Researchers of Emory

Mawuko Kpodo     is a senior majoring in Philosophy. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the National Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR).

Joseph Piccolo  is a Senior majoring in Physics. He was awarded a Summer 2019 Conference Grant which he used to attend the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) . I work with the Emory Physics Department as an undergraduate researcher. My principal investigator, Dr. Laura Finzi, specializes in biophysics. Biophysics is the study of biological systems, such as a strand of DNA, using physics approaches. In the Finzi lab, we study the mechanics of DNA and epigenetic gene regulation. One way we study these topics is through the use of magnetic tweezers. In these studies, we attach a microscopic magnet to a single strand of DNA and exert forces on it using a macroscopic magnet we control in the lab. Additionally, we measure how the DNA responds to these forces. Traditionally, magnetic tweezers have been bar magnets mounted on the data collection microscope. The bar magnet is moved around the sample by mechanical motors, allowing us to generate forces on the DNA. ...

Annie Schiffer is a senior double  majoring  in biology and environmental science. She received a Summer 2019 Independent Grant which she used to to study community ecology under Dr.  Berry Brosi. 

Megan Korn  is a Senior majoring in  Chemistry   She was awarded a Summer 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the Nucleosides, Nucleotides, and  Oligonucleotides  Gordon Research Conference. Towards the end of spring semester, I was making great strides in my research. My project revolves around designing small molecules for enhanced and synergistic methods of sequencing post-transcriptional modifications in RNA. In other words, I spend my days troubleshooting chemical synthesis, and see if my molecules react selectively with certain non-canonical bases in RNA. 

Junyi Han  is a senior double majoring in History and Media Studies. She was awarded a Summer 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the 10th Annual Texas A&M History Conference. On April 12, 2019, I attended the  10 th  Annual Texas A&M History Conference: “Resistance in Retrospect”  to present my research about the Great Purge. The conference is organized by the History Graduate Student Organization at Texas A&M University and it took place from April 12 to April 13. The central focus of this conference is to create a scholarly discussion on resistance in its various forms such as armed resistance against a central authority, political activism, engagement of public discourse, or popular memory.

Kasey Cervantes  is a Junior majoring in Biology. He was awarded a Summer 2019 Independent Grant which he used to conduct research on Malaria under Dr. Helen Baker.  Figure 1 This summer I undertook research into mosquitoes associated with malarial transmission at the  Natural History Museum  (NHM)   in   London in collaboration  with the  Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) , and the  Emory School of Nursing   (Figure 1) . Mosquitoes (Culicidae) are dipterans – True flies, which is one of the orders of insects, the scientific study of which is called  entomology . 

Martin  Pimentel  is a Senior  double majoring in  History  and Political Science. He was awarded a Summer 2019 Independent Grant which he used to conduct research on Post-Civil War rumors under Dr. Jason Ward. 

Liza Cobey  is a Junior double majoring in American studies and Media Studies . She was awarded a  Summer 2019 Independent Grant which she used to conduct research on the history associated with the desegregation of schools in the U.S. under Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker.  For generations, the women in my family have taught. My grandmother taught at the high school I attended decades before I was born, and my aunts, a cousin, and my mother all call their schools their second home. I grew up in a perpetual extended family tied together by bus routes and classrooms. I had no intention of following their path when I came to Emory. Despite this, by the second semester of my freshman year, I had connected with one of the few remaining professors from Emory’s Department of Education, and by the fall I was enamored with her work.

Megan Withers is a Senior majoring in Environmental Science and Biology. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. Hello! My name is Meg and I had the pleasure of presenting at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), held at  Kennesaw State University . At the conference, I presented a poster about my honors research, which focuses on the transmission of a bacterial disease called Strep syndrome in Northern sea otters ( Enhydra lutris kenyoniI ). I used U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) data to assess population density as a possible indicator of the disease’s transmission mechanism. I didn’t find a significant relationship between population density and prevalence of the disease, but I did gain knowledge about other factors, such as gender, that could potentially affect the disease and its impact on sea otter health. Future directions in this research are aimed at furt...

