Greeshma Somashekar wins top prize as NIH Intern

The 2011 NIH Summer Internship Program at NIEHS marked the culmination of eight to twelve weeks of sustained effort in NIEHS labs with the annual poster session. The event gave the 45 interns an opportunity to talk about their accomplishments within the Institute's labs over the summer program and showcase their abstracts and posters. Greeshma was mentored by Garantziotis Stavros, M.D., Matrix Biology Group. Her research was on the Inter-alpha-trypsin inhibitor heavy chain 4 (ITIH4) is a serum protein found in the tissue of the lung. The concentration becomes elevated in patients with various types of cancer as well as acute lung injury, making this compound a potential biomarker for these diseases. The challenge for Somashekar was to investigate the functional effects of three ITIH4 domains with regard to cell activation and migration. She was able to create ITIH4 constructs in varying sizes. These constructs will allow further investigation into the functional effects of each of the ITIH4 domains on cell activation and migration. For more information see www.training.nih.gov/programs/sip.