Learning by doing and reinforcing concepts through presentation — those practices were the core lessons on display at the eighth annual Central Arkansas Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium at UAMS.

About 115 undergraduate students from across Arkansas and the nation gathered in the I. Dodd Wilson Education Building to give poster presentations and oral presentations on summer research projects. The projects were the culmination of weeks — sometimes years — of work with various programs, some at UAMS and others at colleges and universities across the state, as well as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration National Center for Toxicological Research at Jefferson.

“Doing research is the best way to understand research and that’s why we’ve spent so much time and effort making these opportunities available,” said Grover P. Miller, Ph.D., professor in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department in the UAMS College of Medicine.

“If you’re like me, you went into science thinking it was all about doing experiments,” Miller said. “Well, it’s about more than that. Over the summer, you’ve learned a lot of techniques, you’ve learned a lot about your project, but science is really about stories. And so today, you’re going to be telling us your stories. This is part of your journey: to pause, reflect on all you were able to achieve, and tell others about that experience.”

Miller asked how many students had conducted summer research for the first time and about 80 percent of the room raised their hands.

That was the case for Mason Archer, a senior from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia who worked with the Arkansas INBRE program (IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence).

Archer studied six strains of bacteria that are developing resistance to antibiotics and are problematic in nursing home and hospital settings. They are known as ESKAPE — Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter species. Archer also worked with bacteria commonly found in soil and tested about 14 of these to see if any had antibacterial properties effective against the ESKAPE group.

“I was excited to find that almost all of them were able to inhibit more than one of the ESKAPE pathogens,” Archer said. “So we would hope to use this data in the future to possibly use some of the bacteria to test them against other pathogens as well and potentially produce a new antibiotic from one of them.”

Archer hopes to become a pharmacist. He said the summer research will help him enter pharmacy school in the fall with a deeper understanding of concepts he’ll be studying.

“The research was perfect for me because I was able to work directly with antibiotics, which are — of course — really important for the pharmaceutical industry,” Archer said. “To do research with antibiotics and see firsthand how antibiotics work and how each one effects different pathogens was great.”

Alexis Baker — a senior from Hendrix College in Conway who worked with the Hendrix Odyssey Program for the second year in a row — also thinks her participation in summer research and the Summer Research Symposium will help with her career goals. She wants to be a neurosurgeon and just took the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).

Baker worked with pain-sensing neurons and clarifying how they develop during the embryonic process.

“I definitely felt like doing summer research was worthwhile,” Baker said. “I learned so much by working in the lab that when I went back into the classroom, I felt like I was way ahead of the other students. I also feel like it helped me prepare for the MCAT.”

Baker said it’s been important for her to learn to talk about science. Last year, she didn’t present, she just observed her teammates. This year, she was on her own.

“I’ve been practicing on my family,” she said. “I’m the first one to go to college, so they don’t have any idea what I’m talking about. It challenges me to think about it and come up with a way to explain it so that they’ll understand. It will be the same someday when I’m interacting with patients, plus, when I have to really break it down and think about it, it helps me understand it better, too.”

Miller said experiences like Archer’s and Baker’s are by design. He hopes the symposium is realistic and practical for the students, who will encounter similar situations throughout their scientific careers. In addition, the symposium gives them a chance to network with faculty and fellow students and find out more about their future educational and career options.

The symposium was hosted by the Graduate School and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UAMS as well as the National Institutes of Health-supported INBRE program and the UAMS Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) to Increase Diversity in Research.

A rising college senior, Huddoy Walters’ sights are set on a career in biomedical research.

“I want to be a scientist, most definitely,” said Walters, a native Jamaican and biochemistry major at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

That dream of a future in the research field was cemented by Walters’ two-time participation in a summer fellowship at UAMS sponsored by Arkansas INBRE, a program funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and designed to promote biomedical research capacity and support for promising undergraduate students.

Larry Cornett, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for research at UAMS, serves as principal investigator for Arkansas INBRE and has worked on the Summer Research Fellowship Program since its inception in 2002.

“The summer program is one of the most exciting parts of my job. It opens doors for students, many of whom are the first person in their family to attend college, and shows them firsthand what it takes to be part of a research team,” Cornett said.

In addition to pairing rising juniors and seniors with scientists at UAMS, students in the 10-week program also are placed at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, which participate in Arkansas INBRE as research-intensive lead institutions. In 2019, a total of 13 students participated at UAMS, and three took part at the University of Arkansas.

