rebroadcast from 03-27-20
My name is Gerardo Figueroa, I am a junior in the Biomedical Engineering
department at the University of Arizona. I am currently working with Dr. John A.
Szivek from the Orthopedic Surgery Department developing a multi-sensory
device for continuous bone monitoring in space. After graduating I hope to
pursue a PhD in Biomedical Engineering focusing mostly on bone biomechanics
and tissue engineering. I hope in the future to encourage the importance of
STEM by mentoring the youth and being part of organizations such as the
Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
My name is Julie Huynh and I am a UBRP alum. While I was in UBRP, I worked in the lab of Dr. Hanna ‘Johnny’ Fares. We used the model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans (a roundworm), to understand why mutations in the MCOLN1 gene causes lysosomes (which are like the trash cans of your cells—they get rid of unwanted material) to not work and neurons to die in patients who have the lysosomal storage disorder, Mucolipidosis Type IV. I finished my undergraduate and master’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology with Dr. Fares and am currently a research associate at FORCE (Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered), a national nonprofit organization devoted to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. I am a part of FORCE’s CDC funded XRAYS (eXamining Relevance of Articles for Young Survivors) program, which we just launched in August 2015. XRAYS was developed to empower young breast cancer survivors and young women and men at high risk for breast cancer by giving them tools they can use to evaluate reports of new breast cancer related research. I will be attending the University of Arizona’s MD PhD program this fall where I am excited beyond words to begin my journey in becoming a physician-scientist. In my free time, you can find me frequenting coffee shops, painting, writing and taking photos of places I travel to or my dog. The University of Arizona’s Undergraduate Biology Research Program is partnering with KXCI 91.3 to produce “Thesis Thursday,” a weekly segment featuring student researchers talking about their undergraduate thesis projects, or research projects while working with University professors. ...
Hi everyone, my name is Viktoria Kirschnerova and I am a current junior studying Molecular and Cellular Biology, Biochemistry, and Psychology. I’ve been passionate about research since the first time I looked through a microscope in my high school biology class. I decided to make my passion true here at UofA by joining Dr. Sally Dickinson’s lab. We study prevention of skin cancer (specifically, cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma). We are interested in how inflammation affects the progression of cancer, and whether pharmacologically inhibiting certain receptors decreases this inflammation after UV exposure, and helps protect high risk groups (such as people with chronically UV-damaged skin) from progressing to malignant skin cancers. When not in the lab, I like to investigate the effects of the sun more personally, by hiking the mountains and parks of Tucson, swimming, or catching up with my ever-growing bookshelf. You might also find me connecting with my Czechoslovakian heritage by speaking weird tongues and hilariously mispronouncing words like mandatory (man-DA-tory) ...
Hi! My name is Ashley. I am a native Tucsonan and I graduated from Marana High School in 2016. Currently I am a junior Molecular and Cellular Biology major at the University of Arizona. I am also working toward a pre-law minor. I have been working in Dr. Julie Ledford’s lab for almost a year now and our research is focused on Surfactant Protein-A, a large protein found in the lung, and its role in regulating immune cell responses in asthma. Asthma is a chronic condition that impacts the lungs and results in inflamed and narrowed airways. In my free time I like to hike, read, and roller skate. ...
