Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
Faculty mentor: Marie Gaine, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Experimental Therapeutics, College of Pharmacy
Degree program and anticipated graduation date: PhD in pharmacology, May 2025

Emese Kovács works in the field of epigenetics, where she focuses on changes to DNA that alter how genes are expressed without changing the sequence of DNA itself. Kovács examines the impact of suicide attempts and lithium treatment on DNA methylation in individuals with bipolar disorder. DNA methylation is a chemical process that adds a methyl group molecule to DNA, which alters gene expression. Lithium is the leading treatment for bipolar disorder, but how it works is still unclear. By examining how epigenetics differs between individuals who have bipolar disorder and those who do not, Kovács can look for biomarkers that can identify risk for suicide attempt and find different areas of DNA to target to treat bipolar disorder.

After graduation, Kovács will move to Emory University to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship, researching the genetics and epigenetics of individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

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