On Friday, April 19th, sixteen undergraduate biology majors presented research as part of the annual Michelson Morley Competition in Biological Sciences. The competition honors the collaborative research initiated in 1885 between Albert A. Michelson, a Case physicist, and Edward W. Morley, a Western Reserve Chemist, which culminated in the Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887. Their experiment negated the ether theory of space and constituted some of the experimental findings basic to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Congratulations to the participating students and thank you to the faculty and graduate students who served as judges! The winners of the competition will be announced at the Biology Undergraduate Award Ceremony this Friday, April 26th.
Competitors and Presentation Titles:
Benjamin Hafey: Utilizing a CRISPR Screen to Discover MYC ecDNA Regulatory Mechanisms in PC3 Prostrate Cancer Cells
Ella Segal: Fibrotic Fat in Focus: Wnt activation in mature dermal adiopocytes leads to fat loss and consequent changes in the dermis during skin fibrosis
Isha Gupta: Navigating potholes in the road: the role of fibronectin in osteoblast movement during skull bone formation
Ashleigh Walker: Description of the Distribution of rDNA at Metaphase in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae
Laura Dang: Changes in the cervicovaginal microenvironment associated with aging in women
Sean Yetter: Causal Inference Detection Accuracy in Chaotic Ecological Attractors
Kristin Lee: Investigating the Mechanism of Quaternary Compound Selective Cytotoxicity to Oligodendrocytes
Nobel Zhou: Linear estimates of multisensory input on Drosophila melanogaster gaze
Cindy Jeong: Lamellipodia-Mediated Osteoblast Haptotaxis Guided by Fibronectin Ligand
Lauren Dittrick: Peptide-based rescue of deficits in the generation of myelinating oligodendrocytes in a dystonia model
Ananya Vadlakonda: Regulation of NF-lB c-Rel-Dependent Transcription in Dendritic Cells by O-GlcNAcylation
Ian Swain: Targeting the Human Estrogen Receptor by Small Molecule Inhibitors
Ginny Kanzinger: Oak Masting influences population density but not chronic wasting disease prevalence in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Era Srivastava: Optimizing Cell-Free Quantum Dot Biosensors to Detect the Presence of Metals
Nikhita Arun: Sex-based analysis of cellular composition and communication in the meninges
Ayah Lababede: Two Possible Triggering Mechanisms of pch2 dependent Pachytene check Point that Induce Interchromosomal Effect
Competition Judges:
Prof. Radhika Atit
Thanusha AV
Prof. Karen Abbott
Bamidele Babatunde
Oscar Bautista
Mindy Choe
Taiwo “Mercy” Faloni
Asst. Prof. Yolanda Fortenberry
Prof. Jessica Fox
Aruni Kadawatha
Kristianna Lea
Qiannan Ma
Suneeti Madhavan
Bowen Man
Troy Neptune
Brady Parlato
Prof. Robin Snyder
Amy Streets
