Jacklyn (Jackie) Woods (née Whitehead) has been selected as the winner of the 2019 BMEGG Outstanding Graduate Student Award. This award recognizes a student for outstanding: success in the class room, achievements in research, mentoring, engagement in BMEGG activities, community outreach and any other noteworthy activities.
Jackie is working with Professors Kent Leach and Gang-yu Liu. Jackie is using Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell (MSC) Spheroids for bone repair and regeneration. She discovered that tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) are present among MSCs inside spheroids. This discovery helps explain many of the superior properties MSC spheroids exhibit in bone repair. Jackie is attempting to direct MSC behavior by loading osteo inductive substrates and biomolecules within MSC spheroids to guide their bone-forming potential. Jackie has published 8 full-sized research papers in her career at UC Davis. In addition to her research, Jackie mentors undergraduate students, contributes to BESA in numerous ways (e.g. officer, student representative to BMEGG Executive Committee, serving as an active participant in BMEGG recruitment events), participates in the Meet a Scientist Weekend at Powerhouse Science Center, volunteers at Picnic Day to support the Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology program, and recently won a Science Communication Fellowship to communicate scientific advances to the broader audience. Jackie is expecting to graduate at the end of this quarter.
Congratulations Jackie for your outstanding accomplishments and selection for this award!