Four Ph.D. Students, Two Fellows Awarded Biological Sciences Departmental Grants

Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Biological Sciences has selected four graduate students and two postdoctoral fellows to receive awards funded through endowments from Margaret Carver and Semon Stupakoff. Four $5,000 awards provide funding for research enrichment and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and three $1,000 awards are presented to candidates who have published outstanding papers in the last year.

Postdoctoral fellow Biplab KC received a Margaret Carver Research Enrichment Award. KC, a member of the Zhang lab, is involved in designing artificial condensate using a new generation photosensitive chemical dimerizer to understand Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) phenotype in cancerous cells. He plans to use the award to buy additional reagents and equipment to expand his techniques. He will use the remaining funds to attend a workshop on quantitative imaging.

Ph.D. student Shaw Camphire received a Stupakoff Graduate Student Research Enrichment Grant. Camphire, a member of the Hiller lab, is working to understand the potential impact that a bacterial cell-cell communication (CCC) system encoded in multiple species in the human upper respiratory tract has on human health. The award will be used to purchase an array of synthetic SHP144 peptides and to acquire microscope time to characterize biofilm phenotypes.

Ph.D student Elizabeth Ouanemalay received a Margaret Carver Grant for Enhancing Diversity, Equitability and Inclusion. A member of the Hinman lab, Ouanemalay will use the award to develop an annual symposium addressing diversity in the biological sciences. Along with the symposium, she plans to create a mentorship program and an online resource.

Ph.D. students Annie Meyer, a member of the Hinman lab, and Zhangyu (Sharey) Cheng, a member of the Zhao lab, each received a Stupakoff Outstanding Research Paper Grant.

Meyer is the first author "New hypotheses of cell type diversity and novelty from orthology-driven comparative single cell and nuclei transcriptomics in echinoderms," published July 20, 2023, in eLife. For the publication, she developed several new methodologies and protocols, including the first protocol for single nucleus RNA sequencing in echinoderms and a novel analytic pipeline to integrate cell type atlases across species.

Cheng is the first author on "MicroMagnify: A Multiplexed Expansion Microscopy Method for Pathogens and Infected Tissues," which was published October 2023 in Advanced Science. Her work aims to broaden the scope of Magnify, the lab's previously published method known for its high expansion factor and universal molecule retention capability, by applying it to pathogens and infected tissues.

Postdoctoral Meng Xu received the Margaret Carver Outstanding Research Paper Grant. His paper, "TERRA-LSD1 phase separation promotes R-loop formation for telomere maintenance in ALT cancer cells" was published on March 9, 2024 in Nature Communications. Xu, a former member of the Zhang lab and now at the National Institutes of Health, worked on TERRA, a type of RNA found in cancer cells. The award will be used to support research in the Zhang Lab.