When the congratulatory emails hit the inboxes of University of Colorado School of Medicine graduate students Brittany Gomez, Oscar Muñoz, and Carissa Sherman, feelings of disbelief, excitement, and gratitude came soon after.
These students had just accomplished the impressive feat of being awarded a Gilliam Fellowship by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Ultimately, 50 graduate students and their faculty advisers from 43 institutions across the United States were named to the 2024 cohort. The CU School of Medicine faculty advisers named to the cohort are Linda van Dyk, PhD, Sujatha Jagannathan, PhD, and Katrina Claw, PhD.
The Gilliam Fellows Program will provide each student-adviser pair with $53,000 in support each year for up to three years of the students’ dissertation research. Fellows are offered leadership training, professional development, and networking opportunities.
Advisers will have the chance to participate in HHMI’s one-year mentorship skills development course, as well as receive support to promote healthy and inclusive graduate training environments at their home institution.
The 2024 cohort is the first to be named since the program switched from a nomination-based competition to an open competition people can apply for. As a result, this year was the largest competition in the program’s history with several hundred applications from a record-breaking 162 different institutions.
Each student’s research interests vary, from expanding knowledge about viruses that cause cancers to uncovering ways to directly attack RNA viruses to investigating personalized medicine among American Indians. However, they share a common mission of improving the science field for future generations through this fellowship.
Uncovering ways to treat viruses and uplift underrepresented students
Gomez, a graduate student in the immunology PhD program, was stunned to receive the award, but she is looking forward to working closely with her faculty adviser, Linda van Dyk, professor and vice chair of the CU Department of Immunology and Microbiology. She said applying to the fellowship was a team effort that also involved her co-mentor, Eric Clambey, PhD.
Gomez has been interested in studying viruses from a young age. Her mother was a nurse in a clinic that specialized in women and children who have HIV.
“Immunology has always been my passion, but there was a point when my mom and I were taking care of my grandma because she had pancreatic cancer, and so I became interested in cancer as well,” she says. “I found a middle ground, because now, I study viruses that cause cancer called gammaherpesviruses.”
From left to right: Eric Clambey, PhD, Brittany Gomez, and Linda van Dyk, PhD. Photo courtesy of Gomez.
Gomez’s research will focus on understanding how gammaherpesviruses affect the immune system, specifically hematopoiesis, which is essentially the process in which blood and immune cells are made.
“This virus can cause lifelong infections and even lead to cancer,” she says. “I’m studying a mouse gammaherpesvirus to see how it interacts with immune cells. I’m interested in how different vaccination strategies impact these interactions and potentially prevent long-term infection.”
By altering the behavior of a certain type of immune cell, called myeloid cells, Gomez hopes to learn whether an attenuated version of the virus may be more effective in preventing lifelong infection.
“Myeloid cells are crucial for early infection response, and so by studying the cells in this process, I’m hoping to find a better way to prevent and treat infections caused by gammaherpesviruses,” she says.
Gomez hopes the fellowship program will also help her learn to be an exceptional mentor and leader.
“My path to higher education has been difficult because I am the first in my family to go into higher education,” she says. “I first went to a community college and later transferred to a four-year university. When I transferred, I started seeing the disparities that many underrepresented students face.”
Brittany Gomez is a graduate student in the immunology PhD program at the CU School of Medicine. Photo courtesy of Gomez.
At her community college, Gomez did not have access to research training. Once she transferred to a four-year college, finding research opportunities proved to be difficult.
“I rarely had any professors who looked like me, and I didn’t come across professors who had attended community college, so finding a role model was difficult,” she says. “I’ve seen a lot of my peers who are underrepresented students decide to leave science because their professors did not understand their background.”
With support from the fellowship program, van Dyk and Gomez aim to offer CU Health Equity in Action Lab trainings to everyone in the immunology graduate program to further support diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
“One of the great things about the Gilliam Fellows Program is it offers this extra confidence to students like Brittany that they belong in this field and are exactly where they need to be,” van Dyk says.
Finding ways to attack RNA viruses and break down barriers to science
As a child, Muñoz never expected he would one day become a researcher — mostly because he did not see it as a career possibility. Now, as a graduate student in the CU molecular biology PhD program, he aims to help future generations while also working to identify ways to attack RNA viruses.
His faculty advisor is Jagannathan, an assistant professor and vice chair for equity in the CU Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and chair of the molecular biology graduate program’s Graduate Advisory Committee. The two first met virtually as part of Muñoz’s interview for the graduate program.
“Oscar is very creative and has a tremendous mind, and I’m grateful that he chose to work in this field and my lab,” Jagannathan says. “I’ve seen his potential. This award shows others are seeing the same potential in him as well.”
Sujatha Jagannathan, PhD, and Oscar Muñoz. Photo courtesy of Jagannathan.
When Muñoz learned he was named into the 2024 cohort, it felt like an “out-of-body experience,” he says.
Muñoz’s research focuses on teasing out the variability of a pathway called nonsense-mediated messenger RNA (mRNA) decay. This is a surveillance pathway in the body that aims to prevent diseases by eliminating mRNAs that contain mutations or premature stop codons.
