Undergraduate Research
Research is a key component of the training in our department.
Carnegie Mellon has fostered the practice of students participating in undergraduate research throughout the campus, and the Biological Sciences Department was a leader in establishing this tradition. Undergraduate research is a key component of the rigorous scientific training in our department. Students work closely with faculty members and their laboratory groups on cutting edge research projects.
The Department of Biological Sciences offers programs for qualified undergraduates who are currently registered at Carnegie Mellon as well as undergraduates at other institutions that do not have extensive research programs. Opportunities are available during the academic year, as well as in the summer. Please take some time to explore all of the research programs available through our Department.
Students:
- Learn to think critically and conduct research using the latest techniques and equipment, while working one-on-one with faculty and other laboratory members on cutting-edge research projects.
- Have the opportunity to contribute to the general knowledge being created at Carnegie Mellon.
- Develop their communication and interpersonal skills.
- Have the opportunity to apply knowledge learned in the classroom to solve problems encountered in the laboratory.
Student researchers may volunteer, earn an hourly wage or academic credit for their work in the laboratory. At the university level, students may apply for small undergraduate grants. Students who complete a substantial body of research and fulfill the required course work can complete an Honors Thesis during the last semester at Carnegie Mellon.
Preparing for Research
Steps for Getting Involved in Research
- Determine your interest and commitment. Be sure you have a few blocks of time available for research during normal business hours. Some labs also require attendance at group meetings in addition to this block of time. Most labs are located in the Mellon Institute, so you must consider travel time when planning.
- Explore the opportunities below.
Dr. Amanda Willard, Director of Undergraduate Studies, can assist you in your exploration and placement.
Common Types of Research Positions
Lab Aide
A typical entry-level position for freshmen and sophomores. In this position, you will learn to prepare solutions, use equipment and to follow general lab procedures. Many labs require all students to spend at least one semester as a lab aide.
Research Assistant
In this position you will be assigned a mentor. This could be the professor, a graduate student, a research associate or senior undergraduate.
Types of Opportunities
Research for Credit & Independent Study
Undergraduate students wishing to earn academic credit for their research may have the opportunity to register for Research for Credit (03-445), Independent Study (03-210), or Honors Research for Credit (03-545) (for graduating students only).
Note: Students should be intellectually engaged in their work. Attendance at group laboratory meetings is often required in addition to the hours of work that a student performs research at the bench. Students cannot earn credit for work as a laboratory aide (making solutions, etc.).
LEARN MORE ABOUT RESEARCH FOR CREDIT
Volunteer Opportunities
Volunteering is often a good way to get started in research. If a faculty member doesn’t have space for a student, or if a student wants to participate in a laboratory on a limited or trial basis, volunteering allows for more flexibility in the amount of time scheduled in lab. Volunteering should consist of no more than 1-3 hours/week reading articles and planning upcoming projects. Any students actively contributing to projects in research labs should either be receiving pay or registered for research for credit. If necessary, you should discuss this possibility with your faculty mentor and academic advisor.
Employment Opportunities
Some students choose to explore paid research positions.
More information coming soon.
Summer Research Programs
Current program opportunities
Summer Research Institute (SRI)
Past program opportunities
iGEM Team
HHMI Summer Scholars
HHMI Summer Researchers
REUs
Coming soon
Departmental & College Honors
Departmental Honors
The Departmental Honors Program offers an opportunity to become extensively involved in research. The program requires students to conduct an independent project and to prepare a formal thesis that is written and defended in the senior year. The requirements for this program include minimum grade point average of 3.2 or above after the completion of six semesters and approval from their research advisor.
Learn more & register for Honors Research for Credit
College Research Honors
Mellon College of Science Research Honors are awarded at commencement to students that have successfully completed a departmental honors program or have earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or greater and carried out significant, successful research.
This will be indicated by nomination by the student's research advisor or academic advisor (with endorsement by the research advisor), plus completion of one of the following:
- Authoring or co-authoring an article in a refereed journal that is in print or that has been submitted for publication.
- Presenting work at an organized and public research symposium or national/regional meeting, such as the Sigma Xi poster competition at Carnegie Mellon's annual research symposium. (Presentations at group research meetings or undergraduate departmental seminars will not satisfy this requirement.)
Final approval of nominations for MCS research honors will come from the Dean of MCS and the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs.
