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Grad student awarded $41,200 AHA fellowship
1:31 p.m., Aug. 1, 2006--Prabhavathi Srinivasan, a UD doctoral student in biochemistry, was recently awarded a $41,200 fellowship from the American Heart Association (AHA) for her research and lab work on an enzyme present in human blood that is believed to inhibit atherosclerosis, the buildup of fatty deposits in arteries. The fellowship, which allots Srinivasan a stipend of $20,600 a year for living expenses, was awarded to her based on the merit of her work and the caliber of her grant proposal, which she submitted last January at the urging of her adviser, Brian J. Bahnson, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UD. “A fellow graduate student I work with in the lab encouraged me to apply, so I asked my adviser, Prof. Bahnson, soon after the committee meeting last fall if he thought I should apply, and he agreed it would be a great opportunity,” Srinivasan said. “As I was writing my proposal, we went back and forth with it, and he suggested many changes, all of which I incorporated.” The entire grant-writing process, from beginning to end, Srinivasan, said, took her about two months to complete. Considering that her research has dominated the last two years of her life, however, and will continue to take center stage for at least two more, the reward, she said, was well worth the effort. “I plan to finish [my doctoral degree] in two years, but that really depends on how well the work goes and how quickly I am able to get the results,” Srinivasan, who will be starting her fourth year of doctoral research at UD this coming semester, said. The painstaking work typically keeps Srinivasan in the lab five hours a day. “I'm working on trying to crystallize platelet-activating factor acetyl hydrolase, an enzyme that's present in the human plasma,” she said. “It's thought to be one of the enzymes that prevents atherosclerosis by converting fat molecules to less harmful molecules.” A native of India, Srinivasan received her bachelor's degree in microbiology and her master's degree in biotechnology from Bangalore University. Before coming to UD, she interned at the Indian Institute of Science, where she assisted in genotyping the hepatitis C virus in an effort to stem the spread of the disease in parts of southern India. While working, Srinivasan took her GRE exams and researched institutions and doctoral programs in biotechnology. “I knew after working at the institute that I wanted to pursue my Ph.D. in structural biology,” Srinivasan said. “I looked up the list of faculty at UD and liked their work, so I applied here, along with a few other schools in the United States.” Though not entirely certain where her current work will lead her, Srinivasan said that she plans to pursue a postdoctoral degree in biotechnology once her work at UD is completed. “I'm very happy that I got this grant,” she said, “and I'm very grateful for all the encouragement and help I got with my proposal.” Article by Becca Hutchinson |
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