Chem-biology major enters Stanford with Hughes Fellowship

	Lubomir Merkov received a five-year predoctoral fellowship in the biological sciences from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Lubomir Merkov, a graduate who majored in chemistry-biology and politics, is one of 87 talented young scientists from around the world to receive a 1999 Predoctoral Fellowship in the Biological Sciences from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The fellowship awards are for five years and provide recipients with $31,000 annually for tuition and living expenses.

Merkov, who is from Startzevo, Bulgaria, will begin his doctoral studies this summer in the immunology program at Stanford University. In addition to his Hughes Award, he received a Stanford graduate fellowship and had similar offers from Yale University, Johns Hopkins, Cornell Medical College, Rockefeller University, Washington University, and the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.

Merkov's doctoral studies will focus on the processes that induce immune cells to develop from precursor stem cells and differentiate into mature T cells and B cells. He also is interested in processes that cause immune cells to activate during viral or bacterial infection.

Last summer, Merkov, who plans a career as a biomedical scientist, served an internship in immunology at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.