Funding for Research
Students may be supported for research by applying for monies to pay for their work and/or laboratory supplies. In addition to competitive national awards, students have several local options to which they can apply for support.
The Undergraduate Research Office (URO) at Carnegie Mellon provides Small Undergraduate Research Grant (SURG) awards to students. These awards cover research expenses, summer fellowships for full-time summer research and presentation awards for students attending conferences. Students should confirm lab placement and proposed project prior to submitting an application to any of these programs.
Students may also be directly supported by funding that their faculty mentor has secured. This should be discussed between the faculty mentor and student prior to starting research in the laboratory.
Note: If receiving a wage for the research experience, the student will be ineligible to receive academic credit via 03-445, 03-545, or 03-210.
Auxiliary Experience
Faculty Research Focus Groups
Students interested in networking with CMU Bio research faculty can participate in Faculty Research Focus Groups. Each semester, Biological Sciences faculty host discussions about primary literature and emerging research in different areas of Biology. Groups meet about once per month and are open to undergraduate students of any class year. No previous knowledge or experience is necessary.
Being able to read, understand, and thoughtfully discuss and engage with primary literature is an incredibly valuable skill to develop. Faculty Research Focus Groups provide the opportunity to practice this skill in an informal setting while building relationships with faculty in Biological Sciences.
Contact bio-ungrad@andrew.gxitma.net for more information on this semester's groups & to sign up.
Publications
Undergraduates have been published in peer-reviewed journals including:
- Development
- Genetics
- Nature Neuroscience
- Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences
To add your publication to the list, please email bio-ungrad@andrew.gxitma.net.
Past publications
2013
McCauley BS, Akyar E, Filliger L, Hinman VF. Expression of wnt and frizzled genes during early sea star development. Gene Expr Patterns. 2013 Jul 27. doi:pii: S1567-133X(13)00084-7. 10.1016/j.gep.2013.07.007. [Epub ahead of print]
Yankura KA, Koechlein CS, Cryan AF, Cheatle A, Hinman VF. Gene regulatory network for neurogenesis in a sea star embryo connects broad neural specification and localized patterning. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 May 6.
Dykstra KM, Ulengin I, Delrose N and Lee TH. Identification of discrete sites in Yip1A necessary for regulation of endoplasmic reticulum structure. PloS One 8(1):e54413. Epub 2013 Jan 14.
2012
Stolzer M, Lai H, Xu M, Sathaye D, Vernot B, Durand D. Inferring duplications, losses, transfers and incomplete lineage sorting with nonbinary species trees. Bioinformatics. 2012 Sep 15;28(18):i409-i415.
Fanning S, Xu W, Beaurepaire C, Suhan J, Nantel A, Mitchell A. Functional control of the Candida albicans cell wall by catalytic protein kinase A subunit Tpk1. Mol Microbiol. 2012 Aug 9. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2012.08193.x.
Kunttas-Tatli E, Zhou MN, Zimmerman S, Molinar O, Zhouzheng F, Carter K, Kapur M, Cheatle A, Decal R, McCartney BM. Destruction complex function in the Wnt signaling pathway of Drosophila requires multiple interactions between Adenomatous polyposis coli 2 and Armadillo. Genetics. 2012 Mar;190(3):1059-75. Epub 2011 Dec 14.
Hovis KR, Ramnath R, Dahlen JE, Romanova AL, Larocca G, Bier ME, Urban NN. Activity regulates functional connectivity from the vomeronasal organ to the accessory olfactory bulb. J Neurosci. 2012 Jun 6;32(23):7907-16.
Finkel JS, Xu W, Huang D, Hill EM, Desai JV, et al. (2012) Portrait of Candida albicans Adherence Regulators. PLoS Pathog 8(2): e1002525. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002525
2011
Dahlen JE, Jimenez DA, Gerkin RC, Urban NN. Morphological analysis of activity-reduced adult-born neurons in the mouse olfactory bulb. Front Neurosci. 5:66, 2011. Epub 2011 May 9.
Finkel JS, Yudanin N, Nett JE, Andes DR, Mitchell AP. Application of the systematic "DAmP" approach to create a partially defective C. albicans mutant. Fungal Genet Biol 48, 1056-1061, 2011. PMID: 21820070.
