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titleboxHONORS STUDENTS titlebox

Name:Claire Ciarkowski
Mentor:Dr. Hey-Kyoung Lee
Research:

Synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus is found to correspond to learning and memory. My Project involves the regulation of specific protein receptors called AMPA receptors by phosphorylation.

 
Kate Dennis Name: Katie Dennis
Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Quinlan
Research:

I am using a water maze to assess if visual activity recovery from dark exposure is passive or active.

 
Hannah de Groot Name: Hannah de Groot
Mentor: Dr. David Yager
Research:

My research interest is defining and locating the neural/muscular control of defensive displays in female praying mantis species parasphendale agrionina, and placing this information in the context of the evolution of defensive displays in all mantises as well as the evolution of mantis hearing.

 
Name: Grace Ji
Mentor: Dr. Hey-Kyoung Lee
Research:

My name is Grace Ji and I am currently a junior. I am majoring in physiology and neurobiology and minoring in Spanish. I research in Dr. Lee's lab and research the effects of chemical LTD and how the physical changes in the morphology of dendritic spines correlate to their functionality in synaptic strength.

 
Name: Erin Knepp
Mentor: Dr. William Jeffery
Research:

My project involves working with Astyanax mexicanus fish studying the role of lipids in the eye using immunohistochemistry and gene cloning techniques.

 
Name: Anita Kohli
Mentor: Dr. Thomas Castonguay (Nutrition & Food Science) and Dr. William Higgins
Research:

I am conducting research in the Department of Nutrition, where I am investigating a liver enzyme's role in obesity and whether it can be knocked down, via RNAi, to create a potential therapeutic agent.

 
Name: Michale Kiyatkin
Mentor: Dr. Sergei Sukharev
Research:

The goal of my research project is to elucidate the functional role of a specific region of the mechanosensitive channel of small conductance (MscS), a bacterial ion channel that gates in response to memebrane stretch.

 
Name: Eric D. Laing
Mentor: Dr. Alexa Bely
Research:

I am currently investigating factors that lead to rejuvenation using oligochaetes as a study system. I am interested in the role that repeated injury (amputation of posterior segments, which followed by regeneration of those segments) plays in rejuventation and increasing longevity.

 
Name: Zach Lounsberry
Mentor: Dr. Daphne Soares
Research:

I'm a junior biology major working with Daphne Soares in the Biology Department and Carol Keefer in Animal Sciences. I am studying gender expression in transgenic zebra fish.

 
Name: Richard Smith
Mentor: Dr. Ricardo C Araneda
Research:

My research is in the field of Olfaction, specifically, I am using electrophysiology and imaging techniques to study the functional integration of new born neurons in the adult olfactory bulb.

 
Name: Kevin Snyder
Mentor: Dr. Hey-Kyoung Lee
Research:

I study the phosphorylation of the AMPA receptor subunit GluR1 in the visual cortex of mice that have been reared in various lighting conditions (i.e. normal reared, dark reared, and dark reared then re-exposed to light) with the ultimate goal of gaining insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying specific forms of synaptic plasticity (i.e. LTP and LTD) that are associated with learning and memory.

 
Name: Arianne Wilson
Mentor: Dr. Stephen Libutti (NIH) and Dr. William Higgins
Research:

I am working to characterize the tumorgenesis and vascular alterations that result from Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene knockout in pancreatic endocrine and exocrine tissue.

 
Name: Awais Zia
Mentor: Dr. Patrick Kanold
Research:

Understand the neural circuits in developing visual cortex.