Henry M. Jackson Foundation names fellowship award winners

The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. has selected three promising Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences doctoral students to receive fellowships for the 2009-2010 academic year. The program, established in 1988, is comprised of two Henry M. Jackson Fellowships and one Val G. Hemming Fellowship. Each fellow receives a stipend and travel support.

Kathleen Jones, a sixth-year graduate student in the Emerging Infections Diseases program, won the Val G. Hemming Fellowship. Jones works in the laboratory of Dr. Douglas "Scotty" Merrell. Her project focuses on understanding how variants in a specific gene in the human pathogen Helicobacter pylori affect disease development. The pathogen infects more than half the world's population and can cause a range of maladies, including gastritis, ulcer disease and gastric carcinoma. She has identified a link between particular sequences in a virulence gene and the development of gastric cancer in epidemiological studies.

Kristen Hamilton and Robert Clark, both sixth-year students in the Medical and Clinical Psychology program, won Henry M. Jackson Fellowships.

Hamilton is completing her thesis project in Dr. Neil Grunberg's laboratory. Following her master's work that compared nicotine withdrawal in male and female adult rats, Hamilton is now investigating the effect of stress on impulsivity, and how increased stress and impulsivity affect nicotine craving. Her work is aimed at gaining a better understanding of how stress and impulsivity affect nicotine use and more generalized drug abuse.

Clark works in the laboratory of Dr. Tracy Sbrocco, where he focuses on the cultural, behavioral and psycho-physiological basis of sexual dysfunction. Currently, he is interested in how a menopausal woman's personal view of her sexuality may affect her sexual health and quality of life, with a focus on potential differences between Caucasian and African-American menopausal woman. Through his research, Clark hopes to address the role of psychosocial, physiological and developmental factors in maintaining healthy female sexuality.

Source: Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine