GATES CENTER LENDS ITS SUPPORT TO CSD GRADUATE PROGRAM

by Jeff Moore

one of 12 biomedical PhD programs on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, is distinguished by training that integrates foundational knowledge in cell and developmental biology with a focus on applying that knowledge to better understand disease and develop regenerative therapies.

Six CSD students completed their PhD training in 2022. Among them was Madison Rogers, who first trained on campus in 2015 in the Gates Summer Internship Program in the labs of David Norris, MD, and Yiqun Shellman, PhD. Madison joined CSD in fall 2017 and for her thesis studied platelet-derived growth factor receptor signaling in the lab of Katie Fantauzzo, PhD, publishing three papers as first author. Madison was a valued leader in the CSD program, serving on the Graduate Advising Committee, chairing the Student Executive Committee, and helping to start the Advanced Writing Workshop where students develop writing skills for different types of scientific communication. Armed with her PhD, Rogers now pursues her passion for science communication as a medical writer at Real Chemistry.

Gates’ support was particularly impactful in creating opportunities for students to travel to scientific conferences, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Conferences are a major component of student training—they are forums for students to present and discuss their thesis work and to build professional relationships with experts in their fields. Conference attendance also helps build the reputation of CSD and attract talented applicants, since students are our best ambassadors for the program. In 2022, the Gates Center awarded $500 to each of 13 CSD students. Destinations included the Society for Developmental Biology meeting in Vancouver, Canada; the International Symposium on Pediatric Oncology in Hamburg, Germany; the Military Health System Research Symposium in Kissimmee, Florida; and the Embryology Course in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. At the Association for Chemoreception Sciences meeting, CSD student Tina

Piarowski (lab of Gates member Linda Barlow, PhD) won the award for best graduate student presentation. These experiences are an essential part of training to become the next generation of leaders in biomedical research.