A series of colorful posters decorated the aisles of a vast third-floor room in the Wilkinson Center on Friday, October 25 for the College of Life Sciences Research Conference. Students presented their research to attendees on topics ranging from the effect of shoes on a person’s balance to the restoration of degraded soil.
To participate, students worked with a faculty advisor who guided and supervised them as they conducted research on topics of interest. At the conference, they present their research to audiences of various disciplines.
Mallory Hinton (PWS ’25) shared her experience presenting at the conference and sharing her work with faculty and peers: “This is a really good conference to get your foot in the door of learning how to present, learning how to talk to people—being able to not only talk about your data, but talk about your data to people that might not know about it.”
Hinton, like many of the other students at the conference, is a recipient of a College Undergraduate Research Award (CURA). CURA grants provide funding for students to participate in research that either contributes to scientific knowledge through mentored projects or brings significant benefits to a relevant organization. CURA applications are open from October 26 to November 15 each year.
After participants presented their research, judges selected three winners from each department in the College of Life Sciences to be awarded a monetary prize, with the first-place position receiving $300, second $200, and third $100. This year’s winners are listed below:
Undergraduate Winners
Department of Biology
1st: Taylor Probst—Chasing the Rainbow: The Morphological Stasis of New Guinean Rainbow skinks
2nd: Spencer Gardner—Biomarkers of Tumor Growth Rate
3rd: Ethan Beard—Identifying Intermediates in the Anthocyanin Pathway in Gilia
Department of Cell Biology & Physiology
1st: Zachary Funk—5-Aminoimidazole-4-Carboxamide Ribonucleotide (AICAR) Effects on Muscle Fiber Regeneration 6 Days Post-Injury
2nd: Emilee Humphreys—Smoke-filled environments increase cell invasion and cell communication in gastric and lung cancer cells.
3rd: DeLaney Anderson and Bridger Kearns—The Cold Hard Truth: Cryopreserved Tissue Is Superior To FFPE Tissue In Molecular Analysis
Department of Exercise Sciences
1st: Mickelle MacCabe and Logan Smith—The Effect of Ankle and Hallux Positioning on Hallux Force Production
2nd: Charles Seaman—The Effect of Percussive Massage on Skeletal Muscle Mitochondrial Fat Oxidation and Thigh Fat Thickness
3rd: Callie Rae Floyd—Effects of Different Coaching Cues on Single-leg Triple-hop Performance For Youth Athletes
Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology
1st: Kyler Linton—Competitive Bacteria Inhibiting Yersinia ruckeri growth: A strategy to prevent Enteric Redmouth Disease (ERM) in Freshwater Fish
2nd: Mya Simpkins and Kyla Radke—Genomic and phenotypic diversity of pectinolytic bacteria associated with post-harvest soft rot disease
3rd: Bryson Leary—Lifespan Analysis of C. Elegans exposed to Mitophagy Inducers
Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, & Food Science
1st: Jacob Meeks—Meal Glucose Tolerance Test (MGTT): A Validation Study
2nd: Thurman Lincoln—Global Analysis of the Maize Metabolome in Response to Fungal Infection Identifies Key Resistance Features
3rd: Hailey Hellwig—Destabilization of lactoferrin at increasing concentrations
Department of Plant & Wildlife Sciences
1st: Dean Peterson—Dietary B vitamins influence the Drosophila melanogaster preference for dietary yeast
2nd: Autumn Gudmundsen—Population Monitoring of Packera castoreus
3rd: Rebecca Kreutz—The relationship between food depth and microbiota composition in Drosophila Melanogaster
Department of Public Health
1st: Anna Benzley and Kaleigh King Stone—PCOS, Provider Experience and Gaslighting
2nd: Brooklyn Richins—Socioeconomic Advantage Effects on Family Health Across Three Generations
3rd: Justin Lemke—Indoor and Outdoor PM2.5 Exposure and Respiratory Complications in Brick Kiln Workers in Nepal
Neuroscience Center
1st: Addie Hamilton—Fishing for Neurocircuitry: Identifying Multi-Sensory Integrating Neurons in the Optic Tectum of Zebrafish
2nd: Colby Odom and Griffin Sauer—Determining if Optic Tecti of Larval Zebrafish Receive Input from Deep Brain Photoreceptors
3rd: Talmage Barney, Alex Rolfson, and Sammuel Bennett—Left/right neuronal asymmetry is regulated by the Hox gene mab-5 in Caenorhabditis elegans
Graduate Winners
1st: Miranda Sharp—CD5 and its Effects on T Cell Metabolic Function, Serum Metabolite Levels, and Behavior
2nd: Melissa Burrell—Impacts of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on plants in degraded soils
3rd: Alka Gaur—Role of the Immune System on Ethanol-Associated Dopamine in the Mesolimbic Pathway
