Biochemistry undergraduate researcher Tanya D’Souza (Conway group) has been named a recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Division of Organic Chemistry (DOC) Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) for her research project, “A High-throughput Direct to Biology Approach to Identify Novel CREBBP and EP300 Degraders”, sponsored by Genentech. SURF is the premier national undergraduate fellowship award for organic chemistry.
“Being chosen for this fellowship is an incredible honor, and I am excited to continue my work in the Conway Group alongside Professor Stuart Conway and my mentors,” D’Souza said. “I would like to extend a huge thank you to the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry for this award, and to Genentech for their generous sponsorship. I can’t wait to be introduced to not only fellow aspiring researchers, but also to leading chemists in the industry!”
D’Souza is a third-year Biochemistry major at UCLA, interested in pursuing an M.D.-Ph.D. She joined the Professor Stuart Conway’s group in September 2024 and is working on the development of hypoxia-activated PROTACs (HAP-TACs). She transferred from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she conducted research under Professor Scott Lokey in the field drug development, focusing on the synthesis of macrocycles and PROTACs.
The ACS DOC SURF program was established in 2009 to provide funding for outstanding undergraduate organic chemistry students attending colleges and universities in the United States. These competitive fellowships are awarded on the merits of students’ research proposals, academic records, faculty recommendations and their passion for laboratory science. Each fellow will receive $6,000 to carry out research in organic chemistry at their respective colleges/universities in the summer between their junior and senior year.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penjen@g.ucla.edu.
