Introduction by Director Kelly Jordan-Sciutto, PhD

Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

He understood that all of us benefit from the inspiration and good example of other people; none of our achievements occur in a vacuum. Just ask Kyndall Nicholas, a fourth-year PhD student in the Neuroscience Graduate Group (NGG) who is featured in this issue.

Kyndall is pursuing promising research into nutrition and traumatic brain injury. Her accomplishments include winning the graduate student award at the 37th annual Women of Color Day at Penn. As Kyndall tells it, she relies on the support and guidance of a number of BGS mentors who help “keep her on track” during the often-rigorous demands of her research and cocurricular activities.

BGS is a tight-knit community with strong student groups—and a strong tradition of mentorship and collaboration. We are working to provide even more student support at the individual, program, and institutional levels. To that end, I invite alumni to consider getting involved with the Career Paths Mentoring Program, run by BGS Career Development. By sharing their career advice and experience, alumni can help ensure that BGS students are equipped for success when they graduate.

Recently, we observed that very event—graduation—when we celebrated the hard work and achievements of those completing their degrees this spring. We were honored to hear from Jonathan A. Epstein, MD, Interim Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine, who delivered our commencement address. For highlights of the BGS commencement ceremony, check out the video below.

Even as we say farewell to this year’s graduates, we look forward to the fall, when we will welcome the largest-ever incoming BGS class: 165 students, of which 26% are from underrepresented groups. Each of our incoming students is highly qualified and highly deserving: BGS had over 4,000 applications for 304 available slots, resulting in an acceptance rate of just 7.2%. Fifty-four percent decided to matriculate, a record-breaking yield on offers. Those figures speak to the caliber of both the BGS program and its students—students like Aishwarya Pawar, a PhD candidate in the Cell and Molecular Biology graduate group. A member of the Paralkar Lab, Aishwarya recently won the Penn Global Student Citizenship Award honoring international students who have exemplified a spirit of global citizenship during their time at Penn.

We are eager to support the accomplishments of an equally talented new group in the coming months and years—and to highlight some of them in future issues of The Dish.

In closing, I send you wishes for a delightful summer, in a community as strong as the one we have here at BGS.

Thank you for your continued support.

Kelly Jordan-Sciutto, PhD
Professor of Pathology, Department of Oral Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine
Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Director, Biomedical Graduate Studies, Perelman School of Medicine

BGS Graduation Highlights

Student Spotlight: Kyndall Nicholas, GR’27

A childhood concussion—sustained while practicing martial arts—helped set Kyndall Nicholas on her current path: pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience at Penn.

A fourth-year student in the Neuroscience Graduate Group (NGG), she chose Penn BGS for a reason.

“I've been an athlete my entire life,” says Kyndall, who, in addition to practicing martial arts, played Division I volleyball in college. “So I have endured and also witnessed people enduring concussions, and Penn has a very strong traumatic brain injury research group. There are not many schools where there's a group of researchers that study traumatic brain injury. That is what drew me to Penn BGS.”

The BGS community is happy to have her. “Kyndall is the kind of dedicated and well-rounded individual who epitomizes what BGS is all about,” says BGS Director Kelly Jordan-Sciutto, PhD. “She possesses creativity in her research, an outstanding work ethic, and innate leadership ability and stands as a role model for other students.”

Seeking Answers

Kyndall is pursuing research into how diet can serve a protective function in people who sustain traumatic brain injuries.

She explains: “I wondered, if diet can impact someone’s system and can impact your cognition, what about it being able to impact your ability to be a little more resilient to traumatic brain injury?”

Specifically, Kyndall is studying the question of whether taking certain Omega-3 fatty acids protects against damage from traumatic brain injury.

Outside of her research, Kyndall serves as president of the E.E. Just Biomedical Society, which supports Black and historically excluded biomedical graduate students at Penn. 

In addition, she is a fellow with the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, as well as the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Innovation.

‘A Grand Thank-You’

Kyndall’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. In March, she received the graduate student award during the 37th annual Women of Color Day at Penn. The Women of Color Awards are given in recognition of individuals who have conscientiously endeavored to increase respect for women of color at Penn, the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and the Delaware Valley community.