During his first stint in the program during summer 2018, Walters conducted biochemistry research in a lab at the University of Arkansas. He spent the following summer at UAMS working alongside Antino Allen, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAMS College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

“My first research experience was in a program much like the INBRE Summer Research Fellowship. Now, by serving as a mentor, I can provide the same type of opportunities to the next generation of scientists,” said Allen, whose research examines how inflammation and oxidative stress affect neuronal anatomy and cognitive function after exposure to X-rays, heavy ion irradiation or traumatic brain injury.

For participant Madison Blue, the program provided the chance to experience graduate-level research before completing her biochemistry degree at Hendrix College in Conway.

“The fellowship program helped prepare me for what I’ll encounter in graduate school, and I didn’t have to leave Arkansas to participate,” said Blue, a Jonesboro native.

Blue, Walters and the additional fellows also participated in weekly workshops addressing topics such as research ethics and science writing. To wrap up their experience, they presented their research at the Central Arkansas Undergraduate Research Symposium, held July 26 at UAMS. A travel award offered to each summer fellow gives them an additional opportunity to present their research at an upcoming symposium or conference of their choice.

Robert Eoff, Ph.D., a cancer researcher who served as Blue’s mentor, said working with undergraduates brings a renewed energy to his lab and helps him improve his own teaching skills.

“For many of the students, this is their first exposure to biomedical research, so we have to break things down to be sure that the rationale for the study design and experimental details are clear and understandable,” said Eoff, associate professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Eoff’s research team studies what happens when DNA damage is not repaired in a timely manner and ends up blocking the ability to replicate cells.

The fellowship program also serves the important function of connecting UAMS to undergraduate institutions across the state, where up-and-coming researchers begin their training.

The UAMS-based Arkansas INBRE program manages the initiative for partners that include the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Arkansas State University, Hendrix College, Ouachita Baptist University, John Brown University and others.

“From my perspective, there’s a great cooperative spirit between UAMS and the colleges we work with across the state. It’s our goal to provide students with opportunities and experiences that elevate them to a level where they know first-hand what it means to perform biomedical research, which helps them become better advocates for science and more competitive applicants for grad school or other educational opportunities in the future,” Eoff said.

Cornett agreed, stating that he and the mentors grow attached to their students and continue to monitor their educational process. Two Summer Research Fellows have even gone on to become UAMS faculty members: Lindsey Dayer, Pharm.D., associate professor in the UAMS College of Pharmacy, and Stephanie Byrum, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine.

“It’s always satisfying to see our fellows succeed in their chosen field,” Cornett said.

INBRE (IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence) is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health under the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Binyam Belachew, a graduate student in Kevin Raney’s lab presented a poster at the theFASEB Helicase and Nucleic Acid-based Machine Conference in Steamboat Springs, CO.

July 26, 2019 | Twelve undergraduate students from across the United States worked in real labs, doing real research this summer at UAMS — many of them for the first time.

The Summer Undergraduate Research Program to Increase Diversity in Research is hosted annually by the UAMS Graduate School and Center for Diversity Affairs and is funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

For nine weeks, the students perform research at UAMS with the help of a mentor. They network with scientists, see real-life surgeries, cultivate leadership skills and attend lectures on conducting research skillfully and ethically. At the end of their journey, they present their work at the Central Arkansas Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium at UAMS.

Nikyshaliz Velazquez is one of the 2019 SURP students. She is a senior studying microbiology at the University of Puerto Rico. She spent the summer working with Jerry Ware, Ph.D., on platelets in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Physiology and Biophysics.

“We want to know if platelets have another function,” Velazquez said. “We know that platelets form clots, but we want to know if they also play a role in systematic inflammation.”

Outside of the lab, the students have gotten together throughout the summer for seminars on everything from preparing a CV to career options to finding your voice as a leader and uncovering your strengths.

“This is my first time doing research in a lab,” Velazquez said. “The most useful part of the program to me has been being in the lab because I don’t know what I’m going to do after graduation. I’m thinking of doing a Ph.D. or going to med school. So doing the actual work has helped me get closer to making that decision and so have the seminars.”

SURP participant Eva Davis said she is asking herself the same question: Ph.D., M.D., or both. Davis is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is going into her junior year at Hampton University in Virginia, where she is studying cellular and molecular biology. She knows she wants to teach at a historically black college or university and be part of increasing the number of black women in scientific careers, but she doesn’t know which degree path is best for her.

Davis worked with Mari K. Davidson, Ph.D., as her mentor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She is working on a project involving aneuploidy, or an abnormal number of chromosomes in a cell, and one of its major causes, recombination error, or the loss or gain of genetic material when chromosomes are copied.

“So I’m looking into what happens during the process and what proteins are important for recombination,” Davis said. “That understanding is important because it can lead us to further understanding the pathways that lead to aneuploidy, which is a common cause of many genetic disorders, including Down syndrome.”