Ashrita Satchidanand is aSenior majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. I began my research at the Rollins School of Public Health in the fall of junior year, as an undergrad who was interested in pursuing a Master’s in Public Health. I wanted to explore several fields within Public Health, and I found out that there was a professor of epidemiology at Rollins who were searching for some undergraduates to work on a new study. The research topic was  amblyopia  which is when someone has a difference in visual acuity between their eyes – the difference is characterized by at least 2 lines on the  Snell Chart  used at the eye doctor’s office. When I began researching for the project, I was interested in social participation of children affected by amblyopia compared to those who are not. However, I eventually became more intere...

Yu Zhang is a Senior double majoring in Biology and Chemistry. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. In NCUR conference, I presented my research on the development of a new HIV treatment. I was very happy to talk with many scholars who were also dedicated in natural science research. According to the previous report, over 170 million people infected worldwide, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) represents a significant public health burden. The primary mode of transmission for HCV is via exposure to infected blood, including transfusions from infected donors, and through intravenous use of illicit drugs. Although a minority of all HCV infections will spontaneously resolve without any clinical outcome, an estimated 80% of cases will progress into chronic hepatitis. The need for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV), has provided considerable impetus for the development of new classes of antiviral drug...

Seaira Lett is a Sophomore pursuing a joint major in Spanish and Linguistics. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. Last semester (Fall 2018), students in Linguistics 485: Field Methods were given the amazing opportunity to conduct linguistic interviews with a speaker of the Bantu language Lulogooli, an understudied language. We learned about IRB procedures and requirements, expectations for research involving human subjects, and how to use elicitation sessions to study the syntax and morphology of a language that you aren’t familiar with. 

 Ramsey Baden  is a senior majoring in English and Creative  Writing . He was awarded a Spring 2019 Independent Grant which he used to conduct research on the Taiwanese White Terror under Dr. Joonna Trapp.  There are few experiences as isolating as being separated from your home. When I started college, I began realizing just how much I missed my home in Taiwan. I began devoting massive amounts of energy to my new quest: I was to find out what it meant to be Taiwanese-American. It was a scheme that became daunting when I realized I had started just a moment too late, and that I was already physically removed from the island that in many ways feels more like home than anywhere else on this planet.

Ryan  McCann  is a junior who majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. He was awarded a Spring 2019 Independent Grant which he used to conduct research on experimental mouse tissue under Dr. David Weinshenker. When reading through literature on PubMed, you rarely see a research paper that has no acknowledgments. Most projects need multiple people putting their time and energy into producing the best results possible. Thus, there are often many names included in the acknowledgements, because the main authors needed assistance. I recently ran into some difficulties with my own project and realized just how important it is to work with other members of the research community. For the past two years, I have been fortunate to be a research assistant in the  Weinshenker Laboratory ( http://genetics.emory.edu/research/weinshenker/ ). Working with Dr. Weinshenker has been an amazing experience. I have been assigned to multiple projects, and exposed to different...

Caroline Scheving is a senior who majoring in Art History. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Independent Grant which she used to conduct research on the culture of the early twentieth century and Frank Benson's  dolls  under Dr. Linda Merrill. Last fall, when I returned to Emory to begin my senior year, I realized that I was in a bit of a conundrum. I had come to the conclusion that I was no longer interested in the illustrations of  Robinson Crusoe , the topic I had originally chosen for my art history honors thesis. I needed to find a new subject as quickly as possible, and this time I knew I needed to choose a topic that interested me on a more personal level. After agonizing over the future of my thesis for several days, I finally recalled a conversation I had during my sophomore year with my advisor Dr. Linda Merrill. She had mentioned Frank Weston Benson’s (1862-1951) collection of paper dolls, called the Colton Family, that the  High Museum of Art had acqu...

Monica Vemulapalli is a junior majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the Experimental Biology Conference . When I found out that my first ever research conference was going to be in my hometown of Orlando, Florida, I was excited! I knew that having an unfamiliar event happen at a very familiar place would make me less anxious. However, the conference turned out to be less stressful and more interesting than I ever thought. I attended  Experimental Biology (EB)  and   presented  my very first research poster , a memory that I will definitely cherish forever.

