Achievement

The gateway Fundamentals of Cellular Engineering course offers a unique opportunity to network with 17 faculty (nine departments) who lecture in five themed segments: Protein Folding and Engineering, Cytoskeleton, Membranes and Delivery, Stem Cells and Cancer, and Plant Biotechnology. New this year, each student gave a 15 minute presentation about one technique that was new to them and explained how it could aid their thesis research. Students continue to capitalize on this interaction with faculty. After hearing his lecture, Kathryne Medeiros (IGERT associate, chemistry) initiated a collaboration with Prof. Tew (Polymer Science & Engineering) to use their polymers to pioneer polymer-mediated plasmid transfections in human embryonic kidney cells. Similarly, Genevieve Abbruzzese (IGERT associate, molecular & cellular biology), sought the expertise of Prof. Jennifer Ross (physics) and her high resolution TIRF microscopy to further her research on neural cell migration.