Flynn CJ, Sharma T, Ruffins SW, Guerra SL, Crowley JC, Ettensohn CA. High- resolution, three-dimensional mapping of gene expression using GeneExpressMap (GEM). Dev. Biol.,357, 532-540, 2011. PMID: 21741377.
Hitchens TK, Ye Q, Eytan DF, Janjic JM, Ahrens ET, Ho C. (19) F MRI detection of acute allograft rejection with in vivo perfluorocarbon labeling of immune cells. Magn Reson Med. 2011 65, 11-45-1154.
Truschel ST, Sengupta D, Foote A, Heroux A, Macbeth M, Linstedt AD. Structure of the membrane tethering GRASP domain reveals a unique PDZ ligand interaction that mediates Golgi biogenesis, J Biol Chem. 2011. Epub PMID: 21515684
Yuan Y, Shen T-J, Gupta P, Ho NT, Simplaceanu V, Tam TCS, Hofreiter M, Cooper A, Campbell KL, Ho C. A Biochemical-Biophysical Study of Hemoglobin from Wooly Mammoth, Asian Elephant, and Humans. Biochemistry 50, 7350-7360, 2011.
Zhou MN, Kunttas-Tatli E, Zimmerman S, Zhouzheng F, McCartney BM. Cortical localization of APC2 plays a role in actin organization but not in Wnt signaling in Drosophila. Journal of Cell Science, 124(Pt 9):1589-600, 2011 May 1.
2010
Stamateris RE, Rafiq K, Ettensohn CA. The expression and distribution of Wnt and Wnt receptor mRNAs during early sea urchin development. Gene Expr. Patterns 10: 60-64, 2010.
Yankura KA, Martik ML, Jennings CK, Hinman VF. Uncoupling of complex regulatory patterning during evolution of larval development in echinoderms. BMC Biol. 8:143, 2010 Nov 30.
McCauley BS, Weideman E, Hinman VF. A conserved gene regulatory network subcircuit drives different developmental fates in the vegetal pole of highly divergent echinoderm embryos. Developmental Biology. 340(2):200-208, 2010.
Shruti S, Remmers CL, Vaidya AK, Fitzpatrick JA, Bruchez MP, Barth AL. Activity-regulated expression of the brain-specific β4 subunit controls BK channel fate (submitted).
Tristram-Nagle S, Kim DJ, Akhunzada N, Kučerka N, Mathai JC, Katsaras J, Zeidel M, Nagle JF. Structure and water permeability of fully hydrated diphytanoyl PC. Chem Phys Lipids. 2010.
Zimmerman SG, Thorpe LM, Medrano VR, Mallozzi CA, McCartney BM. Apical constriction and invagination downstream of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway requires Rho1 and Myosin II. Developmental Biology. 340(1): 54-66, 2010.
2009
Hackney DD, Baek N, Snyder AC. Half-site inhibition of dimeric kinesin head domains by monomeric tail domains. Biochemistry. 48(15):3448-56, 2009.
Webb RL, Rozov O, Watkins S, McCartney BM. Using Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy to visualize cortical microtubules in the Drosophila syncytial embryo. Developmental Dynamics. 238(10): 2622-2632, 2009.
2008
Jones EW, Berget PB, Burnette JM 3rd, Anderson C, Asafu-Adjei D, Avetisian S, Barrie F, Chen R, Chu B, Conroy S, Conroy S, Dill A, Eimer W, Garrity D, Greenwood A, Hamilton T, Hucko S, Jackson C, Livesey K, Monaco T, Onorato C, Otsuka M, Pai S, Schaeffer G, Shung S, Spath S, Stahlman J, Sweeney B, Wiltrout E, Yurovsky D, Zonneveld A. The spectrum of Trp- mutants isolated as 5-fluoroanthranilate-resistant clones in Saccharomyces bayanus, S. mikatae and S. paradoxus. Yeast. 25(1):41-6, 2008.
Nain AS, Phillippi JA, Sitti M, MacKrell J, Campbell PG, Amon C. Control of cell behavior by aligned micro/nanofibrous biomaterial scaffolds fabricated by spinneret-based tunable engineered parameters (STEP) technique. Small. 4: 1153-1159, 2008.
Nisha P, Plank JL, Csink AK. Analysis of chromatin structure of genes silenced by heterochromatin in trans. Genetics. 179:359–373, 2008.
