UD students presented research in the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s annual Undergraduate Poster Competition. Pictured are (from left) Gabriel Gregorzak, Hannah Wastyk, Tyler Heiss, Nicole Wenzell, Josh Barton, Morgan Thomas, Jay Subramoney and Blair Schneider.

National biology honors

UD students receive top awards at national biochemistry, molecular biology meeting

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1:16 p.m., April 15, 2016--University of Delaware students received several prestigious awards, including a first-place honor for junior Hannah Wastyk, at the annual Experimental Biology Meetings held April 1-6 in San Diego.

As part of the conference, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) sponsored its 20th Undergraduate Poster Competition, in which eight UD students took part. 

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This is the 17th year in which UD students have attended the conference to present their research. Over that period, they have won more awards than students from any other institution.

"It is amazing how well our students do year after year in this competition. It speaks extraordinarily well for the faculty supervision of these students and provides tangible evidence of the excellence or our undergraduate research program," said Hal White, professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry who, along with associate professor Gary Laverty and Seung Hong from biological sciences, accompanied the students.

More than 225 students from across the United States competed this year in four categories, with each category awarding one first-place and four honorable mention awards. UD students received three of those 20 awards:

• Hannah Wastyk, a biochemistry major and Honors Program student, Unidel Eugene du Pont Memorial Distinguished Scholar, Goldwater Scholar, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) summer scholar, and NUCLEUS student received her first-place honor for research she conducts in the laboratory of Catherine Grimes, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Her poster was titled, “Biochemical Characterization of the Interaction between Innate Immune Receptor Nod2 and its Chaperones.”

• Tyler Heiss, a senior biochemistry major and Honors Program student also working in the Grimes laboratory, received an honorable mention award for his poster presentation, “Chemical and Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of UDP-N-Acetyl Glucosamine Probes.”

• Morgan Thomas, a senior neuroscience and biology major and Honors Program student received an honorable mention award for her poster presentation on “The Role of N-linked Glycosylation in Drosophila Development.” She conducts research with Erica Selva, associate professor of biological sciences, 

Other students presenting their research at the meetings were:

• Nicole Wenzell, a biochemistry major and Honors Program student working in the laboratory of Neal Zondlo, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, presented her work on “Understanding a Fundamental Force in Protein Folding: Tuning the N → Π* Interaction via Designed Peptides”

• Josh Barton, a senior neuroscience and biology major and Honors Program student working in the laboratory of Salil Lachke, assistant professor of biological sciences, presented his work on, “Molecular Characterization of Two Human Lens Epithelial Cell Lines and Their Suitability to Study Function of Cataract Genes.”

• Jay Subramoney, a junior biochemistry major and Honors Program student working in the laboratory of Sharon Rozovsky, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, presented his work on “Chemical Ligation Synthesis of Isotope-Labeling Compatible Selenoprotein S.”

• Blair Schneider, a junior biology major and Honors Program student working in the laboratory of Carl Schmidt, professor of animal and food sciences, presented her work on “Transcriptome Analysis of Illinois Abdominal and Cardiac Adipose.”

• Gabriel Gregorzak, a junior biochemistry major in Grimes’ laboratory, presented his work on “Synthesis of Artificial Bacterial Cell Wall Fragments as Tools to Study the Innate Immune System.”

Wastyk, Heiss, and Wenzell were awarded ASBMB undergraduate travel awards funded by the National Science Foundation. 

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Undergraduate Science Education grants to UD (1994-2015) initiated and has supported students at the annual Experimental Biology Meetings. 

To read more about UD's participation at the conference and about the individual students' research projects, visit the website.

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