We are proud to announce that Ankita Gumaste, a fifth year graduate student of the Yale Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (INP https://medicine.yale.edu/inp/) working under the mentorship of Dr. Justus Verhagen, has been awarded the prestigious NIH/NIDCD Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service F31 fellowship (NRSA).
The award, which is set to fund her research for the next 2 years, will enable Ankita to explore behavioral discrimination and neural processing of naturalistic odor plumes in mice. Specifically, she will determine how mice discriminate sequences of naturalistic odors based on odor intermittency, and define how olfactory sensory neuronal responses depend on sniff frequency and odor intermittency.
The project will open the doors to understanding some of the fundamental but often overlooked mechanisms of odor perception. On the personal front, the award will set the stage for Ankita’s scientific career and we are all excited to be part of this grand moment! Congratulations Ankita!
