Cech Fellow’s curiosity leads to future in translational science

By the time Ava Astilla learned she had received a prestigious fellowship to study the gut microbiome, she had already worked in two Carolina laboratories and was in Denmark taking classes and conducting stem cell research.

Astilla has actively combined her curiosity about how food affects the human body and learning basic research methods. She’s become confident in herself as a young scientist and wants to pursue a doctoral degree, then use science to help others.

Astilla, a senior biology major, offers advice to new Carolina students.

“Just go for it and reach out to people, and don’t worry about your qualifications. Let your curiosity guide you,” she said. “I could have gotten into research sooner if I hadn’t worried about being qualified. Just get started and find a lab that fits with your interests, and it’ll be great.”

In her most recent example of what happens when you “go for it,” Astilla was one of 176 undergraduates nationwide chosen as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Cech Fellow.

Astilla learned about the fellowships in fall 2025 as an assistant in the lab of Rob Dowen ’02, an assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine’s cell biology and physiology department.

“I wanted to possibly study microbiology a little more than what I’m doing in the Dowen lab,” Astilla said. “I’ve always been really interested in the gut microbiome, and I wanted to find an experience that could expose me to that.”

In spring 2025, Astilla was in Denmark taking classes for Carolina credit and conducting research with Blue Cell Therapeutics when she learned that her Cech Fellows match was in the Vanderbilt University lab of Mariana Byndloss.

There, Astilla studied the gut microbiome of pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. She looked at why some patients respond to infliximab, one of two treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration for pediatric IBD. Astilla compared gut bacteria of patients whose disease went into remission on the drug and those whose didn’t.

Her key finding? Samples from patients in remission showed elevated levels of MUC2, a protein produced by cells in the gut’s mucus lining that protects against harmful bacteria. Elevated MUC2 signaled increased gut-barrier protection associated with treatment success, offering a potential biological marker for why some patients respond to infliximab and others don’t.

Before her sophomore year, Astilla became more interested in brain-related research after taking a summer course on anatomy and physiology. Flavio Frohlich, professor in the UNC School of Medicine’s psychiatry department, offered her a position in his Carolina Center for Neurostimulation. “It was a great experience. I went into research with an open mind. After being in that lab, I wanted to pivot toward research where I could get more bench work and wet lab skills,” Astilla said.

She’s been working in the Dowen lab, where doctoral student Annalee Schmidt “has been so supportive,” since summer 2025 and will continue there through graduation. Using roundworms as a model organism, she studies how kombucha tea consumption affects aging, longevity and lipid metabolism.

Outside the lab, Astilla is a member of the Student Health Action Coalition, where UNC Health Science students provide free health care to underserved populations. She is in her second term as president of the student dining board for Carolina Dining Services.

After graduation, she will take a post-graduation gap year to work in research before pursuing a doctoral degree, plans solidified by her Cech Fellows experience.

“Microbiology and basic research fascinate me. I’d love to have a career where I’m doing translational science, seeing research turn into a product or a new drug to help people,” she said.