Several Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB) graduate students received a 2023 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GFRP) award or honorable mention.
Jess Davidson, a second-year graduate student in the Simcox Lab, received a NSF GFRP award this year. Davidson’s research aims to identify how bis(monacylglycero)phosphate (BMP) lipids are regulated and how these lipids contribute to lysosomal function.
“BMP lipids are important because they are associated with a number of human diseases,” explains Davidson. “The first step is figuring out how these lipids are regulated. Then we can learn more about how they function within the cell, how the ways that they’re modulated change in samples from people with diseases associated with BMP lipids.”
Davidson, a first-generation graduate student, is also looking forward to the opportunities that this funding will allow her space to explore. “With secure funding that protects my time, I can focus on my research and build some of the skills that I can’t build at the bench,” says Davidson, who is currently working as a teaching assistant and mentoring an undergraduate in the Simcox Lab.
Among this year’s NSF GRFP honorable mentions are IPiB students Kylie Zawisza in the Brow Lab and Silar Miller in the Denu Lab, as well as Aysiah Jaeke, a Cancer Biology graduate student in the Cantor Lab and Megan Taylor, a Biophysics graduate student in the Romero Lab.
Congratulations!
For a list of all 52 NSF GRFP award recipients from UW–Madison, visit the Graduate School website.