Third Member of Mihailescu’s Team Receives Prestigious Award
Snezana Stefanovic, a second-year biochemistry doctoral student who is part of Dr. Rita Mihailescu’s research group, became the third member of Mihailescu’s team to receive honors this semester.
Stefanovic was recently selected for a 2013 Education Travel Award for the Biophysical Society’s 57th annual meeting in Philadelphia in February, which will be attended by about 4,000 scientists from around the globe.
She received this highly competitive award on scientific merit and will be honored at the Education, Minority Affairs and Professional Opportunities for Women Committees Travel Awardee Reception.
Stefanovic earned this recognition because of her extensive research regarding Fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited mental retardation. Working with Mihailescu, she used a variety of biochemical and biophysical methods to try to elucidate the mechanism by which a missing cellular protein impacts RNA translation.
Born in Belgrade, Serbia, Stefanovic came to the U.S. in 2008 to earn her master’s degree in chemical engineering at Youngstown State University. She chose to pursue her doctorate at Duquesne after learning about the ground-breaking, hands-on research conducted in the department of chemistry and biochemistry.
This is the second time a member of the research team working on the Fragile X syndrome project has won this travel award. Last year, Anna Blice-Baum, now a fifth-year biochemistry doctoral student, won the same award for the Biophysical Society’s 56th annual meeting in San Diego.