BHSI CURO Summer Fellows

The BHSI is pleased to have an outstanding and well recognized undergraduate research opportunity program such as the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO) in place at the University of Georgia. Each year through CURO, the BHSI funds seven undergraduate fellowships of $3,000 for summer biomedical research with a BHSI member. The students are identified by CURO to participate in the fellowship program. Recipients are of the fellowships are announced at the annual CURO Symposium award ceremony.

Past Fellows

BHSI Curo Summer Fellows 2008

Matthew Belcher	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Terns, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Project Title: Determinants in the Localization of Telomerase to Telomere
M. Logan Davis	Faculty Mentor: Dr. James Franklin, Department of Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences Project Title: Long-Range Retrograde Neurotrophic Signaling in Mouse Sympathetic Neurons
Marcus Hines	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Tiemeyer and Dr. Lance Wells, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Project Title: Analyzing the Function of O-GlcNAc in the Drosophila Nervous System
Jennifer Lee	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ronald Blount, Department of Psychology Project Title: Biopsychosocial Factors and Healthcare Utilization in Children with Non-Cardiac Chest Pain
Alice Meagher	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Adams, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Project Title: Improving the Activity of the Heterologously Expressed Soluble Hydrogenase I from Pyrococcus furiosus through the Modification of the BW25113 (E. coli K12) Genom
Madison Moore	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jennifer McDowell, Department of Psychology Project Title: Behavioral Changes Following Daily Practice of Saccade Tasks in Schizophreni
Neil Pfiste	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Terns and Dr. Rebecca Terns, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Project Title: Characterizing RNA-Protein Complexes Involved in Genome Defense in Prokaryote

BHSI Curo Summer Fellows 2007

Amy Burrell	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Debra Mohnen, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center Project Title: Analysis of the Transcriptional Expression of Arabidopsis GAUT Genes: 15 Proven and Putative Plant Cell Wall Biosynthetic Galacturonosyltranferases
Kimberly DeLisi	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ray Kaplan, Infectious Diseases Project Title: Potential Sources of Variation on Accuracy and Repeatability of Parasite Fecal Egg Count in Horses
Kathryn Flake	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Maor Bar-Peled, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center Project Title: Functional Domain of Recombinant Arabinose Kinase and Its Enzyme Sugar Specificity
Laura Harrison	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Corrie Brown, Veterinary Pathology Project Title: Concentrations of Campylobacter in Chickens and Implications for Targeted Antimicrobial Interventions to Improve Food Safety
Brian Laughlin	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Alan Darvill, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center Project Title: Rice Blast Disease
Natalie Nesmith	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mary Bedell, Genetics Project Title: Intercellular Communication
Cleveland Piggot	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Marcus Fechheimer, Cellular Biology Project Title: Characterization of the Molecular Mechanism of Hiranobody Formation

BHSI Curo Summer Fellows 2006

Sarah Breevort	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Walter Schmidt, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Project Title: Construction of Three Rce1p Mutant Plasmids to Aid in the Characterization of Rce1p Enzymatic Activity
Courtney Grant	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Julie Coffield, Physiology and Pharmacology Project Title: A Investigation of Botulinum Neurotoxin Interactions on RhoA Activity Using In Vitro Assays
Erica Hall	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jessie Kissinger, Genetics Project Title: Evolutionary mechanism of mitochonrian genome in Toxoplasma gondii
Anna-Marieta Moise	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Andrea Hohmann, Psychology Project Title: Neurochemical Basis of Socialt Defeat in Syrian Hamsters: Role of Endogenous Cannabinoids
Lamar Moree	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Alan Darvill, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center Project Title: Mechanisms of pathogenicity of Magnaporthe grisea in rice
Mandy Redden	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Robert Arnold, Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences Project Title: Towards a More Effective Delivery System for Anti-Cancer Drugs
Bonney Reed	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ronald Blount, Psychology Project Title: Physcological health of adolescents with Irritable Bowel Syndrom and Inflammatory Bowel Disease .
Shannon Yu	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nancy Manley, Genetics Project Title: Shh Flx mouse model and parathyroid development

BHSI Curo Summer Fellows 2005

Ingrid Bloom	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Steven Stice, Animal and Dairy Science Project Title: Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells into Endothelial Progenitors.
Lisa Jordan	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ruth Harris, Foods and Nutrition Project Title: Mechanisms that Allow the Hormone Leptin to Specifically Reduce Body Fat Mass.
Jon McGough	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Walter Schmidt, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Project Title: Explorations of the Function of Human IDE and Related Enzymes Found in Other Organisms.
Erika Porter	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Charles Keith, Cellular Biology Project Title: Not Available.
Rebecca Trupe	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kimberly Shipman, Psychology Project Title: Difference Between Maltreating and Non-Maltreating Families in Parental Responses and Coaching of Emotion as it relates to Children's Emotional Management Skills.
Dustin Williams	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Scott Dougan, Cellular Biology Project Title: Transgene System Development in Zebrafish to Understand How Hyal-2 Activation Leads to Tumor Formation.
Stephanie Yarnell	Faculty Mentor: Drs. Alan Darvill and Carl Bergmann, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center Project Title: Unraveling the Molecular Basis of the Role of Pectins in Human Health.

