Jason Somogyi will present his talk "Anti-Inflammatory Agents in Childhood Epilepsy"

This summer, Jason contributed to the lab of Dr. Sookyong Koh at Northwestern University Institute for Neuroscience / Children's Memorial Research Center where he researched the role of inflammation after early-life seizures.  Additionally, Jason analyzed the effects of anti-inflammatory agents as possible treatments for protecting the brain from recurrent seizures.

Tuesday, September 26 at 12:15 PM in room E103 CNS.

Brandy Blackwell will present her talk "Disequilibrium of E5 and E7 mRNA in HPV due to to Integration or a result of Formalin Fixation? Using Bovine Papillomavirus as a positive control"

This  summer, Brandy contributed to the lab of Dr. Wayne Lancaster at the Wayne State University School of Medicine.  Her research concerned the integration of the human papillomavirus into the human genome and its subsequent effects.  There appears to be an integrative disequilibrium between E5 and E7 as measured by their respective mRNA transcript quantitations in affected tissues.  Brandy performed positive control experiments using bovine papillomavirus in order to rule out formalin fixation as a possible factor for this disequilibrium.

Kristen Kopf will present her talk  "Organization and Dynamics of Centromeric Chromatin"

This past summer, Kristen contributed to the lab of Dr. Beth Sullivan at the Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy. Her research focused on defining the organization of the centromeric regions of the human X chromosome. Kristen made use of the ChIP assay to correlate regions of the centromere with alterations to the histone DNA-binding proteins.

Thursday, October 5 at 12:15 PM in room E103 CNS.

Eric Frost will present his talk "Identification and Migration of Fused BM Cells In-Vivo"

Eric contributed to the lab of Dr. Nicholas Zavazava as a part of the Summer Undergraduate MSTP Research Program at the University of Iowa. He was involved in testing whether spontaneous cellular fusion occurs between hemopoietic stem cells and other peripheral tissue in-vivo after intravenous injection of stem cells. In doing so, Eric utilized the Cre-Lox mouse gene expression system together with a variety of detection assays.

Shannon Baumer will present her talk:  "Behavior Analysis in a model of Pre-clinical Parkinsonism"

This past summer, Shannon contributed to the lab of Dr. Paul Garris at Illinois State University.  In order to gain an understanding of the onset of Parkinson's disease, Shannon correlated behavioral anomalies with the loss of dopaminergic neurons within the substantia nigra.  In doing so, she took part in the development of a system for inducing lesions in the brains of rats and analyzing the response in those subjects.  Not only is it some pretty gruesome stuff, but should help to provide some insight into the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease before the characteristics of the advanced disease are observed.

Becky Gericke will present her talk: "Effects of Fishing on Coral Reef Health"

This past summer, Becky contributed to the work of Mr. Hassan Kulombo as part of the Tanga Coastal Zone Conservation and Development Programme in Tanzania. Becky took part in a study investigating the recovery of coral reef ecosystems following the restriction of fishing within these areas. In doing so, she correlated the health of the coral reefs with the presence of various indicator species. Research such as this can provide insight into the better use of the coastal natural resources.

Michelle Carrillo will present her talk: "A Behavioral Study of Sexual Behavior of Somali Wild Asses"

This past summer, Michelle contributed to the work of Dr. Cheryl Asa at the St. Louis Zoo, characterizing the ethology of Somali wild asses.  Michelle's work involved the production of ethograms correlating various male behaviors with the periods of female sexual receptivity. These studies contribute to the Species Survival Plan, a database used to facilitate the production and maintenance of healthy populations both in captivity and in the wild.

Tuesday, November 14, at 12:15 PM  in CNS - E103

Nick Rossi will present his talk: "The role of antioxidants in nitric-oxide induced apoptosis in vascular smooth muscle cells"

This past summer, Nick worked at the Institute for Nanotechnology in Medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.  During his research, Nick examined the p53-mediated upregulation of prooxidant and antioxidant factors in response to increased levels of nitric oxide.  Nitric oxide has been shown to induce apoptosis in cells, and the tumor-suppressor gene p53 is thought to be involved in this process.  Nick's research contributes to the overall understanding of the physiological roles of nitric oxide with future considerations of using nitric oxide to treat post-operative atherosclerosis patients.