Jimena Giudice, PhD, Associate Professor in the UNC Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Jimena Giudice, PhD, Associate Professor in the UNC Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
Giudice’s CAREER project is entitled, “Mechanotransduction, transcription, and alternative splicing in cell biology” and has been awarded for a period of five years, beginning in April 2023. The main intellectual merit of Giudice’s research project will be the understanding of how skeletal muscle cells sense and respond to mechanical forces by translating mechanical stimuli from the plasma membrane into the activation of transcriptional programs and RNA processing mechanisms within the nuclei. This is a fundamental question in cell biology with implications in human and non-human health.
Giudice’s CAREER proposal includes goals and actions to broaden the impact of her science in society and to advance education and diversity in STEM fields. The execution of the research project will involve the training of a graduate student and a postdoctoral associate at UNC. Each year, the Giudice lab will host scholars from the UNC undergraduate Chancellor’s Science Scholars program and the Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP). In one of the most unique and exciting aspects of her CAREER project, Dr. Giudice will create international impact by delivering science lab workshops and career discussion panels in underserved areas of Argentina.
Overall, the activities pursued by Dr. Giudice and her team will build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research for herself, her trainees, and students abroad.
Dr. Giudice is an active member of the McAllister Heart Institute and the RNA Discovery Center at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is a faculty mentor, leader, and educator in the Genetics and Molecular Biology (GMB) and the Cell Biology and Physiology (CBP) graduate programs at UNC, and has recently be named an Associate Director of Graduate Studies for the interdepartmental CBP Curriculum.