                                                                     Michael Mu  is a junior majoring in Biology. He was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. Every 65 seconds, someone in the US develops  Alzheimer’s disease (AD) . That includes a whopping 1 in 10 people aged 65 and older and results in the sixth-leading cause of death in the US. In a time when the baby boomer generation is in dire need of geriatric care, it is imperative that we do anything we can to improve the health outcomes of our senior population. At the  National Conference on Undergraduate Research ( https://www.cur.org/ ) last week, I outlined the progress, future directions, and potential implications for AD of my research on the role of L...

The  Lemelson-MIT Student Prize , is a national invention competition that recognizes  individual graduate students  who have tested prototypes of  two or more inventions  and  teams of undergraduate students  with a tested prototype of  one invention . They are once again conducting a nationwide search for the most inventive undergraduate and graduate students to compete for the  2020 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize . They would be delighted if mentors would consider  referring  qualified candidates. The competition recognizes students at any U.S. college or university who have tested prototypes of technology-based inventions in  healthcare ,  food/water and agriculture, transportation and mobility ,  and consumer devices . Inventions are not limited to class projects or thesis work, and any side/personal projects could also be considered. Patents are encouraged but not required. In each of the four ca...

Julie Wechsler  is a Sophomore majoring in Psychology and Linguistics. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. I had the privilege of attending the  National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) at Kennesaw State University ( http://www.cur.org/what/events/students/ncur/2019/ ). I presented research which I completed during the Fall 2018 semester in the  Linguistics 485 – Field Methods in Linguistics class along with Seaira Lett. This class introduced me to the methods of data collection and analysis in Linguistics, and it was a great experience to learn how this type of research is co nducted. Over the course of the semester, we studied a language called  Lulogooli , which is a member of the Bantu language family. It is a relatively small language spoken mainly in Kakamega and Vihiga, Kenya (according to the Ethnologue,  https://www.ethnologue.com/language/rag ...

Varsha Chiruvella is a senior double majoring in Bilogy and German Studies. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the Moravian College Undergraduate Conference in German Studies . I have been learning German for the past 10 years. As a pre-medical student and lover of learning, however, it becomes easy to become bogged down by rigorous science courses and challenging medical-related exams. To me, German, and the humanities in general, has been my escape from burnout.  “But why German?” is a question that I get ever so often. After years of receiving the same inquiry, I believe I have formulated a final answer.  “Because I love it…and, you know, why not?” has become my standard response. And it’s true- I do certainly love learning and teaching German to my peers. I had finally found something in academia that I not only enjoyed, but truly was gifted with. And it was this “why not” mentality that persuaded me to continue my pursuit of the ...

Klamath Henry is a senior majoring in Anthropology. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the 7th Annual Screening Media Festival at the University of Pennsylvania. As a Native American woman, I always try to embed my research in topics of interest and relevance to my people. The larger institution of higher education has not been historically accessible for my people. Even to this day, there are very few Native peoples’ voices being heard in academia. It is important for non-Native people to hear our stories and learn from our ways of knowing. Alongside that, institutions of higher learning can also work to preserve and protect some of the older ways of Native knowing and teaching that may be lost within the next few generations of people.

Ngozi Nwabueze  is a senior majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the Georgia Clinical and Translational  Science  Conference.

Julia Gensheimer  is a senior double majoring in Biology and Chemistry. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the Keystone Symposia: Cancer Immunotherapy: Mechanistic Insights to Improve Clinical Benefits. As a freshman at Emory, I was eager to join a lab studying cancer immunotherapy. I read research descriptions on faculty websites and contacted principal investigators to express my enthusiasm for joining their lab.  Rafi Ahmed , a world-renowned immunologist, replied within minutes. After learning of his legacy, I arrived at the meeting prepared for an intense interview. Instead, I was met with a smile as he simply asked me when I wanted to start!

Congratulations to Zoe Robbin, URP’s featured undergraduate student researcher for the month of April! Zoe is currently a senior and is the first-place winner of the first annual URP 3-minute thesis competition.  **How did you get started in undergraduate research?** I got started in undergraduate research when I was a sophomore. I networked a lot with my professors and developed a lot of relationships with them. My first experience as part of a developed research team was when I was able to assist with writing a systematic review of conception strategies for people living with HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. It was a great experience and highly recommend undergraduate to develop relationships with your professors because you never know when they might need assistance from an undergraduate. **What motivated you to select your specific research topic?** The research topic that I presented for the 3-minute thesis was about the influence of tribal networks...

