URSP Student Enya Calibuso Examines Child-Level Predictors of School Mobility in Middle School Students

For me, school mobility has always been very personal. Growing up in a military family, I moved eight times, attended nine schools, and lived on three continents. In an effort to better understand both my own experiences and those like me, I dove into literature attempting to unravel two main questions. The first, who is moving? Next, how are mover’s different from non-movers? While there is a long-standing belief that school mobility has negative consequences on academic performance and school completion, there seems to be subpopulations such as the Department of Defense dependents who continue to maintain an average or above average grade in class and graduate with a high school diploma. For this reason, I am examining child-level predictors of school mobility in middle school students.

            On a weekly basis, I meet with either my mentor, Dr. Adam Winsler, to discuss progress and feedback on my latest thesis revision, or with graduate students to work on making variables or learning how to run data analyses. Throughout this process, I’ve discovered how to conduct chi-squared tests for my categorical variables (demographics, primary exceptionality status, and elementary school retention) and t-tests for my continuous variables (school readiness variables and Grade 5 academic performance). I am currently in the process of interpreting the descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses to write a first draft of my results and discussion section. In addition to this, I am preparing for two poster presentations at which to disseminate my findings – the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research and the Association for Psychological Science.

Having this opportunity to conduct my own independent honors thesis, engage with experts in the field, bring awareness to school mobility, and contribute to the general body of knowledge has been a great privilege. It has given me training in statistical software, professional communication skills, and research experience; thereby, preparing me immensely for pursuing a MD-PhD program specializing in psychiatry and French.  

USTF Student Katherine Polk Studies Antimicrobial Peptides

I recently attended the Mid-Atlantic Undergraduate Research Conference at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, VA. This weekend was a really fun time to network with other students and research professionals. While at the conference I was able to present some of the research I have been doing this semester with the van Hoek lab on the SciTech campus.

The van Hoek lab focuses on Francisella tularensis, a bacterium classified as a Tier I, category A bio-threat. Due to the highly infectious nature of this bacteria, it is super important to understand it and how to treat it. I first became interested in this work when I came to Mason as a freshmen and heard about “the lab looking for new antibiotics in Komodo dragons.” Turns out that lab was Dr. van Hoek’s and now I have the privilege of working with her.

My project focuses on studying antimicrobial peptides against strains of Francisella. An antimicrobial peptide (AMP) is a molecule produced by the innate immune system that targets bacterial cells infecting the host. What’s super cool about AMPs is that they have been conserved throughout evolution, this means humans have them, birds, reptiles, other mammals, you name it, we all have AMPs. In the last 100 years we have seen multiple bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics, but in the millions of years of evolution bacteria have not evolved to evade AMPs. Therefore, we are studying AMPs as a potential new source of antibiotic treatments. My project specifically studies peptides isolated from Komodo dragon, American Alligator, and Chinese Cobra against different strains of Francisella to see if these peptides have antimicrobial activity against Francisella. I am also developing a novel procedure to study these peptides against Francisella tularensis NIH B38, which requires special media to grow.

My project is fairly new and we do not have enough data to make conclusions yet. However, I have really enjoyed my research with the van Hoek lab so far, and I am so glad I had the chance to share my research with the Mid-Atlantic Undergraduate Research Conference.

URSP Student Karen Therrian Investigates Neural Receptors

I am working on a project that studies a neural receptor that is crucial to memory formation and learning, called the NMDA receptor. While this protein is broadly implicated in cognition as well as a variety of neurological disorders, I am specifically interested in the NMDA receptor’s role in a rare condition called the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome. My cousin was diagnosed with this neurodevelopmental disorder about a decade ago, and this served as one of my primary motivations for wishing to study neuroscience. Several recent studies have demonstrated a link between impaired NMDA receptor function and a loss of SHANK3, one of the core genes that is affected in the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome. I decided to center my project on studying how this receptor functions in the mouse cortex, the area of the brain that is at the center of these studies.

            The main idea of my project is to isolate the activity of the NMDA receptor in mouse cortical neurons. I will use a mixture of neural receptor inhibitors to do this, effectively blocking the effects of other neurotransmitter receptor types other than the NMDA receptor. Common tasks that accompany my project include maintaining cultures of mouse spinal cord and brain cells, assessing cultures for neural spiking, and processing electrophysiological data. I additionally work with a team of high school and undergraduate students in the lab on a weekly basis, allowing us to collaborate on each of our respective projects.

            My project relates directly to the kind of research that I wish to pursue in the future, studying the underlying neurobiology of neuro-developmental conditions. I am especially interested in looking at conditions that tend to co-occur with autism such as epilepsy and sleep disorders, with the goal of better understanding the molecular basis of these associations. I hope this work can then be applied to finding more specialized treatments for these conditions when they co-occur with autism, improving individuals’ overall quality of life.