RESEARCH
PROFILE
National Funding for Young Nursing Scientist First Predoctoral Fellowship Recipient
N
ursing BSN to PhD student
Undergraduate Thesis as a nursing
Dean Mary Lou Sole. “Kim is taking
Kimberly Emery Rathbun
student at UCF. That passion was
her study from start to finish, from
’17BSN was honored with the Ruth
further fueled by working as a graduate
the clinical research side of study
L. Kirschstein Predoctoral National
research assistant to Dean Sole,
enrollment and data collection to
Research Service Award from the
contributing to numerous research
the basic science of processing and
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
publications with nursing faculty,
analyzing oral saliva specimens.”
and became the first predoctoral
and gaining hands-on learning at the
fellowship recipient at the college.
prestigious NIH Summer Genetics
Thanks to the NIH fellowship, Emery
The national award seeks to help
Institute in 2019. “That experience
has been able to further hone her
promising predoctoral students gain
shaped the trajectory of my
skills in basic science. She has taken
mentored research training during their
dissertation research,” added Emery.
additional coursework in statistical
dissertation research and develop their potential as scientists.
programming and participated in For her dissertation research, Emery
the Microbiome Data Analytics Boot
is focusing on the changes in the
Camp with Columbia University.
oral microbiome, or bacteria, over
“Kim is an outstanding student who has the potential to become a renowned researcher in her area of expertise.”
time during hospitalization for non-
Despite the challenges of the
ventilated patients – a population
COVID-19 pandemic, Emery has been
that has not been well explored in
successful in recruiting patients to
research. “The oral microbiome has
meet her enrollment goals for her
many important health and clinical
dissertation research. After collecting
implications,” she said. “I am also
saliva specimens from patients at a
— Carmen Giurgescu, Associate Dean of Research
interested in seeing how oral bacteria
local hospital, she conducts 16S rRNA
and bacterial diversity differ between
sequencing in the UCF Genomics
patients admitted to the hospital from
and Bioinformatics Cluster lab. The
a nursing home compared to home.”
sequencing method allows her to see
“This award provides an incredible
the types of microbes present in the
opportunity to expand my knowledge
“Nurse scientists today, like Kim, have
saliva samples, which she analyzes
with mentorship and training
a greater opportunity to incorporate
with bioinformatics to determine what
opportunities,” said Emery.
basic science into their research, which
factors led to non-ventilator hospital
is exciting as it has the potential to
acquired pneumonia – and the
Emery’s passion for research was
make a significant impact on patient
nursing interventions that can prevent
sparked by completing an Honors
outcomes and quality of care,” said
it to improve patient outcomes.
20 | FALL 2021 | nursing.ucf.edu