NF Center Trainee Receives National Institutes of Health Grant to Study NF2

Ms. Cynthia Garcia, a graduate student in Dr. David Gutmann’s research laboratory, was recently awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Service Research Award (NRSA) from the National Institutes of Health.

Cindy is currently a PhD student in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences at Washington University.  Ms. Garcia joined Dr. Gutmann’s laboratory in 2010 to investigate the role of the neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) gene in neural stem cell function.  Her research has begun to elucidate the mechanism by which the NF2 protein (merlin) controls the growth and differentiation of progenitor cells in the nervous system relevant to the formation of spinal cord tumors in people with NF2.  The title of her grant is “Merlin Regulation of Mouse Spinal Cord Neural Stem Cell Function”.

We congratulate Ms. Garcia on this wonderful accomplishment.