CTEGD Trainees Receive Awards

Duo Peng, a graduate student in Rick Tarleton’s laboratory, received the Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant from the Graduate School. This competitive award comes with $1,000 to fund his research activities this summer. Duo’s project intersects experimental and computation biology, develops experimental methods and computation tools to conduct genome screening assays in T. cruzi,  enabling T. cruzi researchers to systematically identify gene sets that are involved in a biological process of interest at unprecedented pace.

Tara Bracken, a graduate student in Julie Moore’s laboratory, won the Grand Prize, and $1,000, at the Three Minute Thesis Competition where she presented her research project on placental and cerebral malaria to a general audience.  You can learn more about Tara and her research here.

Jennifer Dumaine, a graduate student in Boris Striepen’s laboratory, won the People’s Choice Award, and $500, at the the Three Minute Thesis Competition. Jennifer’s research focuses on Cryptosporidium parvum, a leading cause of diarrhea worldwide. She is trying to identify the proteins that the parasite sends into the host cells to create a home for itself. Once the proteins are identified, the Striepen Research Group can begin to look at the interaction between parasite and host components that are needed for invasion to occur.