Do you ever think about how the nervous system develops? Rebecca Wu does.
And now she will be doing so with the aid of a Beckman Scholarship.
A local selection committee has named Wu, of Virginia Beach, a rising third-year neuroscience major at the University of Virginia, a Beckman Scholar, which means she will receive $21,000 in funding – including stipends, supplies and travel – to support her research. Her research mentors will receive $5,000 each.
The scholarships are funded through the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, and support in-depth, sustained undergraduate research experiences for talented, full-time undergraduate students. The program provides financial support for students and faculty mentors over two consecutive summers and one academic year of research, and in conjunction with the annual Beckman Symposium, offers a unique educational experience.
“My research investigates the role of the gene ccn1l2 in nervous system development, irregularities which could result in not only nervous system diseases, but also craniofacial developmental abnormalities,” Wu said. “This research has the potential to help develop gene-based therapies, which could improve the lives of patients suffering from these maladies.”
Wu works in Sarah Kucenas’ laboratory; she contacted Kucenas, professor of biology, cell biology and neuroscience and associate director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program and director of the Program in Fundamental Neuroscience, before she had even arrived at UVA.
“Her email was mature and I could tell she was deeply interested in gaining research experience,” Kucenas said. “And unlike most undergraduates, she had already attempted to read some of the work the lab had recently published. In fact, she told me as much in her email, and then proceeded to tell me she was confused and had a lot of questions. I was incredibly impressed because this is exactly the phenotype I’m looking for in an undergraduate researcher.”
