Contents

A Note from the Collaborative Director

Undergraduate Research: Adjusting to Life at a Liberal Arts College

2012-2013 McNair Scholars

• Louis Ayensu-Mensah
• Samantha Finnigan
• Rachel Ginter
• Tara Lovdahl
• Maira Rodriguez
• Crystal Skenandore

Fall-Summer Collaborative Grants

Convention Spotlight

NCUR

• Field Notes from NCUR: Dr. Anindo Choudhury
• Eric Gale
• Steven Garza
• Sarah Lottes

AACR

• Isabella Benassi
• Shanna Dennis
• Emily Goetz
• Nicole Nelson
• KateLyn White

Important Dates

May 4, 2012 Student Academic Travel Grant and Attendee Grant applications due

American Association for Cancer Research Reflection

Isabella Benassi

Biomedical Concentration Major, Chemistry & Music Minors

The American Association for Cancer Research 103 Annual meeting was a very informative experience this year. On the first day of the conference, my research group and I were able to attend a seminar on the Warburg Hypothesis.  This research pertains to our research with glucose metabolism in cancer cells.  The first speaker was quite good, and we left with a few more ideas for further study.  We were also able to attend a few other sessions.  One of particular interest to me this year was the session on continuing research and publishing work.  As I intend to go into a research position for a starting career, I thought this gave me some great ideas for how to structure experiments and data to fit the specifications of the paper I wish to publish in.  I also believe that this was a good session for the other research group members to go to as it gave them the opportunity to learn a few tips for setting up experiments and analyzing data.        

Another great experience from the perspective of the research group was the opportunity to attend other poster sessions and get ideas for different methods to use on campus.  Shanna Dennis and I saw an interesting poster utilizing a microplate type that we got a sample of from a vendor.  This plate will allow the cells to grow in “3D” formation, better modeling the way the cells would grow in a tumor.  This is exciting as it will allow for us to re-run some of our experiments using the new plates to see if the growth pattern affects our drug’s ability to treat the cells.  The whole research group also learned that we may want to look closer at the compound DCA.  This was a compound we worked with extensively last year, but this year, we only used it for our glucose trials.                                                                                                             

The most exciting part of the conference was the day that our group presented our research during a poster session on April 2.  We had a lot of traffic and were able to take “shifts”, allowing everyone a chance to present and look at other posters.  One person who stopped by our poster had great advice for me and the rest of the group as we look for research positions as a career option.  He told us that the best thing we could do was to hone our laboratory skills, be willing to learn new techniques, and spend time investigating the labs in which we wanted to work.  He also told us to not be discouraged from the competitiveness of the field.  I felt that these were very useful pieces of advice that I will heed as I look for research positions.  Overall, it was a great experience and we were able to share our research and learn from many other groups.

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Russ Feirer