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BIOLOGY
Erin Vanzyl

If a gene doesn’t splice properly, how do cells react?
That question is at the core of Biology PhD student
Erin Vanzyl’s research. In particular, she investigates a
type of genetic material called precursor messenger
ribonucleic acid (pre-mRNA).
“Errors in pre-mRNA splicing have been associated
with a variety of diseases, including both cancer
progression and neurodegenerative diseases. So
that’s a very, very downstream application of my basic
research,” she explains.
She fi rst became excited about research when she
received a Dean’s Summer Research Internship (DSRI)
as a Carleton undergraduate. “I hadn’t even considered
research as a possible career path for me, but since my
DSRI, I haven’t been out of the lab for more than three
weeks!”
Her work caught the eye of the Natural Sciences
and Engineering Research Council of Canada, which
awarded her a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship in
April 2019. Vanzyl will receive $50,000 a year for the
next three years.

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