Lydia Grmai was selected for the NIH MOSAIC program

Lydia Grmai, a postdoctoral associate in Pitt’s School of Medicine, was selected for the Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers (MOSAIC) program from the National Institutes of Health.

The MOSAIC program aims to help promising postdoctoral researchers from diverse backgrounds transition into independent or tenure-track research faculty roles. Awardees are early career scientists with demonstrated contributions to enhancing diversity in the biomedical sciences. The NIH program awards up two years of funding for mentored postdoctoral training and up to three years of support on an independent research project.

In the Department of Cell Biology’s Fly Stress Lab, Grmai studies how cellular stress affects reproduction alongside her advisor and Assistant Professor Deepika Vasudevan. The postdoc fellow also mentors an undergraduate researcher as part of her dedication to empowering the next generation of scientists.

Grmai was also a 2021 Fellow for Leading Edge, an initiative to improve gender diversity among life sciences faculty. She is a member of the Society for Developmental Biology, the American Society for Cell Biology and the Genetics Society of America.