Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

NIH Grant Awarded to Hewett’s Lab Promotes Diversity in Research

Friday, October 19, 2018, By Kathleen Haley
Share
BioInspiredCollege of Arts and SciencesgrantresearchscholarshipSTEMStudents

Diversity in science matters to breakthroughs.

When more scientists with varied backgrounds and experiences fill laboratories and collaborate on teams, outcomes in innovation and discovery surpass those of less diverse scientific groups, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

woman standing in lab

Sandra Hewett

Sandra Hewett, the Beverly Petterson Bishop Professor of Neuroscience and professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, believes in the power that diversity brings to research and recently built more capacity in her lab with an NIH grant for $39,078 to promote diversity.

The NIH’s Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research grant will support the work of Regina Catague ’18 for one year in Hewett’s lab. Catague, who graduated last May with degrees in biology and neuroscience, had worked in Hewett’s lab during her undergraduate years and completed her honors capstone, as a member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program, through her lab work.

The NIH awards the supplements to support research grants with additional funding to improve the diversity of the research workforce by recruiting and supporting students, postdoctorates and eligible investigators from groups underrepresented in health-related research.

woman looking in microscope

Regina Catague

Hewett is the principal investigator of a five-year, $1.7 million grant award from the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Her research looks at the origins of brain disorders, including epilepsy and stroke.

The diversity supplement grants are part of the NIH’s strategy to continue to develop the high quality of scientific human capital—built from a pool of scientists with diverse backgrounds, who bring different perspectives, creativity and individual enterprise to address complex problems.

Hewett calls the need for diversity in science “a national imperative.”

“It’s important that the sciences reflect our society,” Hewett says. “I fell in love with science and I want people who are drawn to the sciences to fully immerse themselves in the lab and their education without having to worry about money.”

Hewett is impressed with Catague’s work. “Regina is interested in how stress affects specific cells—astrocytes—the most populous cells in the brain,” Hewett says. Catague is looking at how a certain protein that is expressed by astrocytes is modified under certain internal or external stress conditions.

“Continuing in Dr. Hewett’s lab gives me the opportunity to expand on the project I began during my undergraduate years—currently, I am testing whether the adaptation of astrocytes to an external stressor can provide protection against subsequent exposure to lethal stress,” Catgue says. “I also am mentoring several undergraduates, paying it forward by teaching students various lab techniques and passing down other crucial knowledge that they will need to start their own projects. Finally, I am using my gap year to bolster skills that will prepare me for matriculation into a physician-scientist program.”

Catague is the fifth student in Hewett’s lab who has been supported with an NIH diversity supplement.

“This supplement helps promote a more intensive mentored scientific experience for persons who are from communities underrepresented in science,” Hewett says. “It is my hope that by providing an in-depth laboratory experience, these top-notch students will see science as a viable career option. Also, increasing gender and racial diversity in science can only strengthen the greater scientific workforce.”

  • Author

Kathleen Haley

  • Recent
  • University Hosts Syracuse Fire Department Graduation Ceremony
    Tuesday, May 24, 2022, By News Staff
  • Architecture Student Named Honors Thesis Prize Award Recipient
    Tuesday, May 24, 2022, By Julie Sharkey
  • Vice Admiral responds to Biden’s trip to Asia
    Tuesday, May 24, 2022, By Vanessa Marquette
  • Rockell Brown Burton Joins Newhouse School as Associate Dean of Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility
    Monday, May 23, 2022, By Wendy S. Loughlin
  • Corinne Sartori Joins Libraries as Accessibility Specialist
    Monday, May 23, 2022, By Cristina Hatem

More In STEM

Dean Rajiv ‘Raj’ Dewan to Step Down as Dean of the School of Information Studies

Rajiv “Raj” Dewan, dean of the School of Information Studies, has announced he will conclude his deanship on June 30, 2022. Dewan plans to return to full-time faculty duties while continuing his research. David Seaman, dean of Syracuse University Libraries…

Biology and Earth and Environmental Sciences Departments Come Together on Diversity and Engagement Initiatives

In 1948, Professor James Hope Birnie became Syracuse University’s first African American faculty member in biology, teaching here until 1951. He was also one of its first biology faculty members to be supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)….

Black Hole Image Shows Einstein Was Right, Once Again

Today a team of astronomers announced they successfully captured the first direct image of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Duncan Brown is the Charles Brightman Endowed Professor of Physics at Syracuse University’s College of…

Biomedical and Chemical Engineering Professor’s Research Team Receives Multiple Awards at Society for Biomaterials Conference

Biomedical and chemical engineering Professor Mary Beth Monroe attended the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) 2022 meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, with Ph.D. students Anand Vakil, Henry Beaman, Changling Du and Maryam Ramezani, master’s student Natalie Petryk ’21, G’22 and undergraduate students Caitlyn…

Viewing a Microcosm Through a Physics Lens

“What can physics offer biology?” This was how Alison Patteson, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ physics department and a faculty member in the BioInspired Institute, began the explanation of why her physics lab was studying bacteria. In…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2022 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.