Jasmine Tutol PhD’21, a research associate in The University of Texas at Dallas’ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, was recently awarded the 14th Irving S. Sigal Postdoctoral Fellowship from the American Chemical Society.
Tutol completed her doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr. Sheel Dodani BS’07, assistant professor of chemistry in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and is continuing her postdoctoral research in Dodani’s lab.
The fellowship, which provides $75,000 a year for two years, is awarded biennially to a recent PhD recipient to pursue research at the interface of chemistry and biology.
Tutol is developing a fluorescence-based high-throughput screen to identify small molecules for the potential treatment of chloride channel dysfunction in diseases such as cystic fibrosis.
“I am incredibly honored to be recognized for my scientific achievements and potential with the Irving Sigal fellowship,” Tutol said. “I will be using turn-on fluorescent sensors for chloride that I engineered during my PhD studies to develop a high-throughput screening platform. I am motivated by the prospect of discovering a new drug platform that could benefit those with cystic fibrosis. Ultimately, I aim to leverage these findings to establish a biotech startup focused on ion-channel therapeutics.”
As a graduate student, Tutol led the lab’s efforts to visualize chloride in a living cell, which was a challenging undertaking, Dodani said. Moving forward, she will set out to identify small molecules that can affect the transport and storage of chloride in a living cell.
“Through these efforts, Jasmine will not only advance our fundamental understanding of anion recognition in water, but also pave the way for the identification of new drug platforms to treat anion-dependent diseases,” Dodani said. “I am absolutely thrilled that she has been recognized with this prestigious fellowship.”
The fellowship is named for the chemist who pioneered the use of site-directed mutagenesis to study the structure and function of enzymes and proteins.
Researcher Earns Diversity Enrichment Fellowship
Dr. Lakeisha Lewter, a neuroscience research associate in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) at The University of Texas at Dallas, was selected as a fellow of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Postdoctoral Diversity Enrichment Program (PDEP).
The program provides $60,000 over three years to support career development activities and biomedical research for underrepresented minority postdoctoral fellows in the U.S. and Canada. This year’s group of 25 PDEP fellows, announced June 15, marks the highest number of awards made since the grant program’s inception in 2013. The 2022 cohort includes honorees from Harvard Medical School, Stanford University, University of California, San Francisco and other institutions.
“I am extremely happy to be a recipient of such a prestigious award,” Lewter said. “I am truly thankful for the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for providing underrepresented minority researchers like myself the opportunity to attend professional workshops, enroll in informational courses and receive training in new techniques.”
Lewter said her mentor, Dr. Benedict Kolber, associate professor of neuroscience in the UT Dallas Center for Advanced Pain Studies, encouraged her to apply for the award. She said she was initially intimidated by the lists of prior recipients.
“I am so glad I continued to apply,” she said. “This is a prime example of not allowing self-doubt to deter you from achieving your goals.”
Kolber described Lewter as a rising star in neuroscience and pain research.
“The Burroughs Wellcome Fund program will help her build her network and professional development as she transitions from postdoc to faculty member in the upcoming years,” he said. “This fellowship is highly competitive, and we are so proud of Dr. Lewter’s achievement.”
Accolades is an occasional News Center feature that highlights recent accomplishments of The University of Texas at Dallas faculty, students and staff. To submit items for consideration, contact your school’s communications manager.