GGA Graduate Student and Postdoc Travel Awards

The NC State’s Genetics and Genomics Academy (GGA) is pleased to announce the availability of travel funds to support NC State graduate students and postdoctoral fellows traveling to conferences, workshops, research sites, or collaborator institutions. GGA will provide a one-time reimbursement for up to $1000 to help defray the cost of attending conferences and other professional activities in the area of Genetics & Genomics to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and research scholars being trained in GGA-affiliated labs. Up to 10 awards will be given out in 2026. The cost of transportation, housing, and conference registration fees are considered eligible travel expenses. Trainees applying for this award for conference travel are expected to present a Genetics or Genomics-themed poster or talk at the conference and are asked to acknowledge GGA in their presentations.

GGA Travel Funds for 2026 have been awarded! Below are the award recipients:

• Hannah Pil, Doctoral Student
• Katie Vollen, Doctoral Student
• Edie Nissen, Doctoral Student
• Abigail Conklin, Doctoral Student
• Cameron Grey, Doctoral Student
• Rob King, Doctoral Student
• Molly Irvin, Doctoral Student
• Jacob Grodeon, Doctoral Student
• Jessica Ding, Doctoral Student
• Nikhil Bardeskar, Postdoc

Below are the 2025 award recipients:

• Zehta Glover, Doctoral Student
• Sydney Harned, Doctoral Student
• Annie DiFrank, Doctoral Student
• Jose Maria Aguilar Camacho, Postdoc
• John Britt, Doctoral Student
• Antoine Houtain, Postdoc
• Jordan Cummings, Doctoral Student
• Yafan Zhang, Doctoral Student
• Zach Zagon, Doctoral Student
• Taylor Ackley, Doctoral Student

Below are the 2024 award recipients:

• Amilcar Rodriguez, Doctoral Student
• Uchechukwu Chimeh, Doctoral Student
• Jonathan Zirkel, Doctoral Student
• Jessica Martinez-Baird, Doctoral Student
• Adam Breister, Doctoral Student
• Carley Huffstetler, Doctoral Student
• Adarsha Devihalli Puttaswamy Gowda, Doctoral Student
• Quiana Mosley, Doctoral Student
• Ariel Tarrand, Doctoral Student
• Gabriel De Siqueira Gesteira, Doctoral Student

GGA Summer Teamwork Mini-Grants

The NC State’s Genetics and Genomics Academy (GGA) is inviting undergraduate students interested in or currently involved in Genetics & Genomics-related research to apply for GGA Summer Teamwork Mini-Grants together with their prospective or actual mentors who are current NC State graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, or research scholars. GGA will provide one-time awards of up to $4,500 to help support the needs of collaborative research projects led by undergraduates working in GGA-affiliated laboratories on campus under the direct supervision of NC State postdoctoral fellows or graduate students. Each team of two applying for this competitive award can request up to $1000 in supplies, equipment, or software needed for the project, in addition to a $2500 stipend for the student (equivalent to 167h of research at $15/hour) and $1000 for their mentor. Up to eight mini-grants will be awarded in 2026.

Undergraduate trainees receiving this award are invited to present a research poster about their project at the GGA annual retreat in Fall 2026.

GGA Mini-Grants for 2026 have been awarded! Below are the award recipients:

• Alexandra Slepova, (Mentor: Nate Korth)
• Julia Hudson, (Mentor: Amarish Yadav)
• Joanna Ohara, (Mentor: Zach Zagon)
• Kathryn Yoblinski, (Mentor: Stephanie M. Stewart)
• Zirkel Mukhtar, (Mentor: Taylor Hinnant)
• Allison Lassiter, (Mentors: Jade Lyons & Katie Vollen)
• Olivia Read, (Mentors: Diamanda Zizis & Aldo Carmona Baez)
• Emily Osornio-Gonzalez, (Mentor: Prasanna Joglekar)

Below are the 2025 award recipients:

• Miki Chen, (Mentor: Chengsong Zhao)
• Breyton Hill, (Mentor: Jordan Cummings)
• Quentin Hippert, (Mentor: Abigail Conklin)
• Riley Basinger, (Mentor: Lucas Abbott)
• Diya Shah, (Mentor: Carley Huffstelter)
• Chenshu Yang, (Mentor: Irene Silvernail)
• Anna Miller, (Mentor: Kairi Tanaka)
• Ava Taylor, (Mentors: Jaswinder Kaur and Cole Hammett)

Below are the 2024 award recipients:

• Oliver Rasey, Junior; (Mentor: J. Alejandro Aragon Raygoza, Postdoc)
• Hannah Davis, Sophomore; (Mentor: Anna Yaschenko, Ph.D. Candidate)
• Logan Bass, Junior; (Mentor: Ian Birchler De Allende, Ph.D. Candidate)
• Joseph Majual, Senior; (Mentor: Quiana Mosley, Ph.D. Candidate)
• Alexandra Istishin, Junior; (Mentor: Kristen John, Ph.D. Candidate)
• Lindsey Diaz, Sophomore; (Mentor: Isabella Livingston, Ph.D. Candidate)
• Hallie Johnson, Freshman; (Mentor: Aldo Carmona Baez, Postdoc)
• Broseth Bun, Freshman; (Mentor: Bethany Mostert, Ph.D. Candidate)
• Ellen White, Junior; (Mentor: Felicia Shepard, Ph.D. Candidate)

GGA Educational Video Contest

The Genetics and Genomics Academy (GGA) at NC State University (NCSU) is excited to announce a new outreach initiative focused on producing short (2-5 min) educational videos that inform the general public about interesting developments, topics, trends, techniques, or approaches in the area of Genetics and Genomics. We invite high-school, undergraduate, and graduate students to work with NC K-12 science teachers to identify areas in the K-12 Biology curriculum that would benefit from educational videos being made on topics relevant to the fields of Genetics and Genomics. Joint student-teacher proposals are due in March. NC State’s Genetics and Genomics experts (PhD-level scientists working as postdocs, staff, or faculty) will then review the proposals and select up to 10 student-teacher teams they wish to support by providing funding (up to $1000) and scientific guidance to help with developing the videos over the course of the summer. Teams will work over the summer and submit their videos to GGA by August. Educational video contest winners will be announced in August and awarded prizes.