“My project specifically focuses on the factors that are found in the three prime untranslated regions of mRNAs that determine whether something is more likely to be decayed or not through that pathway,” he says. “A lot of RNA viruses use these mechanisms to deter nonsense-mediated mRNA decay factors from degrading their RNAs. That’s where our research comes in.
“If we can find those specific factors that stabilize RNA more than others, then, in theory, we can find ways to directly attack those viruses so that we don’t have to eventually deal with global pandemics, as we have before,” he adds.
Muñoz’s journey to becoming a researcher was not easy. He had to work several jobs while pursuing his undergraduate degree, and he was unaware of resources that could help.
“I found opportunities through word of mouth. I found out about a research program at my school through a friend, so it’s been a lot of luck for me — and it shouldn’t be that way,” he says. “I want to make this a more clear-cut, straightforward process for the next generation of people who may be interested in this field, because doing research is super gratifying.”
Muñoz participates with the Josepha's Kapamilya for Outreach and Advancement (J-KOA) initiative to help future generations. J-KOA was founded by CU graduate students and staff with the goal of encouraging more students — especially those from underrepresented backgrounds and rural communities — to compete in the annual Denver Metro Regional Science and Engineering Fair.
“When I was in middle school and high school, I didn’t have any opportunities to do research. Now, I’ve been able to get the word out to younger people that science is a possible future career. I tell them it’s not something only a select few can do,” Muñoz says. “It helps show students that they can do anything they set their mind to.”
Muñoz and Jagannathan have also been brainstorming ways to improve the molecular biology PhD program. One idea they hope to implement, with the fellowship’s support, is bringing a mental health counselor to a central place on campus to host office hours for graduate students. Another idea is to host a community event for current students.
“A lot of events focus on welcoming new students, but there are not a lot of celebratory events to recognize them throughout their schooling,” Jagannathan says. “That’s something we’d love to do — to have an event that celebrates the students we have and how amazing they are.”
Bridging Indigenous knowledge and Western science
Sherman, a rising fourth-year PhD candidate in the CU Human Medical Genetics and Genomics Graduate Program, works to bridge Indigenous knowledge and Western science to advance health equity.
She has been doing this work for several years under the mentorship of Claw, who is her faculty adviser. Claw is an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and founder of the Claw Lab, a research lab that includes many Indigenous members. Sherman and Claw are both from the Navajo Nation.
“Carissa is an independent thinker who is empathetic and creative. She is wonderful to work with and supportive of everyone in the lab,” Claw says. “She is already a great mentor, and I know she will succeed in everything that she does.”
Carissa Sherman and Katrina Claw, PhD. Photo courtesy of Sherman.
Sherman’s desire to help people with genetic diseases and disorders, and her passion for social justice, led her to the graduate program.
“I feel that one of my purposes in life is to improve our understanding of health and to make it more inclusive,” she says. “This program allows me to delve into the biological and social conditions that underlie health.”
Sherman’s mother and uncle are both blind. In Diné (Navajo) culture, they are blind because Sherman’s grandmother did something taboo. However, genetics argues that the cause is a recessive disorder known as retinitis pigmentosa.
“Both Indigenous knowledge and Western science have been integral in shaping and explaining the world around me, yet Indigenous knowledge is often disregarded by Western science,” Sherman says. “One of my motivators is to bridge these ideologies and illuminate the value of both science and culture in health care.”
Carissa Sherman is a rising fourth-year PhD candidate in the CU Human Medical Genetics and Genomics Graduate Program. Photo courtesy of Sherman.
As a new Gilliam Fellow, her research will involve working with the Strong Heart Study, one of the longest longitudinal studies of cardiovascular disease among American Indians.
“My thesis will examine genetic variation and markers associated with nicotine-related phenotypes in American Indians who smoke to improve tobacco cessation. Our research efforts will contribute to increased representation of American Indians and will positively impact and advance the field of genetics and precision medicine,” she says.
“Furthermore, I want to examine perspectives from various stakeholders in the Navajo Nation on genetics research, especially related to hypothetical return of results, as there is currently a moratorium — or essentially a ban — on genetics research on the Navajo Nation,” she adds. “Research projects with the Navajo Nation aim to inform future guidelines and policies related to genetic research on the Navajo Nation.”
Claw hopes the fellowship’s one-year mentorship and skills development course will help her become a better mentor not just for Sherman, but for all the trainees in her research program.
For her part, Sherman believes the fellowship will be instrumental to helping her develop and achieve her goals of enacting scientific change and giving back to her community through mentorship and promoting equitable science.
“The Gilliam Fellows Program represents a community of individuals with diverse experiences and backgrounds who are committed to advancing health equity in our research,” she says. “It’s also an opportunity to promote inclusive genomic research with underrepresented groups.”
Sherman intends to apply for genetic and policy fellowships in the future to expose participants to research that can aid policy development.
“I look forward to working at the intersection of genetics research, bioethics, and policy to address health disparities in vulnerable populations,” she says. “With the HHMI Gilliam Fellowship, my mentor, and my PhD program, I will be well trained to promote equity and inclusion via community partnerships in genomics research that accounts for cultural, ethical, legal, and social implications.
“I will also be able to continue paving pathways for Indigenous scholars and to advocate for equity and inclusion in academia.”
