Dr. Jennifer N. Dulin, an associate professor in the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University, is the invited speaker for the 2024-25 Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Texas A&M Arts and Sciences Outreach & Engagement and Women In Science and Engineering (WISE).
Dulin will present a public lecture, “Navigating the Road to a Career in Academia,” at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, in Room 025 of the Biological Sciences Building West (BSBW). The lecture is free and open to the public.
A native of Houston, Dulin earned her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry in 2005 from Texas A&M and her Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston in 2012. She completed a five-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego prior to joining Texas A&M Biology as one of three new assistant professors recruited to Texas A&M as part of an spinal cord injury (SCI) cluster hire made possible in partnership with The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research (TIRR) Foundation. Each researcher is doing pioneering work in an academic department and in specific SCI-related areas as members of the Texas A&M Spinal Cord Initiative, a cross-college collaboration involving the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Medicine, Engineering, and Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences along with the Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience.
At Texas A&M, Dulin is using her knowledge of cellular and molecular biology to perfect experimental approaches to repairing and rebuilding the injured spinal cord. In tandem with nearly two dozen graduate and undergraduate students within the Dulin Laboratory, she is working to develop robust cellular- and molecular-based approaches that can improve motor function and reverse pain following spinal cord injury. Her research focuses on stem cell transplantation therapy, including exploratory strategies that replace nerve cells, or neurons, lost either to injury or degenerative diseases with neural stem cells — immature cells capable of regrowing new tissue. Her lab's long-term goal is to generate knowledge that will be applied toward engineering therapeutically-effective human cell transplants.
To date, Dulin's research program has attracted millions in external funding from multiple state, federal and private sources, including the National Institutes of Health, the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, the TIRR Foundation, the Wings for Life Spinal Cord Research Foundation and the Paralyzed Veterans of America Research Foundation. A former TIRR Foundation Fellow (2017-22), her additional career awards include a 2023 Texas A&M College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Mentoring Award, the 2022 Betty M. Unterberger Award for Outstanding Service to Honors Education, the 2021 Jerry Johnston Andrew Award for Spinal Cord Research and a 2017 Veterans Administration CDA-2 Award.
Dulin is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the Texas Brain and Spine Institute, Mission Connect and Texas A&M ADVANCE Science Scholars. She has also served since 2022 as a mentor with Science Influencers.
At the conclusion of Dulin's presentation, Texas A&M graduate students Minchae "Chloe" Kang (Department of Kinesiology and Sport Management) and Shelby McGrew (Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences) will be recognized as the 2024-25 recipients of the Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Awards for Research, while graduate student Visheeta Chandolia (Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences) will be honored with the Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Award for Mentoring. Each will receive a $500 check, a memorial plaque and a certificate of recognition.
The awards are presented by WISE to highlight research and mentoring efforts by graduate students on the Texas A&M campus in honor and remembrance of Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui, a longtime faculty member in the Texas A&M Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Tsutsui was a founding member of WISE and cared deeply about the retention and recognition of women in the university’s graduate programs and nurturing their intellectual spirit. Both the awards and the event are sponsored by WISE, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Institute for Engineering Education and Innovation.
Women In Science and Engineering at Texas A&M is an organization of graduate students, staff and faculty from various science and engineering backgrounds. The group was created to address specific problems faced by women in nontraditional fields.
For more information about the lecture or other youth and professional development programs in the College of Arts and Sciences, please contact Texas A&M Arts and Sciences Outreach & Engagement at (979) 845-7363.