Biomedical Sciences graduate student Kaitlyn Gura selected for NSF-GRFP fellowship

Kaitlyn Gura, a Ph.D. student in the SMHS biomedical sciences graduate program, has been selected to receive an award from the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) for 2024. The highly competitive NSF-GRFP is among the oldest graduate fellowships of its kind and was first awarded in 1952. The program helps fund outstanding undergraduate and graduate students in the United States who are pursuing graduate degrees in STEM disciplines supported by the NSF. Gura’s award extends over a 3-year period, including an annual stipend of $37,000, support for her tuition and fees of $16,000, and access to multiple professional development activities sponsored by the NSF. According to the NSF, many former recipients of this award are luminaries in the STEM fields including Nobel Prize laureates, former U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and Freakonomics co-author Steven Levitt. The GRFP fellowships have annual acceptance rates of ~16%, with more than 12,000 applicants vying for this highly competitive fellowship.

Gura is a second-year student, working towards her doctoral degree in biomedical sciences. She graduated magna cum laude from North Dakota State University with an undergraduate degree in life sciences. Gura is also Company Commander with the North Dakota Army National Guard. At UND, her doctoral project involves a collaborative venture between the laboratories of Dr. Archana Dhasarathy (Epigenetics) and Dr. Catherine Brissette (Lyme disease). Specifically, Gura will investigate epigenetic mechanisms that enable cells to memorize prior exposure and respond robustly when they re-encounter the stimulus in the future. This ability of cells to remember and respond to a previously encountered stimulus is an important adaptive response in animals and plants termed “transcriptional memory.” The proposed research will advance our understanding of how cells respond and remember exposures to stimuli in the environment, which is a fundamental concept in Biology. This work is expected to be of general interest to molecular biologists, microbiologists, and ecologists.