Environmental Factor – July 2022: Six NIEHS interns earn top marks in NIH-level research fair

NIEHS Post-Baccalaureate trainees compete at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 2022 Default Postbac Poster Day The event took place on April 26-28. Six postbac internships research interns achieved the highest 20% of the more than 900 posters submitted by interns across all 27 NIH institutes and centers.

• Camia Bridges, Under the guidance of Humphrey Yao, PhD, and Barbara Nicholl, PhD, presented “Loss of Runx1 expression leads to ovarian defects and an increased risk of ovarian tumors.”
• Shaleen Brownunder the guidance of Ronald Cannon, Ph.D., presented “Erastin rapidly inhibits glycoprotein transport activity at the blood-brain barrier.”
• Sydney Fryunder the guidance of Jesse Cushman, PhD, presented “Genetic deletion of the mineralocorticoid receptor in CA2 impairs the accuracy of circadian behavioral rhythms in a sex-dependent manner.”
• Abra Grangerunder the guidance of Roel Schaaper, and Lalith Perera, Ph.D., presented “Employment of molecular dynamic simulations to characterize the function of the dGTPase enzyme in coli bacteria Using Cysteine-273 to mutation of Serine in the active site. “
• Lauren Gullitunder the guidance of Chandra Jackson, Ph.D., and Dana Alhassan, Ph.D., presented “Occupational Characteristics and Serious Psychological Stress in the United States.”
• Isha Wilsonunder the guidance of Robin Stanley, PhD, provided “Functional Analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 Nsp15 Endoribonuclease Variants.”

Top row, left: Bridges, Brown, and Fry. Bottom row, left: Granger, Juliet, and Wilson. (Images provided by Steve McCaw/NIEHS)

“Postbac Poster Days are a great opportunity for NIH postgraduate students to develop communication and networking skills with post-baccalaureate students from across the NIH,” said Stanley, a Stadtman investigator with the Nuclear Integrity Group who mentored two of this year’s poster presenters.

Prepare for success

The post-baccalaureate program allows recent graduates of undergraduate programs to pursue a one- or two-year biomedical research project at the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, according to Katie Hamilton, summer internship program and post-baccalaureate program director at the Fellows Career Development Office.

Post-baccalaureate trainees work mostly in wet laboratories and are supervised by NIEHS scholars and postdoctoral trainees. The program offers vocational skills workshops, a wellness program, and career counseling. Every post-baccalaureate earns a salary.

“The post-baccalaureate program is fantastic,” said Jerry Yakel, PhD, head of the Neurobiology Laboratory and longtime educator of NIEHS interns. “We’ve had some outstanding postbacs in our department, including Diane Youngstrom, who’s currently in my lab. Diane made a great presentation for the poster, and it was a pleasure to be in the lab.”

Youngstrom was a post-baccalaureate laureate in the NIEHS Big Picture, Small Talk Communication Challenge held in March. Last year, Bridges earned this highest honor, and this year, it also ranked in the top 20% at the NIH Poster Days event.

An elusive celebration was held for trainees departing from NIEHS on 3 June. (Image via OCPL/NIEHS)

The future is bright

Bridges, working with the Reproductive Developmental Biology group, is exploring how expression of a specific gene (Runx1) can lead to defects in ovarian follicle development and, in advanced reproductive age, ovarian tumors.

“We hope this work will assist diagnostic tests to determine ovarian cancer risk and help develop future treatments, so that more women can have better outcomes,” she said.

Bridges graduated from Winston-Salem State University in May 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. She spent the first few months of her NIEHS postoperative experience researching the literature for her next project before being allowed to actually join the lab investigating ovarian development in mice over several time periods.

“It was really helpful,” she said, explaining that she and her mentors are writing a manuscript about the study’s initial findings.

I’m proud of that recognition, and it’s encouraging. To me, this confession feels like an affirmation. Abra Granger, NIH Postoperative intern

“Reach for the Stars”

Granger, who works in the mechanisms of the mutation group and investigates the occurrence of mutations in coli bacteria, I got the highest score in poster presentation too. It learns and applies computational methods, such as molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, to model any changes that might occur in the structures of wild-type enzymes versus those of the mutant enzymes they investigate.

“Working in this environment every day helped me in my thought process and investigation process,” she said. “I’ve developed better questions to ask and learned what the methods look like in practice, and I generally have a better sense of what a science career really looks like.”

Postbac applications are accepted on a rolling basis. According to Hamilton, about 40 postgraduate interns train at NIEHS at any one time, with approximately 20 new interns starting each year.

Bridges said she encourages the class of 2023 to apply.

“The first thing I would say is that you lose 100% of the shots you don’t take, and I’m saying that because I was too scared to come forward,” she said. So, I would say to them, ‘Reach for the stars.’ “

(Jennifer Harker, Ph.D., is a writer and technical editor in the Office of Communications and Public Communications of the National Foundation for Occupational Health and Safety.)

from San Jose News Bulletin https://sjnewsbulletin.com/environmental-factor-july-2022-six-niehs-interns-earn-top-marks-in-nih-level-research-fair/