IDAHO: EPSCoR GME3 researchers earns NSF CAREER grant
Idaho EPSCoR GEM3 seed funding recipient, Devaleena Pradhan, Idaho State University, has received an NSF CAREER Award. Pradhan will receive $867,632 over five years to further her research on the Bluebanded goby, a fish that lives in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The small fish can rapidly switch sexes in response to changes in their environment.
“Bluebanded gobies are remarkable because they can naturally change sex during adulthood, and their entire body rewires itself to be the opposite sex,” said Pradhan. “The research will help us find out which hormones help modify behavior such as aggression, courtship, and parenting due to sudden changes and how those hormones can affect gene expression and protein function in the future. Hormones involved in these dramatic processes are very similar in all vertebrate animals - including humans.”