Biomedical and Enterprise major Tafara Nenguke cites Georgia State’s R1 status (the highest distinction a research university can receive) as a major draw when she was making decisions about her college career.

Neuroscience major Iyanuoluwa Adedokun chose GSU because of the potential for students to receive opportunities with nearby Grady Memorial Hospital and other important businesses and organizations that surround the university in downtown Atlanta.

So it is no blind luck that these two Honors College students have been chosen as GSU’s next Beckman Scholars. This award reflects their passion for science, dedication to research and future career plans.

The Beckman Scholarship
“The Beckman Scholars Program makes it possible for our exceptional undergrads from all backgrounds to focus less on financial burdens and more on successfully developing career paths into graduate education in the sciences,” said Marise Parent, GSU’s principal investigator of the Beckman Scholars Program Award.

The program gives student-scientists (in the fields of biology, biomedical sciences, chemistry and neuroscience) the opportunity to conduct independent laboratory research under the mentorship of select expert faculty mentors. This prestigious scholarship — managed by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation — means scholars will receive $21,000 over 15 months to aid in their research. In other words, for students interested in science and research, this scholarship is a game changer.

Both Nenguke and Adedokun’s interest in research and science have been sparked by research projects they each have previously worked on —Nenguke citing a research experience with the Winship Cancer Institute and Iyanuoluwa recalling a project studying fruit flies to better understand their social behavior.

Tafara Nenguke and Immunology
With the Winship Cancer Institute experience, Nenguke explained “as a high school student, I was part of a team that went into the Latino community and talked to people, trying to understand how they felt about genetic testing and hereditary breast and ovarian cancer in order to help develop potential solutions that would help this community receive the healthcare they need.” At GSU, Nenguke has refined this broad interest in issues impacting health into a specific passion around understanding disease and the immune system.

Nenguke intends to use her award to support research around identifying antibodies that could be effective therapeutics against COVID-19. She will be mentored by professor Dr. Lanying Du, who focuses on the rational design and development of effective and safe vaccines and therapeutic agents to prevent and treat infection caused by coronaviruses and flaviviruses.

Iyanluoluwa Adedokun and Behavior
Regarding her fruit fly research, Adedokun recalled “we wanted to understand more about social behavior, so we took fruit flies that had been kept in distinctive groups and then isolated the flies for a few weeks in order to observe if they would integrate back into their groups once they were released.” Turns out, they didn’t — and some flies ended up demonstrating aggression toward their groups. Observing the emotional reaction of the fruit flies inspired Adedokun’s further interest in behavior and what actions or stimuli result in certain behavioral changes and why.

She is also interested in how pain — be it emotional or physical — can impact behavior and how some individuals develop tolerance to pain that can lead to self-medicating or opioid use. These two distinct issues come together in her overall interest to better understand the variables and stressors that impact emotions.

Iyanuoluwa plans to use her award to study the behavioral impact of pain and better understand pain tolerance. She will be mentored by Dr. Anne Murphy, who focuses on the impact of sex and age on pain and opiate responsiveness as well as the impact of early life experience on adult pain and stress responsiveness.

GSU and the Beckman
In 2021, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation selected Georgia State University as a recipient of the Beckman Scholars Program Award and — in 2024 — the foundation announced that their partnership with GSU has been renewed for three more years. Georgia State is one of 14 institutions of higher learning nationally to receive the award this year. The program is a collaborative effort among the Honors College, the Center for the Advancement of Students and Alumni, the departments of Biology and Chemistry, the Institute for Biomedical Sciences and the Neuroscience Institute.

— Amy Beth Sparks, Director of Communications for the Honors College. Originally published at the university News Hub here.