2016-17 Student Awardees
Fall 2016
UNDERGRADUATE CANCER RESEARCH AWARDS
(Awarded $94,000 for students and research expenses)
College of Arts & Sciences
Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
Mariah Brown – Mentor: John Tomich – Modification and Characterization of Branched Amphiphilic Peptide Capsules to Enhance Therapeutic Delivery Capabilities
Patrick DeMoe – Mentor: John Tomich – Treating cancer-induced cachexia with grain storage protein hydrolysates
Alejandro Garcia – Mentor: Michael Kanost – Characterization of proteases that digest an extracellular matrix
Zachary Lock – Mentor: John Tomich – Using dsRNA/peptide nanoparticle constructs to knock down gene transcripts of oncogenes
Emily Turnquist – Mentor: Gregory Finnigan – Study of the conserved cell cycle G2/M “checkpoint” in budding yeast; cellular information exchange critical to treating cancer and reducing cancer risk
Justin Walker – Mentor: Erika Geisbrecht – Extracellular matrix proteins are intimately linked to Toll signaling to regulate cell attachment
Biology
Eric Aube – Mentor: Katsura Asano – Structural basis for the mechanism of non-AUG initiation caused by translation factor elF5, whose high expression correlates with better prognosis of cancer patients
Cora Farley – Mentor: Ruth Welti – Elucidation of novel, potentially anti-cancer, lipid components of grains
Sarah Gillaspie – Mentor: Katsura Asano – Control of start codon selection by translation initiation multifactor complex in human cancer cells
Kathlyn Gomendoza – Mentor: Lorena Passarelli – Identifying peptides that form a complex with a viral sulfhydryl oxidase that oxidases SfP53, an insect oncogene suppressor homolog
Daniel Hurtado – Mentor: Michael Herman – Characterization of naturally occurring interactions of C. elegans with Stenotrophomonas bacteria that are an emerging nosocomial pathogen that can infect immunocompromised cancer patients
Faith (Mi Ge) Kim: – Mentor: Jeroen Roelofs – Studies into the assembly mechanism of proteasome Core Particle, a target for the cancer drug bortezomib
Elizabeth Martino – Mentor: Lorena Passarelli – Identifying substrates of a viral sulfhydryl oxidase
Tristan McCallister – Mentor: Nicholas Wallace – Merkel Cell Polyomavirus Large T Antigen and DNA repair: Implications for targeted treatment of a deadly skin cancer
Chelsea Moore – Mentor: Katsura Asano – Role of elF5-mimic protein in controlling oncogenic translation
Sarah Pendell – Mentor: Rollie Clem – Role of the gut microbiome in determining susceptibility to virus infection
Gabrielle Phillips – Mentor: Ruth Welti – Analysis of a homolog of the potentially pro-cancer gene product, taffazin
Mackenzie Riscoe – Mentor: Michael Herman – Characterization of C. elegans interactions with Stenotrophomonas bacteria, an emerging nosocomial pathogen that can infect immunocompromised cancer patients, isolated from natural substrates
Alexander Roeder – Mentor: Zhilong Yang – Host cell response to oncolytic vaccinia virus infection
Adam Schieferecke – Mentor: Lorena Passarelli – Defining a viral oxidoreductase pathway, a pathway important in cancer pathophysiology
Samantha Schluter-Pascua – Mentor: Revathi Govind – Clostridium difficile – The foe to cancer patients: Characterizing a C. Difficile mutant that is defective in spore production
Kayla Shore – Mentor: Kristin Michel – Mosquito blood feeding as a leukemia model: The integration of nutrition and inflammation through MAPK signaling
Haley Smalley – Mentor: Sherry Fleming – Passages Changes B-Cell Lymphoma CH12.LX
Jazmine Snow – Mentor: Nicholas Wallace – Observing the Effect of Merkel Cell Polyomavirus Large T Antigen on UV Sensitivity
Vaithish Velazhahan – Mentor: Kathrin Schrick – Role of flavonoids in modulating transcription factor activity involved in cancer progression
Spencer Ward – Mentor: Michael Veeman – Par/aPKC dependent and independent mechanisms of asymmetric cell division
Kyler Weingartner – Mentor: Kathrin Schrick – Rhamnose synthase and its role in glycosylating flavonoids that are anticancer compounds
Kristen Wilbeck – Mentor: Ruth Welti – Analysis of a lipid-metabolizing enzyme associated with altered growth and development
Alexa Wilden – Mentor: Stella Lee – Morphological changes of lysosomes upon induction of autophagy
Thomas Williams – Mentor: Revathi Govind – Understanding Vancomycin in tolerance in Clostridium difficile, a bacterial pathogen that frequently affects cancer patients
Chemistry
Raquel Ortega – Mentor: Stefan Bossmann – Detection of Cytokines/Chemokines Signatures of Pancreatic Tumors Before and After Hyperthermia Treatment
Jose Covarrubias – Mentor: Stefan Bossmann – Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Cell-Based Drug Delivery to Tumors and metastases
Kelsey Ferguson – Mentor: Ryan Rafferty – Endolide A & B-Investigations into Total Synthesis and Molecular Penetration Mechanics
Johnathan Dallman – Mentor: Ryan Rafferty – Unlocking Substituted Chalcone’s Anticancer Properties: Investigation into Synthesis, Biological Studies, and Evaluations as Sole/Potentiation Therapies against Colon and Lung Cancers
Yubisela Toledo – Mentor: Stefan Bossmann – Synthesizing Dendrimers for the delivery of Prodrugs to Solid Tumors and Metastases
Mitchell Zarse – Mentor: Ping Li – Engineering NRMT 1 to identify its biological substrates in colon cancer cell lines
College of Engineering
