CBS Grad Students Snag First and Second Place in Grad Slam
Talk on "grandma’s genes" named top presentation
The final round of the UC Davis Grad Slam had a flurry of PowerPoint slides, a giant deck of cards and a stuffed monkey, but in the end the top prize went to someone talking about genetic “ghosts.”
The winner of the rapid-fire research showcase Thursday (April 6) was Julia Mouat, a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Biological Sciences’ Integrative Genetics and Genomics Graduate Group. Her talk, “Grandmas, Ghosts and Genes,” explained her research into whether women’s smoking during pregnancy raises the risk of autism in their grandchildren. The “ghosts” in question are molecules on DNA that are believed to be responsible for switching certain genes on and off.
She will now represent UC Davis at UC’s systemwide Grad Slam, May 5, in San Francisco.
Second place and $1,500 went to Nalina Aiempichitkijkarn, a Ph.D. student in animal behavior. Her research focuses on the ways social connections among long-tailed macaques contribute to the spread of disease among the primates.
She helped make her point — and explain how she collects samples from monkeys — with the aid of a plush monkey. She said she rolled up a sock to create a tail for the monkey, which was helpful to demonstrate how the animals act when they poop — an important behavior to monitor when the aim is to collect a stool sample from a specific one.
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