Sage BT, Wu MD, Csink AK. Interplay of developmentally regulated gene expression and heterochromatic silencing in trans in Drosophila. Genetics. 178 749–759, 2008.
Sweeney B, Zhang T, Schwartz R. Exploring the parameter space of complex self-assembly through virus capsid models. Biophys J. 94(3): 772-783, 2008.
Tang L, Sahasranaman A, Jakovljevic J, Schleifman E, Woolford JL., Jr. Interactions among Ytm1, Erb1, and Nop7 required for assembly of the Nop7-subcomplex in yeast preribosomes. Mol Biol Cell. 19:2844–2856, 2008.
Tang W, Kwak Y, Braunecker W, Tsarevsky NV, Coote ML, Matyjaszewski K. Understanding atom transfer radical polymerization: effect of ligand and initiator structures on the equilibrium constants. J Am Chem Soc. 130(32):10702-13, 2008.
Ye Q, Wu YL, Foley LM, Hitchens TK, Eytan DF, Shirwan H, Ho C. Longitudinal tracking of recipient macrophages in a rat chronic cardiac allograft rejection model with noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging using micrometer-sized paramagnetic iron oxide particles. Circulation. 118:149–156, 2008.
2007
Bagley J, LaRocca G, Jimenez DA, Urban NN. Adult neurogenesis and specific replacement of interneuron subtypes in the mouse main olfactory bulb. BMC neuroscience. 8:92, 2007.
Pennington G, Smith CA, Shackney S, Schwartz R. Reconstructing tumor phylogenies from heterogeneous single-cell data. J Bioinform Comput Biol. 5(2a):407-427, 2007.
Pfenning AR, Schwartz R, Barth AL. A comparative genomics approach to identifying the plasticity transcriptome. BMC Neurosci. 8:20, 2007.
2006
Castellana N, Dhamdhere K, Sridhar S, Schwartz R. Relaxing haplotype block models for association testing. Pac Symp Biocomput. 454-66, 2006.
Dragulescu-Andrasi A, Rapireddy S, Frezza BM, Gayathri C, Gil RR, Ly DH. J Am Chem Soc. 128:10258–10267, 2006.
Greenwood AI, Tristram-Nagle S, Nagle JF. Partial molecular volumes of lipids and cholesterol. Chemistry and Physics of Lipids 143:1-10, 2006.
Matyjaszewski K, Jakubowski W, Min K, Tang W, Huang J, Braunecker WA, Tsarevsky NV. Diminishing catalyst concentration in atom transfer radical polymerization with reducing agents. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 103:15309–15314, 2006.
Shakiryanova D, Tully A, Levitan ES. Activity-dependent synaptic capture of transiting peptidergic vesicles. Nat Neurosci 9:896-900, 2006.
Subramanian S, Woolford CA, Drill E, Lu M, Jones EW. Pbn1p: an essential endoplasmic reticulum membrane protein required for protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum of budding yeast. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103:939-944, 2006.
Tomlinson A, Frezza B, Kofke M, Wang M, Armitage BA, Yaron D. A structural model for cyanine dyes templated into the minor groove of DNA. Chemical Physics 325:36-47, 2006.
2005
Burnette JM, Miyamoto-Sato E, Schaub MA, Conklin J, Lopez AJ. Subdivision of large introns in Drosophila by recursive splicing at nonexonic elements. Genetics 170:661-674, 2005.
Conklin JF, Goldman A, Lopez AJ. Stabilization and analysis of intron lariats in vivo. Methods 37:368-375, 2005.
Dilek I, Madrid M, Singh R, Urrea CP, Armitage BA. Effect of PNA Backbone Modifications on Cyanine Dye Binding to PNA-DNA Duplexes Investigated by Optical Spectroscopy and Molecular Dynamics Simulations. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127:3339-3345, 2005.
Jamalyaria F, Rohlfs R, Schwartz R. Queue-based method for efficient simulation of biological self-assembly systems. Journal of Computational Physics 204:100-120, 2005.