“Kyndall is not only a fantastic student but also a fantastic person,” says Mariel Featherstone, NGG Coordinator and 2023-2024 Chair of Women of Color at Penn. “She has been a great Penn citizen and contributor who is highly respected and admired by NGG and BGS administrators, faculty, and students. We are a better community because of Kyndall.”

For Kyndall, receiving the award came as a happy surprise.

“One of the things about doing a lot of work outside of the required research I do is that sometimes it can feel…not necessarily discouraging, but it can feel thankless. And it's not like we do it for the thank-yous. So to get a grand thank-you was really amazing. And I think that it helped to give me extra energy and motivation to keep doing what I'm doing.”

It Takes a Team

Far from going it alone, Kyndall enjoys the support of a team of mentors. Prominent among them is the Principal Investigator of the lab in which she works, the Cullen Lab. Professor of Neurosurgery D. Kacy Cullen, PhD, “has been very instrumental in helping me be flexible and learn about the different paths that there are for me as a scientist,” Kyndall says.

Cullen is full of praise for his protégé: “Kyndall has been a joy to mentor and to watch grow. She has a unique ability to positively shape any environment that she is in. It’s clear that she has ‘star’ potential and is on a trajectory for tremendous academic achievement and societal impact.” 

Kyndall has a mentor within the lab as well: research specialist Kevin D. Browne. “He has been the one who really helps me when I'm not feeling confident about the science I'm doing or just feeling bad because maybe something didn't work,” Kyndall says. “He pulls me back in and makes me feel like I’m on the right path.”

She also depends on Center Research Coordinator and Laboratory Manager Elizabeth Krizman, another member of the Cullen Lab. When Kyndall finds herself saying, “Oh my gosh, this piece didn’t come in and we’re doing this project tomorrow….I don't know what to do,” Krizman responds with calming energy and words: “OK, let's all breathe. Let's take a break.”

Rounding out her team of first-line mentors is Clementina Mesaros, PhD, Research Assistant Professor of Pharmacology. “She's been very instrumental in helping me with experimental design, but also seeing me as a person,” Kyndall says. For instance, one night when Kyndall was working late and her energy was flagging, Mesaros showed up—with chocolate.

Kyndall notes that she also has what she calls “lateral mentors” among her peers: “I think that they have also helped keep me going.”

She adds: “I've been super-privileged and have not had a bad mentor. Everyone just complements each other and meshes beautifully to make me feel like a competent scientist.”

The Road Ahead

Post-Penn, Kyndall aims to put her training to work. “My big dream is to work in the nutraceuticals field,” she says, referring to biotech and pharmaceutical companies handling products derived from food sources that provide both nutrition and medicinal benefits. “I'm interested in nutrition and being able to exploit nutrition and nutrients for our immune benefits and anything to move through life, especially when it comes to brain disease.”

Her goals include “to feel the impact of the work I'm doing and be able to continue to be intellectually stimulated.”

Ultimately, she wants to help people who may not be getting good nutrition.

“I hope I can make nutrition more accessible,” she says, “and the value of different nutrients better understood.”

Kyndall knows that when she reaches her goals, it will be thanks in part to having been part of a supportive community. “Essentially, the work I've been able to do is because there's been some friend in my program—sometimes Neuroscience, sometimes BGS broadly—who’s like, ‘Keep going. You’ve got it.’ I'm just grateful because without them, I wouldn't have gotten this far.”

Make a Difference: Give to the BGS Fellowship Fund Today

Students in the Biomedical Graduate Studies (BGS) program in the Perelman School of Medicine help to make up the backbone of the remarkable research happening here at Penn. If you would like to support the BGS students’ efforts and ensure that future generations of scientists have similar opportunities, please consider making a gift to the Biomedical Graduate Studies (BGS) Fellowship Fund. Your support provides our brilliant, hardworking students with the resources they need to be at the forefront of scientific discovery.

You can make a gift online or send a check payable to "The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania" and include “Biomedical Graduate Studies Fellowship Fund” in the memo line.

Mail it to:

Penn Medicine Development
c/o Amelia Klein
3535 Market Street, Suite 750
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Thank you for your partnership.