ChBE graduate student awarded Kirschstein National Research Service Award

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE) graduate student Melanie A. Brunet has received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (NRSA F31) from the United States National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. This prestigious fellowship is designed to enable promising predoctoral students to obtain mentored research training while conducting dissertation research. 

For her project, Brunet will assess the roles of sphingolipids and cholesterol during influenza A virus fusion, assembly, and budding from the plasma membrane. This will be achieved by using a combination of molecular dynamic simulations and high-resolution imaging.

Brunet received her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico-Ponce, and her bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez. She started at the University of Illinois in 2019 and has since received her Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering. She will enter her fifth year as a graduate student this Fall.

Brunet will be co-advised by ChBE professor Mary Kraft and Chemistry and Biophysics professor Taras Pogorelov for this project.