Michael Smanski, graduate student, working under the guidance of Ben Shen, professor in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Division, has been awarded a 2009 American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) travel grant attend to attend the ASP annual meeting and 50-year celebration in Hawaii this June.

Smanski will present his research on the Biosynthesis of Platensimycin by Streptomyces platensis at the meeting. He has been a member of the Shen group since 2006 and holds a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego.