Ohio State is in the process of revising websites and program materials to accurately reflect compliance with the law. While this work occurs, language referencing protected class status or other activities prohibited by Ohio Senate Bill 1 may still appear in some places. However, all programs and activities are being administered in compliance with federal and state law.

First Rodino-Klapac Awards

December 3, 2025

First Rodino-Klapac Awards

Rabab Abu Alhasan, Jackson Hastings, and Ian Santiago

The department just made the first awards from the Rodino-Klapac gradudate fellowship fund, which supports graduate students studying in the department of Molecular Genetics. From a pool of competitive applications, awards were made to three talented graduate students

Rabab Abu Alhasan is a PhD candidate in the Singh lab. In 2025 she was awarded a Summer Herta Camerer Gross Fellowship, and she has contributed as an author on two papers from the Singh lab. she says "I am grateful for the award provided by Dr. Rodino-Klapac that contributes to funding my research project. This award will enable me to carry out an ambitious and costly proteomic experiment to characterize the composition of a large aberrant protein complex that accumulates in human cells upon impairment of an RNA quality control pathway. This progress will contribute to a better understanding of RNA surveillance mechanisms."

Jackson Hastings  is a PhD candidate in the Hopper lab. He was supported by a University Fellowship during his first year in the program and has earned a Graduate Teaching award from the department. His poster presentation at the 2025 RNA Society meeting won a presentation award. Hes says "“With the funds granted by the Rodino-Klapac Award, I will be able to advance my research on tRNA nuclear export.  Employing mass spectrometry analysis and a tRNA isolation technique, currently unknown proteins that bind tRNAs during nuclear export can be identified.  I will also be able to determine whether different kinds of export proteins have binding preferences for the different tRNAs.”

Ian Santiago is a PhD candidate in the Dawes lab who has been supported by the NIH Funded Cellular, Molecular and Biochemical Sciences Program. Describing his project, Ian says "Healthy development depends on precise regulation of asymmetric cell division, and failures in this process are linked to cancer and developmental disorders. My research aims to understand this regulation by uncovering how partitioning defective (PAR) proteins control centrosomal tubulin asymmetry in C. elegans, a key mechanism driving asymmetric division. The Rodino-Klapac award will allow me to ask research questions utilizing tools like genetic mutant strains of C. elegans that I will generate, drug-based perturbations, and computational tools that are currently beyond the reach of my lab."

The Rodino-Klapac Fund is made possible by generous Donations from Louise Rodino-Klapac. Dr Rodino-Klapac completed her Ph.D. in the Molecular Genetics in Dr. Christine Beattie's lab where she used zebrafish as a model to elucidate the mechanisms that underlie axon pathfinding in motor neurons. She then moved to Nationwide Children's Hospital where over the course of 13 years she advanced from a postdoctoral fellowship to a tenured Principal Investigator, eventually leading a laboratory focused on gene therapy research for Muscular Dystrophies. In 2018 she moved to Sarepta Therapeutics where she now serves as President. We are grateful for her support of our graduate students!