Annual Biology Research Symposium 2019

This symposium is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating the exemplary work of our Guided Research & Seminar and Senior Thesis Research students. Under the guidance of their dedicated mentors, both at Barnard and throughout New York City, our students spent the 2018-2019 academic year working independently on projects ranging from those in cell biology to animal behavior to clinical trials.

At the 2019 Symposium, we featured the meticulous and painstaking work of our presenters and congratulated them and their mentors on their steadfast commitment to their research!

Biology majors enroll in Senior Thesis Research to satisfy their senior capstone requirement for the major. This year-long course requires students to work on independent research projects under the guidance of their mentors. It culminates in both a scientific paper and a 15-minute research talk presented in the Symposium's first session.

Majors who enroll in Guided Research & Seminar satisfy two of three required upper-level biology labs. This year-long course requires students to work on independent research projects under the guidance of their mentors. It culminates in both a scientific paper and the poster presented in the Symposium's second session.

Below, you will find the names and presentation or poster titles for the 2019 symposium. The Symposium Program can be found at: 2019 Biology Research Symposium

Senior Thesis Research Presentations

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9:45 am Elizabeth (Betsy) Ladyzhets

Survey of deciduous tree and shrub biomass construction costs at Black Rock Forest demonstrates correlation between trophic position and plant physiology

Kevin L. Griffin (Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University)

10:00 am Binita Shah

Structures of intermediates in bacterial translation elongation using cryo-electron microscopy

Joachim Frank and Ziao Fu (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

10:15 am Anita Pilar Montero

The effects of maternal social integration and connectivity on offspring survival in a facultatively social mammal

Daniel T. Blumstein and Dana Williams (Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles)

10:30 am Joanly Sanchez

Transcriptional activation of metallothionein-3 (MT-3) through hypoxia: What is the role of the hypoxia response elements (HREs) in the metallothionein-3 (MT-3) promoter in hypoxia-mediated expression?

Mary Sever (Department of Chemistry, Barnard College)

10:45 am Natalie Kolba

Regulation and function of the NO-cGMP pathway in Drosophila melanogaster sensory neurons

Wesley B. Grueber (Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute)

11:00 am Shannon G. MacLeod

Characterizing the heat shock response in the alfalfa leafcutter bee

Jonathan W. Snow (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

11:30 am Kira Mitchel

Comparison of skeletal patterning following conditional deletion of Hoxa5 in somites and lateral plate mesoderm

Jennifer H. Mansfield (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

11:45 am Hanna Scholze (not pictured)

Targeting the NAD salvage pathway in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Riccardo Dalla-Favera and Claudio Scuoppo (Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Institute for Cancer Genetics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

12:00 pm Julia Pickel (not pictured)

Repeat culture as a predictor for fungal corneal ulcer treatment outcomes in the Mycotic Antimicrobial Localized Injection Trial

Jennifer Rose-Nussbaumer (Proctor Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology, University of California San Francisco)

12:15 pm Jiani Liang

Interrogating neuralized 1b function in β cells

Utpal Pajvani (Department of Medicine: Division of Endocrinology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

12:30 pm Lillian Lawrence

Investigating the role of Trans-Lesion Synthesis (TLS) of DNA in maintaining genome stability in the context of BRCA1 deficiency

Alberto Ciccia and Angelo Taglialatela (Department of Genetics and Development, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

12:45 pm Nicki Mohammadi (not pictured)

Understanding the effect of cell adhesion molecules on C. elegans behavior

Oliver Hobert and Emily Berghoff (Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University)

Guided Research & Seminar Poster Session

Poster 1 Dunay Bach

Thermal stress induces tissue damage in the honey bee midgut

Jonathan W. Snow (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 2 Liza Casella

Defining critical features of the immune microenvironment in neural tumors

Yvonne Saenger (Department of Medical Hematology and Oncology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center), Robyn Gartrell (Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center), and Andrew Silverman (Department of Pediatrics, New York Presbyterian Hospital)

Poster 3 Anastasija Čupić

Towards understanding the role of LGP2 in the regulation of the antiviral innate immune response

Adolfo García-Sastre and Lisa Miorin (Department of Microbiology, Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)

Poster 4 Tasneem Ebrahim

How does glucose affect the epigenome?

Songtao Jia and Kehan Bao (Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University)

Poster 5 Iasha Khan

Understanding the role of the Cathepsin K expression downstream of the CD200-CD200R pathway in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma metastasis

David Owens, Ph.D. (Department of Dermatology, Pathology, and Cell Biology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

Poster 6 Sophia Liu

Does a spoonful of sugar help the alcohol go down? Improving the palatability of ethanol increases consumption levels

John I. Glendinning (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 7 Nora McNamara-Bordewick

Characterizing the effects of pharmacologic proteasome inhibition on the parasite N. ceranae and its honey bee host

Jonathan W. Snow (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 8 Eva Schwartz

bc1 complex assembly in yeast mitochondria

Alexander Tzagoloff and Leticia V.R. Franco (Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University)

Poster 9 Jerica Tan

In vitro generation of human hypothalamic AGRP neurons

Claudia Doege (Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

Poster 10 Nina Tang

Mechanisms of cefepime resistance in cefepime-resistant piperacillin-tazobactam susceptible gram-negative bacterial clinical isolates

Anne-Catrin Uhlemann (Department of Medicine: Division of Infectious Diseases, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

Poster 11 Zaza Vongkusolkit

Quantification of neuroendocrine cells in wild-type mouse prostate

Michael M. Shen (Department of Medicine: Division of Hematology and Oncology, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University Irving Medical Center) and Eva Y. Leung (Department of Nutrition and Metabolic Biology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

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