Awardees & Updates – 2015

Eliah Shamir is a seventh year MD/PhD student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology program. Eliah is pursuing research concerning metastatic breast cancer for the purpose of establishing better tissue models for researching such cancer’s cellular behavior and identifying compounds involved in how tumors metastasize in order to develop new therapies to block this process. Eliah’s letter of recommendation described her as “one of our country’s finest young minds…a rare talent who operates on another level.…Eliah is a future leader in academic medicine.” Eliah plans to pursue an academic career in cancer pathology research. She wrote “it is a great honor and affirmation [to receive this award]…it provides me with great encouragement and drive to continue on my chosen [career] path.”

Laura Cook, PhD is a third year post-doc fellow in microbiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Laura’s PhD is in microbiology, immunology and cancer biology from the University of Minnesota. Her research is seeking to improve understanding of bacterial signaling in treating virulent vaginal bacterial infections in order to develop alternative treatment options. Currently antibiotics are used as the first line of treatment however developing alternative options is important because of an increasing trend in antibiotic resistance. Laura is dedicated to a career in academic medicine in female microbiology. Laura’s letter of recommendation called her a “leader and role model” and stated that “I believe strongly that Laura’s current and future research will help move the field of women’s health-related microbiology forward.” Laura wrote “I so appreciate that awards like this are recognizing the research being done in women’s health and am so honored to be a part of the amazing group of women who have previously won this award.”