Second UTSW postdoc selected for prestigious Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program
This story was originally posted on Center Times Plus on September 12, 2018.
Dr. Arielle Woznica, a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Dr. Julie Pfeiffer, Professor of Microbiology, has been named one of 15 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Hanna H. Gray Fellows for 2018.
The program, which supports fellows from early postdoctoral training through the first years of a tenure-track faculty position, provides up to $1.4 million in funding over eight years as well as mentoring and networking opportunities within the HHMI community. The 2018 fellows, all recent Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. graduates, come from 12 institutions. In addition to UT Southwestern, those institutions include Stanford, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“This award affords me the unique scientific opportunity to pursue a high risk/high reward project that I am excited and passionate about,” Dr. Woznica said.
A native of Tucson, Arizona, who earned her Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Woznica is studying the origin and evolution of innate immunity in animals by characterizing how choanoflagellates – the closest unicellular relatives of animals – sense and respond to viruses.
“I think this award will motivate my research and career development in numerous ways,” she said. “The financial stability that this award offers is, of course, incredibly important. However, the Hanna Gray award also connects me to a diverse community of supportive and talented postdoctoral researchers and HHMI scientists who will undoubtedly further my personal and professional development.”
“Arielle is smart, creative, collaborative, and fearless,” Dr. Pfeiffer said. “Although she is early in her postdoctoral training, she has phenomenal intuition and scientific vision regarding which scientific questions are most interesting and how to tackle them.”
That creativity led Dr. Woznica to a very convenient source of choanoflagellates for her research – practically right outside the lab door.
“One of the spectacular things about choanoflagellates is that they can grow just about anywhere,” she said. “One day, Julie and I were talking about how there must be a billion viruses in the water of the stream that runs through the North Campus.”
Dr. Woznica took a sample from the water between the C. Kern Wildenthal Research Building and the T. Boone Pickens Biomedical Building on North Campus.
“When I looked under the microscope, I was beyond surprised to immediately see large choanoflagellate colonies,” she said. “This is exciting because I can isolate ‘choanos’ and potential viruses on a regular basis – and maybe even get an idea regarding how changing environmental conditions affect the number or diversity of viruses associated with the choanoflagellates.”
Dr. Woznica is UT Southwestern’s second HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow. Dr. John Brooks, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Lora Hooper, Professor and Chair of Immunology and an HHMI Investigator, was named a fellow for 2017.
“The HHMI Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program has provided me the freedom to pursue the research questions that interest me most,” said Dr. Brooks, who earned a Ph.D. in microbiology from Northwestern University. His current project focuses on understanding the complex interplay between the host circadian clock, the gut microbiota, and host immunity.
“I’ve identified a pathway in which a member of the microbiota promotes the circadian production of several antimicrobial factors produced in the gut. I’m now trying to understand how the circadian production of these select antimicrobial factors impact Salmonella typhimurium infection outcomes at specific time points over the course of a 24-hour day/night cycle,” he said.
“In addition to the unprecedented freedom the award has provided at this stage in my career, it has allowed me to focus on my work more intently by alleviating the stress that comes with the endless pursuit of acquiring external research funds.”
The program is named for Hanna Holborn Gray, former chair of the HHMI trustees and former president of the University of Chicago. Under Gray’s leadership, HHMI developed initiatives that foster diversity in science education.
A competition for the 2019 group of Hanna H. Gray Fellows is now open to researchers at institutions with the United States (including Puerto Rico).