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Daniel Clausing – Mentor: Punit Prakash – Investigation of microwave ablation for minimally-invasive image-guided treatment of adrenal metastases
Whitney Cox – Mentor: Punit Prakash – In vivo evaluation of directional microwave antennas for precise thermal tumor ablation
Biological & Agricultural Engineering
Megan Richards – Mentor: Mei He – Self-Management of Ovarian Cancer using Smartphone-based, 3D Chip Diagnostic Strategy
Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering
Elshaddai Teshome Abamegal – Mentor: Amir Bahadori – Application of NASA Quality Factors to Estimate Secondary Cancer Risk to Patients Treated with Charged Particle Radiotherapy
College of Veterinary Medicine
Anatomy & Physiology
Jennifer Delzeit – Mentor: Masa Tamura – Study of Euglena water extract-dependent functional differentiation of T lymphocytes
Tran Le – Mentor: Masa Tamura – The effect of Euglena gracilis water extract on neutrophil activation
Damilola Ogun – Mentor: Masa Tamura – Characterization of T cell stimulator in Euglena gracilis water extract
Di Wu – Mentor: Jianzhong Yu – Characterizing the phosphorylation sites of a novel growth regulator Headcase (Hdc)
Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology
Martha Nguyen – Mentor: Annelise Nguyen – Effect of Medicinal Plant, Rhinacathus Nasutus, in Human Breast Tumor Cell lines
College of Agriculture
Plant Pathology
Anna Brokesh – Mentor: Richard Todd – Expression and functional regions of a transcription Mediator complex component with a counterpart involved in breast and prostate cancer
GRADUATE STUDENT TRAVEL AWARDS
(Awarded: $2,325 - Requested: $2,325)
Biological & Agricultural Engineering
Ethan Grother – Mentor: Mei He ($870)
Meeting: NIH-IEEE 2016 Strategic Conference on Healthcare Innovations and Point-of-Care Technologies, Cancun, Mexico
Cautious Use of Mobile Device Cameras for Color-Scale assays
Kinesiology
Peter Esau & Alexander Opoku-Acheampong – Mentor: Brad Behnke ($1,455)
Meeting: Experimental Biology, Chicago, Illinois
Effect of Prostate Cancer on Heart Function and exercise capacity independent of treatment
Spring 2017
GRADUATE STUDENT SUMMER STIPENDS
(Awarded $100,705 - Requested $152,560)
Chemistry
Bo Hao – mentor: Duy Hua ($6,615)
Targeting melanoma by C-16 oxime derivatives of estrone and oxymetrines
Yang Song – Mentor: Jun Li ($6,615)
Electronic nanobiosensors for cancer diagnosis and monitoring
Kaimin Jia – mentor: Ping Li ($6,615)
Substrate profiling of protein N-terminal methyltransferases
Jing Yu – Mentor: Stefan Bossmann ($6,615)
Gate controlled mesoporous silica nanoparticles for anti-cancer peptide delivery
Stefan Andree – Mentor: Christer Ackeroy ($6,615)
From molecular recognition to improved drug formulations
Kathleen Sellens - Mentor: Christopher Culbertson ($6,615)
The development and testing of an automated microfluidic IEF device for the detection of cancers at stage 0 and 1 through the measurement of enzymatic activity using nanobiosensors
Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics
Pavithra Natarajan – Mentor: John Tomich ($6,672)
Studying the structure, characteristics and applications of a peptide-bilayer that forms nano-capsules that efficiently deliver nucleic acid to cells
Lynn Schrag – Mentor: Om Prakash ($6,672)
Structure-function-disease relationship of p-53 TAD and its cancer mutants
Randi Wise – Mentor: Anna Zolkiewska ($6,672)
The role of ADAM-12 in breast cancer
Nicole Green – Mentor: Erika Geisbrecht (6,300)
Understanding the connection between tissue damage and immune activation
Biology
Anil Pant – Mentor: Zhilong Yang ($7,035)
Molecular Mechanisms involved in glutamine addiction in vaccinia virus (VACV) infection
Leah Radeke – Mentor: Michael Herman ($7,035)
Candidate innate immune response genes: Analysis of Caenorhabditis elegans genes differentially expressed in response to virulent vs. nonvirulent Stenotrophomonas maltophilia strains
Babita Dhungel – Mentor: Stella Lee ($7,035)
Investigating the protein-protein interaction and function of CLN8: a protein associated with Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis
Brintha Girinathan – Mentor: Revathi Govind ($7,000)
Deciphering the regulatory links between toxin production and sporulation in Clostridium difficile
Plant Pathology
Cameron Hunter – Mentor: Richard Todd ($ 6,594)
Nitrogen signaling and nuclear import of the GATA transcription factor AreA
GRADUATE STUDENT TRAVEL AWARDS
(Awarded: $6,309 - Requested: $8,286)
Anatomy & Physiology
Adrian Cromer & Thitikan Jirakittisonthon – Mentor: Mark Weiss ($831)
Meeting: Experimental Biology, Chicago, Illinois
Biology
Leah Radeke – Mentor: Michael Herman ($480)
Meeting: 21st International C. elegans Conference, Los Angeles, California
Brintha Gininathan – Mentor: Revetha Govind ($1,225)
Meeting: ClostPath 2017, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Kinesiology
Ren Jie – Mentor: Cen Wu ($588)
Meeting: Joint Statistical Meetings, Baltimore, Maryland
Biological & Agricultural Engineering
John Sibbett – Mentor: Mei He ($800)
Meeting: MSEC 2017-dvances in Analysis, Design, and Manufacturing of Biomedical Devices, Los Angeles, California
Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering
Rohan Amare – Mentor: Amir Bahadori ($985)
Meeting: IEEE EMBS International Summer School on Computer Modeling in Medicine, Charleston, South Carolina