Rice’s Institute for BioSciences and Engineering held its annual IBB Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates symposium and poster competition at the BioScience Research Collaborative Aug. 5.
The event highlighted the summer research programs at Rice with entries from institutions including Lone Star College and San Jacinto College, the university’s partners in the Take Flight STEM Pathway program.
The following undergraduates won in these programs:
BioNetworks: First, Alisha Swadi of Rice, for “Characterizing the role of sertraline in neurodegenerative models of C. elegans.” (Faculty mentor: Natasha Kirienko.)
Second: Lien Pham of San Jacinto College, Sonal Alla of St. Stephen’s Episcopal School and Maddie Sams of George Ranch High School for “Sertraline as a potential neurodegenerative disease treatment in caenorhabditis elegans models.” (Faculty mentor: Natasha Kirienko.)
BioXFEL: Lauren LeDay of Prairie View A&M University for “Cloning, expression and purification of effector proteins implicated in lipopeptide antibiotic resistance.” (Faculty mentor: Yousif Shamoo.)
Engineering and medicine: Abbey Kampel of the University of Rochester for “Development of optogenetic transgenic hydra to study functional neural circuits.” (Faculty mentor: Jacob Robinson.)
PATHS-UP: Eleazar Martin of Rice for “Timing of SMBG, CGM driven insights.” (Faculty mentor: Ashutosh Sabharwal.)
Planetary habitability over space and time: Yamini Patel of Arizona State University for “Hydrous mantle melting on Mars.” (Faculty mentor: Rajdeep Dasgupta.)
AHA Cardiovascular Research Internship Program: Briana Loredo of San Jacinto College for “Cleavage of classical complement pathway components by tissue kallikrein.” (Faculty mentor: Sarah Sartain.)
BioSciences Summer Research Institute: First, Ishani Kaul of Rice for “Social behavior of D. melanogaster in the context of evolutionary traps and trapability.” (Faculty mentor: Julia Saltz.)
Second, Evelyn Chiu of Rice for “Analysis of nephronectin’s function in early mouse ocular development.” (Faculty mentor: Peter Lwigale.)
Other Rice Research Experiences: Valentina Ortega of Rice for “Photocrosslinking and characterization of methacrylated poly(glycerol sebacate) for biomedical applications.” (Faculty mentor: Kevin McHugh.)
