Deborah Stenkamp Receives Five-Year Grant

Sat., Aug. 8, 1998

The National Eye Institute has awarded a five-year, $350,000 FIRST (First Independent Research Support and Transition) Award to Deborah Stenkamp, an assistant professor of zoology at the University of Idaho.

Stenkamp, who came to the UI in the fall of 1997, is focusing her research on proteins that have an important role in eye development, with a long-term goal of understanding molecular and cellular events and their functions that lead to the formation of the vertebrate retina.

Her research examines one type of signaling molecule in detail - hedgehog proteins.

The grant will help to fund research equipment and the salaries of students and technicians working in Stenkamp’s lab.

FIRST Award applicants are young investigative researchers with a less-established publication history who must compete for funding with grant proposals from established research scientists.

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