Biology Undergraduates Use Special Awards to Support Amazing
Research Tracy Tabib is performing experiments examining the
role of the Tpl2 gene in a particular type of skin cancer called
squamous cell carcinoma. As a sophomore she became interested in
this work when she took Cell Biology from Dr. Katie DeCicco-
Skinner. Now she is doing research in Dr. DeCicco-Skinner’s lab
because she is the recipient of both the 2011 Likins Award and
the Grebe Award. The Likins award is given to an outstanding
female student who is majoring in Biology to encourage more
women to enter the research field. The purpose of the Grebe
Award is to support students who perform research in
laboratories in the biology department over the summer months.
Tracy’s work on the Tpl2 gene is helping to determine how this
gene normally suppresses skin cancer development, and how in its
absence susceptibility to skin cancer increases. She has learned
how to do western blots, quantitative PCR, cell cultures, and
proliferation assays to list a fe