Grandma’s Genes Top UC Davis Grad Slam
"The final round of the UC Davis Grad Slam had a flurry of PowerPoint slides, a giant deck of cards and a stuffed monkey, but in the end the top prize went to someone talking about genetic “ghosts.”
The winner of the rapid-fire research showcase Thursday (April 6) was Julia Mouat, a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Biological Sciences’ Integrative Genetics and Genomics Graduate Group. Her talk, “Grandmas, Ghosts and Genes,” explained her research into whether women’s smoking during pregnancy raises the risk of autism in their grandchildren. The “ghosts” in question are molecules on DNA that are believed to be responsible for switching certain genes on and off.
She will now represent UC Davis at UC’s systemwide Grad Slam, May 5, in San Francisco."