2014 Honors Students
Biology
High Honors
Charlie Katzman, Patching together the hedgehog response: An investigation into the tissue specificity of a hedgehog-responsive patched enhancer
Ruohan Wang, In Vivo tracking of mitochondrial transport, fusion and degradation in Drosophila neurons
Diane Yuan Wang, The isolation of novel Lachnospiraceaestrains and the evaluation of their potential roles in colonization resistance against Clostridium difficile
Cellular & Molecular Biology
Highest Honors
Andrew Kalenkiewicz, Characterization of the conformational dynamics and small molecule binding sites for BCL-XL from molecular dynamics simulations
High Honors
Victoria Blake, Interpreting the Hedgehog signaling gradient: How binding affinity and orientation of Ci binding motifs mediate gene expression patterning in developing tissues
Mikel Haggadone, Catecholamines induce a regulatory macrophage phenotype and confer protection during acute lung injury and endotoxemia via activation of the B2 adrenergic receptor
Annie Yingyao Song, Effect of Nanofiber Size and Alignment of Electrospun Scaffolds on Neuronal Differentiation
Nico Wagner, Inorganic Polyphosphate: A Novel, Global and Very Effective Chaperone
Taylor Elaine Wallen, Effects of mTORC1 and mTORC2 on Neonatal B-cell Mass in Offspring of Protein Restricted Mice During Pregnancy
Lorenza Donnelly, Evidence of Polycomb-independent Catalysis of Histone H3 Lysine 27 Trimethylation
Mark Durham, Chd7 is critical for proper midbrain/hindbrain patterning and cerebellar development
Charles Frank, Exploring the role of GM-CSF in the host response to C. Difficile Infection
Honors
Katelyn Doxtader, Deciphering the microRNA pathways at single molecule resolution through the modulation of RNA silencing factors
Margaret Hannah, Nitric Oxide Signal Stimulated by the Calreticulin and Shared Epitope Interaction
Grace Kim, Role of mitochondrial ROS in axonal degeneration
Victoria Prince, The Effect of UM-A9 on Head and Neck Cancer Cell Motility
Nicholas Rachmaninoff, Novel Roles of Drosophila miR-8 in actin cytoskeletal regulation and cell competition
Courtney Tipton, Migration of fallopian tube epithelium through breaks in ovarian surface epithelium as a potential origin of ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma
Ian Waters, Functional characterization of a foxotarget gene
Abby Weinstein, Direct interactions between the Fanconi anemia pathway and lesion bypass polymerases promote DNA repair
EEB
High Honors
Alexandra Berns, A geometric morphometric analysis of wing shape variation in monarch butterflies Danaus plexippus
Shelby Burgess, Evaluation of U.S. EPA standard operating procedure for estimating copepod biomass in the St. Lawrence Great Lakes
Hannah Reses, Nesting success and barrier breaching: Assessing the effectiveness of roadway fencing in diamondback terrapins
Honors
Mandy Bromilow, Feeding behavior of white sharks (Charcharodon carcharias) around a cage diving vessel and the implications for conservation
Microbiology
High Honors
Samantha Anne Bolz, Characterization of RecD2 helicase inBacillus subtilis
Honors
Katherine Thor Lind, The role of protein kinases in autophagy regulation: a screen in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Neuroscience
Highest Honors and Psujek Award for Best Thesis
Ross Carson, Regulation of calcium influx in Drosophila motor neuron axon degeneration
Highest Honors
Piper Keyes,
Lacie Turnbull, Differential molecular mechanisms underlying memory reconsolidation of inhibitory avoidance and context fear conditioning
High Honors
Myranda Aryana Bryan, Rapid cocaine-induced sensitization of phasic dopamine transmission in the nucleus accumbens shell
Alice Doong, Effects of aging and fatigue on driving performances: A simulator study
Adam Krieger, Inorganic polyphosphate is a molecular chaperone with biotechnological and medical applications
Salima Sewani, The effect of glucocorticoid receptor antagonism on sign-tracking behavior
Kristen Suchomel, The effects of sensitization and exposure to uncertainty on incentive salience attribution in a gambling-like scenario
Honors
Nicholas Asher, The interaction between dietary restriction, temperature, and stress resistance in Drosphila and regulation or starvation stress by the insulin-like signaling pathway
Megan Bernath, Alpha-synuclein contribution to Atp13a2 pathology in Parkinson's disease
Leo Brayman, 50-KHz ultrasonic vocalizations as indicators of positive affect in sign- and goal-tracking rats
Amy Friedman, Effects of adolescent THC exposure on the behavioral effects of cocaine in adult Sprague-Dawley rats
Gayatri Jainagaraj, Effects of infant interactions on testosterone and aggression
Adam Macdonald,
Alyssa Mazurek, Individual differences in cocaine self-administration: Acquisition under a second-order schedule of reinforcement
Masha Shulkin, "Let's Hear it for cochlear implants:" Neuroimaging with functional near infrared spectroscopy demonstrates cortical activity in response to speech and non-speech stimuli in adults using cochlear implants
