Journal of Undergraduate Research

Sterling Adams and Dr. Bradford Berges, Micro & Molecular Biology Worldwide we have known about the Human Immunodeficiency Virus since the early 80’s, and since that time there has been research to find different “cures” for the disease that the virus causes called: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Since the epidemic has started nearly 30 million […]

Michael Daetwyler While working on my undergraduate degree, I studied an interesting strain of Staphylococcus epidermidis. This particular strain produced an unidentified substance, which was lethal to other Gram-positive bacteria. I immediately thought that this substance might prove advantageous in treating infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria. To begin investigating that possibility, I grew the […]

German Cuadra and Dr. Bradford Berges, Microbiology & Molecular Biology Department Our study focuses on the development of an animal model capable of reproduce cellular responses as in humans. For years humanized mice have been used in the study of infectious diseases. The goal of this research was to document, characterize and record the existence […]

Kaitlyn Vance and Dr. Eric Wilson, Microbiology and Molecular Biology Mucosal surfaces are the main portals through which pathogens enter the body of an organism. Previous research has shown that mucosal immunity effectively prevents the entry of pathogens at these surfaces, thus disrupting an infection before it begins; this immunity can be achieved by mucosal […]

Daniel Sharp and Dr. Kim O’Neill, MMBio Immunotherapy is a developing field in cancer treatment that relies upon the bodies natural defenses to target and eliminate cancerous cells. In order for the immune system to differentiate cancerous tissue from normal tissue there must be some mechanism for targeting only cancerous cells. Without a targeting mechanism, […]

Cynthia Perry and Dr. Brent Nielsen, MMBio DNA replication is essential to all life on earth. Not only does replication occur in the nucleus, it also happens in organelles of the cell: the mitochondria and chloroplasts. In higher plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana, the genomes in mitochondria encode proteins which are responsible for DNA replication. […]

Jordan Kitchen and Dr. Sandra Burnett, Micro and Molecular Biology Transgenic mice are used to create animal models and are typically generated by the addition of transgenes (4-14 Kb pairs) or artificial chromosomes (150-300 Kb) to the pronucleus of a fertilized mouse egg [1][2]. Because of the size of chromosomes, using them to produce transgenic […]

Kent Jarvis and Dr. Julianne Grose, Department of Micro and Molecular Biology Goal Achievement: The original goal of my project was to find substrates of hR120GCryAB using a yeast two-hybrid model. Over the past few months I was able to achieve this goal. I was able to find over 11 novel substrates that bind with […]

David Holt and Drs. L.C. Bridgewater and R.E. Seegmiller Summary Objective: To test the hypothesis that the spondyloepiphesial dysplasia congenita (sedc) heterozygous (sedc/þ) mouse, a COL2A1 mutant, is a model for the study of osteoarthritis (OA) in the absence of dwarfism and to investigate the presence of HtrA1, Ddr2, and Mmp-13 and their possible involvement […]

Benjamin Fisher and Dr. Laura Bridgewater, Molecular Biology Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease that affects 26 million of Americans, yet its cause it not understood.1 It is a degenerative disease that affects cartilage at joints, and there are several risk factors that give people a higher probability of developing OA; these risk factors include acute […]