Ananya Deshpande, an undergraduate student in the lab of Elizabeth Brown, Ph.D., MPH, Endowed Professor of Cancer Pathobiology and Associate Director for Population Science, O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, is a recipient of this year's UAB Honors College Presidential Honors Fellowship.
"The Presidential Honors Fellowship will allow me to deepen my knowledge of myeloma and hopefully improve patient outcomes, and I am so honored to receive this incredible fellowship," Deshpande says.
Deshpande is majoring in Immunology in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, and is also a part of the Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s Program where she is pursuing a master's degree in Multidisciplinary Biomedical Sciences.
The UAB Honors College Presidential Honors Fellowship (PHF) provides programming and funding for summer fellowships to promote undergraduate research, creative activity, and community engagement among honors students. Students propose scholarly activity that can take a variety of forms, including traditional research, visual or performing arts, or a service initiative with a non-profit partner. Research includes laboratory and non-laboratory work in the arts and humanities, social and behavioral sciences, and STEM fields. A UAB faculty mentor will supervise each student’s project, and students will present their fellowship work-product at the UAB Summer Expo.
Recipients dedicate at least 20 hours a week for a 10-week period to the successful completion of their project, and as part of the program will participate in a series of Honors workshops designed to develop their skills and advance their projects. They receive a fellowship award of $2,500, and faculty mentors receive $500 in professional support funds.
"Dr. Brown and I will be studying the influence of adipocytes in the bone marrow on risk and progression of disease, and visceral adiposity of multiple myeloma patients," Deshpande explains. "I look forward to unraveling the impact of bone marrow adipocytes on multiple myeloma progression and risk with my mentor, Dr. Elizabeth Brown."
Read about the 2023 PHF fellows here.