Fellowships

The SCVD sponsors a number of pre- and postdoctoral fellowships and travel award support for graduate students and postdoctoral scientists. During fiscal year 2010, we supported three predoctoral fellowships and awarded two travel awards at poster competitions. One graduate student (Alexey Seregin, mentored by Dr. Slobodan Paessler) was awarded the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development award at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) award luncheon. This award recognizes excellence in research in the field of vaccine development and is given to a UTMB graduate student who has made a significant contribution to Vaccinology-related projects consistent with the mission statement of the center.

SCVD is proud to continue support for our current predoctoral fellows:

Olga Kolokoltsova graduated from the Novosibirsk State University in Novosibirsk, Russia with a MS in Cytology and Genetics in 2001. She is currently a first year student in the Experimental Pathology graduate program and is mentored by Slobodan Paessler, DVM, PhD. Olga's proposed research focuses on the mechanism of cell death induction in response to Junin virus and its significance for attenuation of the vaccine strain of Junin virus.

Taslima Lina graduated from the University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh with a MS in Microbiology in 2006. She is currently a first year student in the Microbiology and Immunology graduate program and is mentored by Victor Reyes, PhD. Taslima's proposed research focuses on the characterization of immune evasion mechanisms used by Helicobacter pylori that could be targets for vaccine design.