Jones EW, Berget PB, Burnette JM, Anderson C, Asafu-Adjei D, Avetisian S, Barrie F, Chen R, Chu B, Conroy S, Conroy S, Dill A, Eimer W, Garrity D, Greenwood A, Hamilton T, Hucko S, Jackson C, Livesey K, Monaco T, Onorato C, Otsuka M, Pai S, Schaeffer G, Shung S, Spath S, Stahlman J, Sweeney B, Wiltrout E, Yurovsky D, Zonneveld A. The Spectrum of Trp- Mutants Isolated as 5-Fluoroanthranilate Resistant Clones in Saccharomyces bayanus, Saccharomyces mikatae and Saccharomyces paradoxus. Yeast, 2005.
Sage BT, Jones JL, Holmes AL, Wu MD, Csink AK. Sequence elements in cis influence heterochromatic silencing in trans. Mol. Cell. Biol. 25 377–388, 2005.
Shakiryanova D, Tully A, Hewes RS, Deitcher DL, Levitan ES. Activity-dependent liberation of synaptic neuropeptide vesicles. Nat Neurosci 8:173-178, 2005.
Subramanian S, Woolford CA, Lu M, Drill E, Jones EW. Pbn1p: An essential ER membrane glycoprotein required for protein folding and quality control in the endoplasmic reticulum of budding yeast. 2005.
Sumerlin BS, Tsarevsky NV, Louche G, Lee RY, Matyjaszewski K. Highly Efficient "Click" Functionalization of Poly(3-azidopropyl methacrylate) Prepared by ATRP. Macromolecules 38:7540-7545, 2005.
Tomlinson A, Frezza B, Kofke M, Wang M, Armitage BA, Yaron D. A Structural Model for Cyanine Dyes Templated into the Minor Groove of DNA. Chem. Phys. 2005.
Tsarevsky NV, Cooper BM, Wojtyna OJ, Jahed NM, Gao H, Matyjaszewski K. Halogen Exchange in Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization as a Route to Well-defined Block Copolymers. ACS Polymer Preprints, 46(2):249-50, 2005.
Tsarevsky NV, Cooper BM, Matyjaszewski K, Silverstein MS, Shach-Caplan M, Bianco-Peled H. Nanoscale Structure of SAN-PEO-SAN Synthesized by ATRP. ACS Polymer Preprints, 46(2):301-2, 2005.
Tsarevsky NV, McKenzie B, Tang W, Matyjaszewski K. Tuning the Activity and Performance of the Catalyst in Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization and General Rules for Catalyst Selection. ACS Polymer Preprints, 46(2):482-3, 2005.
Wiltrout ME, Giovannelli JL, Simplaceanu V, Lukin JA, Ho NT, Ho C. A biophysical investigation of recombinant hemoglobins with aromatic B10 mutations in the distal heme pockets. Biochemistry 44:7207-7217, 2005.
2004
Bangal PR, Lam DMK, Peteanu LA, van der Auweraer M. Excited-State Localization in a 3-Fold-Symmetric Molecule as Probed by Electroabsorption Spectroscopy. J. Phys. Chem. B 108:16834-16840, 2004.
Barth AL, Gerkin RC, Dean KL. Alteration of neuronal firing properties after in vivo experience in a FosGFP transgenic mouse. J Neurosci 24:6466-6475, 2004.
Cackowski FC, Xu L, Hu B, Cheng SY. Identification of two novel alternatively spliced Neuropilin-1 isoforms. Genomics 84:82-94, 2004.
Jakovljevic J, de Mayolo PA, Miles TD, Nguyen TM, Leger-Silvestre I, Gas N, Woolford JL, Jr. The carboxy-terminal extension of yeast ribosomal protein S14 is necessary for maturation of 43S preribosomes. Mol Cell 14:331-342, 2004.
Jamalyaria F, Rohlfs R, and Schwartz R. Queue-based method for efficient simulation of biological self-assembly systems. J. Computational Physics. 2004.
Puri S, Telfer H, Velliste M, Murphy RF, Linstedt AD. Dispersal of Golgi matrix proteins during mitotic Golgi disassembly. J Cell Sci 117:451-456, 2004.
Puskar K, Apeltsin L, Ta'asan S, Schwartz R, LeDuc PR. Understanding actin organization in cell structure through lattice based Monte Carlo simulations. Mech Chem Biosyst 1:123-131, 2004.
Sarbu T, Lin KY, Ell J, Siegwart DJ, Spanswick J, Matyjaszewski K. Polystyrene with Designed Molecular Weight Distribution by Atom Transfer Radical Coupling. Macromolecules 37:3120-3127, 2004.
