CONWAY, Ark. (December
4, 2019) — Fifteen Hendrix College students were
among the 160 undergraduates who presented scientific research at the 2019
Arkansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) Research
Conference held at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville October 25-26,
2019. The annual Arkansas INBRE Research Conference is sponsored by Arkansas
INBRE program and is hosted by the departments of biological sciences, physics,
and chemistry and biochemistry, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences,
University of Arkansas.
At this event, 11 Hendrix students presented research in the Chemistry/Biochemistry
division and four Hendrix students presented research in the Physics division. Five
Hendrix students received awards for their research presentations: Harrison
Russell ’20 earned first place in the Chemistry and Biochemistry oral
presentation section, Adam De Groodt ’21 earned second place in the Chemistry
and Biochemistry poster section, Dylan Mitchell ’19 earned second place in the
Physics oral presentation section, Ivan Midtbust Heger ’21 earned first place
in the Physics poster section, and Ryan Bullis ’20 earned honorable mention in
the Physics poster section.
The participating student researchers and mentors, their departmental
affiliations, and the talk/poster titles are listed below.
Chemistry Division
Sasin Payakachat ’20; Mentor: Dr. Grover
P. Miller, UAMS, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Poster
Title: Identifying How Halogens Impact Bioactivation of Aryl Acetic Acid
Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs).
Jaycee Hall ’22; Mentor: Dr. Julie Gunderson ’06, Hendrix College, Department
of Physics; Poster Title: From Plasmid to Protein: The Purification and
Biophysical Characterization of E. coli MutS.
Tucker Andrews ’21 and Jacob Handloser ’21; Mentor: Dr. Peter Kett, Hendrix
College, Department of Chemistry; Poster Title: Understanding the Role of
Salt Concentration and Cation Identity in the Formation of Supported Lipid
Bilayers.
Landon Anderson ’22; Mentor: Dr.
Peter Kett, Hendrix College, Department of Chemistry; Poster Title: Investigating
the Role of Lipid Flow Rate and Lipid Concentration on the Formation of
Supported Lipid Bilayers (SLBs).
Adam De Groodt ’21; Mentor: Dr. Bill Gunderson, Hendrix College, Department of
Chemistry; Poster Title: Design of the Fluorino: A Low-cost,
Arduino-Controlled Fluorometer. (2nd place Poster)
Lexie Johnson ’20, Zech Montgomery ’20,
Laura Mortan ’21, and Alexandria Smith ’20; Mentor: Dr. Heidi Dahlmann, Hendrix
College, Department of Chemistry; Poster Title: Organocatalyzed
carbonyl-olefin metathesis: catalyst reactivity and substrate scope.
Harrison Russell ’20; Mentors: Dr. Bill Gunderson, Hendrix
College, Department of Chemistry, and Dr. Julie Gunderson ’06, Hendrix College,
Department of Physics; Talk Title: EPR Spectroscopic Determination of
Divalent Metal Ion Coordination in DNA Hairpin Loops. (1st place Talk)
Physics Division
Ivan Midtbust Heger ’21; Mentor: Dr. Bill Gunderson, Hendrix College,
Department of Chemistry; Poster Title: Design and Construction of a 3D
Printable Visible Absorption Spectrophotometer. (1st place Poster)
Andrew King ’21; Mentor: Dr. Julie Gunderson ’06, Hendrix College, Department
of Physics; Poster Title: Analysis of MutS-DNA Interactions with
fluorescence anisotropy.
Ryan Bullis ’20; Mentor: Dr. Julie Gunderson ’06, Hendrix College, Department
of Physics; Poster Title: Design and implementation of 3D printable
optomechanical components. (Honorable
Mention Poster)
Dylan Mitchell ’20; Mentor: Dr. Julie Gunderson ’06, Hendrix College,
Department of Physics; Talk Title: Design and implementation of 3D printable
optomechanical components. (2nd
Place Talk)
About Arkansas INBRE
The Arkansas INBRE Program is funded
by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
under the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). The IDeA Program was established for the purpose of
broadening the geographic distribution of NIH funding for biomedical and
behavioral research.
About
Hendrix College
A private liberal arts
college in Conway, Arkansas, Hendrix College consistently earns recognition as
one of the country’s leading liberal arts institutions, and is featured in Colleges That Change
Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges. Its academic quality
and rigor, innovation, and value have established Hendrix as a fixture in
numerous college guides, lists, and rankings.