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Laurel Stine and Sara Cahill, friends and PhD candidates in the lab of Fiachra Humphries, PhD, have received Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to support their immunology research. Stine investigates cell death in autoimmune diseases; Cahill’s research seeks to understand how immune cells recognize and respond to patterns from pathogens and how changes to the cells could be connected to inflammation and infection progression.
“I am so proud of Sara and Laurel for receiving fellowships on their first submission,” said Dr. Humphries, assistant professor of medicine at UMass Chan Medical School. “Sara’s work is focused on characterizing a new node of the Toll-like receptor pathway, an innate immune signaling system that detects molecular patterns associated with pathogens. This work represents a paradigm shift in our understanding of the Toll-like receptor.”
“Laurel’s project is uncovering new mechanisms by which cells undergo plasma membrane rupture. This process has important implications in cell death and how we might target these pathways to treat inflammatory disease.”
Cahill and Stine, students in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, share more than just bench space in the lab. During Accepted Students Day for the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UMass Chan, they discovered they had attended the same gymnastics summer camp in Westborough as kids (watch our Student Spotlight video to see photos). As PhD candidates they have been inseparable writing grant proposals together and collaborating on research efforts.
“Working with Laurel has been a wonderful experience,” said Cahill. “She’s really helped me to grow as a scientist and as a person, and to develop my confidence as well as my skillset.”
“Sara is a wonderful friend. We’ve been in this together since we both joined the cohort,” Stine said. “Dr. Humphries constantly considered how different our applications were. Even though in some ways we're a package deal, we never felt lumped together as a single student, so we really appreciate that.”
“Our career goals and research are quite different. I have a lot of experience in industry and would love to return to industry,” said Stine who, after majoring in biology and minoring in Japanese at Colgate University, worked for a decade at AbbVie and Bristol Myers Squibb. “Creating a product for patients, progressing a single drug forward and pushing it toward production, aligns with my values.”
“I like exploring questions and teasing out mechanisms behind products that can eventually help people and understanding how they work and what underlying disease phenotypes contribute to it,” said Cahill, a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross who plans to pursue a career in academia.
“Seeing Sara and Laurel grow as early-career scientists has been one of the greatest pleasures of being a principal investigator,” said Humphries. “Their friendship and collegiality truly embody the spirit of UMass Chan—advancing together. I’m excited to watch their careers continue to thrive and to see their science make an even greater impact.”
The Student Spotlight series features UMass Chan Medical School students in the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing and T.H. Chan School of Medicine. For more information about UMass Chan Medical School and how to apply, visit the Prospective Students page.
