Udo Onwubiko, a graduate student in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular & Molecular Biology, received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program award to fund her research on investigating how cells control cytokinesis, the final step in cell division.
Cytokinesis is an essential process in cell division. Defects during this phase can result in diseases such as cancer and development disorders.
“Cytokinesis is interestingly coordinated in a unique fashion with role players that are well conserved,” Onwubiko says. “My research will focus on how signaling proteins coordinate different steps during the cytokinesis, which will contribute to a better understanding of this essential and fundamental process in the cell.”
Onwubiko first learned of the BCMB department at the annual Cynthia B. Peterson symposium where most BCMB graduate students present posters about their research. She enjoyed listening to students talk about their research projects and spoke to professors who were excited about their work.
“I have always been driven by passion,” Onwubiko says. “The BCMB department at UT seemed like a place I would fit in perfectly, which is why I chose UT.”