Meet our Early Career Scientist Grant Winner Denise Ragusa
We’re delighted to introduce the latest winner of our monthly Early Career Scientist Grant! Denise Ragusa of the Brunel University of London, UK, collects our fantastic $500 grant to spend on her career development. Each month we choose one postdoc or PhD student to receive a grant that will support their career in some way, eg. help with publishing fees, the cost of lab supplies, conference travel expenses, etc.
Denise is a postdoc working in Professor Paola Vagnarelli’s lab and she will use the grant to help fund her attendance at the Cell Bio 2024 conference in San Diego, USA on 14th-18th December 2024!
When we asked Denise how she felt about receiving the award, she told us:
I’m very pleased to be the winner of the Hello Bio Early Career Scientist Grant this month! This grant will allow me to present at Cell Bio 2024, one of the largest cell biology conferences happening in San Diego this winter. Denise Ragusa, Brunel University, UK, Hello Bio Early Career Scientist Grant winner
Congratulations Denise! First, can you tell us a bit more about your research work?
I’m currently working on the role of histone variants in regulating genomic stability and chromosome segregation fidelity. Histone variants are biologically very fascinating, as they often differ in just a few amino acids in structure, yet they perform very different functions in the cell. I’ve engineered degron cell lines to tag and selectively deplete histone variants to uncover their functions, while using computational methods to interrogate how alterations in histone variant genes can contribute to genomic instability in human cancers.
What excites you most about your field of research?
I’m fascinated by big data and computational approaches to capture multi-omics levels of information, bridging traditional computer science, basic and translational approaches to answer biological questions.
Which scientists working today do you most admire, and why?
I have great admiration for this year’s Chemistry Nobel Prize Winners John Jumper & Demis Hassabis for their ground-breaking work on the protein structure modeller AlphaFold. Their work has set the stage for the new era of computer modelling in biology.
What do you think are the biggest challenges currently facing life scientists and their work?
Open research and reproducibility have been major issues for experimental scientists to build on existing discoveries. However this is now rapidly changing with improved access to protocols, raw data, primary literature and researcher forums to make our work shareable and transparent.
And finally… what’s your favourite science joke?
I like my DNA like I like my bacon: CRISPR
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Thank you so much Denise! We hope you have a fantastic time at the Cell Bio 2024 conference!
Connect with Denise:
Are YOU a life science PhD or postdoc researcher? Why not apply for our next monthly grant!
Application is quick and easy, just fill out the form here: https://hellobio.com/early-career-scientist-grant-application
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