UNMC grad students receive prestigious NU fellowships

Two UNMC graduate students were among the six recipients of the University of Nebraska’s 2012-13 Presidential Graduate Fellowships.

Vishakha Vilas Ambardekar

Christine Gilling-Cutucache

The fellowships honor a select group of NU graduate students each year on the basis of high scholastic performance and personal accomplishment. Fellows receive a stipend provided through the University of Nebraska Foundation that allows them to pursue their studies full-time.

“Presidential Graduate Fellows are among the University of Nebraska’s most outstanding students,” said NU President James B. Milliken. “They are future scholars, scientists, teachers and business leaders who already have accomplished a great deal both in and outside of the classroom.

“I’m confident that they will accomplish much more as they continue their studies and begin their careers.”

The UNMC recipients are:

• Vishakha Vilas Ambardekar, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences whose Ph.D. dissertation focuses on developing nanocarriers for small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated treatment of breast cancer.
  
• Christine Gilling-Cutucache, a Ph.D. candidate in genetics, cell biology and anatomy at UNMC. Gilling-Cutucache investigates the influence of the tumor microenvironment on the progression and aggressiveness of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, using a combined approach of cell biology, translational biology, immunology and model organisms to determine the biological changes during progression.