Lauren Walker, PhD, assistant professor of Molecular and Systems Biology, has been named the Frank and Myra Weiser Scholar in the Neurosciences at the Geisel School of Medicine.
Funding for this award comes from the Frank M. Weiser, MD, (D ’54, M’55) and Myra A. Weiser Endowed Fund, which was established to support basic and translational research in the neurosciences by a faculty member at the Geisel School of Medicine, with a preference for support of younger faculty members undertaking promising work.
“It’s really exciting to receive this award, especially as someone who is just starting their career, and to get this recognition and support,” says Walker, who joined Geisel last winter and will receive $75,000 of research funding over three years beginning this month.
Walker’s lab uses a zebrafish model to study how motor neurons find their correct muscle targets to enable coordinated movement. Using a combination of genetics, molecular biology, live imaging, and transcriptomics, she seeks to understand how neurons interact with cells and signals in their environment to form appropriate connections during development and regeneration.
To date, Walker’s studies have focused on the development of larvae or young zebrafish. “This funding award will provide the resources we need to move our research into older animals, so we can better understand their process of nerve regeneration,” she explains “We’re grateful for this opportunity to expand on our work and to start gathering essential preliminary data that we hope will serve as a foundation for larger grant funding in the future.”
