PHILADELPHIA – University of Pennsylvania senior Eileen Moison has been awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to spend at least a year at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom pursuing a graduate degree in biochemistry.  Afterwards she plans to continue towards a doctoral degree in biochemistry/molecular biology.

Moison, of Glenmoore, Pa., is studying biochemistry and business in the Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management, a dual-degree program in the School of Arts and Sciences and Wharton.  She will graduate in May 2012.

At Penn she works in a research group headed up by E. James Petersson, assistant professor of chemistry.  Her work focuses on the adaptation of proteins involved in protein synthesis and secondary metabolism to permit the incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins.  Moison also mentors younger students at Penn as well as students at Philadelphia elementary and high schools.

In applying for the award, Moison worked with Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, directed by Harriet Joseph.

Moison is among 40 U.S. students awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarships this year.

Additional information about the Gates Cambridge Scholarship program is available at www.gatesscholar.org, including the 2012 yearbook profiling all the Gates Scholars currently studying at Cambridge.