Sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research, the SPARC Graduate Research Grant is a merit-based award designed to ignite research and creative excellence across all disciplines at UofSC. The overall objective of the SPARC Graduate Research Grant is to provide support and to encourage outstanding students to pursue exciting research directions during their graduate career at the University of South Carolina.

Kenneth Frederick (Patel lab) was awarded a SPARC grant for his project titled "Drug-induced dystonia: investigating underlying molecular mechanisms and novel therapies." Madison Janakis (Speiser lab) was awarded a SPARC grant for her project focused on "Visual Ecology in the Porcelain crab, Petrolisthes armatus". Jenny Linscott (Senner lab) was awarded a SPARC grant for studying "Ephemeral Water and Shorebird Migration in the Northern Great Plains". Kristiaan Merritt (Richardson lab) was awarded a SPARC grant for her project on "The Colorful World of Cryptophyte Microalgae". Finally, Janay Vacharasin (Lizarraga lab) was awarded a SPARC grant for her project on "Defining the Role of mTOR Signaling in ASH1L-related Autism Spectrum Disorder". Congrats to all of them!