Seniors Cohort: Academic Year 2023-2024

Daniel Araya  Major: Biology Mentor: Dr. Ayalew Osena

Research: Daniel is pursuing research on how to enhance the tolerance of tobacco plants to harmful environmental factors, such as dehydration, heat stress, and low potential hydrogen (PH).

Victoria Farris Major: Chemistry Mentor: Dr. Nadja Cech

Research: Victoria's project goal is to identify and isolate compounds with antimicrobial activity from plants and fungi. She has been testing fungi samples against Acinetobacter baumannii and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. She uses mass spectrometer to analyze the data. 

Sarah Hudson Major: Biology Mentor: Dr. Zhenquan Jia

Research: Sarah's undergraduate research will study effects of microplastics and nanoplastics (M-NPLs) on the development of atherosclerosis by looking at M-NPLs toxicity, uptake in endothelial cells and the underlying internalization pathways.

Canaan "Sky" Strickland Major: Psychology Mentor: Dr. Kari Eddington

Research: Sky's current topic of interest lies within the field of psychological stigma research. He aims to reconcile past research's underrepresentation of minoritized and disadvantaged people. His current proposal in concerned with conducting research with rural populations to ensure their representation within psychological research. He hopes to research the role that the rural specific value of "religious fundamentalism" plays in the formation of mental health stigma, and ultimately, help-seeking attitudes.

Sydney Thompson Major: Biochemistry Mentor: Dr. Prashanti Manda

Research: Sydney is leading a project to analyze and compare the top RNA secondary-structure prediction programs under Dr. Manda's supervision for accuracy, ease of use, and other criteria to give better insight into the tools of the field. Her project is an extension of her work done with the Rouskin Lab at Harvard Medical School.

Fellows for Academic Year 2022-2023

Logan Brown Major: Biochemistry  Mentor: Dr. Mitch Croatt

Research: Logan is currently researching different organic chemistry synthetic methods under the supervision of Dr. Croatt. Previously, he worked with a novel compound and the Diels-Alder reaction and is now currently a part of a larger project creating a substrate scope for the Claisen rearrangement.

Daniel Araya Major: Biology Mentor: Dr. Ayalew Osena

Research: Daniel is pursuing research on how to enhance the tolerance of tobacco plants to harmful environmental factors, such as dehydration, heat stress, and low potential hydrogen (PH).

Cohort for Academic Years 2021-2023

Jonathan Dean Major: Biochemistry  Mentor: Dr. Kimberly Petersen

Research: Jonathan is studying new asymmetric methods of synthesizing simple enantioenriched compounds, which can be used as building blocks to more complex molecules with biologically important properties. He is currently working as part of a project to synthesize lactones with chiral centers.

David Miller Major: Psychology Mentor: Dr. Kari Eddington

Research: David's research seeks to identify a potential causal relationship between behaviors learned through military training, reinforcement, and social folkways and maladaptive post-service adjustment. These behaviors and perceptions, while a functional necessity during combat or training, manifest in maladaptive forms post-discharge as the veteran is removed from the conditions in which they were practical. 

Sydney Thompson Major: Biochemistry Mentor: Dr. Norman Chiu

Research: Under Dr. Chiu's supervision, Sydney has joined one of his NIH-funded projects which focuses on analyzing the RNA modifications in glioblastoma, the most aggressive brain tumor, by using the patient-derived cellular models. This is a collaborative project with the Tannous group at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Cohort for Academic Years 2020-2022

Caroline Nelson Major: Biology Minor: Chemistry  Mentor: Dr. Rebecca Sappington

Research: Caroline studied the effects of interleukin-6 signaling on interactions between the microtubule associated protein stathmin, and the major downstream effector of the cytokine, STAT3, in retinal ganglion cell health and function. Her most recent project focused on identifying the roles of interleukin-6 in age-related retinal degeneration and axonal transport in the optic nerve.

Awards: ABRCMS ePoster Award in Cell Biology (2020)

Jade Lyons Major: Biology, Biotechnology Concentration Minor: Chemistry Mentor: Dr. Ayalew Osena

Research: Jade worked on enhancing the nutritional quality, yield, and stress resilience of cassava via genetic engineering. This involved inserting transgenes into the plant's genome and then doing a molecular characterization of the transgenic plant.

Awards:

• ABRCMS ePoster Award in Cell Biology (2021)
• STEM “Honorable Mention” in the UNCG Carolyn and Norwood Thomas Undergraduate Research and Creativity Expo (2021)
• UNCG Biology Department Undergraduate Research Award (Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022)

Jennifer Obike Major: Biochemistry Minor: Biochemistry Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Oberlies

Research: Jennifer worked on the isolation of compounds from fungi. It involves extractions and analyzing the extracts to identify the compounds present in the fungi culture.

