DELAWARE: INBRE Early Career Grant – NIH award supports biologist’s research into formation of sperm, egg cells
Aimee Jaramillo-Lambert, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Delaware, has been awarded a $2M, five-year research grant from NIH NIGMS. The funding comes from the Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) program, which specifically supports early-career research. Her research investigates exactly how each sperm and egg cell gets the correct number of chromosomes in meiosis and the role played by certain enzymes and proteins in the process. She also studies the shape of the chromosomes, especially in sperm cells, which determines some processes as well.
“The formation of sperm and eggs with the ‘wrong’ number of chromosomes is a key contributing factor to infertility, miscarriages and birth defects in humans,” Jaramillo-Lambert wrote in her grant application. Her research into chromosome structure and separation in sperm and eggs, she said, will improve scientists’ understanding of how disruptions in these processes contribute to male and female infertility and birth defects and potentially lead to effective treatments.