OU undergraduate Wojciech Gryc wins prestigious medical school scholarship

Oakland University undergraduate biochemistry major Wojciech Gryc was recently awarded a 4-year, $100,000 merit scholarship by the University of Michigan Medical School. In 2009, Gryc participated in the Summer Undergraduate Program in Eye Research (SUPER) administered by the Eye Research Institute, working with Associate Professor Ken Mitton to study "Cracking the Mouse: Investigating Candidate Genes for Human Retinal Diseases." Gryc represented OU at the 2010 World Stem Cell Summit, and was a coauthor on the presentation “Nobel Active Genes in Embryonic Stem Cells Detected by High-Resolution Mapping of RNA Polymerase-II Around Gene Transcription Start Sites.” He will also be a coauthor with Mitton on a poster titled “Identifying Photoreceptor-Specific Genes Within Unidentified Disease Loci Using Genome-Wide ChIP,” and first author with Mitton and Clinical Assistant Professor Kimberly Drenser on a poster titled "Cell-based Functional Testing Of Human Frizzled-4 Mutations Associated With Familial Exudative Vitreoretinopathy," both to be presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology AVRO2011 meeting May 1-5 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.