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Tuesday, Apr 9th | 9:00 AM – 10:30AM

Collegiate Room

Moderator: Larsen

Modeling Microcephaly in Drosophila

Presenter Name: Adriana Bibo

Microcephaly is a neurodevelopmental disorder that can be accompanied by comorbidities including intellectual disabilities, seizures, and other developmental phenotypes. It is attributed to malnutrition and exposure to toxins or infection during pregnancy, but genetic mutations are also a leading cause. Our lab studies the genetic mechanisms behind neurodevelopmental disorders, such as microcephaly, using Drosophila as a model organism.

College: Medicine
School / Department: Neurobiology & Anatomy
Research Mentor: Nicole Losurdo

A qualitative study exploring students opened ended responses regarding belonging uncertainty in general chemistry

Presenter Name: Jocelyn Tucker and Josie Valerius

This study focuses on understanding what aspects of a course affects a student’s feelings of societal belonging with the goal of exploring qualitative responses to create actionable change that increases student retention in STEM. In a survey, students in Gen Chem 1 explained what impacts their sense of societal belonging in the course. We categorized the responses to uncover the significant parts of a STEM course that may cause a student to feel uncertain in their level of social belonging.

College: Science
School / Department: Chemistry
Research Mentor: Regina Frey

Build a Secretion Selection for SPI-1 System via Fusion Proteins

Presenter Name: Harold Chen

Salmonella Pathogenicity Island 1 (SPI1) is a region of the Salmonella chromosome that codes for the genes necessary to build a type 3 secretion (T3S) injectisome system. My research aims to develop new genetic tools in order to facilitate the study of the SPI1 injectisome system. What is needed for the characterization of SPI1 secretion mechanisms is the development of reporters that allow for selection of protein substrates through the injectisome T3S system to the outside medium.

College: Science
School / Department: Biological Sciences
Research Mentor: Fabienne Chevance

Genetic Diversity and Asymptomatic Malaria

Presenter Name: Vivian Marcoux

The focus of this analysis is on differences in symptomology between B6 mice and wild mice when infected with Plasmodium. We compared those mice’ genomes, microbiomes, and immmune response to Plasmodium infection. We found that wild mice had a greater degree of in-group diversity than B6 mice, as well as a significant difference from B6 mice.

College: Science
School / Department: Biological Sciences
Research Mentor: Wayne Potts

Tuesday, Apr 9th | 9:00 AM – 10:30AM

Parlor A

Moderator: Raghuraman

Lifestyle interventions, physical function, and cancer survivorship

Presenter Name: Maren Curtis

This project examines the impacts of lifestyle interventions on physical function and cancer survivorship. It will involve a combination of two analyses. One will evaluate the feasibility of manipulating time of day of exercise engagement on physical function and dietary patterns among women with stage I-III breast cancer receiving chemotherapy. The second project will map the literature on lifestyle interventions and physical function in older cancer survivors of all cancer types and stages.

College: Health
School / Department: Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation
Research Mentor: Adriana Coletta

Examining the relation between therapists CBIT performance outcomes and satisfaction of training condition

Access to CBIT, a behavioral treatment for tics, is severely limited due to a lack of CBIT-Trained providers. An online therapist training program has been created to make training more accessible in hopes of increasing the number of trained therapists. The aim of this study is to examine if there is a difference in therapists’ performance outcomes (ability to administer CBIT with fidelity) based on their satisfaction with their training condition (i.e., in-person versus online training).

College: Social & Behavioral Science
School / Department: Psychology
Research Mentor: Michael Himle

Social Class Representation in America

My research consists of analyzing working-class representation in American political institutions, particularly the U.S. Congress. I have conducted a thorough literature review on the theoretical and empirical work done on working-class representation in our country as well as how members of the working class represent the working class differently in legislative bodies than do representatives from other backgrounds. I also am currently conducting my own empirical research on these topics.

College: Social & Behavioral Science
School / Department: Political Science
Research Mentor: James Curry

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Undergraduate Research Symposium Spring 2024 Copyright © 2024 by University of Utah is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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