Ferrante Postdoctoral Fellowship
Thanks to the generosity of individual donors, in 2022 Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute’s Ferrante Postdoctoral Fellowship was established to recognize and pay tribute to Massachusetts State Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante for her longstanding commitment to the advancement of GMGI’s mission. This prestigious postdoctoral fellowship is designed to attract an early career scientist who recently graduated from a Ph.D. program for a 1-3 year appointment at GMGI.
This year’s Ferrante Fellow is Riss Kell, Ph.D. We sat with Riss recently to learn more about their Fellowship experience.
What first got you excited about pursuing a career in science?
I grew up near the ocean in Woods Hole, MA, a vibrant scientific community doing amazing research. My father was an electrician at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and from a very young age, I would tag along and get to know everyone there. I was fascinated by the breadth of research taking place at WHOI, which played a significant role in my decision to pursue a career in marine science.
WHY SUPPORT EARLY
CAREER SCIENTISTS AT GMGI?
Innovative spirit: Scientists at GMGI are positioned to make discoveries and apply them to real-world problems facing the ocean, fisheries, and human health.
Next-generation thinking: Recently minted Ph.D.s bring the latest in scientific understanding and cutting-edge techniques to GMGI.
Science Advances: Early career scientists play a critical role in the pursuit of new marine genomic discoveries and contribute to GMGI’s peer-reviewed scientific articles.
Role models: GMGI’s scientists are mentors to Gloucester Biotechnology Academy students, guiding them on their journey toward new careers in biotech.
Science Community: In the burgeoning field of genomics, our scientists have incredible opportunities for impact and contribute to the global science community.
Cape Ann Community: GMGI is attracting a new generation of young ocean-centric scientists who live, work, and thrive on Cape Ann.
What brought you to GMGI?
After completing my BS in Biology at Boston College, I earned my Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography through the WHOI-MIT Joint Program. Over the course of my studies, I came to believe that the ocean, with its amazing diversity of microbial life and animals exhibiting impressive lifespans, offers a unique and largely unexplored reservoir of biological insights that could be leveraged to combat diseases in humans. I was particularly inspired by the fact that several cancer therapeutics have been derived from marine organisms. This motivated me to pursue a research niche at the intersection of marine science and biomedicine. To my surprise, I found this niche being pursued by Andrea Bodnar, Ph.D., GMGI’s Donald G. Comb Science Director. Dr. Bodnar’s application of the sea urchin as a long-lived marine animal model to study their natural cancer resistance and longevity was exactly the type of research I wanted to pursue.
Describe some of your early achievements as the Ferrante Fellow.
In 2023, I presented my work on the sea urchin immune system at the Developmental Biology of the Sea Urchin and Other Marine Invertebrates (DBSUMI) Conference at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Woods Hole, which was awarded best postdoc poster. In 2024, I became a Leading Edge Fellow and presented my work at the 2024 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Leading Edge Symposium. This allowed me to join an amazing and supportive network of women and non-binary postdocs pursuing research in the biomedical sciences. I received a scholarship to attend Columbia University’s SHARP NIH Grant Writing Bootcamp, which prepared me to complete my first research grant proposal. This was a great opportunity, as effective grant writing is an important skill to have in any academic institution. And at the bench, I completed my first single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) experiment, which included writing code using Python programming language to analyze the data. I’ve also traveled to Brown University as a visiting scientist to the Wessel Lab to learn sea urchin embryo microinjection — using this technique, I am studying the function of tumor suppressor genes in sea urchins via CRISPR-cas9 knockout, an approach that deactivates a gene and reveals the effects of that deactivation.
How are sea urchins being used in your research?
Sea urchins are a fascinating model to work with, as some species are long-lived (living >100 years) yet do not exhibit cancer. My research focuses on finding the underlying mechanisms behind this long, healthy lifespan, with the ultimate goal of translating what I learn to combat cancer in humans. In particular, I am studying how the sea urchin immune system responds to DNA damage — my hypothesis is that the immune system has some unique way of detecting and destroying pre-cancerous (ie, DNA-damaged) cells and destroying them before they become a problem. I am also functionally characterizing the sea urchin repertoire of tumor suppressor genes to determine if these genes are key to their cancer-free, long lifespans.
How have you interacted with the Gloucester Biotechnology Academy?
I have been a volunteer mentor for three students at the Academy, which has been a very rewarding experience. I enjoy mentoring students and catering to their unique learning styles to foster their love of science.
What does being named the Ferrante Fellow mean to you?
I’m very honored to be awarded this fellowship — Ann-Margaret Ferrante’s dedication to the Gloucester community and to ocean sciences through her support of GMGI is inspiring. I have a deep appreciation for her support of early career investigators such as myself. Her support and that of everyone who has contributed to the Ferrante Fellowship shows that there are people who believe in my research vision and see the merit of pursuing it, which is what any scientist wants!
Have you enjoyed your time at GMGI?
The uniqueness of the research and culture at GMGI makes this an outstanding place to work — you would be hard pressed to find the same novelty in research programs at another non-profit. The research team is very driven and collaborative, and I really enjoy that we lift each other up.