8:00am | For his proposal to study how secondhand smoke exposure may predispose women to heart disease, Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) chemistry/biochemistry senior Tuyen Ngoc Tran has received a $3,000 scholarship as one of this year’s recipients of the Howell-CSUPERB Research Scholar Award.
CSUPERB (CSU Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology) has partnered with the Doris A. Howell Foundation for Women’s Health Research to fund promising undergraduate student research projects in topics related to women’s health. The Howell Foundation and CSUPERB recognize that research experience is critical to engaging, retaining and graduating students interested in careers in women’s health.
CSUPERB received 32 applications from students at 15 different CSU campuses for the Howell awards, but only 11 students from seven of the universities were selected for the $3,000 scholarships. The Howell-CSUPERB Scholars show great professional promise academically and in research programs. Each scholar will be conducting faculty mentored research projects during 2012.
Tran explained that the objective of his project is to study the effect of in vitro oxidative modification of apolipoprotein E (apoE). According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death in the United States with more deaths due to cardiovascular reasons than all forms of cancer combined. In fact, a recent statistical report from the American Heart Association showed that 42 million women are living with different types of CVD.
The Howell-CSUPERB scholarship award will allow Tran, who works part-time to help his family, to cut back on his hours, concentrate on his research and publish his findings. The funds, he said, will support his academic needs such as textbooks, tuition and fees. He will also use the award to support his research project, including supplies and travel to conferences such as the American Heart Association’s Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology Conference to be held in Chicago in April.