Diane Fru (pictured at left), a recent ISU graduate and former undergraduate research assistant for GDCB Professor Jeff Trimarchi, will teach English to grade school students in Taichung, Taiwan during the next year before returning to the US to start medical school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This opportunity comes from the Fulbright Foundation for Scholarly Exchange.

Ms. Fru majored in psychology with a minor in biology and was a research assistant in the laboratory of Dr. Trimarchi from 2011 through 2014. The primary goal of Dr. Trimarchi’s research is to understand the gene expression programs that drive the development and diversification of retinal ganglion cells, the major output neurons of the retina. Ms. Fru participated in two distinct research projects. Initially she was part of a team of undergraduate students characterizing the development of nerve cells in the chicken retina. In her final year, Ms. Fru performed an independent honors project using TALEN-based technology to functionally disrupt genes in the developing zebrafish retina. She was also involved with the Ames chapter of Society for Neuroscience. The research opportunity in GDCB and Fulbright experience will help her to be successful in medical school and her career.