Meet the Second Cohort of WALII Seed GRant Awardees

The second annual WALII seed grants have been awarded to Olivia Maria Silva Carmo, Aidan Flynn, and Kara Hunter. These annual $5,000 grants are available to WALII personnel who submit proposals for innovative research involving at least two WALII-affiliated labs. Carmo is a Postdoc in the Boeynaems lab at Baylor College of Medicine. Her project “DNA deserts: mapping tardigrade 3D genome protection and repair over anhydrobiosis” will be a collaboration between the Boeynaems Lab and Boothby Lab. Carmo will be leading this project in collaboration with co-author Seifeddine (Seif) Ben Tekaya, a Senior Research Associate in the Boothby lab. ​​​

Olivia Maria Silva Carmo (Boeynaems Lab - Baylor College of Medicine)

Seifeddine (Seif) Ben Tekaya (Boothby Lab - University of Wyoming)

Flynn is a graduate student in the Holehouse lab at Washington University in St. Louis and Hunter is a graduate student in the Sukenik lab at UC Merced. Their project “Deciphering desiccation tolerance strategies through evolutionary and biophysical mechanisms in yeast” will be a collaboration between the Holehouse and Sukenik labs.

The Holehouse Lab (Washington University in St. Louis)

Kara Hunter (Sukenik Lab - UC Merced)

Training and Education at WALII happens at all career stages, from undergraduates to faculty, with exposure to new tools, approaches, and biological systems. Learn about joining a WALII lab here.