Bess Jones receives Honorable Mention from NSF GRFP

Bess Jones earned an Honorable Mention 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 research, teaching, and innovation across STEM fields.

Bess is a 2^nd year student in Dionna Kasper's Lab in the Department of Molecular and Systems Biology at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine. The Kasper Lab studies how vascular endothelial cells adopt alternate cell fates to become hematopoietic stem cells, which support the formation of all blood cell lineages, or lymphatic progenitors. How endothelial cells adopt and maintain these unique cell fates is poorly understood.

Bess is interested in gene expression regulation as it pertains to cell fate control. Her research focuses on cell fate decisions in the developing blood and vascular systems of the zebrafish embryo. She is investigating how a small noncoding regulatory RNA, microRNA-223, is expressed in various blood and vascular cells/tissues and how it may be regulating the differentiation of these cell types. Bess can study this in real time by monitoring fluorescence in transgenic zebrafish.

Bess is originally from Cherry Hill, NJ. She graduated from The College of New Jersey with a degree in Biology and double minor in Chemistry and Deaf Studies. In undergrad, she worked in a lab studying how yeast prions regulate gene expression to increase survival in stress conditions. When she's not hard at work in the Kasper Lab, Bess volunteers with NerdSquad, a non-profit that uses interactive hands-on and community-centered activities to engage local students and families with STEM. She also enjoys hiking, baking, and crocheting.