Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
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Marisol Morales, M.S.

Ph.D. Student

Research Topic

Marisol's research focuses on investigating the interaction and co-evolution between poxviruses and two anti-viral host factors, SAMD9 and SAMD9L. Specifically, she is interested in: 1) the anti-viral mechanism of SAMD9&9L, 2) the role of SAMD9&9L in regulating cross-species transmission of human and avian poxviruses, and 3) identifying poxvirus inhibitors of SAMD9&9L. To address these points, her work involves molecular cloning, generating recombinant viruses with fluorescent reporters, flow cytometry-based anti-viral assays, mass-spec, and creating new cell lines with the piggyBac transposon and CRISPR.

Education

B.S. in Animal Science - Texas A&M, College Station, 2015

M.S. in Biology - University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, 2020

Current Program - Integrated Biomedical Sciences (IBMS) PhD program

Awards

  • 09/2024 - PI, Ruth Kirschstein NRSA F31 predoctoral fellowship, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease,1F31AI186499-01 (Marisol Morales), San Antonio, TX
  • 06/2024 - Travel Award, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics, UTHSCSA
  • 06/2024 - Travel Award, The American Society of Virology 43rd Annual Meeting, Columbus, OH
  • 08/2023 – 09/2024 - Trainee, Craniofacial Oral-Biology Student Training in Academic Research (COSTAR) T32 training grant 5T32DE014318-23 (Kenneth Hargreaves), School of Dentistry, UTHSCSA
  • 05/2023 - Travel Award, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics, UTHSCSA
  • 04/2023 - Travel Award, The American Society of Virology 42nd Annual Meeting, Athens, GA
  • 11/2022 - Oral Presentation Award, The 23rd International RUNX Conference, San Antonio, TX
  • 10/2022 - 3 Minute Thesis Competition Winner, 2022 Initiative on Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Retreat, San Antonio, TX
  • 04/2022 - Travel Award, The American Society of Virology 41st Annual Meeting, Madison, WI
  • 08/2021 – 07/2023 - Trainee, NIH Diversity Supplement Grant to parent grant 3R01AI151638-02S1 (Xiang, Y), San Antonio, TX
  • 08/20 – 07/21 - Trainee, Initiative on Maximizing Student Development (IMDS) Grant 2R25GM095480-06 (Oyajobi, B; Weiss, D), San Antonio, TX