August 7, 2017

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MILWAUKEE — Dr. Jennifer Evans, assistant professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Health Sciences, was recently named one of the 2017 Way Klingler Young Scholar Award recipients.

Evans likes to work closely with colleagues in her department, including fellow Young Scholar Award winner Dr. Murray Blackmore. Together, they are developing new genetic tools that will reveal how brain circuits regulate daily rhythms like sleep. Evans and Blackmore were awarded a $1.7 million National Institutes of Health R01 grant to support this work.

With these new tools, Evans and her research team will be able to label, manipulate or even eliminate these cells in order to see what effect that has on brain function and daily behavior.

This award grants up to $32,000 to fund a one-semester sabbatical. Evans says this sabbatical will allow her to spend more time in her lab developing these new tools and working with her research team.

"Discoveries in my lab are made possible by the hard work of a number of critical people, including a post-doc, two grad students, a technician and several undergraduate research assistants." she says. "This award will allow me to provide them the mentorship and support that will help them succeed, which is very important to increase our rate of discovery."

The Way Klingler Young Scholar Awards support promising young scholars in critical stages of their careers with awards up to $32,000. The awards are intended to fund $2,000 in operating costs and to cover 50 percent of salary to afford the recipient a one-semester sabbatical.

 

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