2023 Video Contest Winners!

GGA Paper of the Year

If your group has recently published an exciting research article (publication 2023-2024) in a peer-reviewed journal and the study includes genetics and/or genomics content, consider nominating the first author of your publication for the “GGA Paper of the Year” contest. Encourage the leading student/postdoc author to enter the competition by having them submit a brief explanation (150-200 words) of what their contribution to the study was and why they believe their paper is especially impactful, along with a pdf of the article, in July. Self-nominations from students and postdocs are welcome! All submissions will be evaluated by a panel of judges. The winner of the contest will be announced at the first fall-semester GGA seminar in August and invited to present a live talk about the findings of the paper at the GGA Annual Retreat in August.

The 2025 winner:

• Evgeny Brud, (Rafael Guerrero’s Lab)
  • Paper Title: Season-specific dominance broadly stabilizes polymorphism under symmetric and asymmetric multivoltinism

Past winners:

• Daniel Barletta Sulis, Ph.D; (Jack Wang’s Lab)
  • Paper Title: Using CRISPR Genome Editing Technology to Modify Wood for Sustainable Fiber Production. Read their paper here.
• Echo Pan (Rodolphe Barrangou’s Lab)
  • Paper Title: Genomic and epigenetic landscapes drive CRISPR-based
    genome editing in Bifidobacterium. Read their paper here.
• Amarish K Yadav (Max Scott’s Lab)
  • Paper Title: CRISPR/Cas9-based split homing gene drive targeting doublesex for population suppression of the global fruit pest Drosophila suzukii. Read their paper here.

GGA Annual Retreat Research Poster Contest

Trainees are invited to present research posters at the GGA Annual Retreat. The best posters are typically chosen by retreat attendees, and the winners are awarded cash prizes from our corporate sponsors

The 2024 winners:

• Isabella Livingston
  Graduate Student | Breen Lab
• Brooke Church
  Undergraduate Student
• Ellen White
  Undergraduate Student

Below are the 2023 winners:

• Megan Dillon
  Graduate Student | Breen / Burford Reiskind Lab
• Caitlin Kestell
  Graduate Student | Dewey Lab
• Katie Traynelis
  Undergraduate Student

3-Minute In-Person Flash Talks

3-min in-person flash talks showcase graduate trainees’ genetics/genomics-related research and are typically presented at the GGA seminar series in August. This opportunity enables graduate trainees to hone their presentation skills and publicize their work in the GGA community. The winners are announced at the GGA Annual Retreat.

The 2025 winners:

• 1ST PLACE WINNER: Katie Vollen, Graduate Student | Alonso-Stepanova Lab
  • Talk Title: The DarT(h) Side: Precision Editing in Plants
• 2ND PLACE WINNER: Jordan Cummings, Graduate Student | Gage Lab
  • Talk Title: Magic Mucilage in Maize
• (TIE) 3RD PLACE WINNER: Abigail Conklin, Graduate Student | Burford-Reiskind Lab
  • Talk Title: Comparative Phylogeography for Three Species of Antarctic Icefish Leech
• (TIE) 3RD PLACE WINNER: Tomo Adams, Graduate Student | Burford-Reiskind Lab
  • Talk Title: Resistance to pyrethroid insecticides in Raleigh, NC: implementing a novel topical assay in Aedes albopictus

The 2024 winners:

• 1ST PLACE WINNER: Hannah Pil, Graduate Student | Rellán-Álvarez Lab
  • Talk Title: BZea: A diverse teosinte introgression population for investigating agronomic traits in maize
• (TIE) 2ND PLACE WINNER: Bethany Mostert, Graduate Student | Xie Lab
  • Talk Title: Strategies and Tales from the Bench on How to Get the Most out of your Mentorship Experience as a Genetic (biochemistry) Scientist/Graduate Student
• (TIE) 2ND PLACE WINNER: Jonathan Zirkel, Graduate Student | Hulse-Kemp Lab
  • Talk Title: Improving Cotton Fiber through Aquaporin Engineering
• (TIE) 3RD PLACE WINNER: Carley Huffstetler, Graduate Student | Nascone-Yoder Lab
  • Talk Title: Left-right asymmetries in the extracellular matrix shape stomach curvature
• (TIE) 3RD PLACE WINNER: Ian Birchler De Allende, Graduate Student | Yoder Lab
  • Talk Title: Novel Immune Type Receptors in an Ancient Fish Lineage

The 2023 winners:

• 1ST PLACE WINNER: Ariel Tarrand, Graduate Student | Scott Lab
  • Talk Title: California Girls: undeniable or unreliable? Exploring gene drive homing rates in diverse genetic backgrounds of Spotted Wing Drosophila
• 2ND PLACE WINNER: Katie Vollen, Graduate Student | Alonso-Stepanova Lab
  • Talk Title: From enemy to ally: Hacking viruses to engineer plant genomes
• (TIE) 3RD PLACE WINNER: Isabella Livingston, Graduate Student | Breen Lab
  • Talk Title: Population genetics and dynamics of the North Carolina Black Bear (Ursus americanus)
• (TIE) 3RD PLACE WINNER: John Britt, Graduate Student | Rao Lab
  • Talk Title: Derivation of human trophoblast stem cells (hTSC) from term placenta