Jia Shen, a student at The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston, is a recipient of a 2013 Jess Hay Chancellor's Graduate Student Research Fellowship. This award is given to two students per year across the entire University of Texas System, which is comprised of nine universities and six health institutions.
Shen is a doctoral candidate in the Cancer Biology Program at the graduate school, which is a joint institution of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
She enrolled in 2007 after receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Biotechnology from Zhejiang University in China, where she also received honors in the Advanced Class of Engineering Education.
Shen's dissertation work has been carried out under the supervision of Mien-Chie Hung, Ph.D., of MD Anderson. In his recommendation of Shen, Hung noted that she is "a superb student" whose research will help investigators understand how cancer survives in the body and help in the development of cancer fighting therapeutics.
"I wanted to pursue my Ph.D. studies at the graduate school since MD Anderson is the best place for studying and fighting cancer," Shen said. "I hope our basic research not only broadens our knowledge of the regulation of microRNA biogenesis, but also sheds light on a potential better strategy for clinical anti-cancer therapy."
The Jess Hay Chancellor's Graduate Student Research Fellowship recognizes research excellence for a contribution that has the potential for a transformational impact on biomedical science that will ultimately benefit Texas and the nation.
Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer