Author: Kristin Wallace

Maria Xu Receives an American Heart Association (AHA) Clinical Health Profession Student Training Grant Award

Congratulations to Maria Xu, an M.D./Ph.D. student in Dr. Anthony Vella’s Laboratory, who has received an American Heart Association (AHA) Clinical Health Profession Student Training Grant Award for her exciting project centering on the interface of immunology with vascular biology. This AHA Predoctoral Fellowship Program aims to enhance the integration of research with clinical training for students who intend careers as physician-scientists by providing two years of stipend and project support. Her team-based scientific proposal will probe the role of T cells and cytokines in early atherosclerosis and will be performed in collaboration with Drs. Patrick Murphy, Beiyan Zhou, and Anabelle Rodriguez of the Center for Vascular Biology and Immunology departments.

Dr. Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja Receives a UConn Research Excellence Program Award

Dr. Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja
Congratulations to Dr. Sivapriya Kailasan Vanaja on receiving a UConn Research Excellence Program award for her proposal entitled, “Modulation of Noncanonical Inflammasome by Bacterial Pathogen”. The focus of this project is to understand the mechanisms by which bacterial pathogens modulate the host innate immune responses to successfully establish an infection.

Erica Lorenzo Receives a Glenn/AFAR Scholarship

Erica Lorenzo and Dr. Laura Haynes
Erica Lorenzo, pictured here with her mentor Dr. Laura Haynes, received a Glenn/AFAR Scholarship for Research in the Biology of Aging. This competitive program is designed to give students enrolled in M.D., D.O., Ph.D., or combined-degree programs the opportunity to conduct a three-to-six-month research project focused on biomedical research in aging with the goal of learning more about the field of aging research, as well as increasing their understanding of the challenges involved in improving the quality of life for older people.