Sarbu T, Lin KY, Spanswick J, Gil RR, Siegwart DJ, Matyjaszewski K. Synthesis of Hydroxy-Telechelic Poly(methyl acrylate) and Polystyrene by Atom Transfer Radical Coupling. Macromolecules 37:9694-9700., 2004
Shach-Caplan M., Bianco-Peled H, Silverstein MS, Tsarevsky NV, Cooper BM, Matyjaszewski K. Nanoscale Structure of Amorphous/Crystalline/Amorphous Triblock Copolymers. Polym. Mat. Sci. Eng 91:843, 2004.
2003
Ettensohn CA, Illies MR, Oliveri P, De Jong DL. Alx1, a member of the Cart1/Alx3/Alx4 subfamily of Paired-class homeodomain proteins, is an essential component of the gene network controlling skeletogenic fate specification in the sea urchin embryo. Development 130:2917-2928, 2003.
Murphy RF, Velliste M, Porreca G. Robust Numerical Features for Description and Classification of Subcellular Location Patterns in Fluorescence Microscope Images. The Journal of VLSI Signal Processing V35:311-321, 2003.
Pintauer T, McKenzie B, Matyjaszewski K. Towards Structural and Mechanistic Understanding of Transition Metal Catalyzed Atom Transfer Radical Processes. ACS Symp. Ser 854:130-147, 2003.
Puri S, Telfer H, Velliste M, Murphy RF, Linstedt AD. Dispersal of Golgi matrix proteins during mitotic Golgi disassembly. J. Cell Sci. 116,2003.
2002
Csink AK, Bounoutas A, Griffith ML, Sabl JF, Sage BT. Differential gene silencing by trans-heterochromatin in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 160:257-269, 2002.
Gupta SS, Stadler M, Noser CA, Ghosh A, Steinhoff B, Lenoir D, Horwitz CP, Schramm KW, Collins TJ. Rapid total destruction of chlorophenols by activated hydrogen peroxide. Science 296:326-328, 2002.
Huang K, Lin J, Gajnak JA, and Murphy RF. Image Content-based Retrieval and Automated Interpretation of Fluorescence Microscope Images via the Protein Subcellular Location Image Database. Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2002):325-328, 2002.
Illies MR, Peeler MT, Dechtiaruk AM, Ettensohn CA. Cloning and developmental expression of a novel, secreted frizzled-related protein from the sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. Mech Dev 113:61-64, 2002.
Illies MR, Peeler MT, Dechtiaruk AM, Ettensohn CA. Identification and developmental expression of new biomineralization proteins in the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. Dev Genes Evol 212:419-431, 2002.
Soto S, Velliste M, Murphy RF. Computational Modeling of Drug Effects on Protein Subcellular Location. Mol. Biol. Cell 13, 2002.
Sweet HC, Gehring M, Ettensohn CA. LvDelta is a mesoderm-inducing signal in the sea urchin embryo and can endow blastomeres with organizer-like properties. Development 129:1945-1955, 2002.
Velliste M, Porreca G, Murphy RF. Numerical features for a systematics of protein subcellular location. Cytometry Supplement 11:41, 2002.
2001
Cao R, Venezia CF, Armitage BA. Investigation of DNA Binding Modes for a Symmetrical Cyanine Dye Trication: Effect of DNA Sequence and Structure. J Biomol Struct Dyn 18:844-856, 2001.
Csink AK, Bounoutas A, Griffith ML, Sabl JF, Sage BT. Differential gene silencing by trans heterochromatin in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics. 2001.
Kushon SA, Jordan JP, Seifert JL, Nielsen H, Nielsen PE, Armitage BA. Effect of Secondary Structure on the Thermodynamics and Kinetics of PNA Hybridization to DNA Hairpins. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123:10805-10813, 2001.
Murphy RF, Velliste M, Yao J, Porreca G. Searching Online Journals for Fluorescence Microscope Images Depicting Protein Subcellular Location Patterns. Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Bio-Informatics and Biomedical Engineering (BIBE 2001):119-128, 2001.
Porreca MV, Velliste M, Murphy RF. Improved Classification of Subcellular Location Patterns in Fluorescence Microscope Images using Image Resampling and Support Vector Machines. Mol. Biol. Cell 12:259a, 2001.
