May 2011 – James Green, an MD/PhD student in the lab of Manzoor Bhat, has been selected to receive a North Carolina Native American Incentive Grant for spring semester 2011. This grant provides a one-time payment toward financial needs associated with a student’s doctoral program. James was chosen based on his eligibility as a North Carolina, American Indian doctoral student and his contributions to the American Indian graduate student community on campus.

James studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for organizing and stabilizing axo-glial septate junctions in myelinated axons. He explains, “Work in our lab has shown that these septate junctions are crucial to neuronal function. Specifically, I’m interested in which intracellular proteins are crucial to link these membrane junction protein complexes to the axonal cytoskeleton. I ultimately hope that my studies will yield important translational findings to help alleviate associated human neurological diseases.” James has just completed the third year of his doctoral research.