Ms. Brea Hampton, a GMB curriculum student and member of the Department of Genetics, has been awarded an F99/K00 transition award from the National Institute of Aging (NIA).
This award, part of the NIA’s Transition to Aging Research program, is focused on providing grantees an opportunity to continue developing into independent researchers, while bringing their predoctoral training to bear on key questions of health in aging. F99/K00 transition awards are highly competitive and serve to encourage and retain outstanding graduate students who have demonstrated potential in pursuing careers as independent researchers. Ms. Hampton’s fellowship, “Evaluating the role of cytomegalovirus and age on lung immune homeostasis and responses to respiratory infections” will build upon her graduate work studying the impact of genetic variation on immunity. Under the F99 portion of this award she will finish her dissertation work at UNC in the labs of Dr. Mark Heise and Dr. Marty Ferris and then transition to a postdoctoral fellowship focused on aging for the K00 portion of the award.