Two early-career scientists in the fields of Neuroscience, and Genetics and Genomic Sciences, recently received the 2018 Robin Chemers Neustein Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. The recipients—Lorna Farrelly, PhD, and Sabrina Tamburini, PhD—will each receive an award of $25,000 to further their research.
Dr. Farrelly works in the laboratory of Ian Sutherland Maze, PhD, in the Fishberg Department of Neuroscience. She is investigating susceptibility to psychiatric illness via novel neuroepigenetic brain mechanisms potentially responsible for neural plasticity. “Dr. Farrelly is a truly passionate, talented, and inspiring young scientist who has great potential to one day become a leader in the collective fields of neuroepigenetics and molecular psychiatry,” says Dr. Maze, Assistant Professor of Pharmacological Sciences, and Neuroscience, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Additionally, she is an exceptional mentor to members of my lab and is never afraid to tackle the most difficult of scientific dilemmas.”
Working in the laboratory of Jose Clemente, PhD, Assistant Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Dr. Tamburini conducts research focused on understanding what constitutes a “healthy” microbiome and how the microbiome is related to overall health and disease. Explains Dr. Clemente: “Dr. Tamburini has developed assays that can distinguish viable bacteria in the human gut, which is crucial because only those bacteria can produce chemical compounds that induce host responses. We are now using this technique to
better understand how microbial transplantation can be used therapeutically in Clostridium difficile and inflammatory bowel
disease patients.”
Intended to encourage and support female research scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Fellowship was established in 2010 through a generous gi¦ from Robin Chemers Neustein, JD, MBA, a former member of Mount Sinai’s Boards of Trustees.