Winners of the 2017 Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Conference

The research accomplishments of the following students were recognized at the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Conference on 30 March 2017.

Oral presentations

1st place
Samuel Stanley
Faculty mentors: Kim Caldwell and Guy Caldwell
Investigation of dopamine neuron degeneration as a consequence of microbiome-derived bacterial metabolites

3rd place
Zain Aryanpour
Faculty Mentor: Stevan Marcus
Investigating the role of phosphatidylethanolamine and calcium signaling in the cytoprotective responses to the anticancer triterpenoid avicin G in the fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Honorable mention
Braxton Greer
Faculty Mentor: Stevan Marcus
Conservation of Molecular Effects of the Tumor-Inhibitory Compound Avicin G Between Yeast and Human Cancer Cells

Poster presentations

1st place
Melissa Uehling
Faculty Mentors: Kim Caldwell and Guy Caldwell
One-carbon metabolism gene GCST-1 modulates amyloid-beta toxicity in Alzheimer’s disease model

Honorable mention
Caitlin Curtis
Faculty Mentor: Ryan Earley
Non-reversing mirror test: a new method for quantifying aggression and predicting contest behavior.

Honorable mention
Emily Pabst
Faculty Mentor: Kevin Kocot
Inferring the evolutionary history of sea slugs (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Heterobranchia) using genomic and bioinformatic tools