Students in a lab

CBS DACA Students Awarded American Heart Association Fellowship

Maria Ayala and Eimy Castellanos recognized for work with protein complex essential for the normal function of cells

Two Ph.D. students in the College of Biological Sciences have been awarded prestigious fellowships from the American Heart Association (AHA) to support their research on Respiratory Complex I, a protein complex that generates energy inside human cells.

Maria Ayala and Eimy Castellanos, both third-year doctoral students in the laboratory of James Letts, an assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology, will receive $65,000 in funding over two years. The American Heart Association (AHA) Predoctoral Fellowships were announced in December of 2022. Ayala also received a Gilliam Fellowship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, in July 2023. This fellowship, designed to promote diversity and inclusion in science, will provide $53,000 per year in funding, for up to three years.

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