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The Genomics Scholars Program

2022-2023 Genomics Scholars Award Recipients

The Center for Vertebrate Genomics is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2022-2023 Genomics Scholars Awards. This year was extremely competitive and we thank all of the applicants for the opportunity to consider their excellent proposals. We also want to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude for the scholar award review committee members, who always put great care and thought into the reviews. We are very proud to support the research and training of our truly outstanding awardees. Among this diverse group of 3 post-docs and 6 graduate students, there are 5 different colleges and 5 different departments/units represented. Congratulations to this year's recipients!

Distinguished Scholar Awards

  • Dr. Yiqin Wang, postdoctoral fellow, O'Brien and Clark laboratories, for "Genomic insights into the ethnic and sex differences in iron homeostasis"

CVG Scholar Awards

  • Dr. Mercedes Carro, postdoctoral fellow, Cohen laboratory, for "Silencing of sex chromosomes during spermatogenesis: a nuclear function for AGO proteins in meiosis"
  • Dr. Julien Morival, postdoctoral fellow, Lammerding laboratory, for "Elucidating the role of nucleo-cytoskeletal coupling in mechanotransduction"
  • Leanne Donahue, graduate student, White laboratory, for "Interrogating cell-specific chromatin alterations generated by the AT-hook protein Hmga2"
  • Connor Kean, graduate student, Grimson laboratory, for "Determining the microbially induced epigenomic changes in HSCs that drive the trained immunity of CD8+ T cells"
  • Mitch Lokey, graduate student, Clark and Messer laboratories, for "Improving conservation genetic management using genome-wide data from Florida’s only endemic bird, the endangered Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens)"
  • Daryl Phuong, graduate student, Schimenti laboratory, for "Determining transitional cell state and genetic alterations for HGSC initiation and progression"
  • Sarah Saddoris, graduate student, Schang Laboratory, for "Chromatin Remodeling Complexes During Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Infection"
  • Alexandria Shumway, graduate student, Sethupathy laboratory, for "Defining transcriptome-wide 3' untranslated region usage patterns in human pediatric Crohn’s disease"

Scholar Program

All scholars are expected to participate in monthly CVG Scholar Lunch meetings. These scholar lunches provide a unique opportunity to present and discuss research within a smaller forum of peers and mentors.

All scholars are encouraged to attend the CVG monthly seminar series (VERGE) whenever possible, expected to attend two Zoom-with-an-Expert sessions, expected to participate actively and present once in the CVG trainee-led journal club, and required to present a poster at the biennial CVG summer symposium.

Distinguished Scholars will be invited to serve as a host & moderator for a distinguished researcher during one of the Zoom-With-An-Expert (ZWE) events. ZWE is a CVG program launched in 2021 that brings leading genomics experts from across the world to connect with CVG trainees in a virtual discussion.

Application Procedure

Prerequisites

  • Applicants must be from laboratories whose PIs are members of the CVG.
  • Graduate student applicants must have selected a permanent laboratory home before applying.
  • The applicants should expect to be at Cornell through December 2023.
  • There is a limit of one applicant per faculty CVG member lab.

Evaluation Criteria

The application should be written and prepared by the applicant. Part of the evaluation process includes an assessment of the applicant's ability to communicate scientific goals and ideas in a succinct fashion. Those applications that are written by the PI or are excised from grant applications submitted by the PI will not be considered.

Projects to be proposed should have a genome-scale component and also concern vertebrates. Such projects may include, but are not limited to, genetic screens, computational analyses of genomic data, gene expression studies, population/evolutionary genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, or functional studies of vertebrate genes in model systems. Applications with projects focused on invertebrates are eligible, especially if the link(s) to vertebrate biology is clearly articulated. Applications with the following features are strongly preferred:

  • The project is collaborative (between two or more labs) and/or multidisciplinary in a way that will enable new training for the applicant.
  • The applicant is training in a lab that has been actively engaged with the CVG.

Application Package

  • First Page or Application Header to include applicant name and netid, and to indicate CVG Scholar or Distinguished Scholar track.
  • The project title and description. This should be no more than 2 pages using 11 point font size and single spaced. Include a brief working title, an introduction and succinct description of the planned work, and address the project's relevance to vertebrate genomics.
  • A letter of support from the PI (may be submitted separately). For CVG Scholars, PI letter should address merit and financial need. For Distinguished Scholars financial need is not a criterion and PI letter should focus on merit with specific concrete examples demonstrating the creativity and productivity of the applicant.
  • A copy of the applicant's CV (please include cornell netid).
  • A copy of the PI's NIH biosketch.
  • 1 additional page may be included for supporting figures and tables.
  • 1 additional page may be included for references.

DEADLINE: October 4, 2022 5:00pm.

Please submit your application as a PDF file via email to Charlotte Williams at cw25@cornell.edu. Please reduce the file size if it exceeds 10 MB. PI letter of support may be submitted separately.

Applicants will be notified in November of their award status.

Past Genomics Scholarship Recipients