The Victoria Finnerty Undergraduate Travel Award supports conference-attendance costs for undergraduate GSA members who are presenting research at the Annual Drosophila Research Conference. #Dros26 will be held in Chicago, Illinois from March 4-8, 2026.

Victoria Finnerty, who died in February 2011, was a long-time member of the Genetics Society of America and served the Drosophila community and the genetics community at large in many capacities. A wonderful geneticist, Vickie’s ground-breaking work as a graduate student used high-resolution recombination analysis to dissect gene structure. This set the stage for a 35-year career in which she excelled as a gifted teacher as well as research scientist. Vickie was also a wise and compassionate mentor and teacher for whom interactions with her students was a constant joy. She constantly sought new ways to engage undergraduates in their genetics courses and in research; this travel fellowship fund continues Vickie’s stellar example.

Muna Abdullahi, University of St. Thomas

I am studying the role of a gene called AdamTS-B in tracheal development and interactions it has with a signaling pathway called EGFR that is essential for tracheal development.

Heidi Beal, University of Richmond

My research focuses on the human neurodegenerative brain disease spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism.

Marina Curchitser, Johns Hopkins University

I research the chromatin dynamics of Drosophila photoreceptors during development.

Vladyslav Dribnokhod, Penn State Berks

My research focuses on the effects observed in fruit-flies when decreasing Glut1 expression in intestinal cells.

Gabriel Duenas, University of California, Berkeley

My research uses Drosophila melanogaster as a model to functionally characterize mysterious “trophic cells” released by parasitoid wasps during infection, which manipulate the host to support parasite development.

Sienna Ficken, University of Missouri, Kansas City

My research uses fruit flies to understand how muscles develop and build the mini motors that allow them to contract, and to understand what goes wrong in muscle diseases like Myotonic Dystrophy Type I that causes muscle degeneration.  

Lily Fryer, University of Vermont

My research is focused on studying centrosome regulation in the asymmetric cell division of neural stem cells, specifically the role of polo-like kinase 4 in this process.

Mariana Gonzalez Palacios, University of Detroit Mercy

I work with fruit flies to discover the impact multiple mutations can have on physical traits.

Tyler Handler, University of Rochester

I study selfish Segregation Distorter, a gene system that biases its transmission to the next generation by eliminating competing sperm.

Chrislynn Harris, Sam Houston State University

My research involves utilizing a Drosophila larval model to assess alterations in the microtubule network prior to cachexic wasting.

Ashleigh Hoskins, University of Evansville

My research investigates the cellular events that govern egg production in the ovary during animal development.

Breanna Leach, Wichita State University

My work investigates the role of iron transport mechanisms for neural stem cell maintenance and brain development.

Kathryn Macy, Lewis and Clark College

I study the effects of developmental nicotine exposure on egg-laying and embryonic movements in fruit flies.

Allison Simmons, East Carolina University

My research uses Drosophila to explore how nuclear receptors are regulated in ovarian somatic cells during oogenesis.

May Wang, University of British Columbia

My research seeks to uncover new gene(s) essential for male fertility on an evolutionarily young Y chromosome.

, , ,
View all posts by Editorial Staff »

Read more in