Academic Year Research Projects
Anyone interested in conducting 302 Jr. research in the biology department in the FALL MUST:
- attend the mandatory meeting on Thursday, March 7, 4 pm, CNS 1st floor foyer
- get three faculty signatures on the registration form.
Registration Forms are due by 1:00 Friday, April 5.
- Reminder: signed forms MUST be turned in to the department by this date.
- An Override Form for permission of the professor is required.
- The last day to add this the last day of add/drop.
- An Override Form for permission of the professor is required.
Interested in 200- or 400-level research?
- Students are strongly encouraged to come to the meeting, or talk to their potential research advisor directly, but it is not mandatory nor are signatures required.
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The following are projects being conducted by students for Research in Biology (BIOL-30200-xx*).
There are both academic year and summer research opportunities available. (Note: projects may change without notice.)
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ED CLUETT (section 5) Projects
- Mechanisms and pathways of cholesterol transport inside cells
- Effect of the cholesterol environment on protein function and its relation to diseases: NPC1 and processing of Amyloid Precursor Protein
- Lab activities for high school biology classes
DAVE GONDEK (section 7) Projects
- Compare via in silico identification virulence factors which are unique to chlamydia species and allow for host adaptation
- Create chlamydia virulence factors fusion with fluorescent proteins via in vitro moleculer cloning
- Contrast spatial and temporal regulation of chlamydia virulence factors via in vivo over expression during infection and "immunity".
- Develop hybrid chlamydia strains for in vivo screening of increased/decreased host specificity
JEAN HARDWICK (section 3) Projects
- Electrophysiological characterization of individual neurons in the cardiac ganglion
- Analysis of changes in neuronal gene expression using PCR and immunohistochemistry
- Biochemical analysis of changes in protein levels using Western Blot analysis
MAKI INADA (section 10) Projects
- Using a genome-wide microarray-based approach, identify and characterize novel genes regulated by splicing coupled to mRNA decay
- Identify conserved cis-regulatory sequences important for changes in splicing
- Examine the role of kinases in gene regulation
- Study the effects of co-transcriptional recruitment of regulatory factors on gene control
LEANN KANDA (section 8) Projects
- Personality in dwarf hamsters
- Captive and wild behaviors in chipmunks
- Amphibian migration: conservation and population monitoring
- South Hill animal census, including the new wetlands
PETER MELCHER (section 6) Projects
- To determine the degree of plasticity in leaf shape and fitness in trees growing across large latitudinal gradients to evaluate how climate change will alter forest composition
- Investigating how the environment impacts intracanopy leaf shape and hydraulic design
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Evaluating how wounding of plant hydraulics impacts leaf fitness
ANDY SMITH (section 4) Projects
- Biochemical identifications and characterization of the essential components of a unique biological glue
- Biochemical and mechanical experiments to characterize the mechanism of adhesion and to test hypotheses of how the glue components contribute to performance
- Histological analysis of the secretory cells that produce the glue
BRUCE SMITH (section 1) Projects
- Pheromone communication in water mites
- Mating behavior: female choice and male-male competition in water mites
- Predator / prey interactions: how environmental conditions influence predation success, how color, size, etc. influences prey choice
- Photopositive response of invertebrates: spectral sensitivities, sensitivity to polarized light, use of behavioral traps for sampling aquatic communities (last-mentioned is a field-based project, only possible in the summer or fall).
- Does the level of dissolved oxygen influence rates of development in the tritonymphal resting stage.
Also Summer research at Queen's Univ. Biological Station in Canada
SUSAN SWENSEN (section 2) Projects
- Phylogenetic Reconstruction of plants belonging to the Genus Gurania (Cucurbitaceae)
- Studies on the Diversity of Sunflower Maggot Flies (Strauzia) Infecting Local Host Plants
- Projects in Sustainability Science
IAN WOODS (section 9) Projects
- Clone a gene expressed in somatosensory neurons. Carefully document the spatial and temporal characteristics of its expression. Overexpress the gene product via mRNA injection to assess its effects on somatosensory development.
- Make a line of transgenic fish that inducibly overexpresses a gene. Analyze the effect of overexpression on development or behavior, especially with regard to somatosensation.
- Make a transgenic line that expresses a reporter gene (eg GFP) in a specific neuronal cell type. Via live imaging of transgenic animals, examine the dynamics of this cell type as it develops and connects with the rest of the nervous system.
- Analyze the phenotype of a mutation in a gene expressed in somatosensory neurons.
- Plan, develop, build, and test equipment and software necessary to measure and analyze anxiety behaviors in larval zebrafish.
