Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Biological Sciences Participates in 19th Annual Meeting of the Minds

The 19th annual campus-wide celebration of undergraduate research, the Meeting of the Minds, was held on Wednesday, May 7, 2014. Sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research, the all-day event features poster and oral presentations, along with displays of visual art and performances.

During the event, Katherine Cecil (Barth lab) undergraduate student majoring in Biological Sciences, participated in the Sigma Xi poster competition. Her poster, entitled “A Quantitative Analysis of TRPM8 Stimulation by Menthol and Cold Visualized in the Spinal Cord Using Immunohistochemistry,” was a finalist in the event. Sigma Xi, a national honor society for those engaging in scientific research, sponsored the competition, which is open to students presenting posters in quantitative sciences.

Several department faculty and alumni were also on-hand to support the Sigma Xi competition, as Shoba Subramanian, Vice President for CMU's chapter of Sigma Xi and Assistant Teaching Professor in Biological Sciences, served as organizer of the event. Judges for the competition included: Maggie Braun (faculty), Veronica Hinman (faculty), Cheryl Telmer (Research Biologist in Bruchez lab), Greg Cary (Postdoctoral Researcher in Hinman lab), Kaustubh Sinha (Postdoctoral Researcher in Rule lab), Jing Wen (Postdoctoral Researcher in Urban lab), Parul Nisha (Ph.D. alumna ’07) and Jineta Banerjee (Ph.D. alumna ’14).

A few other students majoring in Biological Sciences had posters on display at the Meeting of the Minds:

John Hong (Minden lab)
Cerebrospinal Fluid Levels of Mitochondrial DNA in Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

Alexander Orenstein (Ly lab, Chemistry Department)
RTD-1 M: A Modified Natural Antimicrobrial Peptide

Preethy Sridharan (Puthenveedu lab)
The Effects of Chronic Morphine on the Rate of Mu-opioid Receptor (MOR) Trafficking

Chrystal Thomas
Confirming the Identities of Cancers