The UM System’s NextGen Precision Health initiative is welcoming its first cohort of postdoctoral fellows who will pursue translational research and community engagement projects. After a rigorous, highly competitive selection process in Fall 2024, three extraordinary candidates were selected from an initial applicant pool of 53. Over the next two years, they’ll develop their skills as science communicators by engaging with a variety of audiences and build on their past success bridging disparate research areas.
Natasha G. Boyes (Mostat), PhD
Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology
School of Medicine
University of Missouri-Columbia
Mentor: Jacqueline Limberg, PhD
Co-Mentors: Jaume Padilla, PhD and Camila Manrique-Acevedo, MD
Natasha’s research focuses on sex-specific integrative cardiovascular physiology and mechanisms of cardiovascular disease in humans. In her PhD, Natasha studied the effects of elevated sympathetic activation on heart function and peripheral blood flow regulation during exercise in patients with heart failure. Natasha is currently working on understanding the respective roles of sex and obesity on neural control of the circulation during hypoxia in humans. As a NextGen fellow, her work will investigate the impact of menopause on neural control of circulation and has a particular interest in the role of the vascular beta-adrenergic receptors and estrogen.
Sunjeev Phull, PhD
Linda and Bipin Doshi Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
College of Engineering and Computing
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Mentor: Mark Towler, PhD
Co-Mentor: Andrea Evenski, MD
Sunjeev holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Toronto Metropolitan University (Toronto, Canada) and has extensive experience in hard tissue biomaterials research. His expertise includes advanced materials characterization techniques for novel bone cements, as well as conducting in vitro and in vivo experiments. As a NextGen Postdoctoral Fellow, mentored by Dr. Mark Towler (Missouri S&T) and Dr. Andrea Evenski (University of Missouri Health Care – Columbia Harry S. Truman VA Medical Center), Sunjeev is focused on developing gallium- and zinc-containing glass polyalkenoate cements (GPCs) as chemotherapeutic and anti-bone-resorptive bone void fillers for osteolytic metastatic bone lesions. Through this work, he aims to enhance patient outcomes and improve the quality of life for individuals battling advanced-stage cancers.
Sandy Saunders, PhD
Department of Biomedical Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Missouri-Columbia
Mentor: Carie Boychuk, PhD
Sandy received her PhD in Biomedical Sciences with a specialization in Pharmacology and Therapeutics from the University of Florida. Her graduate work investigated the contribution of opioid-sensitive neurons within the pontine respiratory group to fentanyl-induced respiratory depression, which is the proximal cause of death in opioid overdose. Her postdoctoral work, in the laboratory of Dr. Carie Boychuk, aims to understand how dysfunction of autonomic circuits in the brainstem promotes cardiorespiratory arrest in sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). Overall, her goal is to understand how cardiorespiratory motor output is generated, maintained, and fails in disease.
To learn more about NextGen’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, visit the information page and look for email updates as the next application cycle begins in the Fall of 2025.
Reviewed 2025-01-03