BSURF 2017

Throughout the program we’ve had the opportunity to hear from a variety of researchers at Duke. They have studied everything from CRISPR to bird song varieties, but have all shared one thing: their passion. Everyone who spoke had a clear...

Dr. Stephen Nowicki lied to us. While I’m not a fan of lying, this lie was ~for science~, which made it acceptable. This lie, while small in size, made a big difference. The difference was between “pa” and “da” –...

Happy accidents are those moments of sheer luck and coincidence in life that we've learned to cherish whenever they should pop up. We don't really think about them though. We never take the time to reflect on them, to think...

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, my schedule revolves around my meals. To me, seminars primarily mean the time of day where I drag myself up ten million flights of stairs to French Family and finally get to...

One of the faculty talks that stood out the most to me was Dr. Charles Gerbasch’s talk. After his talk I realized that his name had sounded pretty familiar. It then hit me that back when I was researching universities...

I thoroughly enjoyed these seminars. Not only did I learn more about other research that I might not have thought of exposing myself to, but I also got to know how these researchers became…researchers. To be completely honest, it’s nice...

Limitations to dopamine D2 ligands for antipsychotic efficacy. The D2 receptor has often been examined as the target for antipsychotic drugs due to its distribution in critical areas of the brain involved in movement and reward. Beta-arrestin biased drugs such...

In the Caron lab, my project has largely been testing new schizophrenia drugs on the dopamine receptors. Because my interests in the sciences have largely revolved around pharmacology and cell biology, I have usually approached the concept of neuropsychiatric disorders...

For me, each day of the week in the Caron lab is dedicated to a different procedure with the overall goal of generating data for my project. Thanks to my dedicated mentor who goes to lab on Sunday, I am...

Astrocytes are a non-neuronal cell population in the brain which perform many important functions, including regulating synapse formation and function and helping to form the blood brain barrier. Despite the importance of these cells in vivo, little is known about...

Identifying the endoreplication pathway in Cryptococcus neoformans Aaliyah Davy                                                                                                                     Mentors: Ci Fu, PhD., Joseph Heitman, MD., PhD.                                             Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that affects the immunocompromised and rarely, the immunocompetent. The fungus...

Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) chemicals is widespread due to their presence in emissions from tobacco smoke, wood stoves, and organic fuel burning throughout the world. Many PAHs are classified as carcinogens, and prior studies have shown an increase...