Davis still doesn’t know for sure what the future holds, but she does have a better understanding of what it means to be a scientist.

“Science consists of a lot of failures, but the end results are usually very rewarding,” Davis said. “People can tell you that all day long, but until you experience it yourself, you don’t really know.”

This is the ninth year for the SURP program at UAMS.

“SURP helps individuals, but it also invests in our scientific community of the future,” said Brian E. Gittens, Ed.D., vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion at UAMS. “We hope these students stay in the sciences and increase the diversity among career research scientists. When we have diversity among research topics, our reward is a diversity of thought, problem solving and solutions that impact the lives and health of all Arkansans and the broader society.”

“The SURP program introduces many key scientific concepts that will serve these students throughout their careers,” said Robert E. McGehee Jr., Ph.D., dean of the UAMS Graduate School. “They learn what it’s like to be in a lab, they learn the sometimes rocky road to scientific success, and they learn the important step of communicating their work to the public.”

Students receive a salary and financial assistance with travel. The program is open to all, but students with a background in biology or chemistry who are from an underrepresented group (African American, Hispanic American, Native American, Alaska native, Hawaiian native, or native of the U.S. Pacific Islands), disabled, or from a disadvantaged background are encouraged to apply. The application is typically due in February. For more information, find the SURP program online or contact Dr. Latrina Prince (princelatrina@uams.edu).

Opinion: The National Institutes of Health needs to better balance funding distributions among US institutions

Wahls WP

PNAS 2019

 

 

 

 

A Time-Embedding Network Models the Ontogeny of 23 Hepatic Drug Metabolizing Enzymes.

The Translational Research Institute (TRI) announced today that five early career UAMS researchers will receive KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Program Scholar Awards.

The program provides two years of didactic and mentored research training. Scholars receive 75% salary support and up to $25,000 per year for research, tuition, travel expenses and education materials.

The KL2 Scholars were chosen from 11 applicants. Below are the new scholars, their college, department and title of their KL2 project:

• Tara Johnson, M.D.; College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Neurology; Implementation and Quantification of the General Movement Assessment for Early Detection of Neurodevelopmental Disabilities in Infants
• Stephanie Kennon-McGill, Ph.D.; College of Public Health, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health; Fetal Exposure to Cannabinoids: Exposure, Methylation and Neurodevelopmental Effects
• Pearman Parker, Ph.D., M.P.H., RN; College of Nursing, Department of Nursing Science;  An exploration of the mental health needs of young women with breast cancer and implications for developing patient educational materials
• Isabel Racine-Miousse, Ph.D.; College of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry; Decreasing Methionine Intake to Improve Survival in Patients with Metastatic Melanoma
• Jennifer Vincenzo, Ph.D., M.P.H., P.T.; College of Health Professions, Department of Physical Therapy; Development of a Falls Prevention Self-Management Plan to Improve Older Adults Adherence to Prevention Strategies after Community-Based Falls Risk Screenings

Four UAMS postdoctoral trainees recently became the inaugural recipients of the Translational Research Institute (TRI) Health Science Innovation & Entrepreneurship (HSIE) Postdoctoral Scholars Program Awards.

Funded by TRI’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) TL1 Program, the 15-credit graduate entrepreneurship training includes a significant new partnership with the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Sam M. Walton College of Business, which will provide distance education courses to the scholars. The scholars will work with MBA student teams at the UA to develop commercialization plans for health-science technologies conceived at UAMS.

The program spans two years as a complement to the scholars’ existing mentored research training.

The scholars and their research mentors are:

• Samir Jenkins, Ph.D., (mentor, Robert Griffin, Ph.D., Department of Radiation Oncology); interests in nanomaterials and stem cell differentiation.
• Astha Malhotra, Ph.D., (mentor, Jay Mehta, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Internal Medicine, Cardiology); interests in 3-D printing and tissue regeneration.
• Melody Penning, Ph.D., (mentor, Fred Prior, Ph.D., Department of Biomedical Informatics); interests in algorithms to predict adverse events in health care.
• Aaron Storey, Ph.D., (mentor, Ricky Edmondson, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Cancer Institute – Proteomics); interests in mass spectrometry to identify bacteria in synovial fluid.

Andrea Edwards, a graduate student in Kevin Raney’s lab was selected to give both an oral and a poster presentation at the NAD+ Metabolism and Signaling Conference in Dublin, Ireland.

Effect of Sulforaphane and 5-Aza-2′-Deoxycytidine on Melanoma Cell Growth.

 

Dr. Robert Eoff has received a new, four-year grant award from the NSF.  The award is for ~1.2 million to study “Replication of G-quadruplex DNA by translesion polymerases”.  Dr. Julie Gunderson of Hendrix College is co-Investigator on the grant.