Winter 2025 Featured Trainee:

Maryam Utegulova

  • Summer 2025 Levy CIMAR Undergraduate Scholar in Science and Medicine
  • UMass Boston junior exploring how bacterial spores transition from dormancy to germination—a process crucial to infection recurrence and antibiotic resistance.

Curiosity has been a driving force in Maryam Utegulova’s life, extending beyond the classroom and intobusiness, travel, and the unseen world of microbes and disease. A 3rd-year biology major and management minor at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB), Maryam was one of just two scholars selected for the Summer 2025 Levy CIMAR Undergraduate Internship in Science and Medicine.

Under the mentorship of Levy CIMAR member and Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology, Dr. Aimee Shen, and postdoctoral fellow Jacob Bouchier, Maryam researched the activation mechanism of the germination amidase CwlD in Clostridioides difficile. C. diff is recognized as the leading cause of health-care-associated infective diarrhea and is increasingly being linked to community-acquired cases of colitis. During her summer in the Shen Lab, Maryam examined how bacterial spores transition from dormancy to germination—a process crucial to infection recurrence and antibiotic resistance. She looked at how the CwlD amidaseinteracts with the lipoprotein GerS to regulate zinc binding and enzymatic activation in C. diff.

Maryam and her faculty mentor, Levy CIMAR’s Dr. Aimee Shen

Maryam first learned about the Levy CIMAR program while participating in Tufts University’s Pathway to the PhD (P2P) initiative, a three-week, research-intensive internship that introduced her to the Tufts biomedical research community. Inspired by her mentors and the collaborative nature of the university’s research culture,she applied to CIMAR to further explore infectious disease mechanisms and antimicrobial resistance.

Before joining Tufts, Maryam built a strong research foundation spanning infectious diseases, molecular biology, and bioengineering. At Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan, she conducted research on global HIV/AIDS statistics and contributed to biosensor-based cancer studies. She served as a mentor in a previous internship where her team’s machine-learning-based research project on androgen receptor interactions with HIV was later presented at the Chinese Biophysics Congress, earning recognition for research excellence. She also gained medical experience at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, assistingpathology staff and deepening her understanding of the connection between laboratory research and patient care.

Maryam grew up speaking four languages and credits her Central Asian background for shaping her resilience, curiosity, and purpose in science. “Research taught me patience,” she says, “but also service for others and for the world we live in. Every experiment reminds me that the work we do in the lab can ultimately improve lives.” Looking ahead, she hopes to combine her interests in pathology, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and management through graduate studies and innovative projects that connect scientific discovery with healthcare.

Outside the lab, Maryam runs a Boston-based floral business. A passionate traveler, she visited 26 countriesby the age of 20. According to Maryam, each journey has broadened her perspective and deepened her curiosity about the world.