1st year chemistry PhD student and 3rd year DGSOM MD-PhD student Eric Lin (Sletten lab) receives Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program Predoctoral Fellowship.
The prestigious TRDRP predoctoral fellowship is awarded to those who conduct research aimed at reducing the negative impact of tobacco use by focusing on tobacco use prevention, tobacco cessation, or tobacco-related disease. Recipients of this research award receive funds up to $300,000 for three years.
Eric is a first-year chemistry Ph.D. student in Professor Ellen Sletten’s laboratory and a third-year M.D.-Ph.D. student at the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) at UCLA. He graduated from Stanford University in 2019 with a B.S. in Chemistry with Distinction and was awarded the J.E. Wallace Sterling Award for Scholastic Achievement, a prestigious award presented to the top 25 students of each year’s graduating senior class who majored in a Humanities and Sciences department or program. As an undergraduate student, Lin worked in the laboratory of Professor Barry M. Trost, working on asymmetric electrophilic amination of acyclic alpha-branched ketones, publishing this work as a first co-author in ACS Catalysis prior to starting medical school at UCLA.
The use of tobacco products has been well documented to lead to numerous health risks including heart disease, chronic bronchitis, and lung cancer. While e-cigarettes have been marketed as a healthier alternative, studies have linked them to similar health risks, among others such as e-cigarette-associated lung injury. However, the mechanisms by which e-cigarettes mediate damage in the lung and systemic tissues have not been fully elucidated. In collaboration with Professor Jesus Araujo’s laboratory, Eric’s research looks to uncover the roles alveolar and systemic macrophages play in mediating the negative effects of e-cigarettes by tracking them in real time in vivo in mice exposed to e-cigarette aerosols using shortwave infrared fluorophores.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
