Seven StFX biology honours students presented their research projects, and two, Lauren Sobot and Amy Dodge, won awards at the recent Science Atlantic Aquaculture & Fisheries and Biology Conference hosted virtually by Cape Breton University March 12-14.
Ms. Sobot, a fourth year joint honours student in biology and psychology from Burlington, ON, won the top prize for the best biology oral presentation.
“Presenting at Science Atlantic was a great opportunity to strengthen my public speaking and science communication skills. I also enjoyed hearing about the fascinating research other students are involved in. It was an honour to receive this award out of an impressive pool of young researchers,” she says.
Ms. Dodge, a fourth year honours biology student from Moncton, NB, won the third best biology poster presentation award.
“This was a great experience and I really enjoyed engaging with others in the biology community,” she says. “Our lab faced a lot of challenges in our research due to COVID, so it was very rewarding to be recognized and to represent StFX.”
In all, there were 20 oral presentations and 43 poster presentations by biology undergraduate students at the conference.
StFX students who presented their honours projects, including their supervisors and talk titles, include:
• Lauren Sobot (supervisors, Dr. Nik Thomas, Dalhousie, and Dr. Russell Wyeth, StFX)—DNA Cruciforms in Vibrio Species
• Amy Dodge (supervisor, Dr. Tamara Rodela)—The Role of the Adenosine A1 Receptor and HIF1a in the Cross-Tolerance of Danio rerio to Hypoxia and Ammonia
• Ryan Small (supervisor, Dr. Barry Taylor)—Use of leaf litter decomposition as a method of measuring ecosystem condition in acidified streams and ponds
• Carmen Ucciferri (supervisor, Dr. Russell Wyeth)—Extracellular Recording of Chemosensory Neurons in the Tentacles of the Great Pond Snail, Lymnaea stagnalis
• Kennedy Nangle (supervisors, Dr. Derrick Lee, Math & Stats Department, and Dr. Moira Galway)—Examining the impact of gene-gene interactions between DNA modulating genes on breast cancer risk
• Mel Belong (supervisor, Dr. Ryan Lukeman, Math & Stats Dept)—Mathematical Modeling in Epidemiology: A Case Study of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia
• Ben Fisher (supervisors, Dr. Bill Marshall and Dr. Tamara Rodela)--Insights into functional divergence of teleost cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR)
This research is, in part, made possible by the Government of Canada Research Support Fund.
