SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant Awarded to Ulri Nicole Lee of the University of Washington

Oak Brook, IL (USA) — Ulri Nicole Lee, Ph.D. candidate, (University of Washington) is the 2020 recipient of the SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant. This is the fifth year the SLAS grant has been awarded to an outstanding student researcher.

Lee will receive $100,000 awarded over two years to expand her research on the development of a device that uses mist to capture bioaerosols such as Aspergillus fumigatus, a prolific fungus that is harmful to those with preexisting lung conditions, and fluidics to collect the sample for analysis. This device could be used in homes, work, and community environments to collect and store samples for downstream analysis and ultimately lead researchers to a better understanding of environmental exposures on human health.

“Researchers and clinicians are currently ill-equipped to pinpoint the patient-specific triggers for asthma, limiting our understanding of the effects the environment can have on our health,” says Lee. “My research aims to fill this need by providing a portable air-sampling device that identifies bioaerosols on a species-level, such as fungal spores and bacteria (known irritants for asthma patients) and then adapt the design to particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).”

Judging criteria for the SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant is based on the quality and capability of the student’s institution and its educational program to support the grant, endorsement and commitment by the institution and faculty advisor with the student applicant, the quality and record of the specific research program and the quality and promise of the research being proposed, among other factors.

The SLAS Grant Program was introduced in 2015 to facilitate educational opportunities for outstanding students pursuing graduate degrees related to quantitative biosciences and/or life sciences R&D. This program helps to realize a fundamental tenet of SLAS’s mission: to advance the fields of laboratory science and technology by nurturing the next generation of professional scientists. The application period for the 2021 SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant runs from August through December 2020.

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SLAS (Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening) is an international community of 16,000 professionals and students dedicated to life sciences discovery and technology. The SLAS mission is to bring together researchers in academia, industry and government to advance life sciences discovery and technology via education, knowledge exchange and global community building.

SLAS publishes two peer-reviewed and MEDLINE-indexed scientific journals, SLAS Discovery and SLAS Technology. For more information about SLAS and its journals, visit www.slas.org/publications/slas-technology/ and www.slas.org/publications/slas-discovery/.

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