Three University of Iowa undergraduates, Nathan Fassett, Ava Vaillant, and Christina Yu, have won the 2026 Iowa Neuroscience Institute Summer Scholar Awards.

The INI Summer Scholar Program supports Iowa undergraduates planning to pursue research during the summer in the lab of an INI faculty member. As INI Summer Scholars, the students receive a stipend of $5,000 and have the opportunity to attend a summer undergraduate seminar series and a variety of informal events. 

The INI Summer Scholar application process is highly competitive, and Fassett, Vaillant, and Yu stood out for the quality of their research plans, mentor endorsement, and academic performance. In addition, Vaillant was named the Kwak-Ferguson Summer Scholar, an award for research on neurodegenerative disease, supported through an endowment by UI alumnus Don Timm.

Fassett works in the laboratory of Adele Stewart, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience and pharmacology. The lab is focused on the dopamine transporter (DAT) and how alterations of DAT dictate neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases in a sex-specific manner. Fassett’s project focuses on how diet influences dopamine signaling in the brain, including critical differences in DAT regulation between the sexes.

Vaillant works in the laboratory of Ryan Boudreau, PhD, associate professor of internal medicine. The lab’s focus is post-transcriptional responses in diseased and developing hearts and brains. Vaillant is pursuing research on the neuronal members of the SCN gene family, which encode for voltage-gated sodium (NaV) channels. Mutations in neuronal SCNs and NaV expression levels are linked to neurological conditions including autism and epilepsy.

Yu works in the laboratory of Mark Blumberg, PhD, professor and DEO of psychological and brain sciences. The lab studies sleep twitching both in human infants and rat pups. Yu’s project focuses on brain regions controlling behavioral development of rapid eye movements (REMs) and changes in pupillary size during sleep.

The Iowa Neuroscience Institute builds on the university’s decades-long tradition as a leading center for the study of neuroscience, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and supporting innovation in foundational, translational, and clinical research.