We are delighted to welcome you to the annual Barnard Biology Research Symposium! This symposium is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating the exemplary work of our Guided Research & Seminar and Senior Thesis Research & Seminar students. Under the guidance of their dedicated mentors, both at Barnard and throughout New York City, our students have spent the 2022-2023 academic year working on projects across a range of biological disciplines, including computational biology, cell biology, genetics, animal behavior, ecology, and more.

Today, we feature the hard work of our presenters and congratulate them and their mentors on their steadfast commitment to their research! We hope today’s presentations and posters will inspire the next generation of Barnard Biology majors to follow boldly in their footsteps in the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

We encourage you to join us today for both sessions, the first of which will feature presentations by our Senior Thesis Research & Seminar students from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm, followed by the Guided Research & Seminar poster session from 1:30 to 3:30 pm.

Biology majors enroll in Senior Thesis Research & Seminar 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 today’s first session.

10:00 am to 10:15 am ⸺ Opening Remarks by Professors Jessica Goldstein, JJ Miranda, and Alison Pischedda

10:15 am Eliana Elikan

Using dsRNA to knockdown Nosema bombycis genes and treat infection in SF21 cell culture
Jonathan Snow (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

10:30 am Sneha Bapana

Middle Miocene paleoecology of the East Africa Rift Valley
Kevin Uno and Daniel Green (Biology and Paleo Environment Division, Columbia Climate School, Columbia University)

10:45 am Deniz Ertem

Street tree health does not depend on neighborhood income in New York City
Shahid Naeem and Matthew Palmer (Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University)

11:00 am Parker Parrella

Determining the effect of bleomycin treatment on Varimorpha (Nosema) ceranae and its honey bee host
Jonathan Snow (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

11:15 am Break

11:30 am Lorenza Bartu

Identifying genetic determinants of plasmid acquisition costs through an application of a novel bioinformatic tool
Allison Lopatkin (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

11:45 am Chloe Paolucci

TOR signaling in C. elegans development
Iva Greenwald and Julia Wittes (Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia
University)

12:00 pm Leanne Chen

Design and development of an improved Newcastle Disease Virus-vectored vaccine candidate against Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Adolfo García-Sastre and Ignacio Mena (Department of Microbiology, Icahn
School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)

12:15 pm Theresa “Tess” Himelspach

Exploring biases of iNaturalist sourced ecological data
Hilary Callahan (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Biology majors enroll in Guided Research & Seminar to fulfill upper-level labs required 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 poster
presented in today’s second session.

Poster 1 Ashley Canizares

Can cryptic male mate choice evolve in Drosophila melanogaster?
Alison Pischedda (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 2 Jana Casals Puy

Plasmid annotation and analysis pipeline
Allison Lopatkin (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 3 Emily Che

Designing in-vitro organoid culture conditions to enrich intestinal Fgfbp1+ cells
Kelley Yan and Liang Cheng (Columbia Center for Human Development, Columbia Stem Cell Initiative, Department of Medicine, Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases, Department of Genetics & Development, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

Poster 4 Rachel Ding

Chronic social defeat stress models individual differences in reward-seeking behavior
Alexander Harris and Lucy Johnston (Department of Integrative Neuroscience, NYSPI)

Poster 5 Grace Freed

Is there genetic variation in male mate choice in Drosophila melanogaster?
Alison Pischedda (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 6 Emma Germano

Wastewater based epidemiology for interseasonal influenza in college dormitories
JJ Miranda (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 7 Danya Gewurz

Stop the spread: Susceptible plasmids contribute to antibiotic resistance
Allison Lopatkin (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 8 Danya Z. Jafri

Production of bispecific CAR t-cells targeting two different cell surface antigens for specificity against acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes
Azra Raza, Sanjay Mukherjee, and Abdullah Ali (Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

Poster 9 Kang Kim

Can single-cell RNA profiling uncover interconnected transcriptional coordination in virus-associated cancer?
JJ Miranda (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 10 Batya Koenigsberg

The role of phosphoinositide-3-kinase p110δ subunit in human
natural killer cell polarization and migration
Emily Mace and Shira Eisman (Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University Medical Center)

Poster 11 Ananya Lahiri

Changes in male courtship preferences for female body size in Drosophila melanogaster
Alison Pischedda (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 12 Kangsan Lee

Effects of inducing peripubertal stress in adolescent mice brains
Kally Sparks (Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute)

Poster 13 Angelina Li

Investigating the essential function of DNA-protein kinase in human cells
Yimeng Zhu and Shan Zha (Institute for Cancer Genetics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

Poster 14 Michele Lin

Instrumented Timed Up and Go Test for estimating disease severity in Huntington disease
Lori Quinn, Chelsea Macpherson, and Dipti Wani (Department of Biobehavioral Sciences, Teachers College, Columbia University)

Poster 15 Kaitlin Long

Effect of MDM2 inhibition on p73 in breast cancer
Carol Prives (Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University)

Poster 16 Isabella Martinez

Evidence for heritable variation in cryptic male mate choice in Drosophila melanogaster
Alison Pischedda (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 17 Emily McKiernan

Functional inhibition of viral-correlated human gene MGST3 in KSHV+ primary effusion lymphoma
JJ Miranda (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 18 Jackeline Peraza

Novel ACTB variant G342S causes impaired NK signaling in serial
killing
Jordan S. Orange (Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University Irving
Medical Center) and Abigail E. Reed (Department of Microbiology and
Immunology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center)

Poster 19 Alana Rabinowitz

Simultaneous monitoring of pre- and post-synaptic dopamine changes to elucidate mechanisms of behavioral inhibition
Peter Balsam (Department of Neuroscience and Behavior, Barnard College), Eleanor Simpson (Columbia University Medical Center), and Chirag Upreti (NYSPI Columbia Medical Center)

Poster 20 Catherine Sollitto

Does olfaction play a role in the discrimination between glucose vs. fructose?
John Glendinning (Department of Biology, Barnard College)

Poster 21 Xinping Xie

PAG and PD-1 expressions showed positive correlation at transcriptional and protein levels
Adam Mor (Columbia Center for Translational Immunology, Division of Rheumatology, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons) and Emily K. Moore (Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons)

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Closing Remarks (3:30 pm to 3:45 pm)

Thank you for your support of our students today!