Undergraduate Research Programs is pleased to present Undergraduate Research Efforts that transcend the classroom, and go beyond the bench.  Please visit the following link for an inside look at Emory students who have pushed the bounds of research: https://tinyurl.com/beyondthelab1 Visit the  Undergraduate Research Programs  website to learn more about what  Undergraduate  Research Programs has to offer.

Sydney Hwang  is a junior double majoring in Chemistry  and  Economics. She was awarded a Fall 2018 Conference Grant which she used to attend the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) This past November I had the opportunity to attend the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) in Indianapolis, IN. I enjoyed not only presenting my research to scholars in my field, but also networking with a plethora of passionate and driven science students. The conference offered various workshops that were attractive to undergraduate students, as they covered topics such as time management, applying to graduate school, writing an engaging personal statement, career pathways in science, and navigating mentor relationships. My favorite workshop was about the imposter syndrome, a psychological pattern in which one doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud.” I was surprised to see th...

Undergraduate Research Programs recently hosted the Annual Spring 2019 Undergraduate Research Symposium. Please visit the following link for an inside look: https://tinyurl.com/Emorycoverage Visit the  Undergraduate Research Programs  website to learn more about what  Undergraduate  Research Programs has to offer.

Sarah Lee is a Junior  double  majoring in Philosophy and Economics. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the Southeastern Writing Center Association Conference. I had the opportunity to attend the  2019 Southeastern Writing Center Association Conference, held at the DoubleTree Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort. There, I spent three days going to sessions about a range of issues related to and located within the Writing Center, meeting students and faculty from across the Southeastern U.S., and of course, presenting my own research about genre theory and informing tutoring practices with knowledge of genre – “ Writing in Philosophy Courses: Writing Conventions, Analysis, and Strategies .”

Sally Zhang  is a junior who is majoring in Biology. She was awarded a Fall 2018 Independent Grant which she used to conduct research on ubiquination and Alzheimer's disease  under Dr. Hyojung Choo.  I started doing my project at the Seyfried Lab of the Biochemistry department and Center for Neurodegenerative diseases of Emory School of Medicine in April 2018. My project aims to examine the mechanisms underlying the turnover of insoluble neurofibrillary tangles of Tau, a key type of pathological protein aggregate in Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by the presence of protein aggregates and a loss of protein homeostasis. Ubiquitin (Ub) is a 76 amino acid peptide that marks proteins for degradation mainly through the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and autophagy. Modification by Lys-48-linked poly-Ub chains has been reported as means of selecting proteins for degradation by the UPS. Whereas, Lys-63-linked poly-ubiquitination is associ...

Brandon Chen is a senior majoring in Biology. He was awarded a Fall 201 Conference Grant which he used to attend the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting. .

Philip Chu  is a senior who majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. He was awarded a Fall 2018 Independent Grant which he used to conduct research on Renal Cell Cancer under Dr. John Petros.  Medicine heals people, but research is what advances medicine. The reason I’ve done  research throughout my undergraduate experience is because I want to constantly contribute to  the advancement of medicine. What motivates me in lab is the thought that every experiment is   potentially a step closer in benefiting innumerable lives. I view medicine as the present, and   research as the future.

Zoe is an Emory senior from Fairfield Connecticut who studies Quantitative Sciences and Arabic. She was the Emory Global Health Institute Field Scholar in 2018 and traveled to Jordan to conduct research on sexual harassment in partnership with the Information and Research Center of the King Hussein Foundation. She worked on a study that seeks to assess the prevalence and develop a primary prevention intervention against sexual harassment at the University of Jordan. A professor from the Rollins School of Public Health is leading this study in partnership with the research team at the King Hussein Foundation. She is continuing her research on sexual harassment in at the University of Jordan through her senior honors thesis. Her argument is that gender-roles in Jordan carryover from tribal institutions into institutions of higher education. She is establishing this link through Sex-role Spillover theory. Zoe’s thesis will also include an epistemological discussion about Orientalism ...