Image: Zahra Abdul Nawaz, a PhD student in Dr. Edward Kipreos' laboratory, has the outstanding accomplishment of winning both the Mary Loraine Young Hines Graduate Fellowship in Cancer Research and the Grimes Family Distinguished Graduate Fellowship in Natural Sciences from the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Each of these fellowships is awarded to just one student working the area of cancer research and provides research funding for a year. Zahra's is focused on the regulation of cullin-RING ubiquitin ligases (CRLs), which target the degradation of thousands of cellular proteins. CRLs have a modular structure that includes a variable substrate receptor (SR) component that target specific substrates for degradation and regulate distinct cellular activities. She studies a regulatory mechanism that globally alters the repertoire of SRs bound to the core complex during the cell cycle for one of the major classes of CRLs. This work has significant implications for diseases in which CRL complexes are implicated, most notably cancer and developmental defects. These fellowships support excellence, innovation, and dedication in graduate research, and this accomplishment reflects Zahra’s hard work and commitment to high quality science. Type of News/Audience: Graduate students