Kendall Timmons, Mechanisms of distinct transportation and localization of fibroblast growth factors 22 and 7 during synaptic development
Alexander Yang, Transcription factor ZBP-89 mitigates β-catenin activation of the Wnt pathway through regulation of glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta
Plant Biology
Honors
Alexandria Peters, Influence of germination, soil type, and rhizobium on the distribution of Michigan native Lathyrus japonicus
2013 Honors Students
Biology
Highest Honors
Daniel Lyons, TLR9 promotes protective macrophage activation via CCL7- dependent M2-suppression and CCL7-independent M1-induction during adaptive immunity to pulmonary C.neoformans infection
High Honors
Kelsey Hamrick, Behavioral testing in mouse models of fragile X associated disorders
Ronald Inglehart, Quantification quest-understanding biomarkers of HNSCC
Honors
Emily Buttigieg, Elucidating epigenetic mechanisms in x-chromosome inactivation in mice and men
Brooke Gustafson, Characterization of the DNA damage checkpoint activating protein YneA ofBacillus subtilis
Amelia Kelly, A family of integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) involved in carbohydrate metabolism
Yi (Emily) Li, Pten and Rictor opposing roles in neurogenesis and gliogenesis during the cortical development
Marc Trubin, The effects of viral structural proteins Gag and Env on accumulation of target receptors at virological synapses
CMB
Highest Honors and PSUJEK Award for Best Thesis
Clara Lee, Distinct consequences of FGF7- and FGF22- deficiencies in the hippocampus during development and epileptogenesis
Highest Honors
Surya Nagaraja, Brg1 regulates HOXA9-mediated proliferation and gene expression in acute myeloid leukemia
High Honors
Ross Federman, ORM2 protein level regulates sphingolipid synthesis in response to environmental stress in yeast
Michelle Frazer, Repeat associated non-AUG initiated translation mediates neurodegeneration inDrosophila models of fragile x-associated tremor ataxia syndrome.
Eric Perkey, Cleaving surface sialoglycoproteins of CD4 T cells restores age-related declines in CD28-dependent signalin, T helper cell function, and enhances antibody production in mice
Benjamin Parker,
Daniel Weinberg, ASH1l is required for lymphoid priming in both fetal and adult hematopoiesis
Honors
Pallavi Abraham, Identification of the DEG15 processing site in aspartate aminotransferase 3 (ASP3) in Arabidopsis thaliana
Nicholas Carducci, Voltage-gated sodium channels and the ankyrin-G scaffold are homeostatistically regulated in hippocampal neurons
Paul Joseph, A KRAS driven murine model elucidates oncogenic role of FADD in lung cancer
Tara Nimkar, Analyzing the Peroxisomal processing by the protease DEG15 of long-chain Acyl-CoA Synthetase 6 and 7 in Arabidopsis thaliana
Kingsley Okai, Zymosan-induced LPLA2 secretion in macrophages
Nishita Parmar, Role of vasculature in intestinal villus development
Ajit Ramadugu, Homologous chromosome pairing mechanisms in Caenorhabditis elegans meiosis
Hung-Jen Shih, EGL-8, a phospholipase C beta homolog, is a novel regulator of dauer arrest inCaenorhabditis elegans
Sherry Tang,
Julia Wang, P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 mediation of leukocyte dependent inflammation via differential miRNA expression
EEB
High Honors
Colleen Smith, Does biodiversity resist invasion in an ant community? A study of the little fire ant, W. auropounctata, in its native range
Honors
Benjamin Blanchard, Effects of habitat heterogeneity on the distribution and composition of ant communities in a tallgrass prairie
Microbiology
Honors
Adam Dingens, Investigation of the role of nonribosomal peptide synthetase honors reductase domains in forming the fungal bicyclo[2.2.2] diazaoctane ring structure
Eunnie Kim, Developing a mouse model of adenovirus myocarditis
Gabriella Szewczyk, Characterization of WalJ, a novel gene required for function of the mismatch repair in Bacillus subtilis
Neurology
High Honors
Nicholas Rydzewski, Regulation of lysosomal trafficking by TRPML1 channels and PI(3,5)P2
Derek Moen, Investigating the 43kDa receptor-associated protein (rapsyn) at lysosomal synapses in non-muscle cells
Vincent Pallazola, Effects of selective REM deprivation on hippocampal-dependent spatial reversal learning and unlearning
William Hockeimer,
Honors
Jay Brahmbhatt, E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes contribute to substrate specificity in the ubiquitin-proteasome system
Adam MacDonald,
Charishma Nallapati, Modeling schizophrenia by altering cAMP signaling in human neurons
Nahid Rashid, Human P2X2 receptor mutants respond differently to MTSET in HEK293 cells andXenopus laevis oocytes
Meari Taguchi, Expression of vasotocin and its receptors and the investigation of the role of AVT signaling in aggression within zebrafish
William Tennant,
Connie Truong, P2X2 Receptors in mouse skeletal muscle
Plant Biology
Honors
Katy Lazarus, Surveying the biodiversity of the early diverging fungal phylum Cryptomycota using a targeted PCR approach