The 2024 INLSAMP Student Research Symposium was held in Indianapolis this year on Friday, September 20. Once again, IU South Bend had an impressive showing of student research from Biological Sciences, Biochemistry, and Chemistry. Our students, who mostly conducted their research over the summer, presented their research to students and faculty members from various colleges throughout Indiana. They were accompanied by Professors Clark, Clear, Marr, and Muna. You can find abstracts of their poster presentations here under Poster Session #2. Congratulations to all of the students for their hard work and encouraging results.
Mentor: Tom Clark (Biology)
- Mia Guerra, “Tracking Moth Diversity Trends: Analyzing Urban vs. Natural Habitats Across Two Years”.
- Guillermo Cardenas, “Environmental Conservation of Moths”.
Mentor: Dr. Deb Marr (Biology)
- Emily Barerra, “Comparing soil physical/chemical properties and biodiversity in Pinhook and Howard Park in South Bend, Indiana”.
- Perla Diaz, “Comparison of Soil Ecosystem Function Across South Bend Urban Tree Nursery Sites”.
Mentor: Dr. Yilei Qian (Biology)
- Benjamin Robinson, “Quantification of Polyphosphate in Bifidobacterium using Fluorescence and Non-fluorescence Dyes”.
- Ashley Rojas Romero, “Acid Tolerance and Resistance to Oxidative Stress in Oral Bifidobacterium and Streptococcus Species”.
Mentor: Dr. Shahir Rizk (Biochemistry)
- Zahra Aljuboori, “Engineering a Fluorescent Biosensor for Real-time Monitoring of Ornithine in Bacterial Cultures”.
- Joseph Malkovsky, “The brilliance of periplasmic binding proteins: illuminating the future of nutrient monitoring in bacterial culture”.
- Alissa Sonnenberg, “Engineering a biosensor for lactate, a marker for inflammation and bacterial fermentation”.
- Morgan Underdue, "Constructing Fluorescent Biosensors to Understand Bacterial Metabolites".
Mentor: Dr. Grace Muna (Chemistry)
- Megan Conn, “A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Project: A Correlation Study of Lead Levels in Contaminated Soil Samples with Source, Home Location, and Age”.
- Edwin Cortez, “Developing a Sensitive Electrochemical Sensor for Detecting Cortisol using a Gold Electrode Modified with Gold Nanostructures”.
- Luke Johnson, “Electrochemical Detection of 3-Nitrotyrosine using a Gold Electrode Modified with N-hydroxysuccinimide Ester Gold Nanoparticles”.
Mentor: Dr. Kasey Clear (Chemistry)
- Moses Nyirongo, “Reactions and Electrochemistry of Naphthoquinones and Sulfide”.
