Rachel Szymanski, a Genetics and Molecular PhD student in the Frank Conlon (Professor of Genetics & Biology) Lab, has received a prestigious American Heart Association fellowship to investigate the role of the CRL4 ubiquitin-ligase complex in embryonic heart development.
Her research shows that CRL4 is essential for early cardiomyocyte proliferation and survival, and its absence leads to embryonic lethality due to heart growth failure. By identifying CRL4’s protein targets, this work may uncover mechanisms of protein stability underlying congenital heart defects.