The Research Office at Oregon State University seeks to involve undergraduate students from all academic disciplines within the University. In pursuit of this endeavor the Undergraduate Research, Innovation, Scholarship, and Creativity (URISC) grant program was founded to support undergraduate research activities. The program is intended to enable OSU undergraduate students to initiate a scholarly relationship with faculty early in their academic careers and which provides them a way to become actively involved in the scholarly pursuits of the faculty. Working directly with faculty in a hands-on environment provides a compelling learning experience of the kind that is often not a part of classroom learning.
The following three undergraduate students were awarded URISC grants for the coming 2010-2011 academic school year to work in research labs withing the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Briana Knight
Faculty project advisor: Dr. Patrick Chappell
Project Title: Timing reproduction: Steroidal regulation of the endogenous circadian clock
Briana’s major is pre-medicine biology and hopes to get a PhD/D.O. in neurology. Her work will be neuro-endocrinology based, which will give her experience not only with general lab protocols but also with specialized procedures with neurons. She finds her project particularly interesting because they are trying to define a novel pathway involving circadian clock-regulated steroidal interactions that change particular gene expressions. By understanding the normal interactions in cells using this mechanism, they can then decipher the alterations in the mechanism that cause disease. “To me this is really exciting. The possibilities of greater research that can be done with the information from this project are endless,” Briana says of her project. Briana first met Dr. Patrick Chappell because he taught part of her freshman Biology 212 course. After she found out he was involved with research involving neurology she went to his office and asked to volunteer in his lab. She now has a grant and a project of her own and is eager to start.
Aurora (Rory) VanGarde
Faculty project advisor: Dr. John Mata
Project Title: Telomere binding protein antagonists for stem cell therapy
Rory is entering her senior year as a BioResource Research (BRR) major, with an Applied Genetics option, and a minor in Chemistry. Her project is to study the ability of telomere binding protein antagonists to enrich highly pluripotent fractions within bone marrow-derived stem cells. The goal is to understand the underlying mechanisms of action in order to develop methods to improve stem cell therapy for regenerative medicine. If successful, this could provide a new method to screen drug candidates and develop new therapies for regeneration of tissues.
Sara Fassio
Faculty project advisor: Dr. Claudia Häse
Project Title: The role of membrane bioenergetics in Vibrio cholerae virulence
Sara is a Microbiology and Spanish major and pre-medicine student. Her goal is to do a PhD/MD program in medical school and then continue on to do medical research as a career. She did some research-for-credit work in Dr. Häse’s lab last spring and quickly became interested in the work they were doing on Vibrio cholerae. During that time she proved herself to be highly motivated and skilled. Sara also enjoyed the lab environment and consequently applied for URISC funding so she could continue to be involved in the Häse lab research and gain a better overall understanding of the research process. Believing that it is important to incorporate real-life research experience into the education of undergraduates who want to pursue a career in science, Dr. Häse is happy to have Sara join her lab with this project. In Sara’s words, “I am excited to start working on my research proposal because I will get to use some of the latest technologies in molecular biology, such as microarrays and qRT-PCR, and potentially gain some insights on the link between membrane bioenergetics and bacterial pathogenesis. The skills I learn while working on this proposal will be an invaluable asset throughout the rest of my career.”
