2021 Natalie V. Zucker Research Center for Women Scholars Award

Congratulations to the 2020 recipients of the Natalie V. Zucker Research Center for Women Scholars Award. These awards were established through the generosity of Mrs. Natalie V. Zucker in order to further the research careers of junior women scientists conducting basic and clinical research in the School of Medicine, the School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, the School of Public Health, the School of Dentistry, the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, or the major Tufts-affiliated hospitals. Awards are made to further specific research projects or to fund travel and training opportunities.

2021 Awardees

• Isha Agarwal, Academic Faculty Physician, Emergency Medicine, Maine Medical Center
  “Work Organization, Mental Health, and Adverse Reproductive Health Outcomes Among Shift Workers”
• Asma Boukhalfa, Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular Cardiology Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center
  “Novel Role of FHOD3 in Cardiomyocyte Autophagy and Extracellular Vesicles”
• Kay Everett, Postdoctoral Fellow, Cardiology, Tufts Medical Center
  “Trans-valvular Unloading before Veno-Arterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Reduces Right and Left Ventricular Work and Infarct Size in Acute Myocardial Infarction
• Jennifer Helble, Postdoctoral Scholar, Molecular Biology and Microbiology, TUSM
  “The Evolution of T cell Exhaustion in Long-term Infection with Borrelia burgdorferi”
• Jean Hostage, Fellow, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tufts Medical Center
  “Ultrasound Measurement of the Obstetric Conjugate and the Relative Position of the Internal Cervical Os”
• Huiyun Liu, Postdoctoral Fellow, Developmental, Molecular, and Chemical Biology, TUSM
  “Dissecting the Role of the mRNA Polyadenylation in Maintaining Cancer Cell Stemness”
• Jessica Penney, Fellow, Internal Medicine, Tufts Medical Center
  “Diagnostic Stewardship in Urine Testing: Effect of Urinalysis with Reflex Culture on Urine Culture Rates at an Academic Medical Center from 2018-2020”
• Whitney Perry, Assistant Professor, Medicine, Tufts Medical Center
  “Sex-based Differences in Immunity Following Solid Organ Transplant”
• Fangfang Qiu, Postdoctoral Fellow, Ophthalmology, Tufts Medical Center
  “The Role of Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells in Protecting the Breakdown of the Blood Retinal Barrier During Diabetic Mellitus”