Kelli Duncan, Associate Dean of the Faculty and Academic Resources and Professor of Biology on the Patricia Shoer Goldman-Rakic '59 Professorship Chair, is serving as the scientific mentor for Daniel Tobiansky’s Rhode Island IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (RI-INBRE) Proposal Development Grant. Tobiansky is Assistant Professor of Biology at Providence College. Rhode Island-INBRE is a statewide network for building biomedical research capacity and developing biomedical research careers across the biomedical sciences in areas such as psychology, cancer biology, microplastics, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular health, and biomedical data science.

In her role, Kelli provides hands-on mentorship and support in experimental design, data interpretation, and research planning for a project that is examining the spatial distribution of unique woodpecker tau (MAPT) transcript variants in woodpecker and songbird brains using in situ hybridization.

She is also advising on studies of gene expression in the woodpecker choroid plexus to assess potential specialization of this cerebrospinal fluid–producing tissue.