GDBBS Student Accomplishments Spotlight

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GDBBS trains some amazing students with brilliant minds and passions inside and outside the laboratory. Here is a spotlight of some exceptional students whose futures look very bright!

Sarah Bay- Genetics and Molecular Biology

Sarah is a 6th year GMB student performing her dissertation work in the laboratory of Dr. Tamara Caspary. She was selected by the Genetics Society of America as a Science Writing Intern where she contributes her work to the GSA blog: Genes to Genomes. Her most popular post (which held the record for most clicked story) explains genetics by using wizards and muggles from Harry Potter! Check it out here: https://genestogenomes.org/inherit-the-wand/

Scott Wilkinson- Cancer Biology

Scott is a 5th year CB student completing his dissertation work in Dr. Adam Marcus' laboratory with an impressive list of accomplishments throughout his training. Some of his most recent accolades include: 

  • Co-first authorship with Jessica Konen (CB) for their paper "LKB1 kinase-dependent and -independent defects disrupt polarity and adhesion signaling to drive collagen remodeling during invasion" in Molecular Biology of the Cell where it was selected for the cover and is nominated for MBoC Paper of the Year
  • Funding throughout his dissertation work by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (Years 1-4) and an NRSA F31 Predoctoral Fellowship (Years 4-5)
  • Awards presented at the GDBBS Banquet for his service and teaching include the Emory Graduate Career Teaching Award and the Bill and Catherine Rice Award

James Burkett- Neuroscience

James is a member of Dr. Larry Young's laboratory and recently published a paper in Science entitled "Oxytocin-dependent consolation behavior in rodents." In the paper, James and his labmates demonstrated that prairie voles can console each other in an oxytocin-dependent manner. This novel study has received a lot of press, including in The Atlantic

Lauren Byrd-Lyotis- Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Lauren is a 5th year MMG student completing her dissertation work in the laboratory of Dr. David Steinhauer. Lauren has been an outstanding student throughout her graduate career. Below are just a few of her accomplishments:

  • An excellent record of authorship including a first author publication in Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences entitled "Shotgun glycomics of pig lung identifies natural endogenous receptors for influenza viruses" and a first author publication in Journal of Virology entitled "Influenza hemagglutinin (HA) stem region mutations that stabilize or destabilize the structure of multiple HA subtypes"
  • Individual funding via an NRSA F31 Predoctoral Fellowship
  • Local and international awards including the MMG Scholar of the Year Award in 2014 and the Stojiljkovic Memorial Travel Award in 2015 to deliver an oral presentation at the Negative Strand Virology meeting in Siena, Italy