BHSI Curo Summer Fellows 2004

Westin Amberge	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Steven Stice, Animal and Dairy Science Project Title: Guided Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells into Endothelial Cells: Focusing on the Ulex Europeaus Agglutin I Lectin.
Beau Bryan	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Pierce, Biochemisty and Molecular Biology, CCRC Project Title: Lab Techniques in Molecular Biology; N-cadherin Glycosylation Concomitant with the Expression of GnT-V.
Christopher Hale	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Thomas Murray, Physiology and Pharmacology, College of Veterinary Medicine Project Title: Vulnerability of Juvenile Brain to Nicotine Exposure.
Catherine Hudson	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Harry Dailey, Microbiology Project Title: The Possibility of Creating Antibiotics that Would Negatively Affect the Heme Biosynthesis Pathway.
Andrew Leidner	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Pejman Rohani, Ecology Project Title: Parasitoid Behavior and Evolutionary Dynamics.
John McWhorter	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Daniel Colley, Microbiology Project Title: Induction of Regulatory Ligand PD-L2 and the Coregulatory Receptor PD-1 and CD4 Lymphocytes During Early Experimental Schistosomiasis Mansoni.
Shana Strickland	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kimberley Shipman, Psychology Project Title: Research on “at risk” Children from Maltreating Families.
Terrawit Supakorndej	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Terns, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Project Title: Identification of the Determinates for the Differential Subcellular Localization of Human Telomerase RNA in Normal vs. Cancer Cells.

BHSI Curo Summer Fellows 2003

Tiffany Beal	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Debra Mohnen, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, CCRC Project Title: Determining How Pectins Inhibit Cancer Growth and Metastasis
Daniel Del Portal	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Marcus Fechheimer, Cellular Biology Project Title: The Physiological Role of Hirano Bodies.
Elizabeth Goodwin	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ronald Blount, Psychology Project Title: Chronic Illness and the Benefits of Therapeutic Summer Camp.
Paulette Green	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Wyatt Anderson, Genetics Project Title: Conspecific Sperm Precedence and Speciation in Drosophila pseudoobscura.
Andrea Haltiner	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ruth Harris, Foods and Nutrition Project Title: The Effects of Leptin on Leptin Receptor Expression in High-Fat Fed Mice.
Luke Hoagland	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Marcus Fechheimer, Cellular Biology Project Title: The Role of Myosin II in Hirano Body Development and the Impact of Hirano Bodies on Cell Viability.
Susan Ritger	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Duncan Ferguson, Physiology and Pharmacology, College of Veterinary Medicine Project Title: Untitled.
Meghan Wilson	Faculty Mentor: Dr. James Lauderdale, Cellular Biology Project Title: Phylogenetic and Functional Analysis of Pax6 Regulatory Elements.

BHSI Curo Summer Fellows 2002

Ivy Forkner	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Debra Mohnen, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, CCRC Project Title: Functional Expression of Putative Biosynthestic Genes for Pectin: A Plant Polysaccharide with Anti-Cancer Activity.
Nowell P. Hesse	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Maor Bar-Peled, Plant Biology, CCRC Project Title: Identification of Nucleiotide-sugar Biosynthetic Genes Involved in Glycoconjugate Synthesis.
Parker Hudson III	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mary Bedell, Genetics Project Title: Kitl mutation.
Britt Johnson	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Janet Westpheling, Genetics Project Title: The Use of Generalized Transduction for Combinatorial Biosynthesis of Novel Antibiotics.
Lee Ann Jones	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Massimo Palmarini, Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, College of Veterinary Medicine Project Title: Mechanism of JSRV-Induced Cell Transformation in Vivo.
Cheryl Lynn Maier	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Scott Pratt, Animal and Dairy Science Project Title: Analysis of Donor Cell Nuclear Proteins Involved in the Nuclear Transfer Process.
Joanne Spinpoch	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Daniel DeVartanian, Biological Sciences Project Title: Nickel and Heart Disease.
Nwakaso Umejiego	Faculty Mentor: Dr. Boris Striepen, Cellular Biology Project Title: IMPDH as a Potential Target of Drugs to Treat Cryptosporidiosis.