Alannah DiCintio, graduate student in the Waldman lab, is the winner of the 2025 Kathryn Hinnant-Johnson, M.D. Memorial Fellowship that recognizes a doctoral student for excellence in research in genetics.

Alannah's research focuses on the effect that defects in the nuclear lamina have on DNA repair and nuclear integrity. The nuclear lamina is a structure that underlies the inner nuclear membrane and plays critical roles in nuclear architecture and function. One critical component of the nuclear lamina is a protein known as lamin A. The ZMPSTE24 metalloprotease is a vital player in the post-translational processing of lamin A. ZMPSTE24 deficiency results in the accumulation of an incompletely processed form of lamin A, known as prelamin A, which disrupts the structure of the nuclear lamina with severe consequences. Alannah is using multiple approaches that reduce ZMPSTE24 expression or inhibit its biochemical activity to study the impact of ZMPSTE24 deficiency at the molecular and cellular levels. Congrats Alannah!