAs affect normal and abnormal cell-division.
Lab: Matt Taliaferro
Undergrad: BS, Microbiology, Colorado State University 2015
Research:
Lab: Andres Vazquez-Torres
Undergraduate: CU Boulder 2011-2015 BA Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. After, I worked at miRagen Therapeutics in Boulder 2015-2019.
Research: Now I'm jointly in Jay Hesselberth's (MOLB/BMG/RBI) and Mia Smith's (IMMU/BDC) labs. My brief research description would be: Using nucleic acid-protein conjugates as molecular trackers.
Lab: Jay Hesselberth
Undergraduate: BA, University of Colorado Boulder, 2012
Research: Using Giardia as a model organism to understand the evolution of translation.
Lab: Olivia Rissland
Undergraduate: BS, Biotechnology, City University of New York, City College, 2017
Research: Understanding the role of Chd4 in the development and function of pancreatic beta cells.
Lab: Lori Sussel
Undergraduate: BS in Neuroscience from Indiana University
Research: Understanding the gene regulatory networks that drive neural progenitors in the dorsal forebrain towards an oligodendrocyte fate.