University of Massachusetts’ student Jennifer Griffin, a 20-year-old junior microbiology major, was recently awarded The Endocrine Society Summer Research Fellowship, a prestigious award received by only 20 to 25 students nationwide.

The Endocrine Society is the world’s leading source for hormone research.

Griffin had been waiting since January to find out whether or not she had won. She received the call during the last days of spring break.

“My boyfriend called [to tell me I had won] when I was on my way home from Virginia,” Griffin said. “I had him checking my emails while I was gone.”

Griffin, a member of Commonwealth College, is only the second UMass student to win the award.

“I am really proud of Jennifer’s accomplishments in the lab and this award of the [Endocrine Society] fellowship,” said Dr. Deborah J. Good of the Veterinary and Animal Sciences Department, for whom Griffin works.

The Endocrine Society, established in 1917, is an international organization with 11,000 members spanning over 80 countries. Members research and treat endocrine disorders including diabetes, reproduction, infertility, osteoporosis, thyroid disease, obesity/lipids, growth hormone, pituitary tumors and adrenal insufficiency.

Since her sophomore year, Griffin has worked with and studied Dr. Good’s experiment with genetically engineered mutant mouse models called “Tubby mice.”

“These animals show adult-onset obesity due to a mutation that affects the expression of a protein in their brain. We believe that in addition to body weight, this protein also regulates fertility,” said Dr. Good. “Jennifer has done several experiments to prove this theory … and has made a number of interesting discoveries.”

The Fellowship provides a $4,000 stipend, allowing Griffin to continue her participation in the “Tubby mice” study throughout the summer. The study will be the subject for her honor’s thesis.

Griffin said the experiment is promising and is making great headway. The study will last through her senior year and, once completed, the results will be published in a major scientific journal.

Her extensive experience in labs gave Griffin the necessary edge to win the Endocrine Society Fellowship. Since her freshman year of college, Griffin has been involved in scientific research in two different labs at the UMass Medical School, as well as in Dr. Good’s microbiology lab. She has experimented with the genetics of cancer, which she may return to in the future, and the effects of T-Cell proliferation on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.

During this time, while maintaining a spot on the Dean’s List each semester, she has won the 2002 and 2003 UMass Medical School Summer Research Fellowship, which was open to students nationwide. She was also honored with the 2002, 2003 and 2004 Honor Research Fellowship, which is awarded for students in the honors college to do research throughout the academic year.

During high school in Uxbridge, Mass., Griffin planned to become a veterinarian. By her senior year, when she graduated as salutatorian, her focus had changed to human medicine by the influence of her advanced placement biology teacher, Mr. Worden.

“Mr. Worden was so knowledgeable; he inspired [his students] to learn how biology applies to and affects us,” she said.

When not in the lab, Griffin works as a Resident Assistant in Greenough Hall. She also participated in this year’s alternative spring break trip with the Newman Center. The group went to Ivanhoe, Va., in the Appalachian Mountains to help an impoverished town better its community.

“It was one of the most influential experiences of my life,” Griffin said.

From college Griffin will go to graduate school for her PhD in immunology and virology. She has narrowed her graduate school choices to the UMass Medical School, Cornell, the Massachusetts General Hospital Program, Tufts and Brown.