The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is thrilled to announce the recipients of the WID100 Research Advancement and Student Conference Travel Grants. This funding opportunity recognizes and supports innovative research taking place in WID labs and supports student travel to conferences. The WID100 is an instrumental group of 100 community, business, and scientific leaders committed to practices that enable and amplify interdisciplinary research, support economic promise, growth and development.
Supporting next level scientific discoveries with interdisciplinary research, science-art fusion, and diversity and equity in the STEM fields is important to WID and especially for the WID100. WID believes in providing opportunities for a broad community to experience the inspiring research and public engagement at WID firsthand and support economic promise, growth, and development.
Research Advancement Grant
The Research Advancement Grant for $5,000 was awarded to the John Yin Lab. This award supports the lab’s innovative efforts in seeking to understand the principles of why a positive swab for COVID-19 can span in severity from an asymptomatic case to death. Nan Jiang, a Ph.D. in the Yin Lab, is helping to lead a research effort on zombie viruses or zombie particles, which are non-infectious or dead byproducts of infection that can spring to life, and replicate only in the presence of normal viral infections. Such “viruses of viruses” might prevent or promote more severe infections by the latest strains of COVID. The WID100 support will enable Jiang and the Yin Lab to explore how zombie viruses might one day be harnessed to save lives.
Student Conference Travel Grants
The WID100 Student Conference Travel Grant is funding $1000 to outstanding graduate students each to travel to scientific meetings. For the academic year 2022-23, four students have been nominated by WID Faculty to receive these awards.
Keerthana Shankar, a student in the Krishanu Saha Lab is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate who studies CRISPR-engineered immune cells as a therapeutic agent for some of the hardest-to-treat cancers. Shankar has single-handedly established a gene editing method with the highest success rate known to date and plans to disseminate her findings at the upcoming Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) annual meeting. Support from this award will aid the development of her anti-tumor therapy, connect her with leaders in the field, and bring her technology closer to helping patients.
Nathan Kolbow, a second-year PhD student in Claudia Solis-Lemus Lab, will be attending the annual meeting for the Society for Advancing Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). It is the largest scientific meeting with the purpose of cultivating and celebrating a sense of diversity and belonging in STEM. Evidence shows that participating in a diverse community has a powerful positive impact on the well-being of graduate students, as well as on their scientific productivity. Kolbow will be immersed in state-of-the-art scientific presentations, have an opportunity to network in an innovative and inclusive student community, and create novel scientific collaborations.
Zhutong Li, is a graduate student in the in Lih-Sheng (Tom) Turng’s Lab and will attend NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) meeting on NIH campus, Maryland, March 28 – 29, 2023, where she will present a poster. Li’s Ph.D. research studies small-diameter vascular grafts (SDVGs) as prosthetic bypass vessels for treating patients with severe cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). CVDs are the leading cause of death and morbidity world-wide, accounting for 17.9 million deaths in 2019 and over $300 billion in healthcare costs annually.
Tym Sokolskyi, a graduate student in the David Baum Lab, will attend The International Winter School in Origins of Life (IWSOL) which is a gathering of Astrobiology and origins of life researchers at the University of Pavia, Italy. The gathering will focus on knowledge exchange and developing new approaches in this highly interdisciplinary field. Attending IWSOL will not only provide Sokolskyi with great feedback on his research projects but will stimulate new new ideas and teach him new methods and approaches, and allow him to build a professional network. As Sokolskyi says: “Gaining exposure to the rapidly growing field of Astrobiology is an incredibly valuable opportunity for an early-career researcher like me and something that only opportunities like IWSOL can provide.”
The WID100 congratulates these award recipients who elevate WID’s innovative, cutting-edge, and interdisciplinary science. To learn more about how you can become a WID100 member and support the innovative research that drives the science of tomorrow please contact Andrew Hanus.
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