BSURF 2021

I began this program with goals of growth, and I have grown more than I could have imagined. When the pandemic started, I initially struggled with my curiosity in virtual lectures. Being in the lab, however, has helped me find...

This summer has been a whirlwind of highs (presenting my poster to faculty at Duke!) and lows (running incorrect models and wasting two whole days), but through it all my biggest takeaway is this: real people do research. It sounds so...

It’s time to reflect. Looking back at my first blog post, I originally emphasized the traits that would make me a more capable future scientist: independence, confidence, collaboration, and skepticism. I believe that, while there is plenty more room for...

Well, here we are. In less than 48 hours, I'll be boarding a plane headed home, signing off on a summer that has proven extremely toasty, challenging at times, and full of pleasant surprises. Six weeks ago, if you had...

Now that BSURF is coming to an end, it's time to reflect on these past 8 weeks. This experience has been an incredible one. I expected to learn a lot, but ended up learning much more than I could have...

Min Ju Lee Mentors: Victoria Hall, Nicole Calakos M.D.-Ph.D Department of Neurbiology Habitual behaviors are automatic reactions to a certain stimulus, which enables the brain to reduce cognitive load of performing repeated sequences. While habits can be beneficial, the process...

  Jennifer Tenor, PhD, John Perfect, PhDEmily Prudot Gonzalez Department of Medicine Cryptococcus, a fungal pathogen, can be inhaled through pigeon excretes and multiple trees, which leads to the life threatening disease, cryptococcal meningitis. The growing emergence of cryptococcal anti-fungal...

Tissue-engineered skeletal muscle is a promising platform for in vitro modeling of human muscle diseases and pharmacological testing. However, most engineered skeletal muscle tissues contain only muscle and fibroblasts, lacking the complexity of native muscle, which also includes motorneurons, macrophages,...

Drosophila courtship behaviors are primarily governed by two master regulatory genes: fruitless (fru) and doublesex (dsx). Both of these genes undergo sex-specific splicing to produce male-specific transcription factors that drive male-specific courtship behaviors. In the olfactory system, there are three...

Reprogramming endogenous mRNA by Crispr Associated Fragment Trans-splicing (CRAFT) Nicolas Rey Mentors: David Fiflis, Aravid Asokan, Ph.D. Departments of Biomedical Engineering, MGM, Surgery Gene therapy is a strategy to correct monogenic disorders through the delivery of nucleic acids that encode...

James J Zheng1 Mentors: John S Decker1, Michael D Lynch, MD, PhD1,2 Departments of Biomedical Engineering1, Chemistry2 Lectins are naturally occurring proteins found in bacteria, plants, and algae that recognize specific carbohydrates found on many viral envelope proteins. This unique...

Bryan Rego Mentors: Victoria Goldenshtein, Michael Tadross, Ph.D. Department of Neurobiology DART is a novel drug delivery system based on covalent interaction between the HaloTag ligand and the HaloTag receptor that acts as a homing device to enable the delivery of...

Sofia Guerrero Mentors: Vanessa Simões, Gustavo Silva, Ph.D. Department of Biology Oxidative stress, where cells accumulate reactive oxygen species (ROS), is among the most prominent types of harmful environment, damaging cellular biomolecules, fostering cell death, and contributing to neurodegeneration. Cells...

Ali Pagliery Mentors: Richard Wong, Katrina DeWitt, Justin Wright, Ph.D. Department of Biology  Sarracenia purpurea is a species of carnivorous plant with pitcher-like structures that collect rainwater. Inside the pitchers lives an inquiline micro-community of organisms that help break down...