Ten Colby-Sawyer College students presented their summer research at the NH-INBRE (New Hampshire Network of Biomedical Research Excellence) annual meeting in August at Omni Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods. 

The Giesel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College administers INBRE, which is a grant from the National Institute of Health to develop a coordinated network of biomedical research and research training in the state. 

Colby-Sawyer biology major Molly Macklin's poster — The Effects of Acidosis on the Type 3 Secretion System in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and its Impact on Host IL-1β Response — highlighted research that she conducted at Dartmouth.  

Macklin was a member of the highly competitive iSURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) program that pairs students with commercial or academic research labs. She investigated bacteria that produce cholera. Arianna Reuven, a molecular and cellular biology graduate student at Dartmouth, and James Bliska, principal investigator in the Bliska Laboratory at Dartmouth, were her supervisors and co-authors. 

Macklin also joined fellow Colby-Sawyer students Payton Dugan, Dean Hollant, Mia Rae and Raina Skora to present the poster Exploring Regeneration Biology in Lumbriculus variegatus. They used a worm as their model in experiments on tissue regeneration. Colby-Sawyer faculty members Jamie Jukosky and Chery Whipple supervised the students’ research in May and June on campus in New London. 

Students Christopher Weeden, Elizabeth Ochs, Travis Pendleton and Jesse Gushee presented their poster — Acute effects of moderate exercise on cognitive flexibility and brain activity. They have been conducting research with Colby-Sawyer Assistant Professor Kell Grandjean da Costa on the effects of exercise on cognitive ability. They have used near IR spectrometry to examine which parts of the brain are involved in a computerized switching game.

And, student Annaliese Rowell presented her poster, Exploring Guide Pairs for CRISPR Targeting of Merkel Cell Polyomavirus in Merkel Cell Carcinoma. Rowell is a member of POWERED (Program for Oncology Workforce Education and Research Experience at Dartmouth), which places undergraduates in labs for two summers at Dartmouth Cancer Center.  

Colby-Sawyer and INBRE alumna Hanna Degefu ’20 attended the meeting to mentor current INBRE students. Degefu is a Ph.D. student and member of Dartmouth’s Rosato Lab. Professors Whipple, Jukosky and Grandjean da Costa also attended the meeting, as did Professor Emerit Ben Steele, Colby-Sawyer’s principal investigator.