2018-2019 Student Awardees
Fall 2018
UNDERGRADUATE CANCER RESEARCH AWARDS
(Awarded $87,500 for students and research expenses)
College of Veterinary Medicine
Anatomy & Physiology
Grant Huslig – Mentor: Robert DeLong
Quantitative-structure-activity-relationships between cancer-specific aptamer and physiologically-based nanoparticles
Mayme Loyd – Mentor: Masaaki Tamura
Study of adenovirus vector-based gene therapy using the PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitory peptide secretory gene for the treatment of lung cancer
Nina Marchell – Mentor: Robert DeLong
Delivery of triplex forming oligonucleotide (TFO) targeting RAS by physiological metal oxide nanoparticle
Nicole Robben– Mentor: Masaaki Tamura
Delivery of triplex forming oligonucleotide (TFO) targeting RAS by physiological metal oxide nanoparticle
College of Arts & Sciences
Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics
Michelle Coca – Mentor: Maureen Gorman
Mechanisms of regulated iron uptake by cells
Baltazar Claro-Martinez – Mentor: John Tomich
Development of Timed-Release Peptide Nano-Capsules
Hawa Dembele – Mentor: Om Prakash
NMR Studies of an Insect Cytokine: Towards Understanding the Structural Basis for Development of EGFR Inhibitors for Cancer Treatment
Samantha Gameros– Mentor: Erika Geisbrecht
TRIM32-mediated regulation of glycolysis a new model for the Warburg effect in cancer
Megan Goeckel – Mentor: Gregory Finnigan
Development of a molecular screening tool for new CRISPR variants for use in gene therapies
Isabel Lewis – Mentor: Gregory Finnigan
Control of gene editing using novel anti-CRISPR proteins to the Cast12a nuclease
Fawwaz Naeem – Mentor: Erika Geisbrecht
Identification of genes that function with Starvin/Bag3 to elucidate cancer-related functions
Robert Small – Mentor: John Tomich
Interactions of Proteins with the outer leaflet of Branched Amphiphilic Peptide Capsules
Chemistry
Cesar Aparicio – Mentor: Santosh Aryal
Synthesis and Characterization of hypoxia-sensitive platinum (IV) prodrug
Ashley Bartels – Mentor: Ryan Rafferty
Investigations into a Universal Platform for Blood-Brain Barrier Penetration
Johnathan Dallman – Mentor: Ryan Rafferty
Anticancer Agent Discovery: Total Synthesis of Potent Anticancer Natural Products and Applications into Targeted Delivery
Joseph Hammer – Mentor: Stefan Bossmann
Nano carriers for Controlled Release of anticancer Agents at Tumor Cites
Maria Montes-Gonzalez – Mentor: Stefan Bossmann
Imaginz/Treating Pancreatic Tumors and Metastases by Targeting GRP78
Gage Wright – Mentor: Jun Li
Developing Nanobiosensors for Rapid Protease Profiling toward Cancer Diagnosis
Biology
Ariana Cecil – Mentor: Katsura Asano
Transitional reprograming of cMyc by a novel oncogene 5MP1
Marlene Campos-Guerrero – Mentor: Zhilong Yang
Engineering vaccina virus for cancer treatment
Eric Austin Cheng – Mentor: Zhilong Yang
Mimicry of cancer cell metabolism in VACV infection
Sarah Hansen– Mentor: Kristin Michel
The Investigation of Fungal Pathogens in Immunocompromised Organisms
Madelyn Hilgers– Mentor: Chingakham Singh
Transitional reprogramming during adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2) production through eIF5-mimic protein
Marissa Komp – Mentor: Jocelyn McDonald
Identification of Potential Human Cancer Invasion Genes using Drosophlia
Joshua Lingo – Mentor: Jeroen Roelofs
Alteration of proteasome abundance and localization in response to the cancer drug, Bortezomib
Yibo Liu – Mentor: Ruth Welti
Understanding the function of a homolog of a gene involved in fatty liver disease
Carter Moravek – Mentor: Chingakham Singh
The role of mRNA methylation in cancer development
Samuel Ockerhausen – Mentor: Jeroen Roelofs
Understanding the mislocalization of the proteasome, a cancer drug target, upon subunit truncation
Seth Peery - Mentor: Kathrin Schrick
Flavonoid Anticancer Compounds and associated regulatory pathways in green algae
Whitney Pepper - Mentor: Katsura Asano
The central role of GCN2 eIF2alpha kinase in nutritional stress response, which is important for cancer cell malignancy and metastasis
Haley Smalley – Mentor: Sherry Fleming
Beta2 Glycoprotein I derived peptides alter melanoma tumor growth
Kyle Thompson – Mentor: Kathrin Schrick
Characterization of a novel transcriptional activation domain with relevance to gene expression in cancer cells
Alexa Wilden – Mentor: Stella Lee
Recovery mechanisms of enlarge lysosomes as mediate by the solute carrier transporter SLC38 family
College of Agriculture
Plant Pathology
Sara Hopkins – Mentor: Richard Todd
Characterization of a putative L-amino acid oxidase gene, a counterpart of an enzyme with anti-proliferative effects
College of Engineering
Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering
Prerona Kundu – Mentor: Amir Bahadori
Incorporation of Spatial Effects in a Cellular Automata Model with a Focus on Astronaut Radiation Protection
GRADUATE STUDENT TRAVEL AWARDS
(Awarded: $1,200 – Requested: $1,268)
Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering
Rohan Amare – Mentor: Amir Bahadori
International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Pittsburgh, PA
Spring 2019
BIOLOGY GRADUATE STUDENT TRAVEL
(Awarded: $2,250 - Requested: $7,675)
Dalton Dacus, Changkun Hu - Mentor: Nicholas Wallace ($1,500)
DNA Tumor Virus Meeting 50th Anniversary, Trieste, Italy
Babita Dhungel - Mentor: Revathi Govind ($750)
ClostPath Conference, Leiden, Netherland
GRADUATE STUDENT TRAVEL (outside Division of Biology)
(Awarded: $5,390 - Requested: $6,034)
Anatomy & Physiology
Ezla Mathew - Mentor: Robert DeLong ($1,400)
Cancer Nanotechnology Conference, West Dover, Vt.
Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics
Pavithra Natarajan - Mentor: John Tomich ($500)
American Chemical Society, Orlando, Fla.
Chemistry
Ramesh Marasini - Mentor: Santosh Aryal ($1,000)
American Chemical Society, Orlando, Fla.
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Hojjatollah Fallahi - Mentor: Punit Prakash ($500)
Society for Thermal Medicine meeting, St. Pete's Beach, Fla.
Kinesiology
Dryden Baumfalk, Olivia Kunkel - Mentor: Brad Behnke ($1,000)
Experimental Biology meeting, Orlando, Fla.
Statistics
Jie Ren, Yinaho Du, Fei Zhou - Mentor: Cen Wu ($990)
Joint Statistical Meeting 2019, Denver, Colo.
POSTDOCTORAL STUDENT TRAVEL
(Awarded: $2,000 - Requested: $2,661)
Sabastian Wendel - Mentor: Nicholas Wallace, Biology ($2,000)
DNA Tumor Virus Meeting, Trieste, Italy
GRADUATE SUMMER STIPENDS
(Awarded: $114,943 - Requested: $114,943)
Chemistry
Kayla Eschliman – Mentor: Stefan Bossmann ($6,361)
Synthesis of copper-activated drugs against cancer and pathogenic bacteria
Ramesh Marasini – Mentor: Santosh Aryal ($6,450)
Precise delivery of Doxorubicin to the osteosarcoma using lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticle
Shu Jia – Mentor: Chris Culbertson ($6,500)
Development of a sample-in/answer-out integrated microfluidic device for the early detection of solid tumor cancers
Kaimin Jia – Mentor: Ping Li ($6,615)
Substrate profiling of carcinogens N-terminal RCC1 methyl transferase 1
Prathibha Desman – Mentor: Ryan Rafferty ($6,615)
Balgacyclamide A: Total synthesis, biological evaluation, cancer delivery vehicle and construction of chemical libraries to probe the physicochemical property requirement of complex biological barrier transport
Yang Song – Mentor: Jun Li ($6,361)
Electronic biosensors for cancer diagnosis and monitoring
Amila Abeysekera – Mentor: Christer Aakeroy ($6,500)
Design and synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant co-crystals
Anatomy & Physiology
Liang Hu - Mentor: Jianzhong Yu ($7,000)
Characterization of a novel growth regulator in the Hippo signaling pathway
Diagnostic Medicine & Pathobiology
Brandy Kastl - Mentor: Nora Springer ($8,983)
Identifying associations of chemokine and sphingolipid receptor expression with canine lymphoma
Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering
Halil Tetik - Mentor: Dong Lin ($6,500)
3D-printed hydroxyapatite scaffolds as local drug delivery agents
Biology
Alexis Carpenter - Mentor: Rollie Clem ($7,080)
Using microRNA targeting to manipulate the tissue tropism of Sindbis virus
Anil Pant – Mentor: Zhilong Yang ($7,080)
Host cell metabolic reprogramming by oncolytic vaccinia virus
Yu Song – Mentor: Ruth Welti ($4,578)
Development and demonstration of a pipeline for discovery of lipid biomarkers and genes that mediate their metabolism
Babita Dhungel – Mentor: Revathi Govind ($7,080)
Phase variation in Clostridioides difficile
Anuja Paudyal – Mentor: Govind Vediyappan ($7,080)
Role of Gymnemic acids in Candida albicans morphology and virulence
Alicia Burris – Mentor: Jeroen Roelofs ($7,080)
Factors that regulate proteasome localization under various stress conditions
Dalton Dacus – Mentor: Nicholas Wallace ($7,080)
Beta HPV oncogenes contributes to non-melanoma skin cancer development by inhibiting the Hippo pathway