Each year, the Department of Biology awards a prize in memory of Marion Smith Spector, a 1938 WUSTL graduate who studied zoology under the late Viktor Hamburger, Ph.D., professor of biology and a prominent developmental biologist who made many important contributions while a faculty member at the University.
This year, the Spector Prize was shared by two recipients: Jason Metcalf and Aashish Manglik. Metcalf and Manglik were nominated by their research mentors for their outstanding work in research and the substantial contributions they made to the field of that work.
Metcalf worked in the lab of Katherine Parker Ponder, M.D., professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine. Metcalf’s thesis was titled “Excessive Phosphorylation of STAT1 Leads to Reduced Chondrocyte Proliferation and Shortened Bones in Mucopolysaccharidosis VII.”
He has begun applying to M.D./Ph.D. programs this summer and will continue his work in Ponder’s lab during that process.
Manglik worked with Jeffrey S. McKinney, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics, on a project titled “Mechanisms Mediating Salmonella-Cancer Cell Interactions.”
He is planning to attend medical school or an M.D./Ph.D. program in the fall.
As part of the departmental recognition of this outstanding work, these two students presented their work at a special Biology Department Seminar April 29 and were honored at a reception immediately following.