Ranganathan S, Scudiere S, Bowser R. Hyperphosphorylation of the retinoblastoma gene product and altered subcellular distribution of E2F-1 during Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. J Alzheimers Dis 3:377-385, 2001.
Vieta M, Vanni S. Deformation Quantification Algorithm. 2001.
2000
Hodor PG, Illies MR, Broadley S, Ettensohn CA. Cell-substrate interactions during sea urchin gastrulation: migrating primary mesenchyme cells interact with and align extracellular matrix fibers that contain ECM3, a molecule with NG2-like and multiple calcium-binding domains. Dev Biol 222:181-194, 2000.
McCallum SA, Hitchens TK, Torborg C, Rule GS. Ligand-induced changes in the structure and dynamics of a human class Mu glutathione S-transferase. Biochemistry 39:7343-7356, 2000.
Presentations
Undergraduates also attend national meetings:
- Annual Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
- Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students.
- Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience
- Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in Science
To add your presentation to the list, please email bio-ungrad@andrew.gxitma.net.
Past Presentations
2006
Morales M, Burnette JM, Weitzel H, Crowley JC. Diolistics: an engaging method of teaching neuronal morphology and fluorescence microscopy techniques to undergraduate students. In: Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Atlanta, GA. 2006.
Onorato C, Morales M, Bosking WH, Fitzpatrick D, Crowley JC. Development of Supragranular Horizontal Projections in Tree Shrew V1. In: Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience,. Atlanta, GA. 2006.
2005
Castellana N, Dhamdhere K, Sridhar S, Schwartz R. Relaxing haplotype block models for association testing. In: Proceedings of the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing. 2005.
Lins CA, Lopez AJ. Mechanism of Activation of a Nonexonic Recursive Splice Site. In: 2005 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students. Atlanta, GA. 2005.
Silverstein MS, Shach-Caplan M, Bianco-Peled H, Tsarevsky NV, Cooper BM, Matyjaszewski K. Nanoscale Structure of SAN-PEO-SAN Synthesized by ATRP. In: ACS Polymer Preprints. p 301-302, 2005.
Tsarevsky NV, Cooper BM, Wojtyna OJ, Jahed NM, Gao H, Matyjaszewski K. Halogen Exchange in Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization as a Route to Well-defined Block Copolymers. In: ACS Polymer Preprints. p 249-250, 2005.
Tsarevsky NV, McKenzie B, Tang W, Matyjaszewski K. Tuning the Activity and Performance of the Catalyst in Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization and General Rules for Catalyst Selection. In: ACS Polymer Reprints. p 482-483, 2005.
Webb RL, Weinberg JS, McCartney BM. Adenomatous Polyposis Coli (APC) function in cytoskeletal organization in Drosophila syncytial embryos. In: 46th Annual Drosophila Research Conference San Diego. San Diego, CA. 2005.
Webb RL, Weinberg JS, McCartney BM. APC2 and Diaphanous function together to organize actin in Drosophila embryos. In: 46th Annual Drosophila Research Conference. SanDiego, CA. 2005.
Zhang T, Rohlfs R, Schwartz R. Implementation of a discrete event simulator for biological self-assembly systems. In: Proceedings of the INFORMS Winter Simulation Conference. 2005.
Zimmerman SG, Cheng J, Sotomayor TK, Lee L, Kolodziej PA, McCartney BM. Understanding the mechanisms of Adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) function: Identification of APC2 genetic interactors. In: 46th Annual Drosophila Research Conference. San Diego, CA. 2005.
2004
Ahrens ET, Capuano S, Hitchens TK, Wislo VM, Schatten GP. Longitudinal In Vivo MRI Studies of the Developing Rhesus Macaque Fetus. In: Annual Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Miami, FL. 2004.
Conde-Adorno J, Hua J, Murphy RF. Extraction of subcellular locations from protein databases. In: 2004 Society for Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). Austin, TX. 2004.
David A, Chen X, Murphy RF. Analyzing Distance Functions for Clustering Protein Subcellular Location Patterns. In: 2004 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). Dallas, TX. 2004.
Greenwood AI, Tristram-Nagle S, Nagle JF. Volumes of Cholesterol in Lipid Membranes. In. 2004.