Awards:

• (NSF GRFP) National Science Foundation Graduate Research Honorable Mention (2022)
• ABRCMS ePoster Award in Chemistry (2021)
• STEM “Honorable Mention” in the UNCG Carolyn and Norwood Thomas Undergraduate Research and Creativity Expo (2021 and 2022)

Kayla Youngblood Major: Chemistry, Biochemistry Concentration Minor: American Sign Language Mentor: Dr. Kimberly Peterson

Research: Kala studied new methods of synthesizing asymmetric molecules. These types of molecules are common in drug targets and biologically active compounds. She worked on a project to synthesize lactones and lactams using a stereoselective Pinner cyclization. 

Awards and Honors:

• (NSF GRFP) National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program 2022
• Women in Math and Science Scholarship (2022)
• Provost Student Excellence Award (2022)
• Goldwater Scholar (2021). Kala was selected as the first UNCG Goldwater Scholarship recipient since 2012! She was one of 410 Scholars selected from over 5,000 students nominated by their home institutions during the 2021 application cycle.
• Summerlin Family Scholarship (2020-2022)
• Mr. and Mrs. W. Y. Farrell Memorial Scholarship (2022)
• ABRCMS  ePoster Award in Chemistry (2020).

Cohort for Academic Years 2019-2021

Christopher Roberts Major: Biochemistry Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Oberlies

Research: Chris studied the isolation of new cytotoxic compounds from fungi. This involves extraction and structure elucidation of secondary metabolites from fungi and testing them against different types of cancers including human melanoma, human breast cancer, and human ovarian cancer.

Chioma Cindy Onokalah Major: Chemistry, Biochemistry concentration Mentor: Dr. Kimberly Petersen

Research: Cindy worked alongside Dr. Petersen to synthesize enantioenriched heterocyclic bioactive molecules. She tried to synthesize a lactam using a chiral Brønsted acid to initiate a stereoselective C-N bond.

Danni Brower Major: Psychology Minor: Chemistry Mentor: Dr. Chris Wahlheim

Research: Danni studied individual variation in aspects of attention and memory. Her research involved characterizing participants’ levels of working memory capacity, attentional control, and schizotypy and examining their correlation with cued recall, memory for change, and free recall.

Sasha Adams Major: Biology Minor: Chemistry Mentor: Dr. Joseph Santin

Research: Sasha's research topics included cellular neuroscience, comparative neurobiology, and electrophysiology. She worked to determine which aspects of neuronal function are most critical to improving the brain performance under energetic stress. Her research looked at a model neuronal circuit system that has the ability to shift between two states. Over a certain time period it can transform itself into a system that works under hypoxic conditions from a system that doesn’t. Within this system she focused on how it modifies different neuronal processes, the building blocks of the brain, in order to function normally without oxygen when it hadn’t before. She looked at things such as metabolism, neuronal signaling, and homeostasis, all of which are key components to neuronal function in both humans and this model system. Learning how
this system is changing in order to become hypoxia resistant could potentially be translated to the human brain, ultimately making it possible for humans to avoid brain damage when exposed to hypoxic conditions.

Awards: Winner of the Spring 2020 Novo Nordisk Award for Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology 

Cohort for Academic Years 2018-2020

Oluwaseyi Isijola Major: Public Health Minor: Spanish Mentor: Dr. Sandra Echeverria

Research: Seyi worked with an epidemiologist in the UNCG public health department to examine the relationship between occupational stress and leisure-time physical activity. He conducted focus groups with Latinos in the Greensboro community to gather information for an evidence-based intervention that targets diabetes. 

Madeline Rees Major: Psychology Minor: Biology Mentor: Dr. George Michel

Research: Madeline studied the developmental trajectory of hand use preference in infants.

Mo'nay Rodgers Major: Biology - Human Biology concentration Minor: Chemistry and Psychology Mentor: Dr. Joseph Graves

Research: Mo'nay studied the phage and metal resistance antagonistism in Escherichia coli.

Megan Toler Major: Biology Minor: Chemistry and Psychology Mentors: Dr. John Kiss and Dr. Tatsiana Shymanovich

Research: Megan studied gravitropic and phototropic responses in arabidopsis plants.

Cohort for Academic Years 2017-2019

Kimberrly Colon Major: Psychology Minor: Biology Mentor: Dr. Gabriela Livas Stein

Research: Kimberrly worked in Dr. Steins 'Caminos' Lab. 

Alicia Costa-Terryll Majors: Archaeology & Biology Mentors: Dr. Charles Egeland & Dr. Bruce Kirchoff

Research: Alicia researched paleoecological environments in the Olduvai Gorge.

Lauren Dorn Major: Kinesiology Minors: Chemistry & Psychology Mentors: Dr. Laurie (Gold) Wideman & Dr. Meghan Rose (Gangel)

Research: Lauren studied the protective effect of positive parenting on neighborhood quality/socioeconomic status on insulin resistance (Psychology/Endocrinology).

Alexis Rice Major: Psychology Minor: Sports Coaching Mentor: Dr. Erin Reifsteck

Research: Alexis conducted research with the Morehouse Health Literacy Project (beginning in 2018).