National Cancer Institute Fellowships

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry doctoral student Sumati Hasani received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award F31 Fellowship from the National Cancer Institute.

The main goal of her doctoral research is to delineate the mechanism by which CRC cells capitalize on fatty acid uptake to stimulate mitochondrial fission processes, thus leading to activation of downstream tumorigenesis pathways and fatty acid metabolism. By exploring the crossroads between cancer signaling and metabolism, she hopes to obtain a mechanistic narrative that elucidates the implications of increased fatty acid metabolism as a tumor promoting factor in patients with poor prognosis.

Lyndsay Young is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in Dr. Matthew Gentry’s laboratory at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, UK College of Medicine. She is the first UK student to be awarded an F99/K00 predoctoral-to-postdoctoral fellow transition award from the National Cancer Institute. This prestigious fellowship provides two years of graduate student funding and four years of funding for her postdoctoral training at the institution of her choice. NIH designed this award to facilitate exceptional young scientists for a smooth transition into a academic research career. She is one of only 23 students nationwide to be awarded the fellowship in 2021.