Hill D. Characterization of PBN1, an essential gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In: Sigma Xi Student Research Conference. Montreal, Ontario, Canada. 2004.
Izaak D, Kou Z, Murphy RF. Integrating the Most Effective Algorithm in Extracting Protein and Cell Names from Online Journals. In: 2004 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). Dallas, TX. 2004.
Marciszyn A, Rives A, Lanni F. Rho-Family GTPase effector domains compete with native targets and inhibit actin-based cytoskeletal activity. In: 2004 American Society for Cell Biology Meeting. Washington, D.C. 2004.
Qian Y-L, Beach E, Henry J, Polshin V, Horwitz C, Collins TJ. Reactions of Fe-TAML Catalysts with Phosphate Buffers. In: Sigma Xi Student Research Conference. Montreal, Ontario, Canada. 2004.
Rosario Y, Merryman T, Kovacevic J. Classification accuracy of multi-resolution sub-sampled cellular images. In: Society for Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). Austin, TX. 2004.
Salnave C, Armitage BA. Synthesis and Characterization of a New Cyanine Dye. In: Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). Dalla, TX. 2004.
Wislo VM, Ahrens ET, Muzio B, Greco PF. Zaratin Quantitative Analysis of Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis in Rat Using 3D MR Microscopy. In: Annual Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Miami, FL. 2004.
2003
Conde-Adorno J. Temporal texture features for location proteomics. In: Proceedings of the XIV Undergraduate Research Symposium. Universidad Metropolitana, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 24-25:35, 2003.
Rivera Sierra Y. Computational methods for detecting alternative splicing involved in neural plasticity. In: Proceedings of the XIV Undergraduate Research Symposium. Universidad Metropolitana, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 24-25:24-25, 2003.
Rivera Sierra Y. Subcellular location features based on morphological operations. In: 2004 Society for Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). Austin, TX. 2003.
Soto S. Segmenting polarized cell images for location proteomics. In: Proceedings of the XIV Undergraduate Research Symposium. Universidad Metropolitana, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 24-25:78, 2003.
2002
Huang K, Lin J, Gajnak JA, Murphy RF. Image Content-based Retrieval and Automated Interpretation of Fluorescence Microscope Images via the Protein Subcellular Location Image Database. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Biological Imaging. 2002.
Joseph B, Robertson K, Minden J. Triggered apoptosis in mutant Drosophila embryos: Determining the sequence of cell death. Sixth Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, October 19, 2002.
Murphy RF, Velliste M, Porreca G. Robust classification of subcellular location patterns in fluorescence microscope images. In: Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE International Workshop on Neural Networks for Signal Processing (NNSP 12):67-76, 2002.
2001
Balch T, Khan Z, Veloso M. Automatically tracking and analyzing the behavior of live insect colonies. In: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Autonomous Agents. p 521-528, 2001.
Csink AK, Opperman L, Lange A. Functions, Effects and Evolution of Heterochromatic Satellite Sequences. In: The Annual Meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. Athens, GA. 2001.
Murphy RF, Velliste M, Yao J, Porreca G. Searching Online Journals for Fluorescence Microscope Images Depicting Protein Subcellular Location Patterns. In: Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Bio-Informatics and Biomedical Engineering (BIBE 2001):119-128, 2001.
2000
Csink AK, Sage B, Griffith M, Bounoutas A. Gene silencing is differentially influenced by regulatory features of a gene and distance from the heterochromatic nuclear neighborhood. In: Dynamic Organization of Nuclear Function. Cold Spring Harbor, NY. September 2000.
Csink AK, Sage B, Griffith M, Bounoutas A. Gene silencing is differentially influenced by regulatory features of a gene and distance from the heterochromatic nuclear neighborhood. In: Molecular Genetics, Gordon Research Conference,. Connecticut College, New London, CT. 2000.
Nadolny E, Lanni F. Measurement of Diffusive Transport of IGF-1 in Model ECM. In: American Institute for Chemical Engineers National Meeting. Louisiana. 2000.Off-Campus Opportunities for Undergraduates
Research Assistantships
- Hillman Cancer Center
- Magee Women’s Hospital
- University of Pittsburgh (including the Neuroscience, Clinical Immunology, and Biological Sciences departments)
- Western Psychiatric Hospital
- Tissue Informatics (Tissue Engineering)
- Carnegie Museum of Natural History