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- Posted Friday September 23, 2011
TGen graduate students each receive $50,000 from Salt River Project's Graduate Student Support Program
Grants fund studies of antibiotic resistance and Alzheimer's
Disease
PHOENIX, Ariz. - Sept. 23, 2011 - Two Arizona university graduate
students working at the Translational Genomics Research Institute
(TGen) have each received $50,000 grants from the Salt River
Project (SRP).
Jolene Bowers, a Research Associate III at TGen's Pathogen Genomics
Division in Flagstaff, and Brooke Hjelm, a Research Associate in
TGen's Neurogenomics Division in Phoenix, are each the recipients
of $50,000 awards from SRP's Arizona Graduate Student Support
Program.
This program promotes the recruitment, development and retention at
TGen of high quality graduate students from Arizona universities,
and highlights TGen's commitment to the training and career
development of Arizona's future scientists and technical
innovators.
"Thanks to the caring employees of SRP, graduate students from
Arizona universities have the opportunity to grow their skills at
TGen and become valued members of Arizona's expanding biomedical
workforce," said Michael Bassoff, President of the TGen Foundation,
the non-profit fundraising arm of TGen.
"Our partnership with TGen stretches back to its very first days
and we are proud to continue supporting the important work being
done by its staff and by graduate students from Arizona
universities," said SRP General Manager Mark Bonsall.
Bowers is studying several antibiotic-resistant diseases:
Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas
aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus
pneumonia.
"Antibiotic resistance rates in these bacteria are at unprecedented
levels, and leave few therapeutic options for patients with these
infections," Bowers said. "We need to understand the genetic
mechanisms behind this resistance, as well as how these mechanisms
are shared within and among species, in order to make more informed
decisions about antibiotic use, patient therapy and outbreak
prevention measures."
Bowers also is working towards a Ph.D. in Biology at Northern
Arizona University.
In Dr. David Craig's Lab at TGen's Phoenix headquarters, Hjelm is
developing models for the study of neurodegenerative diseases,
including Alzheimer's Disease.
"Many neurodegenerative diseases are commonly misdiagnosed in live
human subjects," said Hjelm, whose study will compare the DNA of
patients' tissues after death with clinical examinations before
they died. She hopes to create models that could help study
the effects of genetic variants that are associated with increased
risk, or protection against, the onset of Alzheimer's
Disease.
Hjelm also is working towards a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular
Biology at Arizona State University.
