Four MCB Students selected by NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship Program

In a banner year, four MCB students have received recognition from the competitive and prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP). The NSF GRFP supports the graduate research of students who have demonstrated potential to contribute significantly to the future of STEM research, teaching, and innovation across STEM fields. Beatriz Mercado, Grace Rosner, and Elora Greiner were selected for NSF GRFP awards and Samantha Liu has earned an Honorable Mention.

Beatriz Mercado is a second year MCB student in the Kasper Lab in the Department of Molecular and Systems Biology at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine. Beatriz studies how hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) arise from a transient specialized subset of endothelial cells called hemogenic endothelial cells (hemECs) via an endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition (EHT) during early embryogenesis. She is broadly interested in how environmental cues and intrinsic mechanisms govern cell fate/plasticity of HSPCs and vascular development. To study EHT, she uses zebrafish as an animal model to study how zebrafish ADAM10a, a metalloproteinase type-1 transmembrane glycoprotein, regulates EHT.

Beatriz received her Associate Degree in Science from Bronx Community College, where she majored in Biology. She then attended John Jay College and obtained a Bachelor of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology with a minor in Psychology. Before attending Dartmouth for her Ph.D., she was an NIH-PREP fellow at Brown University. Outside of the lab, Beatriz is passionate about advocating for diversity in STEM via SACNAS and volunteering with NERDSQUAD. Additionally, she enjoys reading fantasy novels, playing video games, and can be found making absurd sound effects (Eeeh, Meep or Meow) to destress both in and outside of the lab. 

Grace Rosner is a first year MCB student who has not yet joined a thesis lab. This year, she rotated in the Usherwood Lab, Skopelja-Gardner Lab, and is currently rotating in the Pointer Lab. These labs focus on immune cell metabolism, autoimmune disease, and radiation therapy for glioblastoma, respectively. Currently, her project in the Pointer Lab centers around glioblastoma stem cell contribution to radiation resistance. She is also working on a manuscript with Sladjana Skopelja-Gardner on neutrophil activation in kidney injury of Cystic Fibrosis patients. Additionally, Grace is working with her community to form a student organization that provides support, community, and advocacy for graduate students with disabilities.

Grace is originally from Nyack, New York, and graduated from Colorado College in 2022 with a double major in Molecular Biology and Classics and a minor in Philosophy. Outside the lab, Grace loves writing music on her ukulele and reading. One of Grace's favorite works is An Inquiry into the Good by Kitaro Nishida - an intersection between existential and ethical philosophy that blends European and East Asian ways of thought.

Elora Greiner is a research assistant in the Kettenbach Lab in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the Geisel School of Medicine and will be a first year MCB student this fall. Currently, her research in the Kettenbach Lab is aimed towards understanding how phosphoprotein phosphatase activity influences zebrafish neurodevelopment. Phosphoprotein phosphatases remove post-translationally added phosphate groups from proteins. The timely addition and removal of these phosphate groups regulates protein function.

Elora is originally from southern Minnesota and received her undergraduate degree from Smith College in Northampton, MA with a major in neuroscience. Her undergraduate honors thesis research was focused on the early development of body axes in zebrafish embryos. Outside of lab, she enjoys playing board games and is an avid knitter and yarn spinner.

Sam Liu is a 2nd year student in the Shoemaker Lab in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the Geisel School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the organelle-dependent quality control mechanisms of tail-anchored (TA) membrane proteins. The monomeric form of the mammalian TA protein BNIP3 (which dually localizes to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondrial membranes) is sent to the proteasome for degradation through distinct mechanisms depending on its organelle of localization. Using BNIP3 as a model, Sam uses biochemical and cell biology techniques to understand how TA proteins are recognized and extracted from the ER and mitochondrial membranes for proteasomal degradation. Studying these quality control pathways can help us better understand the repertoire of mechanisms available in mammalian systems to address aberrant or mislocalized TA proteins that could otherwise play a harmful role in diseases.

Sam is originally from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and completed her undergraduate education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, where she studied the role of alpha-synuclein misfolding in neurodegeneration. During her free time Sam loves swimming, cooking, drawing, playing piano, and photography. Sam is also passionate about early STEM outreach/mentorship, helping to organize the recent Science Day at Dartmouth and volunteering with NERDSQUAD.

Congratulations to Beatriz, Grace, Elora, and Sam!