UNMC scholars among Presidential Graduate Fellows

University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds, Ph.D., announced the six recipients of 2018-19 Presidential Graduate Fellowships Wednesday, and two UNMC students — Matthew Kling and Constance Mietus — were among those selected.

The prestigious fellowships are awarded to a select group of NU graduate students each year on the basis of high scholastic performance and personal accomplishment. Fellows receive a stipend provided through the University of Nebraska Foundation that allows them to pursue their studies full-time.

“Our Presidential Graduate Fellows are some of the best and brightest students at the University of Nebraska — exactly the type of talented, driven, creative scholars we want to represent our university and state,” Dr. Bounds said. “We are fortunate to enjoy a level of private support that allows these students to devote themselves fully to their studies and research. I’m confident we will see great things from them in the future.”

Kling, of Harrisonville, Mo., is an anatomy teaching track Ph.D. student in genetics, cell biology and anatomy. His research focuses on understanding the role of small extracellular vesicles in the pediatric bone cancer Ewing’s sarcoma. He studies how these vesicles (exosomes) enhance aggressiveness in the bone cancer under low-oxygen (hypoxic) conditions.

Kling received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Missouri State University. At UNMC, his research receives support from the UNMC Pediatric Cancer Research Group and UNMC’s prestigious graduate student assistantship program. Recently, he received the Excellent Graduate Student Award from the genetics, cell biology and anatomy department.

As a teaching assistant, he has served as a lecturer and lab assistant in gross anatomy, neuroanatomy and histology for first-year medical students, physical therapy and physician assistant students at UNMC.

Mietus, of Kimball, Neb., is an M.D./Ph.D. scholar and student in UNMC’s medical sciences interdepartmental area-surgery. Her research focuses on the changes and roles of small blood vessels in the development of muscle pathology in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD).

Under the guidance of her mentors, Iraklis Pipinos, M.D., Ph.D., and George Casale, Ph.D., she’s explored how small vessels respond to currently available treatments. Mietus also has explored imaging technologies to non-invasively measure muscle and microvascular pathology, which may lead to better diagnostic strategies and treatment for patients with PAD.

Mietus received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Her work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, presented at national conferences, and she has won multiple poster presentation awards.