The Department of Biochemistry Henry I. Russek Achievement Day Awards Committee\u00a0 is pleased to announce this year\u2019s award winners. \u00a0Julia Hicks-Berthet is the first prize winner, Nathan Kingston is the second prize winner and Deborah Chang is third prize winner. \u00a0\u00a0Our congratulations go out to the winners as well as their advisors! Please read \u00a0about each of the winners below.<\/p>\n
Julia Hicks-Berthet\u2014First Prize<\/strong><\/p>\n Julia is a student in Dr. Xaralabos (Bob) Varelas\u2019s lab. \u00a0From her research to her citizenship, Julia is a \u201cwinner\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Julia\u2019s dissertation work involves the characterization of pathways involved in lung epithelial cell fate.\u00a0\u00a0Integrating\u00a0in vitro\u00a0(primary cell models),\u00a0in vivo\u00a0(knockout mouse models) and computational (ChIP Seq\u00a0analysis) approaches, the work has resulted in the identification of a novel role for the Hippo pathway\u00a0transcriptional effectors Yap and Taz in the regulation of goblet epithelial cells, with implications in asthma,\u00a0cystic fibrosis and bronchitis. \u00a0In the future, Julia looks forward to developing therapeutic tools in regenerative\u00a0medicine. \u00a0A great citizen, Julia\u2019s participation ranges from mentoring others in the lab to participating as a\u00a0discussion leader in the Foundations in Biomedical Sciences curriculum, tutoring dental students and serving\u00a0on the department\u2019s seminar committee. Julia\u2019s passion for science is infectious!<\/p>\n Nathan Kingston\u2014Second Prize<\/strong><\/p>\n Nathan (Nate) is a student in Dr. Xaralabos (Bob) Varelas\u2019s lab. Nate is studying the role of Taz and Yap, Hippo\u00a0pathway transcriptional effectors, in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Cell populations that contribute to pulmonary fibrosis are poorly understood. Nate\u2019s studies have identified roles for Taz and Yap in a population of PDGFRbeta-expressing mesenchymal cells that promotes matrix deposition in a model of bleomycin-induced lung injury. His studies have shown that loss of Taz or Yap in these cells\u00a0protects against fibrosis-induced alveolar damage. \u00a0Nate looks forward to becoming an independent researcher, either in an academic or\u00a0industry setting. A great collaborator and citizen, Nate was in leadership positions in the Biomedical PhD\u00a0Student Organization (BPSO), served as a peer mentor to incoming PhD students, mentored many in the lab\u00a0and tutored DMD students. Nate\u2019s collaborative nature enables science innovation!<\/p>\n Deborah Chang\u2014Third Prize<\/strong><\/p>\n Deborah is a student in Dr. Joseph Zaia\u2019s lab.\u00a0 Developing an effective influenza A virus vaccine remains a challenge. With the goal of enabling a path to the development of more effective vaccines, Debbie integrates biochemical, mass spectrometry and bioinformatic approaches to design a method to quantify glycoforms in various strains of the virus to understand how it escapes adaptive immunity.\u00a0 Debbie looks forward to working in a mass spectrometry core facility in an academic setting, collaborating on a variety of research projects.\u00a0 A great citizen, Debbie was in a leadership position in the Biomedical PhD Student Organization (BPSO), she volunteers during PhD recruitment and orientation events, serves as a peer mentor for first year PhD students and for a rotation student in the lab, and she served on the department retreat planning committee.\u00a0 Debbie is intellectually curious and embraces all opportunities to add tools to her armamentarium!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Department of Biochemistry Henry I. Russek Achievement Day Awards Committee\u00a0 is pleased to announce this year\u2019s award winners. \u00a0Julia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[104,101,4657],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/biochemcellbio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/biochemcellbio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/biochemcellbio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/biochemcellbio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/biochemcellbio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/biochemcellbio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15474,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/biochemcellbio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15473\/revisions\/15474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/biochemcellbio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/biochemcellbio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/biochemcellbio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}